A few weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, we decided to set out for the Granchester Fair on our bikes. Granchester is a lovely little village - thatched cottages, an ancient church, 2 pubs and tea gardens. It's just south of Cambridge and you can easily walk or bike there across the fields, as long as you make way for the grazing cattle you are bound to meet in transit.
We arrived without mishap (although 20 some large brown cows in the path meant we had to walk our bikes part of the way) and had a great afternoon. Typical fair events included a Suffolk Punch horse show, sheep shearing, a working dog exhibition, a falconry demonstration, Punch and Judy, and a bunch of re-enactors dressed as knights.
The sheep shearing drew a big crowd of Brits. It was discouraging to hear the average shearer makes 1 pound ($1.60) for every sheep he shears. At his best, the guy doing the demo said he could shear 400 sheep a day, but this is after years of practice and the problem is that in the begining you can't shear many sheep a day, so fewer and fewer young people are learning this trade.
Colin and I were amazed at the falconry demonstration. The strength and beauty of these birds was incredible. Olivia and some other children got a close up view of an Eagle Owl as it flew silently over them.
Eliot wasn't sure what to make of fighting knights. He kept asking, "Is he dead? Is he dead now?" It was tricky to explain the complicated dynamics of re-enactment to him. Both of the kids sat down eagerly for the Punch and Judy show, but after 10 minutes of puppet violence they were done. We moved on. However, they now like to say to one another, "Ow, I bumped me nose again," over and over and over and this brings on gales of laughter, so obviously they thought it was a bit funny too.
Of course, the fair had over priced rides and junky, greasy food, but that wasn't unique to Britain, so we had to skip over it (okay, we did let them go down the inflatable slide and eat french fries, but don't tell).
