Fall Stuff

I've been a lazy blogger for the past month, somehow I lost the blogging-get-up-and-go, but here goes with what's been happening around the Rook's Nest.

Fall has been happening. This display of colour just outside the Community Centre windows.

And a Great Blue Heron is checking out the fishing rights at the local reservoir.

End of September always means a visit to Markham Fair to see the prize potatoes and cabbages and livestock displays. And the overgrown giant pumpkins. Check out these veggies.... all from a friend's garden.

Saturday night at Markham Fair is the Demolition Derby, lots of steam and smoke and noise and hot metal crunches. I sat up in the grandstand with Older Son and Oldest grandson. We munched fairground food.... blooming onion (very greasy but delicious) and polished off a couple of bags of those Tiny Tim Donuts. 

And now... the big excitement. The only Major League Baseball team in Canada.... the Toronto Blue Jays..... are battling with the Seattle Mariners for the Championship title, and the right to challenge the mighty Dodgers in the World Series. It's a best of 7 games. Blue Jays lost 2 games, then won 2, then lost1, then won 1, so tonight is Game 7.... which is a must-win for both teams.

Older Son managed to get tickets for Game 2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Even though the team lost, it was a very exciting time to be in the middle of a noisy super-loud crazy crowd of almost 45,000 rabid Jays fans. Younger Son was watching on his TV and saw us in the crowd.... see the red circle!

Let's Go Blue Jays!

Update: The Jays are off to the World Series!

Markham Fair - Goats

 

Goat competitions are a very serious business at the Fair.

Markham Fair - Moooo

 

Beef on the hoof. I think they are Charolais.

Markham Fair - Sheep Shearing

 This is my friend James. He grew up in Australia on a sheep farm with thousands of sheep, I can't remember how many thousands... definitely a lot.  He started shearing sheep at the age of 12.

This girl was only one year old and had never been sheared before, so she was complaining loudly for some of her sisters to come to her aid.  But she was in safe hands with James.

The fleece is almost completely removed. The wool grows constantly so each sheep must be sheared once a year.

Markham Fair - Toronto Banjo Band

 

Are you ready for the Toronto Banjo Band?  You can sing along to "The Sunny Side of the Street" and "Pennies from Heaven". All the good old golden oldies. 

Feathers

Some good looking winners at the poultry show at the Fair!
When I was a child, my dad always kept chickens for eggs, and later for meat, when they stopped laying.  We got a delivery of two dozen baby chicks from the hatchery every spring, and it was my job to feed and water them for the first few days.  When they were big enough, they went outside to the henhouse and the enclosed chicken run, to keep them safe.   I don't think we ever lost any to the local fox.

The Musical Ride

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride were at our local Fall Fair at the beginning of October. They performed in a much smaller area than they are used to and had to cut some pretty sharp corners with their horses when executing some of the more complicated maneuvers.

I spoke to one of the riders while we both waited for lunch to be ready at the hamburger stand. She said she had been a rider for 3 years, and had almost finished her time with the Musical Ride and was going on to other duties in December.  I was surprised to learn that many of the riders had no knowledge of horses in their previous civilian lives, and when they apply to be part of the Ride they go through a year of training, and then are able to complete all the complicated patterns. I enjoyed watching the Ride so much, I watched it twice!

What a Whopper!

One of the most hotly contested rivalries at Markham Fair is the 'biggest pumpkin' competition. This year the heaviest pumpkin was won with a giant weighing 193 pounds. That's it on the left in the photo, the green one with the blue ribbon
The heaviest squash, the huge yellowish white one with the red First Prize ribbon, weighed in at a whopping 637 pounds. That's 289 kg for those who prefer metric.

The grower, Carl Niemeyer, said he bought the pumpkin seeds on line from the provincial winner of the largest pumpkin in Manitoba. 
Growing the pumpkin was easy, but transporting it to the Fair presented a challenge. Twelve people lifted it onto a skid before loading it onto his pickup truck for delivery to the Fair.
The secret to growing a giant pumpkin? He put lots of chicken manure down in the spring, and as the vine grew, he pruned off all the smaller pumpkins so the granddaddy of them all could receive all the nutrition.
If you're interested, the giant pumpkin is for sale at a local farmer's market for $200.00.... that's Canadian dollars of course.  Pumpkin pie, anyone?

Lots more giant vegetables on show too. These are Savoy cabbage. My favourite. I wish I had taken a pic of the largest potato weighing over 3 pounds. You could make a lot of french fries with that!

I'm not doing very well with my resolution to blog every day in October, and we're only 6 days into the month. Oooops.

Garden Goodies

It's harvest season, and the gardens are starting to produce gorgeous veggies. There's always fierce competition between the local gardeners and farmers for the biggest, the best, the craziest, the most colourful, when it comes to vegetables and farm produce shown at the Fair.

 I love the colours and shapes of all these varieties of squash and pumpkin.

