April Power

The Thorseby Country Show has for as long as we have been going been held in late February.  I struck me as a strange time to have a large show because of the variability of the weather.  I always thought that it should be held later in the year when the weather was warmer and hopefully more reliable.

Well, this time around, the show was moved the weekend of 9th and 10th April and it was a lot better for it.  We attended on the Sunday and the visitor numbers seemed to be substantially up on previous years.  The fine April weather helping to a good turn out.

I've posted about Thorseby Show before (link here).  This year for the first time we actually went in the morning as opposed to mid afternoon so got to see some of the displays that was going in the main display ring.

The first display were Stunt Mania, a motor cycle stunt team who where impressive to watch.

 The climax of the stunt show was the jumping over the truck and trailer, length ways.

Something We had heard about on Television but never really seen was a relatively new sport called Horse boarding where I horse and jockey pull a board rider around the area through a series of gates.  It was fast and action packed (very easy for the board riders to come to a crashing halt).

Showtime

Following on from last week's post I said that I upload a some more images from the country show at Thorseby Hall.  These pictures are from the last couple of shows.

Thoresby Hall 

Sheepdog at work

Fastest dog competition

The Scurry Competition

A Steppes Hawk

Start Your Engines

The Thoresby Country Show is an annual event that takes place towards the end of February. We love the sheer variety of displays, craftsman and stalls on display.  My only gripe is that the weather can be unpredictable at this time of year so you'll never know if your going to be wading through mud or having your face frozen off by the wind.  This year, it was the latter.

I'll do a more general post on the show next time, but the thing we enjoyed the most was the chainsaw challenge.  Half a dozen chainsaw artists creating a piece in thirty minutes. The pieces would then be auctioned off to the spectators afterwards.

We managed to get a good spot where we had a great view of one of the artists at work.

Needless to say, we where impressed by the skill and talent on display, watching incredible birds appearing out of a large piece of wood.  I loved how much the guy wielding the chainsaw seemed to enjoy what he was going and the  Barn Owl was beginning to take shape in front of us.

There were bigger, more elaborate creations taking shape but what I liked about this one was the way the artist used the bark to help create the texture and colour of the wing.

A blow torch was used to colour parts of the sculpture.  We were impressed by the finished piece.

So impressed, we actually entered the bidding for it.  Amazingly, we won.

The light from the flash is a little harsh but I do like how it shows up every line and scratch.  It's an incredibly tactile object (and its also bloody heavy!).

Once the wood has dried out (we've been told this can take up to a year) we'll make a decision as to where "Oz" will sit.