Fair Weather!

Although I have fond, fond childhood memories of going to the county fair as a child (back when our family was a family of four or five, before we became a family of eight), I probably haven't been in more than a decade. For some reason this year my family has rediscovered the county fair - my dad took the kids last night while my mom and I holed up after a really long night with a movie, and today Maggie and I went to explore.



Ok - let me just take this opportunity to say that I love Southern Maryland and, while I love to travel, love to go places and see things and explore the difference, I like coming home to a place that is vibrant and beautiful and often undervalued. I like being a native. I realize that for the first time in my life do I really feel like I'm part of a community, and it's a good feeling.

Now, back to the fair...



We started off our exploration in the livestock barns. While I gravitate towards cute furry animals, Maggie loves big ugly animals. I don't understand this. But she insisted on having her picture taken by the cows. She loves cows and wants one, and is continually thinking about ways to fit one onto our little hobby farm. Despite the fact that she and five other people in our family of eight are severely allergic to everything dairy. Like I said, I don't get it.



We both agreed that this adorable teddy-bear-faced sheep was one of the cutest things we'd ever seen. He was posing right up until I got out my camera and then suddenly turned away, so I took half a dozen pictures trying to capture his cuteness.



Piggies count as big and ugly in my book, but these sleeping pair were kind of cute...





See that beak peeking out? Yes, this is a chicken. I believe he was distantly related in some way to the late Poufy (the name says it all, but I will try to go and find a photo later when one of the kids are around) whom we had for a short time this summer before his untimely disappearance.



Maggie also posed beside the giant pumpkin winner. This is one of those displays that I can remember as a kid... but they seemed bigger back them! :)

I never remember going into the art displays as a child, but Maggie and I did go in and we found some real winners! I love art anyway, so to be surrounded by amateur art was like heaven!

This painting won first place in the middle school category... I absolutely love it, so much so that I checked the label for a "seller info" tab, but there was none. If it had been for sale I would have bought it if I could have possibly afforded it. The picture cannot begin to show the beauty.



I also thought this picture was fun... it looks inspired by Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending A Staircase" which has always been one of my favorite pictures. This one appears to be a person playing a guitar.



And... just because I'm a nerd and I love mod art (take that, John Patrick!) I loved this piece. It reminds me vaguely of my father's computer workshop when I was small, and all the components and motherboards, etc.



All in all, I enjoyed the fair greatly! Even a little rain that fell while we were watching the pig and duck racing (yes, pig and duck racing) didn't hamper my fun.

On to more news...



I'm not the only one playing with new clothes this weekend - Ranger got a new sweater! It seems like whenever I have way too much to do anyway, I get the urge to crochet. I think it was the cool weather we had today... or looking through old photos of Colby the Chihuahua in the sweaters I made him last year... but I suddenly got an irresistable itch for yarn. No harm, no foul - it only took about an hour, and I really did complete everything else I had to get done. :)





Isn't he cute?