Our Day at the Fair 2010

 

  

Thursday, October 7th was our day for the fair. We’ve been going every year since we moved here back in 1981. Although it doesn’t change all that much except perhaps to get more expensive it’s still something we enjoy.

 

I love the flower barn. It’s such a peaceful place and inspires me to work in the yard. Maybe it would be more effective in the spring versus the fall.

  

One of the barns had a display of various fair memorabilia through the years. The sand sculpture is an annual event. I keep thinking one of these years I’ll put together all the photos we’ve taken of them, maybe next year.

             

The pumpkin barn houses various prize winning vegetables, fruits, pumpkin art and of course the great pumpkin which would give Charlie Brown nightmares. I didn’t realize Cortland apples, which are our favorite, had their roots in NY.

    

For me, the fair is all about the horses. Every year the Hallamore team comes to the fair. Their gentle beauty always puts me in awe. This year was a special treat in that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were there. We, me especially, enjoyed their performance. Here is a link to some fair videos online.    Fair Snippets 

         

Topsfield Fair Parade 2010

The Topsfield Fair is the oldest county fair in the country. Every year they have a parade that marches down main street and ends at the fair grounds. Below is a sampling of some of the pictures I took. The house on the right above is what we stood across from.  The kids pediatrician used to be in there. When he retired we moved across the street with another doctor. The funny thing is a few years ago that practice moved back into the old house, so like the salmon, we’ve come back full circle.

Every parade starts with a police escort, lots of fire truck and tractors.

The fair this year is special because the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are back. They come every other year and this year’s fair is the only venue they are attending in the United States. I love the horses and we’ve planned our fair visit to make sure we’ll be able to see them perform. Thursday will be fair day for us.

 

Our high school is above right. They do fine but marching isn’t their forte. The Danvers High School Marching band is below. They are huge, precise and have marched in the Thanksgiving Day parades in NYC. They really are a pleasure to watch and listen to.

We found the therapy bunny float interesting. I suppose the fact that our rabbit has the potential to be cranky and bite lets him off the hook for any kind of therapeutic benefit.

I hope you all enjoyed my take on the parade. Click on the photos for a larger look see.

Letting in the Light

The photo on the left above and below is the before and the right is the after. Our town is heavily wooded and in an attempt to prevent power outages National Grid went around town marking trees that they deemed a problem. The tree in the top photo was on our property so we had to give permission for it to be removed. It had an injury and was vulnerable so we agreed. Yesterday was the day. The tree in the photos below is on the street side so they didn’t need our permission. There is a hole in the sky now and more light will be coming in so the other trees should benefit. The interesting thing was Mark was home on Monday when they were nearby. The outfit that did the tree removal came from Syracuse. Apparently it must have been cost effective for National Grid to pay them and put them up versus having local people do it. Mark made friends with one of the guys as he was an ATV enthusiastic and came to look at his equipment. Click on the photos for a larger view.

 

They had a beautiful day to work and I took a ton of pictures. I think you all get the idea.

This morning they came by with their equipment and in no time had all the wood picked up and loaded.

 

Backyard Wild Life

 

Last week seemed to be a banner wildlife week at our house. There’s always evidence of deer activity usually in the form of droppings or plants that have been eaten. We live near a major highway and I’ve noticed an increase in the  hawk population as I’m driving. This guy happen to land nearby and I was lucky enough to get a photo. We have tons of chipmunks in the yard so there was plenty for him to eat.

 

 

 

A few days later I glanced out the window and snapped some photos of this visitor. I think it’s a woodchuck but let me know if you think it’s something else. We’ve also had coyotes, foxes, and fishers but I’ve never been quick enough to get them.

 

Fall is starting to get into swing. My mums come back every year and they’re starting to bloom. Hopefully I’ll get some time to enjoy them before the frost does them in.

In case  you haven’t figured it out I don’t have a lot to blog about these days. Our lives consist of working and being home so it isn’t very interesting. This weekend starts the Topsfield Fair. We’re planning on going to the parade Saturday. I’m thrilled that it falls on my Saturday off. We will attend probably next week. It runs for 10 days so stay tuned.

The Goodhue’s Band

This is a link to one of the tunes Derek played at the Apple Festival. Please excuse the inept filming on this one. The band is the Goodhue’s Band. He’s been playing with them for a number of years. They play various venues around the area. The man on autoharp is Kim Goodhue, he’s  a retired attorney. His oldest son is on the right, Geoff. Unfortunately this photo cuts off his youngest son, Ryan, who is on keyboards. Ryan is a year older than Derek. They met in high school in the percussion section of the concert band. Ryan is in his senior year at Northeastern University in Boston for Music Business. The older man on the far right is a substitute base guitarist. He has his own band, The Land of Misfit Toys, which Derek is the drummer for.

Apple Festival 2010

The link below is another sample of their work. The tune is called Turn the Page Again. It was performed over the summer at a gig in a New Hampshire bar. Ryan, who was cut off of this photo plays the bongo drums in this performance. The base player, I believe, is their regular.

Goodhues Band

Yard Sale and Apple Festival

We’ve been talking about having a yard sale for a long time and finally did it. I am a fan of the TV show Hoarders and the new season has really motivated me. These photos are a sampling of what we started with. Greg placed an ad on Craig’s list for the big ticket items and we opened the garage at 8 a.m. We had 2 old desktops, 3 monitors, an Acer net book and my old Dell Inspiron. Anything laptop goes fast. The Acer was first out the door followed by the Inspiron laptop. One of the desktops went and Em’s bike (which was almost brand new). At the end of the day we were over $400 richer and a lot of stuff lighter.

I was watching the Nate Berkus show last week and he talked about www.gazelle.com which will buy or recycle old electronics. I have packed and ready to go a monitor, an old pda and the remaining desktop. Granted I’ll only make $29 but they will be gone and I won’t have to pay anything to make that happen. On Sunday we put a box by the end of the driveway labeled free with other things from the yard sale including a barely working old dehumidifier and most of them got scooped up including the dehumidifier. I’m a happy camper.

One of our motivators for choosing yesterday was it was the day of the annual Apple Festival in the center of town so we were able to capitalize on the traffic. The main drag is closed and there is a craft fair, food,entertainment for the kids and bands perform throughout the day. The yellow house is the Holyoke-French house on the corner. It’s a historical house. The first band was the Goodhue’s Band. Its one Derek plays in. I videoed one of their tunes and will post a link to it later.

  

All-in-all it was a fun and productive day.