Lunch in the Countryside

Sunday 11 September - We drove out into the wilds of Salisbury to meet up with our friends Emma and Dave who recently returned engaged from New Zealand. We had and interesting drive to the quaint little pub and once again got quite lost. However, there was lots of lovely rural scenery. We had a nice lunch and got caught up with Emma and Dave before taking a more direct route back to Brisol.

Frome for Cheese

Saturday 10 September - Despite the erratic weather we made the trip to Frome (getting quite lost in the environs of the city) to see the Cheese Show. This one day event is much more than cheese judging, there were equestrian trails, livestock judging, rides, food and vendors. We wandered around for a while visiting the various livestock and rural dsiplays. Then we grabbed some lunch and sat down to watch the shows in the main arena. We saw some lumbejack displays, racing terriers, birds of prey and equestrian stunt riding. We had an excellent time at the cheese show which is the closest we've come to a tradiotional American Fair.

A skyful of serpents, sealife and stars

Saturday and Sunday 3 & 4 September - This was the weekend of the Bristol Kite Festival. We walked over to Ashton court late Saturday and caught the tail end of the show. Saturday we got an earlier start and arrived at the festival just after 12. We settled in to watch some kite fighting and simultaneous launches as well as an array of weird and wonderful kites. Ian had a good time flying his pocket kite and I got some lovely paper Thai kites for decoration. We had lunch from the food vendors on site followed by fresh donuts and coffee. There were lots of giant kites and some that I hadn't seen last year, some of my favourites were the crayfish and the crab. There was also an unusual display of Thai kite competitions where one kite tries to capture another. We had an excellent time lounging in the sun and admiring the kites.