The Great English Outdoors at The Frampton Country Fair
What a wonderful day at the Frampton Country Fair this Sunday.
Got up at 4am to be sure to be there in plenty of time to set up the stand. Folded my long dog down into what little space I had in left my car, and set off as the sun came up on what was to be a spectacular day.
Once again, it was a beautiful hot late summer’s day, and not a cloud in the sky. On arrival, I found my stand, and was feeling particularly cheerful, as a gazebo had already been put up for me, or so I thought! What service! Having unloaded and almost completed my stand set up, a rather annoyed couple turned up to say it was their pitch, and that I had been moved elsewhere. But where? There was the puzzle! – hugely hassled and perplexed, Louise, one of the army of brilliant organisers turned up to help and with much apologising, repositioned my stand to the top of the main arena, and next door to the Pimms Tent. Thank you Louise for sorting me out and soothing troubled waters. Thank you to Amy who came and helped me put up my gazebo. People poured in from 10 o’clock onwards, and by 10.30 it was manically busy! I had a mission and my mission was becoming imminent…. I plucked up courage to ask Amy who had only just arrived to help out, if she would mind running my stand, a cornucopia of old tweeds, Arran sweaters, and textile requisites of all sorts, whilst I rushed off with Boudica(my new puppy) to the Lurcher Show. This was a seriously large Lurcher show. Both Boudica and myself had never seen so many Lurchers, in all shapes and sizes. Luckily the puppy classes were at the beginning with Boudica’s first. This was definitely not the Penpont Dog show, with lots of careful canine posturing and styling, (I thought if I try and do that to Boudica she will just lie down and collapse in a heap.) A magnificent black shiny dog was chosen as the class’s winner and next it was our turn. In we went, and trotted around the ring…. So far so good…. Then it was our turn to get called in for closer scrutiny of the judge. The judge asked how old she was….’ Just six mounths’, I said…. He asked again, rather surprised and I confirmed she was born 3rd March…. ‘Excellent dog’, he said,’ Lovely bones and well muscled’…. Phew – I thought all those walks have been worth it…. But he probably says that to all the dogs. A brisk march up and down to show off her “paces”and we were back with the rest, while he made his final choice….. Rosettes were handed out, and I thought, Oh well we might still get a 5th of 6th. But it wasn’t to be, and he handed us the 1st prize rosette. We were astonished! Next we had to go through it all again, this time for the Champion Puppy prize and we were up against that beautiful big black shiny dog puppy I mentioned before. I was really worried by now that I wasn’t doing Boudica justice, as black shiny dog’s owner had shown her dog off most professionally. After what seemed like ages and much deliberation the judge presented the Champion Puppy Rosette to us! What a wonderful moment, and after a quick photo I had to dash back to my stand, or what I decided to call … THE GREAT English UNWASHED. Sales had been going well, we were nearly out of Arran sweaters and old oily Guernsey jerseys! Amy was delighted to hand the stall back to me, and get away as fast as possible before I found her anything else to do.
The rest of the day was just a delight – selling wonderful old clothing and my beautiful old welsh blankets, whilst watching the main arena displays, from falconry and parachutes, to tug of war etc but for me, the best by far was to watch the parade of magnificent heavy horses and working horses.