George Friedrich Handel had a sense of humour. How could he not have by phrasing 'All we like sheep, have gone astray' in his oratorio Messiah so it sounds like the choir have a penchant for sheep!
(Listen to it
here on
Youtube.) It makes me giggle everytime I sing or play in The Messiah!
Anyway, I shall neatly segue from this tenuous introduction, neatly into the main point of this post.
On Saturday morning in Yorkshire, after a lovely mile walk along the road to Goathland with the dog, we headed off to the Rosedale show.
Now for anyone who has never experienced a country show, it's great fun- there are also vendettas and rivalries to win 'Best carrots' or 'finest ginger cake' and it can upset the apple-cart if a newcomer beats a long-standing winner. It's always great fun for the non-combatants to giggle at enormous radishes, onions the size of footballs and vegetables anthropomorphised by children! (I am full of admiration for the efforts, which I could not even emulate a whisker of, but still it makes me laugh).
However, this show had something which no other village/county show has ever had which filled me with glee- sheep in abundance! Big sheep, little sheep, fluffy sheep, bizarre sheep. There were other animals as well, but this lot are too hilarious to miss! I still have that yearning ambition to get a photo of me with my arms round a sheep's neck hugging it (like the dog in the picture above).
This lot were some of the ubiquitous Swaledale sheep. Hardy and sturdy.
Old fluffy blotchy face here looks like he would like a cuddle. No?
The sheep equivalent of Mr Darcy? "Tolerable I dare say, but not handsome enough to tempt me!" he seems to say as he snootily shuts his eyes.
This lady has a decidedly horsey look about her.
"A HANDBAG??????" she declares!
"I refuse to look at the camera!"
Check out this lot! My eyes, my eyes, I am blinded by the brightness! Who would have thought you could get luminous yellow sheep!
Look at this beauty, so soft and snuggly- definitely huggable!
This randy big-horned patriarch fella' was climbing the fence to try and get to the lady-sheep in the next pen. You can almost hear the Sid-James-esque "Phwoooar!!"
Er- Alien sheep? What a strange appearance! Apparently these guys can grow up to 6 pairs of horns! Less is more, mate!
At least he has friends!
The strange orange-billed sheep. Hold on? That's not a sheep!
This fellow appears to have Ford Focus steering wheel horns!
Squish! Look at this fluffy nose!
She's got hair just like Goldie Hawn!
This lady is pretty! Definitely a picture-book sheep.
There were also lots of other animals/livestock including these wonderful cows!
We watched the Shetland pony, shire horse and mother and foal competitions too.
Onto the non-living classes, check out these carrots! Well on 30cm long each!!!!
And these monster onions!
I loved the Jubilee theme of this cake class!
After a lovely picnic and buying a few Christmas presents (I am organised!), we drove back to Goathland to the village flower and vegetable show. The same sort of idea, but on a much smaller scale. We nervously awaited the results of the Quiche and biscuit classes, as J had entered her own ones into them...
You can see me beside the sign...
And to our intense delight, she had won first prize for both her quiche AND biscuits!
I liked this floral arrangement!!! Very Kezzie!
We enjoyed an enormous cup of tea each and 2 cakes and then R and I walked to the village stores to get an ice-cream.
If you ever watched Heartbeat on TV, you will recognise this as the Aidensfield stores.
R and I started to walk back along the road to the house whilst J and C waited for her quiche (after the prize awarding).
I did TRY to persuade this sheep to have the aforementioned photo taken with me, but I don't think she was too impressed.
She had 4 legs so easily evaded me!
We actually ended up walking the 2 miles home!
We then walked the dog another 3 miles round the Roman Road. The weather was so perfect today.
For dinner, we set off for the lovely fish and chip shop in Sleights. Fresh fish from Whitby was delicious!
When we came back, I went out into the garden and read my book on the swing, rocking contentedly revelling in the peace and quiet after a wonderful, jam-packed countryside day.
Look at my surroundings. Not a sound except for the varying pitched bahs of a myriad sheep. I feel priveleged to enjoy such experiences with my dear friends. C used to be the vicar of my Church and I miss him and his wife J who were such good friends and a support through all my PGCE angst and their daughter, who despite the 8 year age gap, remains a really good friend.
