A Fête On The Field

The Welsh have their Eisteddfods, the Scots their Highland Games, but the English have their Village Fêtes. Up and down the country, for a century or more these events have been a quintessential part of rural summer life. Drawing on the medieval trading fairs and Victorian community gatherings [especially around harvest time] The 'modern' fête really took off between the two world wars, in the 1920s and 30s. They began as parish 'sales of work' - to raise money for orphans, war veterans and church repairs. 
On Sunday we went to church in Wymondham - Bob is mentoring their minister,[and advising on PA] and we wanted to see how things were going now they have rearranged the inside of their chapel. They have new seats, and air-con too, so we were cool and comfortable, and it was a great service.

On the way we passed some signs to a nearby village. So, after church, we grabbed a snack at Wymondham Food Festival, and drove to a little village in the middle of nowhere [I don't recall going to Hardingham before] It was fabulous!

Helpful adults and cheerful children with collecting buckets, all in hi-viz vests, directed us to the parking area at one edge of the cricket field. 

These are just some of the gazebos! Everyone was raising money for the upkeep of the Village 'Memorial' Hall and the Parish Church. And they had all the 'proper' things you expect at a fête

Tombola, hoop-la, books, bric-a-brac, bottle stall, old tools [Bob loved them] cake stall, smashing crockery [with the option to buy any unbroken pieces from the baskets if you wanted!] obstacle course, children's games, facepainting, raffle, "village croquet"...

And inside the adjacent hall, tea, cakes, scones at one end, a bar at the other, and just outside two blokes cooking sausages and burgers. And all the while, the Norwich City Concert Band, under their huge blue gazebo, entertained us with fabulous tunes. 

I bought a Victoria Sponge from the cake stall for later, but also cups of tea and scones to enjoy outside in the sun.

Mercifully it was nothing like as hot as the previous three days.

I also had a good chat to the lady on stilts. She was so adept at balancing, walking, and standing still - and delighted the children with her handheld bubble machine. She makes new costumes each year - we talked about play costumes, and the complications of 'trousers' for the stilts.

Bob bought two chisels to refurbish and I got a calligraphy set. Before we left, I went to thank the guy at the organisers' table next to the First Aid Tent. He told me the event had run for 80 years, apart from Covid year. They begin planning in February! He said they had introduced 'tokens' this year to cope with the whole cash/cards problem. You could buy as many [or as few] as you liked from his table at £1 each, [he had a card reader] then use them at the stalls round the field. Bob and I did have cash with us - but he said many people don't carry much anymore, and this system seemed to work well. I thought back to the wonderful fundays and fêtes we had been heavily involved in, both in Kirby and Ferndown - and said we really did appreciate how much work went on behind the scenes to produce such a lovely event.
In my opinion, this is the sort of event I like to visit - you can keep your commercialised, over priced, politicised State Fairs and the like. This is just ordinary people in their community getting together to do good. I hope they do really well [and get enough money for the village defibrillator!]

Have you been to any good community events this summer?

Are you involved in anyway, baking, making, selling etc?

Every Life Saved Is Hope

 

These are the words of the interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, yesterday after 12 year old Moises was pulled alive from the rubble - four days after the devastating earthquakes.
Venezuela is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. It struggles with rampant inflation, unemployment, goods shortages and a high crime rate. International sanctions, primarily from the US, have weakened the country further. Its infrastructure is crumbling, almost non existent.
So when an earthquake like this hits, there are no efficient mechanisms in place to help. I wept as I listened to a man saying he watched his neighbours tearing at rubble with their bare hands, in an effort to reach trapped family members "They have no tools, no chisels or shovels...they have no proper torches, they are borrowing peoples phones to use the torches on them" 
The window for finding people alive is closing - soon it will be not rescue but retrieval. The nation will have to cope with injured people, with bereavements, the homeless and the hungry.
I may have been hot and uncomfortable last week, I may have missed my weekend in London with my beloved family - but I still have them - so I must try and get things into perspective. And the money for my unused train ticket has already pinged back into my account.
I feel so impotent in the face of their suffering. I pray for them, and for wisdom to know what I can do to help. At the time of writing, the DEC [Disasters Emergency Committee]  have yet to launch an appeal - but they have helpfully suggested some charities already responding in Venezuela, should people want to donate now. Oxfam is one of the organisations which I know and trust. 
Please help Moises and others to have hope...
UPDATE  Do read this amazing story from the BBC

A Drink Of Water

I have been aware for the whole of June how blessed I am to have fresh water freely available - it started at the end of May when the water main burst - but we were able to fill our bottles from the tap at Liz's cottage.  The following weekend I waited in A&E for 5 hours for treatment [I'm OK now, don't ask for the gory details] it was hot and crowded, and my bottle of water was so important. The Dr impressed upon me that it was essential I stayed properly hydrated and drink lots of water. And then it got so hot -stiflingly hot [the old word round here is swullocking]🥵
A guy came to the door on Tuesday collecting for a hospice charity. I explained politely that we already supported our local hospice, and asked if he knew about Dame Cicely Saunders. He didn't, but promised to google her later [every day's a schoolday at Cornerstones!]

"Would you like a drink of cold water from the fridge?" I asked "And what about your mate across the road?" He was genuinely surprised at my offer. "We are not allowed to ask for a drink, but if someone offers one, we may accept" he said. So I gave him two paper cups of chilled water to take and share with his colleague. "Pop them in a recycling bin when you have finished with them" 

I try to avoid disposable cups, but if I do get one, I bring it home, and wash it very thoroughly and carefully. Here's my stack. Then I can happily give it away. This past week, I have offered water to any of the workmen or delivery guys who are out in the Close.
It is a small thing, but an important aspect of my faith [Matthew 25 "I was thirsty and you gave me a drink"...]

This was my birthday gift from Steph - she was on a work trip to Amsterdam and went in the Good News Coffee shop. She knew how much I would love one of their flasks. It is brilliant - easy to carry, and it keeps coffee hot, and cold water really cold for hours. 
There's a Bible story about refreshing water in the middle of a hot day...good news indeed

Jesus, tired out by his journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.  A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” The woman answered, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan—so how can you ask me for a drink?” (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.) Jesus answered, “If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water? It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his children and his flocks all drank from it. You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?” Jesus answered, “Those who drink this water will get thirsty again,  but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life.”  “Sir,” she said, “give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again”
[words John ch 4, The Good News Translation, picture from GNT by Annie Vallotton]

Sunny Saturday Story

Last weekend, Jon brought Jess up to Norfolk so Rosie and her Bestie could have fun sans siblings. We looked after Jess on Saturday, and went into Norwich in the morning.
We began in Castle Mall, where there was a Toy Story Event

Overhyped and underwhelming. Jess went into the ball pond to find a magic red prize envelope. As far as we could tell, the cards inside all read "Sorry, no prize this time" or "You have won a free cup of coffee". Jess had the former, a number of grumpy children near us were saying "But Mum, I don't like coffee!" You could queue to be photographed with a real live character. But the line had about 30 people in it, no sign of 'character'. I asked nicely, and the assistant said yes of course Jess could be photographed in front of the cardboard cutouts.

We decided to go and do some history instead, and took Jess to show her the Castle now it has been refurbished. She loved the banquet in the Great Hall, and dressing up as a medieval princess.

In the gift shop, Jess tried on a medieval head-dress. [£15] It was time for lunch, so off to Christophe's Crepes

Then home, to make first a Father's Day Card for her Daddy, and second, a pointy hat! We used Grandma's sewing machine. And had a quick maths lesson- Jess learned to make a cone shape using a circle. 

Jess said her favourite parts of the day were looking at the pretend banquet food in the castle [eggs and almonds made of wood!], the ancient toilet [a plank of wood with two hole in it!] the lunchtime crepes, and opening her pink Barbie egg
She is growing up very fast!
Have you seen any of the Toy Story hype?

Have you seen the film yet?

