We've had a busy day. I went to water aerobics first, but left early so I could come home and get ready to go with Hubbie and Mother to the fairgrounds around 10 a.m.
We were anxious, of course, to see how our entries fared. We got lots of blue ribbons, and a few red ones. Mother was pleased to find that one of her quick breads won a Best of Show award. Mother often wins Best of Show awards...she's gotten them for baked goods, canned goods, dried herbs, and crafts.
I've won a few grand champion awards, too, mostly in photography. But I was stunned to see that this year one of my floral arrangements won Best of Show. Mother didn't seem at all surprised, saying she'd had a dream last night that I won. She said that as she was carrying the arrangement to the exhibit area yesterday morning, she mused on how pretty it was, thinking it had country charm. All I did was arrange what flowers I could find from the yard in a Mason jar.
Our flowers suffer in the summer, but I found a few nice lavender, red, and orange zinnias, white daisies, purple cone flowers, and purple phlox, along with other flowering varieties...enough to make a full arrangement, to which I added dark purple leafy branches from one of the bushes. It was a pleasing arrangement, I thought, but I didn't dream it would catch the judge's eye to that degree. Too bad I didn't take a picture of it before it went to the fair. If I'd had any idea it'd win, I certainly would have.
Since today was Senior Day at the fair, I took along my camera and scouted out shots for our state newspaper. There were plenty of subjects for the camera, including pie contest judges sampling entries, senior queen and king winners, horse shoe pitching contestants, a very talented artist who was sketching cattle exhibits, a young man with his grand champion steer, and one of my favorites...a little girl with her baby goat.
We spent quite a bit of time touring the exhibit buildings, as well as the commercial building, where we registered for every door prize available. In past years, we've won several nice things, including a smoker, free movies from a video store, gift certificates, and cash.
The local agency for aging offered lunches for $1.50 each, and the ticket numbers were entered for prize drawings. For about the past five years, we've won cash and prizes. One year, we won on two of our tickets...$25 each, and last year, we won a $25 gift certificate that could be redeemed at a meat packing business. This year, however, we came up empty-handed.
We were thrilled, though, when one of our women friends, who has suffered from heart problems and is now in the first stages of Alzheimer's Disease, won one of the $25 certificates. She's had a bad year, and we hope this small win provides at least a bit of joy. She deserves it.
Lunch was deli turkey, white cheese, and tomato on a soft hoagie bun, with a side of macaroni salad that included shredded yellow cheese (I'm allergic to yellow dye), potato chips (which I've given up), and store-bought chocolate chip and sugar cookies (none for me, please), plus a bottled lemon drink (containing yellow dye and 252 calories). I ate the sandwich with a bottle of water.
After we ate, we toured the horse barn to see the miniature horses, where one of the mares had a tiny colt. They were all so cute. By this time, we were hot and sweaty and ready to come home and indulge in plates of cold watermelon. It's very unusual for Mother to get hot, but in today's 95 degree heat and humidity, even she suffered.
Mother went home to rest for a while, and I uploaded snapshots from the fair to the newspaper photo editor. Later, Hubbie and I went to town, where he checked out a sale at a home store to see if there was anything he could spend a birthday gift card on. There was nothing he wanted. So we picked up a couple of items at the worldwide discount chain store next door and came home.
By this time, we were ready to call it a day.
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