The Day of the Fair

It's been a fairly mild day, compared to some of the other years of bitter cold for the Fairtrade Christmas Fair. A lady from Shared Interest, which provides small loans for Fairtrade businesses, had come along, because the Hay Fairtrade group keep raising money to invest with them!
Victoria Baker, a new recruit to the Fairtrade group, baked this marvellous cake which was being raffled to raise funds for exactly that purpose - when I saw it, they were about to try to persuade Derek from the Wholefood Shop to display it for a week, to sell more tickets:

Love Zimbabwe were there, and Zimele, who have been before. Chris Armstrong was manning the Hay2Timbuktu stall with the silver Tuareg jewellery, and Christina was selling Egyptian patchwork and small prints of icons she has written for St Mary's Church (where the originals can be seen). Although they are pictures, icons are always 'written', traditionally, rather than 'painted'.
Tools for Self Reliance were selling hand tools made in Tanzania - and the Tanzanian blacksmiths also sent this over to show off their skills:

It's a traditional spear, and I was very tempted by it. However, for historical re-enactment blades have to be blunted, and this was quite sharp.
The next stall along, though, was a newcomer to the Christmas Fair, Wild Canvas, and they were selling knives and cleavers and scissors which are perfect for re-enactment! I treated myself to a medieval style vegetable knife with a metal curved handle and a pair of snips. They are made in North Vietnam. The other part of the Wild Canvas business is tent making for wild camping, and they were also selling canvas bags.
Later on in the day, choral singing was coming from the Buttermarket where the fair was being held - I think it was the St Mary's church choir (Christina is a member).