A Day Out

Living in the county town of Staffordshire we have the benefit of living just a few miles away from the County Showground, so when there is an event that we wish to attend the travel is easy.

Recently the National Shire Horse Show took place over three days.  We attended the middle day when the classes were stallions and geldings.  Over the course of the day there were classes for different ages, as well as a competition for horse drawn farm machinery and for horse drawn trade carts, as well as the opportunity to visit the stables and get closer to the horses.

For every class the horses would parade around the ring, then individually walk and trot under the scrutiny of the judges before winners were announced and rosettes awarded.  The horses had to line up in order of their placements in order to be awarded their rosettes.

The final line up

.... and the winner is

The judges walked down the lines, awarding the rosettes.

 












The horses looked impressive, but the male judges wearing their bowler hats  made quite an impression too!









 There were were also classes for horse drawn farm implements and horse drawn trade carts. No effort was spared in preparation, the farm implements were in pristine condition  and for part of the competition they had to be shown in use.The trade carts looked like new.
















                                                                                                           
The best part of the show was being able to go backstage and see the horses in their stables.

This is where you get a real sense of the size of a shire horse.

This horse has to go back in the ring for the final parade of champions.  To make sure he doesn't need to be groomed again he is wearing a covering so that if he does decide to roll in his sawdust bedding, he won't pick up too many shavings and will look good when he goes back to the ring.

He reminded us of Spiderman.

Spring came early this year

There has been a yellow weather warning for the whole of the county for the past few days.  It is cold, the wind is gusting at gale force and the spells of rain are torrential.  Fortunately we have not been as badly affected as other parts of the country, but the local river has covered its flood plain and looks more like a lake than a river.  We are hoping for a return to the mild spring weather we experienced for most of February.

From early in  February the spring flowers in the garden were in bloom.  We had snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and miniature irises making colourful displays.  Even the hyacinths, usually not out until late April and May, were beginning  to show their colours.

The twisted hazel, a Mother's Day present many years ago, had a splendid display of catkins and looked good against the pale blue of the sky.  It is now as tall as it will grow, about eight feet, and just the right size for our garden.  Planted next to it is an ordinary hazel tree but it is far too big for the garden so we coppiced it last year and in seven years time, we will be able to harvest the slender stems that are growing from the base and they will become garden canes.  Then the seven year cycle will start again.  I have been reading about the process of coppicing and it lengthens the life span of the tree to several hundred years.  I don't think I shall see many harvests.

Towards the end of February, on a dry and sunny weekend, B and I visited a stately home called Attingham Park, and run by the National Trust.  It has extensive grounds and woodland and a herd of about three hundred Fallow Deer.  We strolled through the woodland,  admiring the snowdrops which have naturalised there, and though the car parks were very busy when we arrived, there is so much space that it didn't feel at all crowded.

Snowdrops thrive in the damp and shady woodland conditions.

Later, we went to see the deer being fed. In the Winter and early Spring the deer are given supplementary food, sugar beet we think, which is taken out to the deer park everyday at the same time.  As soon as the truck arrived, the deer which had been in the far distance started to move to the feeding area, the males first, then the females and lastly the youngsters.  Within a few minutes there were more deer than you could count and they readily started on the food.  They were no more than about six yards from the path, but they seemed not to be bothered by the spectators.  We stood quiet and still, so as not to disturb them.  It was a good opportunity to get photographs of them while they were standing still and eating.  The problem was they had their faces near the ground and so it was not easy to get a good shot of their faces and horns.  but patience paid off and I managed to get just one photo were the deer seemed to be looking at the camera.

Nice memories of earlier in the year - we are hopeful that Spring will return again soon.

What a start to the New Year

I think the last day of January can just about qualify as New Year 2019.

2018 seemed to end well - I needed surgery a couple of days before Christmas (It has been successful), and spent Christmas relaxing and being waited on by the rest of the family - the turkey is still in the freezer waiting for its chance to be centre stage.

The weather was mild and the the garden was still producing flowers. The Chrysanthemums in the containers by the front door gave a colourful display throughout December, but the colder weather that has arrived with 2019 has finished them off - we are hoping to move them to a sheltered spot so that they can survive and be ready for later in the year.

January has been very quiet so far.  With rest being the doctor's orders I have been catching up with reading and watching daytime television!  I managed to catch a cold and it has taken me a fortnight to shrug it off.  I didn't go out socially because I didn't want to spread the germs so I've missed out on two concerts, and F had to celebrate Burn's Night  without me.  That would have been my first ever Burn's night - maybe next year.

Today has been the coldest day of the year so far in the Midlands.  We woke up to a frosty garden - it looked so pretty, but the Spring flowers that have made an early start now have a battle to survive if this cold spell persists.

I am looking forward to February and being able to drive again.