Oink!, and More Sheep & Wool

Aah! the insanity bred by modern (?) humanity. Despite declarations by any and all of those who might be even remotely considered to know that you cannot get this swine flu from eating pigs, the Egyptian government seems to have decided to kill every pig in the whole country. Not worrying that nobody in Egypt has actually fallen ill from the disease yet, of course.

In Beijing a group of Mexicans is being held under guard, apparently just because they're Mexican. In Hong Kong an entire hotel is under armed guard, all visitors and staff inside, just because one (yes, one) guest has possibly come down with the flu. In Mexico I can understand this, but in Egypt and China ?

Yarn
Like I said, last blog, we went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Fair last weekend. We did, of course, bring the trusty camera, so you're in for some pictures.
Firstly, we saw a gentleman making and selling straw brooms. Interesting to watch and a great and useful product - quite a few were being sold.
You'll see lots of interesting things here, and some people appeared to be in two minds about whether they wanted to be where they were when they were there. Signs of appeals for help appeared in places you'd never expect to see them!


Despite being firmly dedicated to agricultural things, the fair also featured some high-tech gadgetry, such as these looms. I know that they appear to be two species of especially Heath-Robinson-style rat-traps, but, to the cogniscenti, these are excellent examples of "weaving machines", with which you create cloth - in fact, machines somewhat like these are used to make the shirt on your backs !

Here (on the left) is the shop for Carodan Farm, where the AG (The Better Half to you !) bought some sock yarn. The next barn was full of food (yippee!) - all to go away and cook with. A great variety of sheep cheese (I bought some Stone Man cheese - really nice) and then got some info goodies from the trade association, The American Lamb Board. Nice and very friendly, giving stuff away!
Now here on the left we found a folk group (really! I could have found that music at any fair in England). The players were really good, and many seemed to be young teens, which is a great message for the future of music.




Here's a quick clip from the Rabbit Building, which was taken over by Ravelry for a few hours. Like everywhere else it was packed, and here's a snap of the very principals of the community.

Just after leaving here we ran into our friends Joanna (just married, so many congrats), Donna (just better, so many congrats), Brenda (recently a granny, so many congrats to her too). Unfortunately I didn't do too well with the picture, so better not to publish it here!

Through another barn to the Main Drag we bumped into Hope from our Tuesday group at Haddonfield, and then the AG's friend Tan. After chatting, Hope had to leave, but then Tan's daughter Cherry (right) arrived.
This didn't seem to be anything unusual - greetings and re-unions were happening all over the place.

Here endeth the first part of this blog on the MD S&WF. More soon.