This is known as Indian Corn, but also named Flint Corn as the kernels are very hard. Often used as a decoration in the autumn. And I think it can be used as popcorn too.

October Resolution

I haven't been a very diligent blogger recently. I seem to have lost my blogging inspiration, and sadly, I find that quite a few of the usual bloggers that I like to read are missing too. So as it's a nice new month, I'm going to try to blog something every day, or perhaps it might be every other day if I run out of brain power, which is quite likely.
"Oh Yeah???? I'll believe it when I see it!"  I can hear you saying. Well, I may not succeed, but I'm going to try.
Yesterday's pictures featured the beautiful chickens at Markham Fair.
Today I'm showing you some of the prizewinning baking at the Fair. Scrumptious!

When OlderSon was little, he always entered an exhibit in the category "Chocolate Cake, Boys Only" and actually won the first prize red ribbon a couple of times. I don't think he makes chocolate cake any more now, but he is really accomplished at pumpkin pie!

Feathers

It's Fall Fair time here in Southern Ontario, and I always have to go to nearby Markham Fair. It's a tradition with me, even if the rest of the family don't go with me. The Fair is much the same every year, but I still have to go and see if anything is new.
One of my favourite buildings is the poultry and rabbit building, where I can admire these gorgeous creatures.

Yes, I like the chickens a lot. Lovely colours and shapes and textures and very noisy! My Dad kept chickens when I was a child, and I was put in charge of the new baby chicks that arrived in a big box every spring..... like these.

The chicks soon grew up, and gave us fresh eggs every day, and then when their egg laying days were done, they became Sunday dinner.

Random Stuff

Some random photos from the past couple of weeks.

I love the smell of freshly baked bread, wish I could include it in this blog post. I let the bread machine do all the mixing then I bake the dough in the oven. This bread has a mixture of white and wholewheat flour, oats, chia seeds, flax, bran, and pumpkin seeds. My grandson said it was "so soft that a baby could eat it".

I gatecrashed a wedding last week.... yes, I said gatecrashed. YoungerSon's best friend was tying the knot and YoungerSon and his Bride couldn't be at the ceremony, only at the after-party, so I showed up instead, along with the mum of the best man. It was at the historic Enoch Turner School House in downtown Toronto. Photo taken before most of the guests arrived.

The new Mr and Mrs signing the register. I cried of course. I always cry at weddings and everyone laughs at me. But I've been fond of this young man ever since the kids were all young, and he deserves to be happy.

Fireworks at Markham Fair at the end of September. The camera has a firework setting and I hadn't used it before. Not bad eh?

Finally, a visit to the cardiac doctor in Newmarket. This is the view from his office window looking west along Davis Drive, snapped while I was waiting for the doc to arrive. The brown traffic lanes along the centre are for buses only.

Markham Fair 4

Some of the handsome faces at Markham Fair. I should have made a note of the different breeds.

Who do you think you're staring at? 

"People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately."  — Oscar Wilde

“If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens.”  ― Grandma Moses

This one was "too chicken" to have her portrait taken so she fluffed up her feathers, turned her back, and gave me the evil chicken eye.

Markham Fair 3

There are not a lot of sheep reared here in Ontario.... you see mostly beef and diary cattle in the country fields. But Markham Fair always has prize sheep on show, and a sheep shearing demonstration. Lots of city people come to the fair, and many have never seen this taking place.

James is an experienced shearer, as he grew up on a sheep station in Australia where his father ran a herd of 2000 sheep.... you can tell he's Australian by his hat!

He can shear a sheep in 1 minute flat, even if the sheep is objecting strenuously, as this one was. 

 The fleece comes off in one piece, and the wool from this one sheep is enough to knit a sweater.
More Markham Fair pictures to come.... or scroll down to previous posts.

Markham Fair 2

Markham Fair guarantees something for everyone. On Thursday YoungerSon, The Bride and Isaac took in the Monster Truck races while I looked after the twins, and the family went again on Saturday to see the cows and horses and sheep. Lots of farm animals for the children to look at.

These piglets were a couple of weeks old. We tried not to think about pork chops or bacon'n'eggs as we walked by.

Wake me when it's dinner time.....

Everyone's favourite, the fluffy ducklings. I count 16! Or is it 17?

And not only farm animals some were a little more exotic.

The camel has a single hump;
The dromedary two;
Or else the other way around.
I'm never sure, are you?  -  Ogden Nash.



More pictures to come, or scroll down to previous post.

Markham Fair 1

If it's the first week of October, then it must be Markham Fair, and that means goodbye to summer and fall is definitely here. It was blustery with a mixture of clouds and sunshine, but regardless of the weather, everyone has fun at the Fair!

Squash soup, anyone? Quite a selection here to choose from.

Perhaps you would prefer mixed vegetable soup?

First prize for the heaviest potato, weighing in at 3.83 pounds, enough to feed the whole family.

Prize pumpkin weighing 213 pounds.

More pictures to come!