The Stanthorpe Show....part two.

The last Blog featured the kids and sideshow alley at our annual show.
This Blog will concentrate on the activities occurring in the grounds of the Showground.

And the photo below, for me, captures the essence of country shows. 
A yarn. with a foot on a fence rail, to another farmer, with arms spread on the top rail, and mum and daughter, and another female, having their own conversation.....with a can of Coke sneaking its way into, what would otherwise be, a typical rural scene.

Stud Cattle:

This year young people, between 11 and 16, were encouraged to participate, with the long-term aim being to interest the young in futures on the land. These youngsters were the stud cattle handlers.

They showed, or exhibited, the cattle to the judges of the Stud Cattle Committee.
The judges allocate marks for presentation, performance, behaviour and preparation of their cattle.

Obviously the animals are much bigger and heavier than their handlers, but the youngsters carried it off with aplomb. I doubt if I would be as calm and collected as they appeared to be.

Cattle in their stalls, patiently waiting for their turn to be "shown"

And look at the size of the white bull.....he is HUGE! Fancy being its handler???

"Well, its head is up, but how do I get him to walk to the other end of the paddock?"

Each handler carries a long rod which is used to encourage the beast to hold its head up high. This is a criterion which is judged.

Lining the cattle up ready for the judging. Heads are up.

"You've also got to keep them calm, which depending on which animal you've got, can be easy or difficult.    And you don't want them moving too much because then the judges can't see them properly" said one young handler. 

I can't tell you what breeds those cattle in the photos are, but they are all very healthy looking specimens, don't you think?

Horses in the Ring.

I don't know much about horses either,  but the three classes at this show were hacks (over 15 hands); galloways (between 14 and 15 hands) and ponies (14 hands and under)

All riders were expected to wear correct dress i.e. jodhpurs, shirt ,tie and riding boots.  Helmets were mandatory.

Putting the horses through their paces before the actual competition begins.

And here is a competitor in the jumps.....it looks so graceful.

The horses must be cleaned before competing.

The Sheep.

Sheep, and their products, were judged in at least three categories.
There was a Prime Lambs class; a Coloured Sheep class, and then fleece/wool was judged.


PRIME LAMBS:

facing the judges must've been hard work because all these sheep look plumb tuckered out!

COLOURED SHEEP:


These were judged in sub-classes.....best coloured ram, best coloured ewe, and best coloured wether. (a castrated ram)

I have no knowledge of sheep either, so the photos are just of "coloured sheep", of unknown sub-category.
 

Well, one is obviously chocolate-brown, and the other may be....what?.... silver??

A second chocolate-brown sheep, with thick fleece...and an empty water/food container! No wonder it is looking bored!

This sheep, in the Coloured Sheep section, looks as if it wants to be like a Dalmatian.

FLEECE:

There were a lot of fleece on display, and the odour of greasy wool, and lanolin, was pervasive.
Fleece could be ultrafine OR superfine OR fine.  (A fine line of distinction here????)
Fleece could be from Merino ewes, or Merino wethers, or Merino rams.
There were many sub-categories.

A small section of the fleece display. Some of the prize winners are seen.

Here are some of the criteria used in judging fleece.

Criteria for judging.

Chainsaw Competition.

I am sorry to say that I missed the Wood chop  events, but I did see some of the chainsaw competition, which was held at the same arena.

The logs are cut, longitudinally, along specific lines. Then the log is levered into its constituent parts.

There were post rips where great logs were sectioned by the chainsaws, and then prised apart into their final pieces, using levers. In the photo above you can see some of the separated parts of the logs, after chainsawing.  The logs are very hard, and are iron bark. (the name says it all doesn't it?)

Judging in progress.

The "guarders" of the logs! Seen at the side of the wood chop arena.

I also saw the Disc Stack competition, where the competitors cut pieces of trees into discs. I gather that the results depended on speed, i.e. how many disc were cut within a certain time, AND accuracy.....because the discs were evaluated on their appearance.

Setting up the timber cylinders for the Disk Stack.

And to finish, a few photos of  interesting rural objects around the grounds.

i) Rural parking.

Was the driver illiterate? Probably not....just totally independent, with a "stuff you" attitude!

ii)  Fancy poultry cage/s

A one-up-manship chook house?? Your chooks can be better housed than those of your neighbours.

 How about this chook house? Two stories. Own entrance. Probably has its own en suite!



iii) Water tanks are essential on many farms.

The tanks are not removed from the trucks, but displayed as they are.

 Because practically all rural properties are isolated, they have no reticulated water, and have to rely solely on stored rain water.  Here are 4 tanks to think about.....2 large plastic-based tanks on the truck's tray, and 2 smaller ones, including a stainless steel model, on the trailer at the rear.


And that's all for this part of the Show. In my next Blog, we will visit the pavilion, which was full of many arts and crafts and hobbies.


And one more photo to finish off.......country shows.....horses, cattle, sheep, farmers in broad-brimmed hats, woodchop events. Love these days!

Farewell, Stanthorpe Show.

Our local annual Show....The Stanthorpe Show.

Every year, at the end of January or early in February, depending on the calendar, our local Show occurs.
This is a cause of much excitement in the central large town, Stanthorpe, and its surrounding villages and farms.
Like most country shows, it only lasts two days, but there is plenty to keep people entertained and occupied.

