Sadness

Today has been quite a sad day for me really.   It is The Wensleydale Show day.   The Show is held about half a mile from the farm so easily within walking distance for the farmer who I think has been every year since he was a very small boy.

Before the Show he would also go along to the West Witton Show where for some years he was judge of the hay and vegetable classes.

He would go first to West Witton, where he would be plied with a cup of tea and a piece of home-made cake.   He would return home, put the car away and then walk up to the Showground and look at the various exhibitions, the cattle, the sheep, the heavy horses, the machinery, the various show tents with vegetables, home made produce, flowers and the like.   Then he would gravitate towards his Feed Merchants where he would enjoy a lunch of pork pie, sandwiches and home-made cake and leave with a handful of named biros which would last him through until next year's show.

This year of course he is gone.   But friend W and I went out for a lunch of a toasted sandwich (brie, streaky bacon and cranberry sauce) which was absolutely delicious served with salad and crisps.
Coming back we came again through West Witton and I was reminded that their Show Day ends with the Burning of Bartle  (www.Burning of Bartle.org.uk) which involves parading the figure through the streets of the village and finally burning it on the side of Penn Hill ('on Penhill Crags we burnt his rags')- all a bit macabre really.

Home again my neighbour (aged 7) and my little friend came round to show me that he had won a Second and three Thirds Rosettes in the Competitions - a picture of a tree, a painting of a crocodile, an edible necklace and a miniature garden.   He was quite justifiably proud of his achievements.   So Well done Liam.   His little brother, who is three, got a First prize rosette for a plasticine model of a dinosaur.   Isn't it lovely to see children still participating in these events?