Sheep, cattle, produce, home baking… and a frog!

There was lots going on in our little cafe on Stoneleigh Park on Monday as the Rugby Primestock Society held their Annual Show & Sale. Well, the sale was held in the Rugby Farmers Mart but we hosted the home baking and butchers classes in the cafe – as well as feeding lots of hungry farmers!

The wife had suggested a mince pie class be introduced for 2018 and she also bagged the job of judging them! Sausages, Christmas cakes and pork pies were the other classes.

My day was split between the cafe and the show/sales ring, capturing events as they unfolded. I didn’t get everything on film, but as you can see, there’s a good selection. Click on the individual images to enlarge them…

This didn’t look like it was ever going to stop…

There’s a nice little plug for StowAg in the background behind these two characters…

Meet ‘Frog’, he’s the frog in the title of this blog post and he sells Christmas trees!

Judging for the home baking and butchers classes was well under way when I popped back up to the cafe. I wasn’t there long as a messenger appeared to request my presence back in the show ring.

I passed Frog on the way back – he looked happy!

Apparently, there was a copy of the lunch menu in there…

Another nice pic for a sponsor, this time it’s County Insurance Services

The Mayor of Kenilworth – Councillor Michael Hitchins – was in attendance

Another customer for Frog – five-time national champion lady point-to-point rider, Gina Andrews (Gina Ellis). The previous day she had ridden her 200th point-to-point winner! You can read about that here.

I had a 15 minute spell back in the cafe before the Slapton Texels team collared me to take some pics of their champion ewes. We had a few issues with light in the shed (and wayward sheep legs), but we got there in the end. I also found out about Slapton Manor, which sounds fab!

That’s David Doody (left), apparently he likes cake!

I’ve photographed lots of horses and people and I know that horses won’t always stand still and prick their ears, and people won’t always look at the camera when you want them to. But today I learned that cattle and sheep are just as tricky to photograph, especially when you’re trying to get the sponsors – Claddex Limited – branding in the pic!

And that was my last pic of the day before I legged it back to the cafe to assist with feeding those hungry farmers! Thanks to everyone who patiently posed for pics, and thanks to our great team in the cafe (including my sister-in-law, Karen, she only popped in for a cup of tea and ended up in the kitchen). For a full report on the days proceedings please visit the Rugby Farmers Mart Ltd website and click here to download the market report.