The sun shines on the county fair

At the exhibition grounds in Caledonia, there was a quickening of the pace. Even though the fair had not started, the grounds were busy, concessions were open and people were lining up to register for events or buy passes for the exhibition. In the main building, judges were at work, evaluating flowers, vegetables, jams, pickles, artwork, schoolwork and photographs.

When they stepped outside, their work done, a full moon greeted them, rising majestically over the trees. The next morning, the sun shone as the fair opened, and horse and oxen owners got to work in their respective classes. The Queens County Fair, first held as an agricultural exhibition in Harmony in 1880, was once again underway.

On Wednesday, the big street parade was held. It was clear that these were election times, what with municipal and federal elections being held this fall. Gerald Keddy and Kerry Morash came by, stumping for the Conservatives, followed by Bill Smith in his antique 1950 truck, carrying the banner for the Liberals. Shortly afterwards, Gordon Earle sauntered by, working the crowd and handing out cards, looking for votes for the New Democrats.

Suzanne Frail came along, handing out cards asking for votes in the upcoming municipal election. She is trying to unseat Counc. Peter Waterman, who was unable to be in the parade due to work. After that we found Mayor John Leefe and Counc. Doug Adams shaking hands and talking with parade watchers; both Doug and John have been reelected by acclamation and were just out enjoying the people and festivities.

Schoolchildren were out in force, celebrating brand new schools in Caledonia and Greenfield. As the Greenfield kids went by, I yelled to them, asking if any of them knew any math. Greenfield was last week reported as one of the schools where all students at a particular grade level met the required standards in provincial math tests.

The peculiarities of the Advance deadlines make it impossible to provide a complete roundup of the fair, but by midpoint it looked like a sunny, successful event. We aimed to do the rounds of the cattle, horse and ox barns by Thursday, and to take in one of the big meals at the fairgrounds kitchen (though some in the group were planning on lobster sandwiches and pie at the United Church booth in the main building).

The newspapers have been advertising that this is a great time to go camping, with warm days, cool nights, fewer bugs, fewer people, leaves changing colours, and the ocean water warm. The national parks are still open, of course, and among the eight provincial parks that remain open are Rissers, in Lunenburg County, and Thomas Raddall, in Queens. Those parks will stay open until October 13.

We camped at the Raddall Park, near Port Joli, a weekend ago. The girl at the entrance told us she had 81 sites left from which we could choose. We asked how many there were altogether. Eighty-two, she said, with a laugh. They'd had a busy summer, she said, but as soon as school started the numbers dropped off. She then told us about the advantages of particular sites.

We chose a site quite near the water and got set up, then explored, taking a little trail down to the beach and being careful not to disturb some shorebirds nearby. We walked the beach, looking across at Kejimkujik Seaside, the oceanfront portion of Kejimkujik National Park. The humid weather described at the beginning of this column was in effect at the time, but we were sheltered and cozy.

Thomas Raddall Park was opened in 1997. It is over 1,600 acres in size and is situated along the western side of Port Joli Bay. This summer, new interpretive signs describing author Thomas H. Raddall, plus a new trailhead building were opened at the park by Natural Resources Minister David Morse.

The park has dunes, white sand beaches and flora and fauna typical of this part of the province's South Shore. It also has over 11 kilometres of hiking trails, which we will return to explore in more depth before long.

Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com