The Roman Wall Show

I was determined to go to the Roman Wall Show this year. It is my favourite of all the shows because it is small, full of local farming families and the animals in the classes look as though they have just come off the hills or in from a day's work!

It also takes place on a field above Steel Rigg on Hadrian's Wall and the views are stunning. Well, they would have been if we had not been enveloped in cloud and drizzle all day! It was dreich. After the first couple of hours we could see Crag Lough, but by lunchtime it had disappeared again. I had a microfibre towel around my second best camera and used a telephoto lens so I did not do any lens changing in the damp.

The cloud thinned a little during the afternoon, but we were all acclimatised by then.

I took a lot of photos, but I knew immediately that this would be my blip. A magnificent ram was standing in a pen with another and I liked the close up shot with the repeated curves.

The dog classes are for working dogs; no combing or primping goes on here! The Cumberland wrestlers were out in force. There was a 5.5 mile trail run and three hound trails (I missed those completely). The children had races: running, egg and spoon and sack races. I noted that these were real, scratchy, scruffy hessian sacks. A small industrial tent contained the tables of cakes, scones, crafts and art work. I might enter the photography next year!

I came home before the terrier races. I'd been on my feet for 6 hours and that was enough.

There were a few photographers I knew this morning, mainly from the Durham area, but they disappeared before lunch.......