The Harrowbarrow and Metherell Annual Show & Garden Party

Yesterday was there was a sort of 'mini-fair' at the village hall. This is an annual fund-raiser for programming at the hall and our landlord, Steve, is the organizer of the event. Like a county or state fair in the US, there were all sorts of competitions in a wide-variety of classifications: outdoor flowers, flower arrangements, cookery, potplants (hilarious!), vegetables and fruit, handicraft, art and photography. There were also a range of children's categories and Harrowbarrow School made sure that they children all entered a piece for the show. In all, there were 95 categories in which to compete.

The girls participated in the Infants (aged 5 -7 years) and Juniors (aged 8 - 11 years) A4 painting category (A4 is the standard paper size here - approximately the same size and 8.5 x 11 paper) with the theme Cornwall Our Home. I entered photos in the Nature and Skyscape categories. We went down early yesterday morning to enter into the competition. At 10 am, everyone had to vacate for the judging and were allowed to return at 2:30 pm to find out the results. Rebecca's painting earned her a second place finish!

The judge wrote "The sun and the sea - such vibrant colours. This picture made me think of Cornwall!" We found it to be amusing that the blue ribbon is for second over here rather than first. I didn't realize it when we first got there. We were standing next to the Infants Animal made from fruit/vegetables table when I noticed that Gwendolyn's friend, Niamh, had a blue ribbon next to her lovely potato giraffe. I commented on how great it was that she had won a blue ribbon, and her mother, Bev, said that she had really wanted a red ribbon. I thought that this was strange until I looked closer and noticed that it was for second, not first, place.

There was a bit of controversy in the Infants A4 painting category. The Reception students from Harrowbarrow School all did proper paintings. The Year 1 and 2 students, however, did paintings but also included paper cutouts and other materials in their pictures. The judge took exception to this and commented that they had done lovely collages, but they were not proper paintings. She disqualified the whole lot! We think that Gwendolyn did a lovely job with the Cornwall Our Home theme. She made a picture of the Cheesewring, which is west of here in Bodmin Moor. Roland noticed it right away that it was a tor, or rock outcrop. She included an ice cream truck because Cornwall is famous for its dairy products, including ice cream. Here is her lovely painting.

We decided after walking around and looking at the judges comments that you have to have thick skin to enter the competitions, especially those involved in baking. The comments about the scones were typical: "Seems like such a simple thing to make, but they're not!"

We had a fun time. Rebecca ended up winning a flower potplant in the raffle and I bought a loaf of bread in the auction. We even were able to have a cream tea at the garden party. Here we are in our garden with all of our village show goodies.