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July 8, 2009

A Day at the Fair

Today my friend Elaine and I went to the County Fair in Pleasanton. We had loads of fun looking at the animals and crafts and so forth.

For example, from highlights from the Fiber Arts and Food hall:

A first prize in cake decorating:

Cake decorating

A very vibrant quilt (the colours were a bit less saturated, but not much):

Quilt

I liked the pattern on this quilt:

Quilt

And this was a professional entry that was very impressive:

Lighthouse quilt

Several tables were set up with place settings on themes. Most of them seemed like exercises in creative shopping, but this one impressed me because it used crafted pieces (the china was hand-painted). Plus, I loved the theme:

Shel Silverstein place setting

Then we went to the Small Animals exhibits. There were lots of animals to coo over, like these parakeets:

Parakeets

And this pile of bunnies:

Rabbits

And these awesome pigeons:

Fancy pigeons

I admit that every now and then I think I would love to have a dovecote on the roof full of pigeons. I don't know what the neighbors would think.

They would probably look at me like this:

Irritated pigeon

I also occasionally think it might be fun to buy a few dozen quail and let them loose in the neighborhood. Probably not one of my finer ideas.

Quail

This is a bantam chicken. They're basically just small versions of the same big chickens, although some breeds are not available as bantams and some are not available in full sized chickens.

Fancy bantam chicken

These geese were making quite a ruckus. Hooooonk honk honk hoooooooonk. The long necks only make it funnier.

Honking geese

We went into the "pet store" and admired the piles of ducklings and chicks for sale. Look at all these ducklings:

Ducklings

And loooots of day-old weensy baby chicks. These are bantams, so they are extra-tiny little puffballs.

Chicks for sale

This frog was also pretty funny. A couple came around the other side of the tank looking for him, and burst into laughter when they saw him.

Frog in a tank

There was one exhibit hall entirely filled with cages of chickens and rabbits, some for sale and others just for show:

Rabbits and chickens

This sign brought to mind a certain over-quoted movie:

Biting bunnies

Most of the rabbits seemed pretty mellow, relaxing and just sort of hanging out in their cages. A few were anxious and clearly not happy with the noise of the show. This one was keeping an eye out.

Rabbit in the show cage

This one clearly subscribed to the theory that a good nap makes everybody feel better:

Socked out rabbit

Here are a couple of angora rabbits:

Angora rabbits

And of course, chickens. This is a bantam Seabright:

Seabright chicken

Looks like somebody laid an egg.

Bantam laid an egg

We admired the plumage on the bantams; many of the smaller breeds have quite lovely feather patterning.

Nice feather colouring

Elaine was quite fond of this configuration:

Harlequin colouring

I liked these guys, though they look somewhat diseased close up:

Gelled feathers

Then it was time for lunch...

Fried foods

I had deep fried ravioli (the St. Louis treat!)

Deep fried ravioli

Elaine had a pulled pork sandwich:

Pulled pork sandwich

And for dessert we split a funnel cake, ending up entirely covered in powdered sugar:

Funnel cake

Fair food is fun, though I admit it is more fun in concept than in execution. I really just love the look of the concession stands:

More food concessions

After lunch we made our way to the large livestock pavilion. Where we saw this interesting and informative (if somewhat weird) diagram:

Steer diagram

(Did that steer have the head of a frog?)

There were some steers to look at, but the exhibit was mostly smaller hoofed animals like goats:

Goat

And sheep:

Sheep

And lots and lots of pigs:

Sleeping pig

We briefly watched a steer show:

Steer show

Then headed off into the Amateur Garden exhibit hall. We learned how cows are awesome and help prevent fires:

Amateur gardens hall

And learned that you should eat carrots, raw eggs, and pellets, but should not eat carrot tops or broccoli.

What you can and can't eat

We admired the cut flowers entered in the show:

Flower judging

Saw a small urban gardening exhibit,

Urban gardening exhibit

And spent quite a bit of time ogling the beekeeping booth.

Beekeeping exhibit

Including a terrific observation hive setup:

Observation hive

I liked this ice cream stand, which reminded me of driving around with my sisters-in-law last month, looking for vanilla/chocolate twist soft serve in Minneapolis.

Ice cream stand

And boggled at this until i realized it did not say "Shiksa Shack":

Shiksa Shack?

Then we made a brief stop in the Small Animals exhibit again to make a purchase:

Bunny being purchased

Yup, Elaine bought herself a lovely gray female English Angora rabbit, and I've promised to teach her how to spin its fur (since I can't tolerate being around rabbits enough to do it for her).

We made one last stop for cotton candy on the way out, and then it was time to go home and get the new bunny settled.

Cotton candy to go

A great day for all concerned, except maybe the rabbit did not care for the car ride home.

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Posted by ayse on 07/08/09 at 10:14 PM

1 Comments

The rabbit was OK with the ride. On the drive back to Berkeley, I peeked in here and there and she was just a tea cosy. She definitely got her second wind after she met Ozzy. I guess she needed to know that it was likely she'd survive to adulthood.

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