Harrow Fair!

For the second straight year, we opted to be vendors at the Harrow Fair.

It's a long haul, between Wednesday night setup and then four full days of the Fair, but of all shows we do, it's easily the most fun. Live music, great food and smells, parades, demonstrations, and a ton of happy people. Some of them even buy stuff....eventually!

Weather was mostly good, though a little warm at times, and we lost the last few hours on Sunday to steady drizzle. The Fair doesn't stop, but nobody's really shopping in the rain. I also managed to sneak up to the Beerded Dog for a few local brews and get a break from the tent.

This year we decided to save ourselves some driving, and slept on an air mattress in the van one night. The Fair runs until 10pm at night, so by the time we get home it's 11pm and we're just going to sleep to drive right back to the show. We even walked up to the nearby Legion for a few relaxing beers on the patio before bedtime.

With her knee, Jane was unable to climb in the side and over the mattress, but could get in through the barn doors at the back. Of course, once locked in for the night, there is no latch at the back to open the doors from the inside. So....

Picture Mike climbing out the side door of a creepy van, in a busy parking lot, and proceeding to manually unlock the rear doors with a key and release a woman on crutches from within. Kinda surprised the police never stopped by the tent.....

Jane's knee surgery then kept us close to home after the Fair, though I was able to tackle some overdue yard maintenance in between tending to her needs.

Harrow Fair!

Live music

Harrow Fair Parade

Classic tractors in the parade

Meanwhile, a block away......

Tree coming down....

Windmill going up!

That time of year!

Tall Ships

In a fortunate turn of events, the Tall Ships tour of the Great Lakes made a stop in Kingsville harbour for the weekend. A mere ten minutes walk from the office, the festivities began Friday at lunch and lasted through the weekend.

Even right at noon on Friday, lineups were already sizeable as fans flocked down to the wharf and began clamoring for ship tours and sunset sails. With limited time, a few of us walked down from the office and met Jane at the harbour for a quick visual, though we were not able to stay for long.

Sadly, we weren't able to get any photos with ships in full sail.....alas. Still, a great opportunity that doesn't come around very often!

 Picton Castle

 Bluenose II

 The Kingsville fishing fleet keeps a respectful distance

 People line the wharf to tour the Tall Ships!

Fair Jeanne, Oriole and Empire Sandy docked in Kingsville

Kingsville Folk Festival

We finally made it to the Kingsville Folk Music Festival, held every summer at beautiful Lakeside Park on the shores of Lake Erie. There were four stages scattered throughout the park, offering continuous music from a variety of genres over three days.

The sprawling park afforded some great shade opportunities within earshot of the various stages, great for those of us who need to shun the sun and therefore tend to skip outdoor festivals in summer.

Food was good, including our friends Total Meltdown and their gourmet grilled cheese and other sandwiches.

Local beverages were also featured, including brewery The Grove, Pelee Winery and Wolfhead distillery. Bottled water was not even sold on site, as guests were encouraged to bring refillable bottles and use the OCWA water station.

We chose the Sunday lineup specifically to see The Milk Carton Kids, who were every bit as incredible as anticipated. There may be no better guitar player around than flat-picker Kenneth Pattengale, and the vocal harmonies between the two are stunning. Check them out on Youtube!

We were also exposed to lots of other great local artists, including among many Annie Sumi from Guelph, The Pairs from London, Brendan Scott Friel from Windsor, storyteller Gurf Morlix, Toronto's Union Duke, and Bluegrass band Traditionally Wound.

From further afield we heard Erika Kulnys from the East Coast, while the Gabriel Palatchi Band brought some crazy Latin jazz piano from South America, and Low Lily imported some folk from Vermont.

Perfect weather and a peaceful crowd rounded out a wonderful day of music!

Windsor's Brendan Scott Friel entertains at the Creekside Stage

Gurf Morlix on the Main Stage

Sound check for the Milk Carton Kids

Union Duke from Toronto

Low Lily from Brattleboro, Vermont

Beautiful sunset over the Folk Festival

The Milk Carton kids!

Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan work their magic

August Long Weekend

The August long weekend rolled in, bringing summer heat and our friend Vanessa for her annual visit. Someone even aged a bit.

This weekend also always brings Art on the Boulevard in Erieau, which has quickly become our favourite show due to proximity, ease of setup/teardown, and overall results.It doesn't hurt that Bayside Brewery is there too....though I never seem to make it there anyway, all the way down at the far end of the show!

Hogs for Hospice added to a very busy weekend locally, featuring many MANY motorcycles and some outdoor concerts in Leamington. What was new this year, was a Tour the Tip rally en masse to Point Pelee National Park, including a loop around to visit Wheatley for lunch.

The local BIA planned things well, and arranged to have the main intersection shut down for several hours so the multitude of bikers could park in all four directions and  enjoy some lunch and cold refreshments. Renny's in particular did it right, bringing in three breweries and a distillery to run the expanded promo patio, while offering a very limited menu of their delicious pulled pork sandwiches.

From what we heard, even the entry and exit of the pack was so well organized it went off without a hitch, though bikers alone easily exceeded the village's regular population. Organizers re-routed bikes and led them to designated areas by groups, to maximize the dispersal and turnover throughout the village.

Estimates vary, but somewhere between 3000 and 4000 bikes took over the town for a few hours. Sadly we missed it all, being stuck a half hour away selling art in Erieau.

We did manage to end up on the patio at Renny's for THREE straight dinners - partly because Vanessa needed her brisket fix, but also just because nothing goes better with a summer long weekend than cold beer and great food on their patio!

The garden - looking pretty good in spite of a late start

The Open Door

Lake Erie shoreline at Erieau

Art on the Boulevard!

Hogs for Hospice takes over Wheatley for lunch!

Erie Street

The Usual Suspects

Loaded Up Fries and some local Flywheel

"Somebody" sleeping in the van at the art show....

Brisket on a Bun at Renny's

Birthday cake!

Perch Po'Boy

Renny's patio

Warm Weekend in Goderich

We headed off to Goderich on a Wednesday night, to give ourselves some free time before the Friday start to the three-day Art in the Square. Unfortunately our timing was poor, coinciding with both a sick feline and a brutal heat wave.

Pennywise unexpectedly had to go to the vet right before we left, and was sick enough that he could not be left unattended for the four days we had to be away....alas, he would have to stay at the clinic, where they could at least take wonderful care of him during our absence. Jane was of course, beside herself and fretted over him the entire weekend.

We set up camp at Falls Reserve Conservation Area in Benmiller, just outside Goderich. It was hot and muggy, and just getting set up was a sweaty affair after an already long drive. Dinner at least was easy (chicken tenders and pre-made salads from Zehr's) since we came prepared to sleep at the tent but not really "camp", given that most of our time would be spent at the art show anyway.

Several brutally hot and humid days followed, with days spent hiding from the sun in a tent full of art, and nights spent trying to sleep in another tent with no relief from the heat at any point. Well, in fairness we did relent and go to Boston Pizza for dinner one night, just for some AC. All the same, much preferable to three days of heavy rains and thunderstorms!

Weather aside, the show was it's usual fun time, with great food, live music, local strawberries, a used book sale (!), a quick side visit to Square Brewing for some crowlers, and some nice neighbours.

Sales were down a little from the previous year but still decent, and all that remained was the sweaty packup with many trips to the "relatively" nearby van, and the three hour drive home. At least it's a nice drive! Jane thought ahead and ordered some KFC for pickup as we neared home, so at least dinner was once again easy on a Sunday night after a very long and tiring weekend.

Goderich is absolutely beautiful - go check it out!

Camping at Benmiller

Putting the Falls in Falls Reserve

Dinner!

Goderich waterfront, early on a weekday - it got a lot busier!

Lake Huron serenity

All set up at Art in the Square

Truth!