Wow. Wow. Wow. What a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend we had. The weather could not have been better. I spent all three days out at the Erin Fall Fair, representing Greenspaces for Wellington’s bird and bat house projects, and of course I had a number of my latest books there as well.
This is the sixth or seventh year that I have attended, doing this, but this year was exceptionally good. The weather was warm and sunny, lacking the usual cold and rain; I think perhaps we should all bow our head and thank the weatherman himself for such a good performance. There have been times when heavy jackets and furry warm foot-ware was necessary, but not this year.
In previous years the Little Lady and I used to tour the country fairs one after the other, enjoying each and every one, but never have we come across one that is as large and well organized as that of Erin. The sheep, goat, cattle, horse and chicken shows are one of the very best, perhaps second only to the Royal Winter Fair.
Because of my commitment, manning display tables, I did not get up to peruse the vegetable, fruit, and flower displays but the comments I heard from many left me with no doubt that they were equally as good as well. It is kind of ironic, but my Little Lady loved watching the heavy horse show, as well as competing in the flower show. I still have in a box many of the red ribbons that she garnered.
Erin was the home stomping grounds for my Little Lady, as she ran barefoot on a farm in that area while growing up. Though she is no longer by my side, many of her long-time friends and acquaintances stopped by to chat for a while. On the other hand, many of my readers, whom, of course, I had never met, stopped by to introduce themselves and make a comment about one of my articles that happened to tickle their fancy. As a result my time was lucrative, interesting and passed rather quickly.
Back home on the Tuesday it rained off and on and I was soon to find that the flock of bluebirds I had seen the week before was still with us and almost doubled in number. They repeatedly fluttered up against the windows of the barn catching many of the flies that were emerging from the cracks in which they had taken refuge to wait out the rain.
Seeing this many bluebirds still around, past mid October, was a little unusual, as they have usually left in the direction of their southern wintering grounds. The fact that we have a patch of red ripening raspberries still quite active in our garden could well be one of the holding features as well as the abundance of flies.
Nevertheless, spring, summer or fall, their never forgotten double noted flute-like chirps is like music to my ears.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca