Ferrets and beeswax

There is so much Autumn goodness out there in blogland right now and I thought I'd better get in there before Winter storms in.

After the usual Saturday morning round of taxi-ing the kids to swimming, dancing and football we went to one of our local parks to visit the Harvest Fayre. It was a lovely event, very low key (in a good way) with lots of local groups represented and there was a real village atmosphere.

So often we see events advertised and don't go along. However, there is something very special at times about being a part of something and just soaking it all in.

The park looked lovely and the trees are colouring up beautifully, including this maple:


There was a falconry display and these birds never fail to fascinate us all. Top photo is a Great Horned Owl and second one a Saker Falcon. The Ferret racing was great fun and I won my little flutter on the 'green' ferret - I doubled my money from 20p to 40p :o) There was also a little children's farm display with lovely Silky Bantams - they wear such beautiful bloomers.

The children thought it was 'well cool' as they each came away with a 'tattoo' of an owl. The top photo is Minx and the bottom one the Sausage Monster. He commented that his owl had a funny eye - bless him, it was just that he's very freckly and the owl has a freckle for an eye!

We managed to avoid the stalls that empty your wallets in 10 seconds and the children still enjoyed it. I scooped a bargain very old needlework book on the bookstall which includes a whole section on using and caring for your sewing machine - with a picture of an old one like mine - coincidences like this are spooky!

We visited the beekeepers' stall and, although we didn't buy honey, the children each made a candle from a sheet of beeswax. The smell is wonderful and it takes me right back to making these at primary school.

I must have loitered slightly too long as I got slightly cornered by a very nice beekeeper who told me everything I needed to know about keeping bees - he was so lovely I didn't have the heart to cut him short.

I did find out thought that a honey bee has to fly about 500 miles to produce 1/4 teaspoon of honey. I've just done a rough calculation and that would mean a 250ml jar of honey would be approximately 100,000 bee miles. Your average piece of toast with honey would be about 4000 bee miles. Oh blimey, don't say I'm going to feel too guilty to eat honey now - all those poor little worn out bees :o(

I'm having a day out with my best friend tomorrow - who I've known since I was 5. We're taking the children to Bosham in East Sussex which is a very pretty place so I should have some nice photos.

I've done some embroidery for the advent calendar today and it shouldn't take too much to get it put together now.

DH is getting concerned about all the work we still need to do on the house so I can see me wielding a paintbrush at some point. Of course, I now feel super-crafty and will only want to sew or knit - whoever said I was contrary? My Mum, that's who and she was generally right about most things!!

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend and thanks and hugs for all your lovely comments this week xxxxxxxxx