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Thursday, 31 August 2017

My County Fair



Good day to you, dear reader.
Today I'd like to share one of our island's annual events with you.
But first the outfit (plus ca change eh?)


It was a hot day, so something light and cool was called for.


A Primark top, with a green jungle leaf print and loose around where my waist would be, were it not for year's of ice cream eating and gin and tonic drinking!  I wore it with my reunited-with-me-this-summer white H&M linen bias cut skirt. 
As were were walking to and from the event, I wore comfy Clarks sandals.  I always feel like a little girl wearing her summer shoes when I were these things!  What do you think?


And Tadaahhh!  No jewellery, I was good to go!



Yes no further adornment was required as I was taking this little summer=casual outfit to our North Show, a  "county" show which is a show case for all that our northern parishes produce and create.  Makes, bakes, creates and fur and feather and livestock etc are judged.  There is a little fairground. entertainment, displays, parades and a floral float competition.  And there is candyfloss!  Rounded off by a huge firework display.



The Photographer and I went along on to soak in the atmosphere. May I share a few pics with you?  I won't show you the animals - although the owners take good care of them and some, like the bunnies etc are often family pets, I don't like to see them in the cages for the day.  It makes me sad.  So I didn't go in those tents.  But here's some of what I did see.



Cake Heaven.  My type of tent!  But which to choose?



Goodies made by children.


Goodies made by grown-ups.



Hens eggs.  Ducks eggs.



Sweet preserves.  Hors d'oeuvres.



Fruity vodka!  Just leave me here at this table, please!



Some flower displays had a beach theme, some were more traditional.




In the crafts section, some made cuddly toys, one made an intricate wooden bagatelle.



Some played with said intricate wooden bagatelle.


It's the produce tent that I most enjoy.





Maybe I should enter some of garden bounty next year.

 




There were monster vegetables, amusing our off-duty Photographer.


Tomatoes, of course, for we are the home of The Guernsey Tom.


Yes, maybe Chateau Pout should be on show next year ... or maybe my passion fruit?



Yes, hay was judged!



Fodder beet.  And of course there were tractors.  And men sitting round talking about them!
(note to self, just STOP taking the cardis, you NEVER wear them!



The show finishes with a Battle of Flowers.  Floral displays are judged, ranging from children decorated in flowers all the way through to gi-normous floats of themed displays, all mobile.   Back when I was a young whippersnapper the battle was two-fold, being a battle to win best in category, and also because when the show finished, the children were "encouraged" to rip off the flowers of the larger displays and throw the flowers at each other, the real battle! 
I stayed just once to see this, I found it too rough.

These days the displays are mostly made of artificial flowers (negating the need for armies of helpers and round the clock construction the day before the show using fresh flowers) and there is no physical dismantling battle.



The Fat Controller (credit Guernsey Press)


Floral Bill and Ben.  Christmas in August.

 

Scary rides, though not up to Busch Park or Disneyland standard!


We didn't stick around for the bigger floral categories.

 

Yes we're old now, so just pop our heads in to see what's going on every few years. But we're happy to pay our entrance fee because ... we can see the whole firework display from our top floor windows!


Hope you enjoyed our little northern parishes show.  Probably much like yours, only a lot smaller!



Now this is strange.  I wanted to leave you with some suitable music.  I instantly thought of Perry Como, though I didn't know why.  Anyway, I searched YouTube and up this popped.  How weird!  A song about a county fair.  I will have watched this when I was around ten years old.  And no more since then.  Yet I remembered it.  Oh dear, is this senility creeping in.  Second childhood?

Anyway, here's Perry and it's the opening song in his show.  I haven't watched the rest of the show.  Life's too short ...




A la perchoine.


Tuesday, 29 August 2017

When August Bank Holiday and Perfect Meet


It doesn't get much better than yesterday, peeps!