This Blog will focus on the show section beloved of all small children....Sideshow Alley.
Certainly it is nowhere near as large as those of the city shows, and definitely not as crowded, but the participants derive a lot of enjoyment from being there.

I doubt if Sideshow Alley gets much busier than this.

There are always the Clowns:

The Laughing Clowns.....every child wins a prize!

And Fairy Floss...although this prepacked variety looks decidedly less tempting than seeing it twirling in a huge vat, and scooped out while you wait, to be eaten so fresh. This show is apparently not big enough to warrant that degree of sophistication!

Just look at the range of colours! Mauve fairy floss anyone????

The Ghost House was not doing a good business at all.

Where are the intrepid show-goers??

The merry-go-round, aimed at the very little ones, was popular.

Do you remember being this young, and riding on such as this?

As was the merry-go-round based on teacups and saucers. Influenced by Alice in Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party?? I wonder. 

Tea for two, or more!

But the trapeze-cum-trampoline was a favourite, with children queueing up to "have a turn".

There are 4 kids on this trampoline...each one bouncing as high as possible.

Similarly, riding inside these large plastic bubbles, floating in a pool of knee-deep water, attracted a lot of kids. Each bubble had a large black zip, which opened the ball so that the child could climb in. Zip it up again. No water can enter. Then the kids had fun rolling it around on the water.

A child running endlessly in here is a little like a hamster in a wheel don't you think?

This zip appears to be opening. HELP!

And of course you can't omit the dodgem cars. Nearly all kids, and quite a few adults, love the crashes and bumps of these sideshow attractions.

Spin that wheel, and try and crash your neighbour!

After sampling the delights of Sideshow Alley, and its associated rides, most kids would have been satisfied with their trip to the Show.

Last day in Langzhou.

After the excitement of the Lanzhou Night Market, we had a day to explore this city before heading home to Shanghai.

We visited a Taoist temple, which like many other temples we visited in China, was a quiet oasis in the midst of the busy, noisy city.

The temples are laid out in a similar fashion.  There are various open "rooms" around the perimeter of the large space, and each room houses a statue, representing a Tao deity, but without local knowledge, I was not sure what this one represented.

People in the rooms  burn incense sticks, or pray, or meditate.

We always moved carefully around the temples, because you have to respect the locals who are visiting.

Red prayer flags, in their hundreds, add bright splashes of colour.
A major part of the Tao philosophy is that of the Yin and the Yang....opposing forces.
If you look carefully, you can see the Yin-Yang symbol on some of these flags.

The Yellow River flows through the city, and no, it is not "yellow". As you can see from the photos, it is like many rivers the world over, brown!

The brown "Yellow River"

You can cross the river is a chair lift, and ride to the top of a....what?.... not quite a mountain, but more than a hill...on the opposite side of the river.

As you ride the chair lift, this view of typical Chinese architecture is there to enjoy.

Another past time, enjoyed by the Chinese tourists, is to ride the Yellow River in jet boats, or as shown here, float along quietly on a raft. The raft is held afloat by inflated pig skins.! Look carefully, and you can see, pointing skywards, the legs of the ex-pigs!

A Tourist Treat...a ride on a raft afloat with inflated pigs' skins!

The city has very modern (i.e. "western") aspects as well, such as this large open square.

Such a square as this seems more Western to me.

We wandered the streets, to find a noodle shop for lunch. The object of our search was recommended to us by a taxi driver. What could be better, we thought.

Walking the streets searching for a particular noodle shop.

And of course, large American companies have invaded almost every country on earth!

We found the noodle shop where we had lunch.

It was in a side street, and had, according to a plaque attached to its wall, won an award for "best noodle shop" in the recent past.
We ordered.

Noodles with selected side dishes.

And enjoyed.....

Delicious fare!

Our noodle lunch was certainly very tasty.

And so farewell to Lanzhou, and back to the east, and Shanghai.

Lanzhou...Central China. The Night Market.

We had another overnight train trip, this time from Turpan to Lanzhou.

Our 4 berth soft sleeper..beautifully clean.

 
Lanzhou is a large industrial city, and capital of Gansu Province.
For centuries it was a link between the rest of China and the Silk Road to the west.
The Yellow River flows through Lanzhou.
Although there is still a sizable Uighur population here, there is also a large Chinese population.

We were anxious to find, and go to, the Night Markets.
After typical Chinese-style taxi rides (i.e. hair raising!) we were at the famed Night Markets.

The brightly lit sign for the Night Markets.  Lanzhou.

You can see that it is a very busy site.

The variety of fresh food on offer was amazing, with some delicacies displayed that we had not noticed in any previous markets in other parts of China.
Do you fancy any of these?

Sheep's heads, anyone?

Or rather you may choose pigs' snouts?

..or pigs' trotters.

We did not opt for any of the above.
Instead we chose a spiced fish, cooked while we watched.
It was very tasty.

Here is the spiced fish, ready to eat.

And here it is being cooked.

And here are others, at "our" table, also enjoying their spicy fish.

There were also kebabs of fresh vegetables, if none of the meat was tempting.

Or maybe fresh fruit would be your option?

The Chinese are always interested in Westerners, especially Western children.
And as soon as we had entered the Night Market, our granddaughters were the focus of a lot of attention!

These local Chinese, at the Night Markets,  were all smiles while talking to our granddaughters.

That is all for the Night Market of Lanzhou. It was a visual and taste-centred experience.