Show Day

The boys all look forward to the Point Agricultural Show every summer. They enjoy going along to the show and seeing everything that is there. They really enjoy making things to enter into the show, and they especially love it when those things win rosettes!

Last year the show was cancelled, as a result of the extremely bad weather, and they had been quite disappointed that they didn't get to carve out some animals from fruit and veg that summer. So this year they were very eager to get working on their creations -  with a little bit of inspiration from Pinterest.

Calum made an owl from pineapple and melon; Ally made a hedgehog from pear and grapes; David made a watermelon frog (complete with his own special addition of a blueberry fly on the frog's tongue); and even little Fraser joined in by making a few caterpillars from grapes and tomatoes, which he kept calling 'nakes'.

Another annual summer highlight, especially for Ally, is the Stornoway Lifeboat Open Day. Usually these two events take place on different Saturdays, but this year the Show was a week later than usual and so both events were on the same day. 

We did manage to make it along to both though, as the Lifeboat Day started earlier than the show.

So first thing in the morning we headed to the Show Ground with all of our entries, as judging takes place in the morning before the show begins at lunchtime, then we headed along to the Open Day to look around the Lifeboat.

This year Ally has joined the Lifeboat Club and knew all about Stormy Stan the mascot. He was so excited to see him there at the Open Day, although Fraser looks quite suspicious of him!

It was a very wet morning, and out at the Show Ground they had been tying down the marquees extra tightly as it was also very windy. 

Thankfully by the time the show started the rain had eased off, although it remained windy all day. Par for the course in Lewis really.

When we arrived at the Show, the boys ran off eagerly into the tent with the fruit and veg and soon came running back to me excitedly, telling me that they had won some prizes.

David's frog won first in the Under 12s competition.

And Ally was delighted to win 2nd.

Calum's owl was in the Over 12s category and he too won first.

From there they rushed off to the tent with the photos in it. 

First spotted was this one that I took of Calum last October, with a 2nd place rosette.

It's quite appropriate that I should win a prize for a photo of Calum taking photos, as this was his haul of photography prizes in the various under 16 photography categories - two 1sts and two 2nds.

What was particularly exciting for Calum though, was that not only did this gorgeous photo he took of Fraser win 1st prize in the under 16s portrait competition, he also won Best in Show with it. That meant that he had beaten all of the adult competitors to the title!

Although James was away at Army Cadet camp, he had given us a couple of his drawings to enter. Because he is 16 now he was put in against the adults. That didn't stop him from doing well though, with a 1st and a 2nd place. I love that drawing of a strawberry. It looks so shiny and juicy!

Following in his biggest brothers arty footsteps was Ally, with 1st in the nursery - P2 art competition.

There weren't many entries in the under 16 woodwork category, and Calum added to his rosette hail with 1st place for his wooden desk tidy.

Onto the baking table then.

David had entered a simple Victoria Sponge in the under 12s baking competition. I really didn't think he would win anything for it, not because it wasn't a good cake, but because quite a few of the other entries looked a bit fancier. Anyway, the judges obviously place a fair amount of emphasis on taste too as he won 2nd place for it!

And Calum won 1st for his gluten & dairy free Highland Cow cake in the over 12s competition. When he tried to explain his plan of the shape of it to me I didn't understand how he was going to make it work, but he did a fabulous job!

And the final lot of entries we had belonged to me, so we left checking them until after everything else had been seen. There are so many entries in the knitting and crochet competitions that I don't expect to get anything at all. But I got 3rd in the knitted/crocheted item for over 2s category for the rainbow cardigan that I made Fraser...

...a 2nd for my Nordic Shawl in the crocheted/knitted garment category...

...and a 1st in the open category for the amigurumi burger that I made David. I nearly didn't enter that one at all!

Once the everyone had got over the excitement of all those winnings, we headed into the teas and enjoyed the amazing spread of home baking. As usual the ladies of the district had done themselves proud with the huge array of cakes available. If the plate on your table was looking a bit low on cakes they would soon be over topping it up again. 

And then it was time to go around and enjoy everything else that was around the Show Ground.

Look, a tiny bit of blue sky even appeared!

