County Fair

August has literally raced by.  At the beginning of the month, I had visitors and days were busy with rushing about visiting tourist areas and other destinations.  I also had to surmount my last hurdle before officially being offered a position that will allow me to continue living in my apartment in Switzerland.  Then, once my visitors had departed and with the original schedule having been disrupted by my last-minute change to plans, I caught a plane for MD and have been spending time with family and friends here.  "Little things" like an earthquake that happens once every century and what could have been the most disastrous US hurricane ever, given the scope and population that could have been affected, have also occurred this month.  Thank heavens that neither of those last events was as bad as it could have been!

Earlier in the month, however, HWMBO and I decided to take advantage of a break in the usual hot and humid August weather to attend the local county fair.  We arrived early and thus were able to browse about without being much affected by crowds, our favorite time.  Here, HWMBO enjoys looking at an ancient Ford.  He remembers his father driving one like it.

Obviously, agriculture - still an important part of Maryland's economy - was featured at the fair.

We visited halls full of steers, some prize-winning, others not.  All were beautifully cared for.  Unfortunately for them, all were also destined to become features on beef menus throughout the county.

Even this handsome guy ....

Fate was kinder to dairy cattle ... so long as they were heifers.

We also enjoyed watching the sheep judging

while other sheep await their turns in pens.

This one looks like a Shar-pei!  It has more wrinkles than I do - well, perhaps not.

The pigmy goats were cute.

Prince Tyger would have LOVED to visit this exhibit.  HWMBO is convinced that he'll be an engineer with his love of anything mechanical.

We also went over to watch the quarter horse competition, bemused somewhat by the fence-borne water hoses that are used to wet down the dusty surface of the ring.

This rider was waiting casually outside the ring.  She and her horse were eventually among the prizewinners.

Once the riders were allowed inside the ring, they trotted their horses around as requested

and then lined up for the decisions of the judges.

From the horse show ring, we browsed through more exhibit halls, seeing veggies galore

as well as exhibits from the various 4-H Clubs in the area.

There were eating options available and

 none were crowded this early on a weekday.   The amusement park hadn't even opened yet.

When I was growing up in Montana, county and state fairs were always the highlights of my summer.  The sights, noises and smells bring back a wealth of memories.  For a couple years, Artist Sis and I actually belonged to a 4-H Club ourselves, although being "townies," our projects had to involve sewing or cooking instead of raising an animal as our country cousins did.

In some ways that was better, because we never had to say goodbye to our aprons and scarves (our usual sewing projects) or to think of them as someone else's dinner!