Westmorland County Show 2019

I was lucky to be able to go to school today as a member of staff on a school trip. So lucky to get to go on a school day, but of course not able to enjoy it as much being responsible for children! It took us nearly an hour to get there in a coach due to the usual show congestion so once we got there we were raring to go...

First up we went in the Country Pursuits tent. My colleague beat a strategic retreat leaving me to be volunteered to hold this rather gorgeous owl:

The boys then voted to see the sheep so we headed through the mud to the sheep pens. An amazing variety of sheep breeds and good to get up close to some of them:

Then we wandered past the cattle tent before stopping to watch the carriage driving:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to routine #R2BC

The lovely Michelle is hosting again this month as she enjoys reading all our happy posts, please pop over and see why she is cheerful this week. Meanwhile here are my reasons this week:

1) Simple fun

On the way home from town my son met a couple of friends in the park and kicked a football around with them for a bit before heading into the playground:

2) Happy Herdwick

How could this smile not be infectious:

#CountryKids at Kendal Wool Gathering

When the rain finally stopped we headed out to K Village to the annual Kendal Wool Gathering. After a glorious September and most of October it was strange having wet and grey clouds:

One of the first things that caught our eyes was this CitizenCairn made at last year's Mintfest to celebrate Kendal's shoe making heritage: 

There were plenty of tempting stalls showcasing everything wool related and demonstrations of spinning etc. My daughter was happy to browse these but little brother wanted to get outside to see the livestock. It was great to meet so many different breeds and learn something about them all. The cutest were the world's smallest sheep the Ouessant from Brittany:

There were some more familiar looking breeds as well that were happy to pose for the camera:

This happy and massive Texel ram enjoyed being hand fed and petted:

Of course no Cumbrian wool festival could be without our iconic Herdwicks:

To entertain and educate there were several animal jigsaws to show which products come from each part of the animal. My son spent quite a while doing every one:

Then we could tuck into a freshly BBQ'd lamb or beefburger or a cumberland sausage. My daughter decided it wasn't a good thing to eat a meat product in the same tent as the kinds of animals they were made from! Instead she went off to cuddle a chick:

#CountryKids at the Hodder Valley Show

My son had a championship fell race at the Hodder Valley Show in Yorkshire on Saturday so he and I went on a mystery drive down south powered by Google Maps. It was a relief to make it on a wet and misty day. As it was raining we headed straight into the main marquee to check out the stalls. My son spent quite a while building a dry stone wall at the Forest of Bowland stand:

Once the rain paused we went outside to see what was happening in the main show ring. Being an agricultural show there were a lot of competitions for various farm animals including cattle:

One of our favourite parts was the sheep section as we could get up close to a wide variety of sheep breeds:

#CountryKids at Langdale Gala

Running in the Herdwick 10 km gave me free entry into the Langdale Gala yesterday so I dragged 2 protesting children into the car for another trip up until the beautiful valley:

As soon as they saw the bouncy castles etc they were much happier and threw themselves into the fun:

The event was officially opened by a parade led by the Staveley Kookaburra all stars:

Herdy Heads for the Hills

I heard about this on BBC Radio Cumbria on Friday morning and immediately Googled it to see for myself. A great bit of fun to give publicity to the Lakes by David Browne (http://dpbimages.co.uk) using the iconic Herdwick sheep available from www.herdy.co.uk:





If you love that then check out this:




Dear Santa I'd love to find any Herdy products in my stocking this Christmas ;-)