Sunday, July 31, 2011

Fried Dough, Funnel Cakes, Elephant Ears.......oh my!


You guessed it, it's county fair time! I was roped into demo-ing in the home living pavillion and as I do most of my sewing by machine I decided that hand binding a quilt was probably an easy option for demonstration. Truth be known, I had no idea what parking was available and I didn't fancy lugging my machine and totes for miles on a mid summer afternoon. My friend Bonnie was demonstrating fusable applique and we travelled down the hill together. So we arrived early and went out to see the sites. It was a heck of a lot noisier than fairs (exhibitions or shows) in Australia. Ahhh the tractor pulling events......note to self, take ear plugs next time! They were very popular though - oddly, crowds of onlookers jockeying for the best viewing postions! What could that smell be? Fried dough stands on every corner, this must be good stuff. What harm in trying one just this once? We hummed and hahed then decided to split one. As if being fried wasn't enough, the server then brushed this plate sized monstrocity with melted butter!!!! We then had a choice of sprinklings of cinnamon sugar, brown sugar or powdered sugar and we opted for the powdered sugar. ughhhh I was less than impressed! This left a thin layer of grease in every nook and cranny of my mouth..lemonade made it worse! Coffee or hot tea was needed but neither could be found. Bonnie seemed to enjoy hers. Maybe it's similar to how vegemite is to us?



We walked through side show alley and I did get a kick out of the smiling faces of excited children and the travel weary faces of the carnival workers. Are they the modern day gypsy? I think they may be.





My absolute favourite thing was the draught horses without a doubt. These big beauties make my horses look like ponies. How gentle they were. And the big red horses with the blonde manes were Belgian's and they are used in the woods for logging. These boys had the names of Bob, John, Jack and Charlie and as you can see from the photo, they JUST fit into a stall! I petted each and every one of them too and I did sneak a couple of schnoz kisses too! :)

We were tired by now and it was time to start our demo's so we headed to the pavillion to set up. Bonnie was pleasantly surprised to find that she had won a best of show with one of her quilts and 3 first places and a second. Well done Bonnie.



We settle in at our table for the next three hours and worked on our projects as people came by and chatted and visited. I quite enjoyed that and I think I will sign up again next year! Minus the fried dough, maybe I will try an elephant ear instead! haaaa...

2 comments:

Miss Hillbilly said...

I miss our hometown and the fair. But it was nothing as extravagant as yours. Thank you for stopping by my blog. I shall stick around yours so that we can get to know each other!!

ps...I would have liked the draft horses too!

LuAnn said...

When I saw fried dough I had to click and read. It is almost state fair time here. Last time I went to the fair they had deep fried Twinkies. I wasn't impressed. This year's theme is soybeans and the signature food is fried iced cream in soybean oil and topping it with carmel. I might just skip that one. I enjoyed reading about your day at the fair.