There was a nice sunrise this morning, although I hope the saying about red skies in the morning doesn’t hold true.
We walked into town for our cuppa. It was a bit cool this morning, as it was yesterday. I said that Mother Nature was trying to toughen us up in preparation for our return to the cold north, although I understand that the temperatures have been very mild most of the time we’ve been away. As always, it was a nice walk.
We enjoyed our coffees. Lou and Christine have cappuccino and I have a flat white. We don’t even have to say our order as the cafe owner knows what we like.
Walking back to the house we strolled by the show grounds to see what was happening. It was still a little early for a lot of the setup activity, but trucks with stalls were coming in.
This is a favorite stretch that we walk through on our way home.
After breakfast it was time for Lou to get his baked goods to the exhibition hall. We fretted a bit over the instructions for how to display each item. The instructions were not clear and very confusing. The carrot cake was to be placed on a board to be covered with paper, fabric or contact paper, so that went on a cutting board wrapped in foil. The Anzac biscuits were to be placed in a glass vase. That threw us, but Christine suggested a glass swan that Lou had. There was no direction for display of the pumpkin scones, so they went on a doily-covered paper plate.
It was kind of confusing at the exhibition hall. At the door, the young greeters weren’t too sure about how the entries should be made, all as one, or each separate. After they figured that out, we went to the baked goods reception table. The woman checking in each entry promptly dumped the Anzac biscuits out of the glass swan and on to a paper plate stating that they should have been on a plate. The carrot cakes also was taken off the board and plunked down on a paper plate. I guess the instructions weren’t correct, or at least they weren’t written well enough for anyone to understand exactly how to present the items. At any rate, Lou’s items were registered and taken off to display cases to join other entries.
The room was filling up with flowers, vegetables, and baked goods. I’m looking forward to going back this evening to wander around and see what takes the blue ribbons. I will say I saw the biggest zucchini I have every seen being carried in.
Back home we spent the rest of the afternoon organizing and packing as we’ll have an early departure Saturday morning for the ride to Richmond where Alex and Gloria will pick us up. We’ll stay with them Saturday night and then they’ll take us to the Sydney airport on Sunday.
At 6:00pm we walked back into town to go to the exhibit hall to see the results of the judging. Let me just say it was a big day for the Caruana and Chadwick entries. Lou entered 3 items and came away with a first and 2 second ribbons. The pumpkin scones, which were a disaster in the making, won first prize!
Margaret, who entered 3 cakes, received 2 first place awards and 1 second.
Daniel, who entered 4 cakes, won 2 first places and 1 second place.
Clare, who entered 6 cakes, aced them all with 6 blue ribbons! Just incredible, but of course, this is the young woman who, as a teenager, runs a creative cakes business online. She’s amazing. And sorry, but I apparently missed photographing one of her winners.
Clare also won a blue ribbon for one of her drawings and two blue ribbons for her costumes, the ones she showed us at her house one evening.
We milled around the exhibition hall taking in all the displays. It was fun and of course we all were giddy with all the blue ribbons, especially Lou who was really tickled that he won with those pumpkin scones.
We all went back to Lou’s for dinner. We had the wonderful timpana that Lou spent hours making yesterday. It was very delicious! And Margaret made trifle, another of Christine’s favorites. What a great way to end our stay in Rylstone.
After a long day, as our last day in Rylstone, we went to bed tired, happy, and full!