Summer weekend
Oh yes. Doesn’t it feel unfair when, after so many warm and sultry days, the weather breaks down just when everyone was hoping for a fine, dry weekend?
It tipped it down all day Friday. Not just the “ordinary” rain, either, but the sort that comes down in such torrents, it draws us to the windows to look outside to check everything is still there.
Our lane turned into a river and we watched as, for the first time, we had our own tributary which was washing our gravel drive downhill!
My Hero went out on Saturday morning to sweep it all back.
With our village music festival this weekend, we were hoping the forecast would be ok for Saturday. Edward and Amy were down for the weekend and with memories of the extreme heat of last year, I think we were all four of us slightly relieved that it was at least a little cooler. Even so, we prepared for every weather eventuality as we made our way through the allotments on Saturday morning.
The party was soon in full swing. We arrived in time to watch our friends dancing on the “village green” stage and by the time their show had finished, the field was filling up and we were getting hungry.
There were plenty of choices for lunch - we opted for Japanese chicken bowls. Very good they were, too!
We’d settled ourselves in front of the main stage and watched Dick and Dom do what they do, recognising that we were all way too old for their schtick!
On one of their meanderings, Edward and Amy had wandered into the Victoria Works craft tent and booked us both into a session with Helen Lomberg to make a willow sunflower. It was great fun, we loved the results and came away with an enormous bloom each. (I’m wondering if Amy managed to get hers home safely on the train last night!)
By the time we were back, the music was in full swing with local band Gibberish doing a grand job of getting the crowd warmed up.
Because we were about to be taken back to the 1960s. Picture the scene…the last time I stood and heard this music played live was when I was seven and taken to the ABC in Hull to see the (real) Beatles play. The Bootleg Beatles were terrific - and I probably heard more of their performance than I did of the original one when the screaming was way louder than the music!
And yes, of course I knew every word.
We liked the way they “grew older” as their set progressed through ObLaDi ObLaDa and into the All you need is Love era
By the time they reached Hey Jude, the whole crowd was singing along. What a show!
It was also getting incredibly full, the queues for the bars, the loos and the food were very long indeed and we were feeling thankful that we’d been able to pop home when we needed.
Sophie Ellis Bextor was the headline act this year - the perfect, upbeat, poppy crowd pleaser for such an occasion! She was followed by Sister Bliss, whose act we enjoyed from the comfort of home, with a roast spatchcocked chicken on the table and a glass of cold rosé….
Just how much stamina is needed to make it through Glastonbury?!