Towards the end of the show a couple of the organisers came around asking children to make up some teams for the tug of war. Our boys joined with a couple of other little boys to make up the youngest team. Fraser insisted on taking part too.

After quite a number of exhausting pulls, and some confusion as to what round was what and who had pulled against who, it turns out that their little team had won 2nd, and so more rosettes were added to the haul.

Finally, at the end of the show was the prizegiving, and we had been told that Calum would be winning a trophy for his Best in Show photograph. This is him getting his trophy.

Back home at Granny and Shen's we laid out everybody's rosettes. Our most successful year at the show ever, and the first time any of us has ever won a trophy.

Meanwhile Fraser summed up how everyone felt after a busy, fun day.

Summer Holidays - Weeks 1 & 2

The summer holidays are over already and another school year has started. Time for me to get back into something of a routine and begin posting a bit more regularly again. I have to say I'm really looking forward to re-acquainting myself with blog-life again.
While I wasn't able to get time to post on my blog at all through the summer holidays, I did challenge myself to post a photo a day over on Instagram, and I succeeded! It's made for a lovely sort of micro-blog of our summer.
One of the reasons that I keep my blog is as a way of remembering things for myself,  I don't want to look back in a few years time and see nothing on here about Summer 2016 and so I'll be posting a recap of our summer this week in a few different posts. Rather than one HUGE post. Starting today by going right back to the start of the holidays and looking at what we did in weeks 1 and 2. With a lot of help from my Instagram photos reminding me, as even though the holidays flew by, the first couple of weeks already seem a long time ago!

Day 1 On the first day of the holidays we went for a visit to the Almond Valley Heritage Centre. I used to have a season ticket for it when the older two boys were younger, but we hadn't been for quite a long time. The younger two boys didn't remember being before and they really loved it. The older boys really enjoyed the day too, despite the occasional heavy rain shower - a sign of how the weather was set to continue for most of the holidays.

Day 2

We went along to the annual Historic Scotland Spectacular Jousting event at Linlithgow Palace. We have been to it in the past and it has always been a really great day out. Ally (7) and Fraser (2) were particularly enthralled by the real life knights. We were thankful that the rain held off for the first performance. Not long after it finished, the most torrential rain started and the wind got up too. There followed a mass exodus of families heading home earlier than planned!

Day 3

Another showery day, but we still made it out of the house for our Sunday afternoon walk to the duck pond. The rain was a good chance for the photographer boys to practice getting close up shots of raindrops. Every cloud...

Day 4

No rain showers today, rather torrential rain all day. So it was a day of indoors fun for us. And the house looked a lot like this. All over.

Day 5

It was my mother-in-law's birthday. Both she and my father-in-law had come through to ours for dinner that night, so Calum (13) baked Granny a birthday cake. Fraser (2) was delighted to help her blow out the candles.

Day 6

Yet more indoor fun. Fraser (2) discovered that he loves to paint with this watercolour set I found at the bottom of our craft box.

Day 7

The very welcome sight of Lewis on the horizon. The four youngest boys and I had travelled up to Lewis by train, bus and then ferry. James (16) hadn't come with us as he was heading away for two weeks at Army cadet camp the following day. Dad was due to join us in Lewis a week after we had arrived and then James would join us all there a week after that.

Day 8

Fraser enjoying one of his favourite games, hide and seek, in Granny and Shen's garden.

Day 9

Weather report? You've guessed it. Showery rain. 

I took out a family membership at the sports centre in Stornoway since we were going to be there for nearly a month. This was the first of many visits to the swimming pool there.

Day 10

A quiet Sunday. My mum's cousin had given me a bag of old crochet cottons and vintage patterns that belonged to her Aunt. Most of the patterns were for doilies and so I tried my hand at one of them, the white one in the bottom right. It didn't turn out too badly!

Day 11

Calum (13) and David (10) spent the morning at shinty training with Camanachd Leodhais. It was the first session of a week long training camp. They still managed to have energy for a game of tennis afterwards, while I took the younger two boys for a round of crazy golf.  Fraser and Ally got a couple of great bargains at the charity shops, and we also saw our first proper glimpse of blue sky in more than a week!

