The piccies are of Upton Folk Festival on Saturday. As I mentioned kiddie's Irish dancing team were performing there, and very well they did to. The weather was pretty good and it stayed fine and sunny 'til just before 4pm when a mass dance display was scheduled. That's when the Heavens opened. Ah well. Can't win 'em all.
Here is a little taster of the other 'sides' that were performing. It's just such a great place to go. There is so much colour and energy. I want to join a 'side' just so I can have one of those fantastic raggy jackets. :0)
Yay!! Belly dancers too. This was a different group to last year. This lot were called Belly Fusion and I haven't managed to track 'em down on t'internet as yet, but there were pretty good. The girl with the blue hair falls was great. When my computer isn't playing up I'll put some more photos onto Flickr. I took several so I can study the costumes. hehe
What most people think of when they think of Morris Dancers - men in white waving hankies around. They have fabby hats - straw boaters with loads of flowers all round the brim. Even with this fairly restrained costume they can put a bit of individuality into their hats.
This guy was one of the musicians with a side called The Spiders. They all wore raggy coats in shades of purple with all other clothing being black. They all had black top hats which they customised with badges, spiders, mirrors, feathers and anything else you can think of. I just loved this chaps woolly hair and painted face. I bet he's an accountant or something similarly restrained during the week. I bet none of his work mates know that at the weekend he dresses up like this. hehe
Hecky thump! What else has happened since my last post? It's been so long.
Well I haven't quite finished my trolley yet. Pictures will follow just as soon as she's done - hopefully tomorrow. The only problem is, my sewing machine is very unwell. I think it's a new bobbin case that's required but she also really, really needs a service. I hate to think how long it's been... So my old Toyota has been brought back out of mothballs. It served me well through most of my City and Guilds courses but hasn't been in active service for many years. It seems to be bearing up OK so far, but it's awful trying to get used to it again. It doesn't even have the needle up/needle down thing. Before I can remove a piece of sewing I have to hand crank the wheel to bring the needle to the top of it's cycle! Still, I have done a few Sillies today, just to ease the withdrawal symptoms I've been afflicted with. Will just have to find some hand sewing to do.
Ooh. Exciting stuff! Katy at I'm a Ginger Monkey has emailed to say she's finished my doll for the Meecrafty doll swap. Woohoo!! Can't wait to see it.
Ooh. More exciting stuff! I've won a prize!!! Sarah at Blooming Felt had a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post and my name came out of the hat!! How fab! I've won a gorgeous little felt bag/purse. I've got some great post coming my way. I must be extra nice to the postman., although he's a nice chap anyway. He brought me a lovely bundle of felt the other day that I won on ebay (am I repeating myself?). There were loads of really big pieces - much better than I was expecting.
Hope everyone has had a good Bank holiday. Due to the pesky photo uploader not working properly I cannot show you where we've been today so you'll have to click the linky-poo. I'll try to add them later.
We've been to Evie's favourite place in the world - "The Mazes". Dobbies Garden Centre at Mancetter, near Atherstone is a fab afternoon out and you don't even have to like gardening (that's lucky then for us then!) They have Plantasia, the Wild Walk and - kiddie's fave - Maze World. There is so much to see and do ther. It really is great. Even the souvenir shop isn't a massive rip off. They have loads of little pocket money toys to keep the littlies happy.
There are six full sized mazes - one for each continent - and we managed to lose OH twice today. Evie is brill at finding her way through them despite most of the hedges now being much taller than her. At the centre of each maze is a stamping machine. You are given a collector card which you feed into a slot and stamp it. If you get all 6 stamps you get a prize. There are also water features, bridges and an Indian wigwam.
The Wild Walk has a similar thing but there are 9 stamps to collect on this course. The nature trail has a tree-top walk, a boardwalk over a pond, willow tunnels, ponds and trees galore. They are changing and improving the place all the time. New since we last went are the animals - Shetland ponies, alpacas, Kune Kune pigs, sheep, ferrets and Guinea pigs.
Crikey! I should be on commission but it really is worth a visit if you're in the area. We've been going since Evie was very small and have seen the mazes grow from spindly little saplings to tall, quite thick hedges now. OK. I've finished. :0)
3 comments:
We have a lot in common. In my day I did many a folk festival, (sometimes alone, in my tent!)
I had a boyfriend who was 6'4 once at Sidmouth in the 70s..I had to do Celidhe dancing in high heels so we didbn't look like mop and bucket.Met my husband at Traditional music session. He's the upside down one on the right here
and in the other pictures he's the one with an excruciating amount of facial hair. Well it was the 70s.
These are wonderful photos. We have a Scottish Festival yearly in our town and I usually host the dance tent featuring Irish step dancers and Scottish country dancers. It's fun. Love the man with the blue face, especially imagining him as an accountant by day. Amazing how many otherwise normal grown ups still like to play dress up!
Fab!
Post a Comment