A poem about the Farndale Show
A dewdrop dawn
Golden misty waves breaking over grasses, herby damp moorland
Treetops sailing, galleons adrift
A barn owl coming home, late, safely wrapped in his misty cloak
Gilded seed heads like priceless jewels caught in the golden dawn
of the farndale show.
A slow start, muted voices
Concentration, it’s hard this early, let’s just get it done, get it out, get them up ..
Flowers that jostle, colours collide, scones and sponges, all side by side
A year of tending, feeding, pruning,
A year of breeding, nursing, hoping,
Will they fit? Stems are too long? Oh they looked so good at home!
Round fat onions bulge, bountiful, the tent so bursting, heady fruitfulness
So much effort over so long a year
Figures bent over dainty displays .. poised in this moment, make it count ..
There’s lowing, mooing, squawking, barking
Ducks and drakes and hens all penned, peering, strutting, do they know? it’s their day too.
Outside we draw a breath, look up, dare to believe, as fullness takes the field
Warmth and colour fill the set, men look up, hot tea is poured, relax now, the stage is set
It is all done, we are on time
Cars arrive and muddy tyres churn with paws and boots, that smell .. the damp and grass, is that fried onion? sheep too
Sheep pens full, wooly backs broad and fleecy,
Goats and horses all look so good, did you see the shire horse and her beautiful foal?
Cows and dogs, the air is full, yes the animals take over now, it is their day now.
Spaniels nosing, watching, playing dumb then snatching after bits of crusts, ears silky, heads all warm,
Wallowing in glorious sunshine
Everyone opening to warm sunshine
Hot sunshine now, it fills the fields, a hot golden happiness that excites and fills the show
Everyone is happy, its a brilliant show .. its noisier and noisier and more and more people come,
Happy, to Farndale ..
To those fields, set in their perfect bowl,
today dazzling colours of a summer show amid the heathery grazing hills ..
It was a wonderful show.