Day 12

I'm really not a fan of soft plays. In fact I would actually go so far as to say that I hate them! The small one in the Stornoway Sports Centre is the exception to this though, and the younger boys enjoyed a run around it in the morning while the bigger boys were at shinty again. It was even more fun as they had it all to themselves!

Day 13

I had an old friend coming round for cake and a catch-up while the older boys were at shinty. These two were my little assistant cake makers, while still in their jammies. Christmas jammies are not just for Christmas!

That evening we went along to watch the shinty boys playing in the annual sixes tournament. They played pretty well amongst the adult teams and, more importantly, neither of them ended up with any injuries from over enthusiastic adult players!

Day 14

Ally had been looking forward to going along to a family fun session at a local youth club all week, after he had heard there would be a chance to make your own super hero masks! It didn't disappoint him either.

Day 15

The last morning of shinty training. The younger two boys and I had popped into the wool shop to buy some buttons in the morning, and I left with a ball of multicoloured yarn that came with a fuzzy pompom. Ally had seen it and asked if I could make him a hat with it. Don't worry, I did also remember to buy the buttons too!

It was such a wet morning that we sat in by the fire, and while Fraser and Ally watched Toy Story - the first time either of them had seen it, but now a favourite of Fraser's - I crocheted Ally his hat. He was rather delighted with the end result.

Because the day was so extremely wet, shinty training finished off a little earlier than they had planned. They finished off with a little prize giving and Calum was delighted to come home with the medal for player of the camp.

It wasn't just the new hats and medals that made it an exciting day though, but the fact that daddy was due to arrive off the ferry in the evening. The boys kept themselves busy by preparing their entries for the Agricultural Show that was taking place the following day.

This was them working on their entries for the animal from fruit and vegetable competition. 

I'll leave their finished animals and their successes at the show for tomorrow's post though, as they are more than worthy of a post all of their own.

Highland Show 2016

Last Friday we had a great day out to the Royal Highland Show.

We spent 7 hours walking around the show ground, with only about 20 minutes sitting down for our lunch, so were thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day.

But it was a happy, satisfying kind of exhausting.

There is so much to see at the Highland Show, and if you are interested in rural life in any way at all then it's a great day out. Even if you aren't so much interested in animals and machinery, there are also marquees for all the major supermarkets where they share their food ethics and such. Some give cookery demonstrations and they all give away loads of free samples!

And let's not forget the food hall, packed full of stalls offering even more free samples and the chance to buy lots of lovely Scottish foods.

It's a very family orientated day out, with kids under 16 getting in for free with an adult ticket, no matter how many of them there are.

We try and visit the show every year if we can and the boys have always loved going along.

We watched some very cool biking. This guy has just jumped off that tall tree stump...

David (10) got to climb high up in a tree (more photos of that in the slideshow below).

We saw lots, and lots, of animals. Fraser (2) really wanted to see the 'och-ochs' and the 'moos', although he held his nose most of the way round the huge 'moo' barn!

There are rows and rows of farm machinery, ranging in size from quad bikes to massive combines. This is Fraser's quad/motorbike driving face!

And, much to David's delight, there was even a chance to show off your football skills.

He was so chuffed to get his name on the leader board for the speed at which he could dribble the ball around the cones.

Well worthy of a sample of some Mackies ice cream - while James (16) and I sampled their chocolate bars!

Rather than post the rest of the photos in a long blog post, I thought I would share this slide show of them instead, so if you are interested in seeing the rest of our day at the show then just click below. (You might need to click on full screen to see it properly)

One final piece of advice if you are planning on attending the show in future years - take the bus!
We first took the bus out a couple of years ago, and although it cost us more than it would have done to park the car at the show ground - car parking is around £8 for the day; bus tickets are £6 return for adults and £3 for children, so when there are a few of you it is more than double the cost - it is worth every penny when you reach the end of Corstorphine and see the long, long queues of cars waiting to enter the show. The bus just drives right on past the traffic and takes you right up to the gates of the show. We felt very smug looking out at the cars stuck in traffic. Apparently it was taking around 2 hours for traffic to get in to the show at peak times!
There are special chartered Lothian Buses every few minutes from the centre of town. We got on at Haymarket and it took 25 minutes from the station to the show gates.
Like I said, worth every extra penny, especially with kids in tow!