12:26pm Thursday 28th August 2008
By Farmer's wife Elizabeth Hird
According to folklore and old country sayings it is now autumn.
St Bartholemew's Day (Bartlemy Day), which was last Sunday, marks the beginning of the new season and has in the past been an important day of the rural year as far as forecasting what we might expect from the weather for the rest of the year.
It is also said that St Bartholemew's mantle wipes dry all the tears that St Swithin can cry. Well, I think that St Swithin must be pretty upset about something and Bartholemew's mantle must be pretty soggy because he hasn't managed to stop him yet!
Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful, a glorious, almost perfect day for a show - Malham was blessed. It was an early start and the roads were already busy with traffic and when I arrived to set up, the showground was buzzing with activity.
I had a good day, met a lot of people, chatted a lot, sold a lot and went home tired. At home the day had enabled Stuart, Dan and Edward to get a bit more big bale silage. We are getting there slowly.
Sunday was a day to recuperate; a day off. One of the few months of the year when there are five weekends, so there was no farmers' market. A day filled with washing, ironing and cleaning the house and cooking for me whilst work continued outside.
The next job was getting ready for Kilnsey Show. Stuart went down to the showfield on Monday evening and took with him our stand and other bits and pieces of hardware so that we had everything on site. We then decided it was best to get as much stock there as possible to save time on Tuesday. Am I glad we did.
Tuesday morning was chaotic; rain throughout the night had transformed the showfield into a quagmire. Tractors were operating in all directions pulling in and out and cars, vans, lorries, Land Rovers and trailers waited to take their turn. But people still turned up and they must be applauded for making the effort to support the event.
It was a memorable one and even though I only saw a small corner, people were smiling and making the best of it.
The soup man was smiling, he sold out. Judging by the number of people sporting new waterproofs, wellies and rain hats, I imagine the waterproof, welly and rain hat people were smiling. The exhibitors with red tickets were smiling. Edward and David were smiling until it was time to go home.
It was amazing how quickly everything disappeared. One minute there were stands, people and produce everywhere, next just an empty marquee full of trestle tables and bags of rubbish; vehicles winding their way across the field to the exit and out on to the muddy road home.
It will take a long time to get things cleared up and it will take a long time for the field to recover from the scars, but it will and there will be another year and the sun will shine.
We treated ourselves to supper at a local pub on the way home which was a very welcome treat because we were all famished and I have to say I didn't fancy starting to make some supper at 7.30pm.
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