The show is a mixture of a market, a sales room, a farmers playpit, a country fair, an animal exhibition, a competition and well anything else you can think of that might be vaguely country related! We got there and after being impressed with how well organised it was settled in to wander around. Many things weren't our scene but it was nice to have a gander anyway. We started off by running into the BBC exhibition. This is a mobile thing they take round to shows and let kids and adults see how the news is done on TV and radio. One person becomes the tv news reader, one person runs the autocue, another is the radio presenter, another the producer... well you get the idea. It's proper kit and they record it on DVD as radio/video for them to take home. We stood and watched it for about 30mins to see both the "tv" and "radio" news broadcasts. Quite brilliant and I think a great investment of our license fee. I am not even being sarcastic for once! Unfortunately they were already fully booked by the time we got there so couldnt put the boy upto be a producer which was a shame. We had fun watching them and I had one a minor star-struck moment. The lady doing the talk about what was going on, linking it together and generally hosting it was Maggie Philbin who yeaaaaaaaars ago used to host tomorrows world and i had a huge huge crush on at the time (pretty lady + science talk, enough to get my pulse racing ;-) god such a geek!). So boy stood and watched the tv/radio stuff happily while i just grinned stupidly and sent SMS's to anyone i could think of. Very stupidly. Ok so she hasnt aged totally gracefully but I mean. She did Tomorrow's World!! She was lovely too, very friendly and personable, just like on TV. Well, we finally tore ourself away and started to wander around the stalls, peeking in at the charity stalls, browsing, trying to look at the tractors for sale as if we knew what they were.
The horticulture exhibition was beautiful. Bonsai, cacti, flowers, dried stuff, so many displays. Not exactly our thing but you couldn't help but enjoy browsing round and pretending to make vaguely knowledgable comments. Then onwards, through the british army and the boy got to fire a paint ball gun for a few rounds much to his delight (his mum has a thing against guns and stuff so he always delights when I take him through the army bits). He wasnt a bad shot either, the little bugger. I couldn't restrain him anymore after that and we had to go find his ferret. We found them and spoke to one of the lady's and she knew all about the boy's naming the little thing last week so went and woke amber up. Ummm she wasn't happy about this! Little wriggling biting ball of fuss she was. Needless to say the boy did not hold her, but he was chuffed to see her again.
We were there a long long old time. Highlights? So many but the ultimate for me was the wolves. I've loved wolves so long and couldn't believe they had a wolf enclosure there. Two of the beautiful beasts within a large metal cage. We waited out turn and were in time let through the double gates and given the little talk about how to approach them. These two had been happily dozing all the time we waited, being petted quietly, upto the point we were let into the cage. It was then almost time for the next talk about them so they woke them both up and got them up onto their feet just before we walked over to them.
Offer your fist to her, she said, keep it between you and her and let her lick or sniff it. You stay at the sharp pointy end while the boy goes round the back and strokes under the belly. I think we were so lucky to see them standing up, to see their height and lean shape, to see the eyes so bright and attentive as it sniffed my hand. Beautiful creature. While the boy stroked under her belly I could then walk round the other side and do the same. Soft short hair and such a powerful frame. *sighs happily* I think for me the whole day was worth it just for that. Such an amazing animal and everything I thought they would be. This is the one we petted -
Show jumping, watching the farrier competitions as they raced to make their horseshoes, craft and country food stalls, sheep dog demonstrations, ummm what else did we see? Ohhhh we stood in the middle of the display room totally surrounded by hunting hounds of various types, harriers, hounds and our very very very very favourite, a pack of excitable beagles! We would have stayed there for hours stroking these lovely lil things (and no, they weren't quite as cute as my friends, but damn close *sighs* well there is still hope) but we had to move on.
The boy ended up with two major grins on his face. We went to see the ferret racing three times. The second time we went someone pointed the boy out to the main person while he was doing his race spiel. He came straight over, shook the boys hand and proceeded to tell the whole crowd about last weeks naming. The boy was just beaming proud as he was pointed out. The second major grin was during the last race when amber came second. Considering what a vicious little thing she was being its amazing they even got her started let along anything else.
So, one content happy tired boy. Job well done. We will definitely be back next year and this time a little more organised as what to do! Hopefully the boy will be tall enough to go off-roading next time too!
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