'Daniel will now set fire to his tractor...'

To a vintage fair on Sunday, chockablock with collections of all sorts of stuff. There were deltiologists, numismatists, tegestologists and phillumenists*, amongst many others, exhibiting their various collections. Strangely, there doesn't seem to be a word for one who collects lawnmowers - other than 'lawnmower collector'. I'm sure, between us, we could come up with something appropriate...

Remember, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. Particularly useful if you have a thing for... lawnmowers.

Actually, time for a guilty confession - when I was young I had a collection of Compliments slips. Acquired via my brothers mostly, from every job application, letter from the bank manager or whatever, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I finally ditched them not too many years ago, but perhaps I should have held onto them...

It was a grand day for viewing an assemblage of collectors' accumulations. Father and daughter were instantly drawn to a display of vintage motorcycles. We once joked about getting a motorbike and side car for the three of us...! Surely I could manage some crochet as I whizzed along in this...?

 I was more drawn to the display of cars, even though I'm not a driver...

...and the Gorgeous Girl and I had a lovely time choosing our favourites...

There were earnest conversations about engines...

 There were collections displayed on the collection of cars...

How about this (below) for a repair job...?

Look... a truck and a bike, and what looks like a real-life Suffolk cowboy eating ice-cream!

There were collections both big and small (and of big things and small things). 

I wonder what the collective noun for a bunch of buses is...?

 

A lot of things were brought along just to show, but some folk were selling stuff - although I was slightly bewildered by who might make up the market for beaten up old tin cans and the like...

 

There was a fab caravan - titchy, tiny, and occupied by a man who must have been 6'4" and who had to bend himself almost in two to get in and out of it! It had a kitchen and a fold out double bed, for him and his wife...

There were other miscellaneous bits and bobs, and things that didn't seem to fit into

any particular category, but were either lovely to look at...

...or slightly disturbing...

Not an homage to Hugh Hefner, but a demonstration of a water pump...!

As we sat and had lunch we watched a talk about tractors. The compere appeared to know everything there is to know about each and every tractor on show, and it was easy to switch off if it wasn't quite your thing... 'Now that doesn't sound very impressive (pregnant pause) until you have a look at the filtration system!' Actually, because he really knew his stuff, and had a dry wit, bits of it were pretty interesting - the narrowness of some tractors for certain jobs, the differences between tractor wheels, those used by the land girls from WWII, and something else because... 'it's hotter abroad!' I wish I'd heard what that was about!

Daniel starting his tractor after lighting it...

Finally, just before we left, in rolled  the big boys...

But for us, while we'd each enjoyed being a...

...now it was time for...

We even got home before the rain started! Result!

* When I was growing up if I didn't know the meaning of a word I was sent off to look it up in the dictionary - of course, if the definition included a word I didn't understand I had to look for that one, and so on, and so on, and so on. So, off you go.