Canterbury A&P Show

I think we may have missed the sheep shearing??

Attempting to snap a pony racing past on tiny legs!

Lining up for their rosettes after the time trials

Donkeys, my favourite!

How'd he get up there?!?

Sheepdog Trials

So here they are, ater a slightly longer wait than I had promised I'm afriad. Y'know how it is, that's life!

Those of you who tuned in for this week's Wardrobe Wednesday will have noted that we attended Canterbury A&P Show last Friday (Mr Bear and I both had a day off for Canterbury Anniversary Day). We weren't sure what we'd see there but Martin had heard from a number of people that it was worth a visit and something Cantabrians eagerly await once a year.

I have to say, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! It was a bit like wandering into a different world. The stalls in the market hall were a strange mix of traders indeed, from the latest technology in vacuum cleaning to a lady demonstrating a scarily realistic possum puppet!

We walked to the race ring to watch pony chariots speed past, their little legs a blur underneath their miniature frame, and even witnessed a crash as a buggy tipped going round a corner and the lady was flung a fair distance across the track (she was unharmed, thankfully!) It was very dramatic!

Inside the covered arenas we found pen upon pen of sheep of many different breeds and varieties, painted ponies (think the rainbow coloured manes of 'my little pony' and be horrified), beehives, turkeys, baby chooks, bunnies and a small dog on a very large horses' back!

On our way round the outside stalls, we were halted by Police a couple of times as Prince Charles and Camilla were visiting and needed 'safe passage' through the crowds. I caught a glimpse of Charles briefly and could see a little bit of Camilla's blinding white hair over the crowd. We were quite amused upon hearing a little girl who had been lifted onto her Dad's shoulders say 'Put me down Dad, there's nothing to see here'!

Finally, we made it round to the sheepdog trials, which we enjoyed tremendously; probably not quite as much as the older lady next to me who found the need to grab my arm to steady herself every time a particularly young and strapping handler had to heave the sheep over the fence with one hand! 

Back at the flat, we decided to open our bottle of champagne and sit on the balcony in the sun before cooking up some homemade fish and chips. A very nice day indeed!