Lamb Festival

Well what kind of a weekend was that?? I dont know about where you live but here it rained and rained and when the skies were done with that, it rained some more. And to top it all off it was freezing cold too. After three glorious weeks of warm sunny days it feels like being thrust back into the depths of winter once more. Pure yuk!!

Over the last few months I have gotten into the habit of resting most of the weekend. And although I much needed it to prepare myself for the coming week of hospital runs, doctor appointments and an endless list of other things, my poor little kids have missed out on quite a lot of family time.

So try and put this right and despite the miserable weather, we donned our raincoats and headed off to the Roscommon Lamb Festival. It is a wonderful festival and we try to go every year if we can. We have found that the Sunday is always the best with family day in the town park and makers tents in the town centre.  There were quilters there along with knitters, spinners, weavers. I am just so lucky that I have two kids that are so interested in crafts of every description because there was no way that Mammy was leaving until she got to speak to every body.

We met Nancy Devlin there, the most fantastic lady sitting at a spinning wheel. Lucy stood there mesmerised watching her do her work, that is until Patrick decided that he wanted to ask some questions. I truly felt sorry for this poor lady. You could nearly say that he was interrogating her as question followed question for at least twenty minutes. Fair play to Nancy she never wavered once and answered each and every query, even if she had to think hard about the answer.

Sadly I didn't get the name of the lady who made these little beauties but I just had to show you a picture of them. Aren't they just fabulous?  My favourite has to be the snail on the left hand side of the top picture.

After I managed to free Patrick from the makers tents we headed into the park to see what else was going on.  There were some animals gentle enough for the kids to pet.  They totally fell in love with the llamas and were amazed at how thick there coats were.  Lucy could hide her hand completely in this soft fluffy fleece.

This boy was not nearly as friendly and would only let people touch his horns.  I never knew that sheep could grow two sets of horns!!  This stubborn fella just refused to pose for the camera, so this was the best photo that I could get of him.

The whole time we were there, I got the strange feeling that somebody was watching us!!

There was a tent there that gave demonstrations of traditional Irish crafts like willow weaving and copper jewellery making. Here Patrick got to try his hand at a pole wood lathe. They both had to have their turn before we could move on and they loved it.  The man showing them was so lovely and cheery, they were reluctant to go.  Especially that the rain was bucketing down outside.

But move on we did and after a quick coffee for me and hot chocolate for them, it was off to the climbing wall with us. These two are always very competitive and it was so obvious here as they raced to the top and raced down again.  Patrick is a natural born climber and could be found climbing trees from about the age of three, so needless to say I was really surprised that even though this time he actually had a harness on, he wasn't as free as Lucy was.

Not a great pic here but by now it was pouring out of the heavens once more.  Patrick was looking forward to trying his hand at archery while here, so we braved it for just a little while longer. 

So cold and wet, we decided to call it a day and head off for some hot food a nice restaurant  we noticed on the way around town. The three of us were tired but very happy and jolly. A great day full of new memories.