Ham Fair 2014

Ham Fair is one of the big annual events locally and I always go to look at all the stalls from the local societies and to buy a few treats.

This year I also played a minor role for two of those local societies.

Ham Amenities Group (HAG) always runs a children's art show and competition. This year they extended it to include photographs which I was asked to judge because of my Ham Photos blog.

Two of the categories, pets and portraits, were easy to judge with a clear winner in each but the Ham Pond category was harder as most of the children, unsurprisingly, had chosen to take pictures of the swans and their cygnets. I discounted my favourite picture (of a dramatic swan) as it did not show much of the pond and chose one that did, as well as some birds climbing out of it.

Then later in the day I took my turn on the stall for Ham United Group (HUG). That's the stall on the far left. We were showcasing the range of projects that came under the broad HUG umbrella, some of which had grown sufficiently to warrant their own stalls within the Ham cluster.

The stall's gimmick was an apple press that we used to make fresh apple juice.which was very welcome on a hot day. HUG has planted some apple trees and the aim is to grow this in to a full community orchard and the apple press will get some serious use then.

Ham Fair is one of those events that confirms, if confirmation were needed, that Ham is a distinct community and it is because of that that I like living here so much.