We Went to the Animal Fair...

 

Yes, the birds an the beasts were there! As well as some pretty awesomely scary rides!! Take the freaky Pharaoh above... please! (*1) There was a terrified child being tortured on that Egyptian nightmare; the mother looked totally unconcerned. The child has no doubt been scarred for life by his/her experience!

A big hit with us fair-goers was the hall of fruits and vegetables. Rows of multicolored Swiss chard and plates and plates of peppers, beans and eggplants, each more splendid and appetizing than the last. Cathy was searching- in vain!- for some vegetable dish to consume and Bob remarked how ironic it was that for all the fruits and veg on display, there was none to eat. He thought it was a missed opportunity to have a giant farmer's market. But honestly judging by the girth of many of our fellow fair attendees, vegetables were NOT what they were chowing down on. (*2)

Look at that lovely rainbow of peppers! Clever display!

And award-winning apples, attractively arranged into diamonds. Oh! the produce... what a fair should be. We saw some pretty heroically giant pumpkins, too.

The flowers were a big hit, too. Lovely dahlias and exotic coleus and zinnias and hydrangeas and celosia: all looking pretty good despite four days of being on display. We had an altogether super time, and were an appreciative audience.

There are a few things we missed. We never did make it back to see the many chickens on view. Somehow skipped right past the pigs and cows and missed the bunnies... Also we never made it to the marketplace tent where we would no doubt have been able to purchase cheeses or maple syrup, all locally produced. We were too busy being seduced by the terrifying marvels of the midway, (*3)

I also missed having fried dough topped with tomato sauce; probably a blessing. But as it was Bob's first time to the Durham Fair, we did our best to sample a bit of everything. As we boarded the shuttle bus which would deliver us back to our cars, we spied a Monster Truck demonstration that was enthralling a vast crowd, seated on the hillside. Alas! Maybe next time...

(*1) All of the photos in this episode of my blog were taken by my sister Cathy, who did a marvelous job of documenting the fair. I was too busy stuffing deep fried apple fritters in my mouth to take pictures!

(*2) Unless humongous paper platters of ketchup soaked greasy french fries count as "vegetables".

(*3) Who thinks these rides up? Not one of us appreciated the allures of rocketing upside down in a metal cage- it all looked like barf-inducing torture to us! (Especially after piles of greasy french fries and chocolate covered bacon. (an actual offering...))