The cute invasion

Almost every year (since 2009) we go to the Country Fair at Loseley Park. It’s always a great day out with lots of things happening in the main rings as well as ploughing matches in the distant fields.

The problem with the last two years has been that we’ve started out late. This means we miss most of the really good events and all of the ploughing. This note is to, hopefully, remind us to go early next year.

This year also marked Emma’s First Big Outing. And to say she was a major disruption would be putting it mildly.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Emma was the cutest thing at the fair. It took us an age to go anywhere for having to stop while people (even grown, gnarly men) admired her ridiculous cuteness. And it wasn’t just people. A certain Maltese terrier called Cooper was immediately smitten and, after Emma recovered from her initial fear, had his charms reciprocated. By this I mean that Emma hit him about the head with her paws while her tail wagged.

Cooper’s owners tried to get a photo of the two of them together but it was impossible. There was a lot of jumping around. Not that there wasn’t quite a few opportunities. It seemed like we bumped into them constantly while we were at the fair.

There was also the toddler who raced up to Emma, grabbed her in her arms and threatened to run away with her, while Mirinda waited for the ferret racing to start. The toddler clearly thought Emma was a teddy and, to be fair, she does look exactly like a teddy.

Since we didn’t arrive till well after lunch, we’d missed the ploughing (the same thing happened last year) but we did get to see some of the gun dog training. We thought we were going to see a bit of agility as well but the course was so complex that the dog owners spent about an hour going around it before a dog even had a sniff. By the time the first few dogs started running and jumping around, we were ready to move on.

A few years ago, after we’d returned home, Mirinda commented on the Very Sticky Ginger Cake that we didn’t buy. This year, when we walked by the stall I reminded her. She bought some and I can verify that it is very sticky, very moist and VERY gingery. Clearly, mum and dad wouldn’t like it. It’s like damp gingerbread with extra ginger piled at the bottom. One slice per sitting is easily enough.

We wandered around everything, having a good look and even almost managing to buy a windmill (we ran out of cash) before heading back to Sidney for the short drive home.

Next year we’re DEFINITELY going to go first thing. We can then have lunch there and buy something nice for dinner as well as see some ploughing!