Shrewsbury Steam Rally

Today we had a family day out to the Shrewsbury Steam Engine and Vintage Vehicle Rally.  I wasn't entirely sure what to expect since this sort of thing is more up Jeff's alley, but it bascially there were LOADS of big and small machines ran by steam power spread over a very large field.  Vintage prams, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks/lorries and buses were also on display.  There was so much to see and so much I had NEVER seen before. 

 Fairground Traction Engines - note the generator at the front to power fairground lights

 A steam-powered bus... how cool is that?!

 A steam-powered cars ca. 1920

 "Marshall" steam-powered agricultural traction engines used to power farm equipment on the field.

 A stationary engine with water pump

 A petrol-powered engine and saw

 One for Robert: a Lister engine being used to turn a milk churn

 One for my mom: a vintage Bedford truck from Much Wenlock

All aboard! We were amused that Ellen just assumed she was allowed to go on this bus, which she was, and that she was bold enough to attempt getting on herself.

 Exploring the bus

 One for Beverly ;o)

Throughout the day, all of the vehicles on display were paraded in the arena. Here the vintage bicycles and prams take their turn.

 Ellen helped Daddy eat his ice cream.

Just to share a bit more of our "goings on" the past couple of weeks... it's blackberry time!  Perhaps because of the warmer-than-usual summer we've had this year, the blackberries have been especially big, especially sweet.  When Ellen and I go for a walk down the lane through the fields, we stopped every few feet to pick and eat blackberries.  Ellen LOVES them and usually asks for more. 

 Ellen playing with her new, fancy, mommy-made toy: a toilet paper roll taped to the leg of the coffee table so that she could drop pom-poms through it. Supposedly it's to help with hand-eye coordination.

 If the table at playgroup is set up with some sort of craft, Ellen makes a bee line to it as soon as we arrive. She loves any sort of coloring or painting, but of course, I leave the painting for playgroup... for now, at least.

Decorating a butterfly with shiny paper... this was the first time Ellen has used glue, so she thought it was paint. I unsuccessfully tried to explain this to her, but she decorated 3 butterflies... or "buys" as she says... that day.

Riding a tractor at playgroup.

 A family walk through Stone, Staffordshire

In the last blog, I posted a video of Ellen hiding in the drying racks. She goes around the back of the drying rack, hides in the clothes, and eventually pops out, then repeats.

 Where's Ellen?

Boo!

A cuddle with Mommy

Yesterday, we drove to Birmingham to have supper with Betsy Henderson, a good friend from Munich who was there visiting friends. It was lovely to catch up and see her again.

 On the drive home, Ellen held up her Fisher Price camera and was saying "cheese!"  We don't even know how she knew the toy was even a camera, but what was even funnier, was that when Betsy took a picture of Ellen in the pub, she said, "Say cheese!".  That is the only time she would have heard "say cheese", so she had remembered it and was pretending to take our picture... sooo cute.