Naar Buiten - The Outdoor Fair

Every year they have an outdoor fair on the grounds of my husband's office building. It is part of the pleasure and pain of having offices in a building owned by the government and leased to TWR. It is nice to have a big park out the back windows to look at and enjoy, but the space is rented for events and that limits us at times and can be noisy and distracting at work. I was scheduled to record a program but could not enter the grounds because of the fair. You must pay to attend the fair and although tickets are issued to those who work in the building so they don't have to pay an entrance fee, there were not enough for me to have one as well. These past few days they have had the annual fair here and we enjoy going to see the presentations when we have passes. On Friday we were able to borrow a pass for me and Jon and I gathered around the center ring in the middle of the island created by the moat on the grounds and watched what was happening there.



This year they had sheep herding by border collies.

The trainers had a young puppy on a leash with them and it was fun to watch how intently it was watching the proceedings. Perhaps in a year or two it will be in the ring like its mother.






It was now past lunch time so we thought we'd get a bite. This place said they had hamburgers so we ordered a couple of them. They were not hamburgers, but some kind of pressed meat product - think TV dinner salisbury steak and you get the idea.

While we were there this group of men came and blew their own horns. They looked like overgrown boy scouts and we guessed that they were a hiking group of some sort. Maybe something harkening back to old hunting groups from the presence of the horns. We have no idea, but they played a little song on their horns


Then these heralds rode up and played a little song on their horns.

The men answered back and a battle of the bugles had begun. One group played a ditty, the other tried to match it.

They did this several times, then parted ways.

I couldn't tell who won the competition.






Now it was time in the center ring for what Jon had been waiting for - the 1860's artillery demonstration.

This group paraded around the ring several times pulling their cannon and equipment, then got busy with what they were there to do.








Make a big boom!

Jon had been hearing this for a couple of days while he worked and it always startled him because he never knew when it was coming. However, now he was in his element, feeling the vibration in his chest and risking hearing loss while enjoying the noise and coveting their cannon.

Christmas is coming and he is hard to shop for. I wonder where the closets Cannons R Us is located?