End of the season? — An Elegant Sufficiency

I judged the last of the shows on my calendar yesterday. The first weekend in September is the busiest day in the show season and is often the final entry in my calendar too. I guess that for many, September is the end of the Summer and the start of the new season and when I was a school teacher, that was very much the case for me too. It has been a spectacular Summer here in many ways, but oh how pleased we have been to have some relief from the endless sunshine! (Whoever would have thought we’d say that?)

That made it all the harder last weekend, to turn up at my most local show on Saturday morning in such awful weather! So much hard work for the army of volunteers that make these events happen, including the man who was transporting bales of straw on a handcart through that rain, ready to spread in the entrance to the field where everyone was going to park their cars. I watched him go to and fro at least half a dozen times, surely to the point where he couldn’t possibly have got any wetter. I just hope he had a set of dry clothes nearby to change into whilst someone made him a hot cup of tea!

This local show is one I look forward to judging, for there is a very creative community who enter the craft classes with enthusiasm.

The children are especially creative and a version of this little kitten makes an appearance in some form or another most years. Has it been made by the same person each year? Or perhaps from the same family? I have no idea, but it’s so cute and who knew one could bring so much personality to a couple of small oranges?

Last year, a fine walrus had been crafted from a couple of aubergines and I wondered if this cute sea otter had come from the same stable? I love to see how much expression can be built into such a simple concept.

There was a new kid on the block this year however. Did you ever look at a couple of carrots and think “I could make a puppy from those”? (No, I hadn’t either)

In total, I judged over a hundred entries in the craft and the children’s classes and can say, hand on heart, that every single one of them had been made with love and care. What a privilege it was to see them all.

A week later, I was at a rather larger, more commercial show; another one I look forward to each year. This one is also the result of the hard work of many volunteers and is an immense amount of effort for just one day. They were blessed with sunshine this year - not that I was so glad about that with the bright sun so low in the sky and shining directly into my eyes as I drove there yesterday morning. What a great turn out they had though.

I arrived early, doing my best to stay out of the way as the entries were brought into the Home and Garden Marquee and as the stewards took care to make sure that things were correctly labelled with the names and numbers concealed until later.

Here were several of my colleagues too, judging vegetables, preserves, honey, baking and floral art. It’s good to meet up like this and see what’s new. What trends are there this year, I wonder?

I was working with a friend and colleague and we began at opposite ends of the showbench, she with the cross stitch pictures and I with the “any other craft”. I was delighted to see some truly remarkable entries, including this exquisite felted wrap. It was light as a feather and both beautifully designed and made.

Sadly not the best photograph of this dear little knitted hare, casually leaning on a fence.

I worked my way along the bench, looking closely at each entry, assessing the level of difficulty and the technical skill involved in the creation of each entry before I made my judgement. Once the result was found and I felt happy with the placings, the stewards sorted out the prizewinners whilst I returned to write a comment slip for each entry.

My colleague and I met up somewhere in between the woodwork class and the knitting.

We were both delighted with the standard of the entries this year and had really enjoyed our morning!

Though we had finished, colleagues were still working through their classes.

After a spot of lunch in the livestock area (!) I took the opportunity for a quick look around before heading home. These Indian Runner Ducks amused me as they ran from one end of their pen to the other in a bunch, all quacking as they went and making quite a noise. I thought of Arthur and imagined how funny he would find them too.

I watched this small boy and his prize bull, wondering how young he was when he first began showing such a wonderful creature. I love to see the youngsters here, in their element.