This is the season of local and County agricultural shows. The poor weather we have had has made it a very tough year for island cattle farmers in the far north of Scotland, in particular. They have been extraordinarily affected. Some are facing ruin.   Animals were unable to graze in fields that became quagmires; stocks of hay, which are used for winter feed and if necessary, to supplement pasture feeding, were used up.  The stock was sent off for early sale at large losses. Sheep farming fared better. I have not heard whether the island shows will take place this year.

The mainland shows are in full swing, even though different showing sites have had to be organised at short notice. For one local show, for example, the W.I,  Industrial, and flower show tents were to be found in school yards.  A few large barns were commandeered for livestock.  The usual show ground fields are sodden and  were deemed unsuitable.  My neighbours sent some of their sheep to the show.

Preparing animals for any show involves a careful beauty therapy grooming process. Preparation spans  about a week. The neighbours' barn becomes a beauty parlour for the duration with the farmhands being  beauty therapists. It is obvious that a number of sheep really like it, as once finished, they queue just outside the door, keeping an eye on the 'client' currently being done; then, when that one trots out, they  leap back in hoping for another session!

At the local show last weekend, the neighbours got an 'Overall Champion' award with a gimmer. That's a young ewe between its first and second year shearing, not yet put to lamb. The Supreme Champion Of The Show award went to a cockerel.

Did I mis-hear?  I waved my elbows up and down in an attempted imitation of a flapping bird, " You mean one of those?" Flapping elbows continuing. There was vigorous nodding followed by an  emphatic "Yes". 


'I thought they had their own exclusive showing arrangements'..... "You'd think so.... about three years ago.......the Supreme Champion Of The Show was a duck".
 

The County Show is next....

MAKING ME DEMENTED ...AND IT'S ONLY FEBRUARY!

What has made me demented so far in 2013... and, it's only the 8th February:

It has taken two and a half weeks to sort out the issues with the email service.  Fingers crossed it keeps working.

An online application for a bank account - it would have been easier to apply by post.  One last letter sent to give the bank a chance to redeem themselves, (or else) yielded appropriate and satisfactory results. 

I discovered a) we have an opthalmic clinic in the county; b) the regional hospital 120 miles away, receives all medical requests and manipulates appointments to by-pass our local unit. That is what happpend to me. There is a maximum waiting time limit of twelve weeks from the time of received referral, to actually seeing a patient; if not achieved, the hospital trust is fined. A refused appointment is recorded. The refusal means you wait longer for initial triage.  I could have been saved masses of inconvenience and extra costs with a local appointment.

Government departments are known for their designed-in incompetence.  Guess what, we've just been given a foretaste of it.  This will be another path of nonsensical obstacles to overcome.   

To save energy...mine, on the Arctic cold day of the week, for our main meal, I made a salad.

WHAT A RAG BAG

We were informed on the front page of the midweek local paper that the expected national budget cuts would undoubtedly affect local cultural organisations. This was juxtaposed next to a day of lectures last weekend in celebration of Darwin. As we don't have oodles of funding for our local cultural life, we're not hearing anything new. The local community will still pull the occasional bunny out of the hat, it always has.

I valiantly continued to digest the highlights of our twice weekly local rag, (it was a newspaper once upon a time). Thinking about the level of the subjects covered on the inner pages,you'd have thought we lived in the Wild West..... junior version.

Reading on, there was a feature on the failure of a chiller system in one of the grocery stores, leading to there being some empty shelves.

FORECASTING GLORIOUS PRECISION

It said it would rain here, probably a shower, at 10am. today. What an interestingly precise weather forecast for us.

IT DID

By 10.10am the rain stopped and it has been dry for the rest of the day, again, just as the weather forecast said it would.