Fair to mild

It's been four years since we last visited the Fairlie A&P show. Every year we briefly consider the idea then toss it aside; today I wanted to go simply for the sake of going and doing something interesting. Nick was able to join us (he doesn't usually take public holidays off, but made an exception today). It was fabulous to be outdoors enjoying the sunshine; good thing we had appropriate footwear though because there was LOTS of mud!  One of the fun things about going to the fair is meeting up with friends...we knew there were a lot of people from church going, so it was pretty disappointing not to find the majority of them! 

So, what does one see at a rural community fair of this sort?  Plenty of livestock...

  ...lots of competitions involving wood chopping and sawing and axes and chainsaws...

...beautiful handcrafts...

...highland dancing...

...bagpipe competitions...

...more wood severing things, and even a chair produced from a tree stump.

We were pleased to find Mordecai and Justina, who watched some of the competitions with us.

The boys bought giant inflatables - who wouldn't want a giant purple alien and a big bat?

Eventually we got tired of wandering around looking for people, so set off home mid-afternoon.  The drive to and from Fairlie is so pretty, especially with Autumn colours slowly starting to show themselves.