This weekend we had planned to take the girls to the Show, but the weather forecast was for wind and showers increasing. Both girls have had colds – throaty coughs, endlessly running noses – for a week. And it was 2.30pm on Sunday, we still hadn’t made it and Lara was still asleep having gone down for her midday nap more than an hour and a half before.
Should we go to local café instead and drink warm cappuccinos and baby chinos while listening to the comforting sound of the rain falling rhythmically outside, or ring some friends inviting them for an impromptu tea and muffins while their (older) kids entertained ours? Tempting though these options would be (and in fact I tried the friends with no success), we decided to go to the Show. We packed some late lunch for Lara and joined her in the car where she slept. It was hardly raining ten minutes later when we arrived, without pram which we had forgotten to pack, Lara now awake.
The mud was thick and multicoloured in the car park and the rain intensified soon after we left the car, but protected by our raincoats and umbrellas, we soon made our way past the tents of cows and horses and the arena where a meagre crowd braved the weather to watch a dressage competition, and found what we were looking for: the Animal Farmyard. There were farm animals, dogs and cats in small enclosures, with bales of hay for the children to climb up on. Lara and Rhea were intrigued and climbed up to see the enormous pig with her lively little piglets, the geese, then the ponies. The pig was a similar age to the girls and was feeding half a dozen piglets already (not her first litter apparently). The girls jumped on and off the hay bales, eventually being persuaded to pat a horse’s nose then quite comfortably bounced their hands up and down on a guinea pig or two. They put their delicate faces up to the cages of the tiny chicks that were for sale, two for $16, and asked what animals those were over there, and there. Luckily for the signs, we could tell them.
Like last year we visited the animal produce shed, regretting all those delicious cakes and breads that were not to be eaten and had started to decay. Animal scenes made out of vegetables, a wedding cake decorated with ibis in tones of navy, white, gold and pink and many cakes made and decorated by children, enchanting in their imperfect naivety. The girls had organic chocolate milkshakes which they drained with intent, and then we left, via an informative sheep-shearing show, back through the mud, tents and thinning crowds, Rhea and Lara carried all the way this time.
Steve took the sides of the girls’ cots down today so they are sleeping in real beds tonight – another milestone. They were excited about that and tired after the stimulations of the afternoon. We enjoyed it too. We’ll have to go earlier and stay longer next year.
*Breeder’s terms for female cats, donkeys and ferrets.