UK bank holidays are known to be wet.   But yesterday we were blessed with a Bank Holiday Monday which recorded the hottest temperature for a bank holiday since 1962!  Oh what a good time I must have had with my family back in '62, probably playing on the beach, frolicking in the refreshing sea.

And know what?  That's what I did on our hot August Bank Holiday Monday, 2017!

OK, this may seem a bit groundhog day following on from the previous post, but what can I say?
I went to the beach.  This is a beach outfit.


Yes, you guys didn't baulk when I showed you my recent Scruffy Pout look.



So I figured you could take more.


But this time with white shorts.  A subtle difference.

What do you wear for the beach? I'd love to hear.


I tried the camo hat trick, for I was sans maquilliage.


But you know, I figure you can handle scruff and you can handle barefaced me by now too.  It was a beach day, after all, so a bare face is de rigueur for sea swimming.



OK, maybe sunglasses are needed for the general public.
Besides, they make me feel a bit Jackie O!


I couldn't resist showing you this wall.


"We've" been working on this over the weekend.  This wall was piled high and wide with rampant osteospermum and ivy.  That's now in a 1 ton bag and we have reclaimed about 4-5 feet of drive!

Of course, we now have to decide what to replant with, something that doesn't go completely crazy.  But plenty time to think about that on cold winter nights, eh.  Not to deliberate over on a precious hot Bank Holiday Monday.


Now what did I tell you in Twilight-Picnic recently?  In that post I showed you that we had the beach to ourselves, almost.  Well, this is what the same beach is like at high tide.  We Guerns are suckers for the beach at high tide.

It was difficult to find spaces to park cars near this beach on such a busy day.  One poor lady had parked at a very precarious angle, half the car in a ditch.   Half an hour later, she was walking along the beach, asking each group if they owned the Suzuki parked next to her, which had to be moved for the recovery truck to be able to haul her out of the ditch.  Poor lady, there were an awful lot of people on the beach that she needed to ask ...

Then news quickly spread around the beach that the recovery truck had ripped the bumper off a nearby new mini whilst on the job.  
Not a good day!



But disasters apart, we had an absolutely fantastic day on the beach.


We met up with my lovely little family and friends of theirs with their children, whom we know.


We spent hours in the sea with the kiddies, sometimes swimming, sometimes tugging or swim-pushing them in an inflatable dinghy.  It was so so sooooooooo enjoyable.


After playing around like a born-again child, then sitting around chatting with the adults, I washed the sand off and went home.  Totally happy with my lot.



Then at teatime we met with friends at one of the beach restaurants down the road.


It was still hot!  All I could handle was a layer of loose linen.
Keeping the middle nice and cool.
Do you opt for loose shapes when the weather gets hot?


This yellow floral dress from Next was just perfect for the hot walk down to the coast.


Flatties, of course, I've already done the blisters thing for this summer, thank you.


But believe me, once we met with our friends at the restaurant, despite sitting by an open window and fanning myself for ages with a menu, I could not cool down.
Readers tell me of their 110F temperatures.  I do not know how they cope.  Our temp was a lesser 29c and I was H.O.T.!



Even horses were cooling down in the sea!  


Then as I sipped on a cooling Sauvignon


and fanned myself with a reservation slip, the menu fan no longer to hand,


I watched the hot sun set.  Well done, Sun, you did us proud on a beautiful bank holiday!


Then later, back home, we had coffee in the garden with our friends, garden lights a-twinklin' and candle flames a-flickerin'.
Living on an island, there is usually a little flutter of night breeze, at the very least.  But last night was so still so coffee al fresco rounded off perfectly a pretty darn perfect August Bank Holiday.


If you are in the UK, I hope you had a fantastic bank holiday too.  Didn't we luck out with the weather this year!
I hope all readers enjoyed their weekends, wherever they spent them, and I hope the week ahead brings you joy.

And if you are in Texas right now, I hope that you are keeping safe and dry.  My thoughts are with you all.





 A la perchoine.