Canterbury A&P Show

For those of you who are not New Zealanders "A&P" stands for Agricultural and Pastoral; basically it's a huge farming show which has grown to include lots of other stuff.   It's held on show week in Christchurch and typically the public holiday on the Friday is fine and hot.
Today was no exception, it hit 26 degrees with no cloud cover at all.  We went to the show as early as we thought we could; we arrived at 8.05am and there were already about 5 double banks of cars parked up!  We joined in and headed into the show.   We already had our tickets ($52.00) so just trotted on in.

The first section was a home show sort of thing, I picked up a set of wrist bracelets that are one-use which you pop on your child's wrists with your cellphone number.  It cost $5 for the set and with Ian sometimes disappearing without warning we thought it was a good idea; they provided a complimentary set for both boys for the day.  We also entered a competition there for a jar of jelly beans.  Ian made a guess which Thomas then added a little to (Ian chose 22, Thomas added a 5 in front), they got the closest guess so Ian won the big jar of jellybeans!   I didn't get a photo of him receiving his prize when they dropped it off for him tonight, but I got one of it on the table at dinnertime (no he didn't eat them for dinner).

It's a really big jar, but I think I might hide it tonight and just get it out occasionally.

We saw lots of sheep, horses, chooks, vintage machines etc and happy boys, with occasional meltdowns when we wouldn't let them go on expensive rides, most of which had huge queues.
Here are some of what we saw

 George on a harvester

Corriedale fleece still on the ram

 Border Leicester

 Happy boys

 Perendale

 Ian on tractor

 Corriedale fleece

The Corriedale sheep

Vintage machinery

Now that the day is over we're exhausted.  I did a little work, just enough to get my 20 hours for the week.   Finished part 2 of the Fratello knit for George, can't post a photo atm as part of the conditions of the KAL.  It's being knit in a taupe shade and is looking really nice.
One knit I can show you is the shawl I've just cast on; Pimpelliese is a gift for someone, won't say who as they may read this

Doesn't look like much yet, but it's going to be very pretty; better get back to knitting it!.

Did finish some spinning earlier in the week, but can't post a photo of that yet as it's part of our fleece study at the guild; will try to post a photo tomorrow of that.