Heatwave - A Marmot Thing, Love It Or Hate It!

I should have been on the train* to London, meeting Liz and the girls and going to this. But the Young V&A is closed due to the heatwave. And instead I have fallen down an Internet rabbit hole, no, a marmot burrow. Consider the French painter Fragonard for instance. Until this week, I only knew two of his paintings

Young Girl Reading - which was on a postcard pinned in my student bedroom, and The Swing [I saw this in the Wallis Collection]

But now I have found The Girl With The Marmot, [in the Albertina Museum, Vienna] and I have now learned an awful lot about marmots. These cute rodents [related to the groundhog] live at high altitude , spending many months in hibernation. They come out for just 4 or 5 months in the summer, and display hyperphagia - extreme insatiable hunger.

This enables them to build up body fat to sustain them through their winter months, in their underground burrows. But these creatures are ill-equipped to survive temperatures about 20°C. They cannot sweat [no ex-Royal-related jokes, please!] 

They have to sploot - that is, spread themselves out, face down**, on a cool rock in the shade somewhere. This helps them reduce their body temperature. Maybe I should strip off and sploot on the cool tiles in the Futility Room? Perhaps not. They forage and eat early & late, and take it easy in the hottest parts of the day. 
I could definitely be a Marmot Girl, following their example 

 - and this is my summer! 

*Trainline are refunding my tickets - thankyou!

** the marmot in the cartoon is lying the wrong way up!

Utter Fabrication!

The phrase means "a lie -  totally made-up". But the other week, Bob and I visited an utterly fabulous exhibition of fabrics from all around the globe. Entitled "journeys" and displayed at Blickling Hall, our local NT property, it was just a part of a lifetime's collection of fabrics, amassed by Karun Thakar. Born in Kenya, growing up in Delhi finally settling in the UK, this man has been obsessed with textiles since childhood. There is a helpful explanatory video here [I'm putting KTs quotes in red.]We began in the entrance hall- KT says "the hall has a lot of portraits of men...so we wanted to bring the presence of women's work into the hallway"

We saw  kanthas, and baghs - the former , bedquilts made from saris or repurposed fabrics, the latter, head shawls worn at festivals and weddings. A riot of colour, a diversity of stitching- representing the realities of rural and local life. 'In the textiles, needles became tools of agency and remembrance for women'

In the Brown Drawing Room, KT chose to display lots of Indian textiles. in 1938, Philip Kerr,Blickling's last owner, invited Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi here, to discuss the future of an independent India. A Kashmir shawl, Gujurat hangings and a palampore [block printed cotton wall hanging] The British East India Company [founded 1600] exported Indian fabrics to Europe, and they became instantly fashionable. I was sorry that no reference was made to the Norwich Shawl [a number of reviewers have picked up this point!]

The prints in the Print Room were mostly collected  by an earlier owner of the Hall, John Hobart on his travels in Italy. John had eight children, four of whom died very young. He never recovered from this loss. KT chose to display this unfinished Italian silk-on-linen embroidery to represent their unfinished lives..."I am fascinated by unfinished textiles because they represent all sorts of possibilities...a thing of curiosity that leaves the gaps for the viewer to fill in"

In the South Drawing Room, KT reflects colonial trading power. The East India Company brought in the chintz printed fabric in the 1600s but this affected English and French producers. The Calico Acts were passed in the 1700s - and European textile production, like these French toile du Jouy designs flourished, whilst increased colonial activity in the subcontinent decimated the Indian industries.

In the Upper Ante Room Blickling has a collection of Japanese object - here KT displayed some of his kimonos [the guide told us he has thousands in store!]

In the Peter the Great Room, there were, unsurprisingly , many robes from the Russian Empire - " I want to show the diversity of people living across Russia in the 1800s...ikat robes, and Arabichi coats

The Long Gallery and Library housed some fabulous African printed fabrics - kente cloth made from silk and cotton traded across the world as early as the 1500s/

The whole thing was a riot of colour, and beautiful stitchery. As I went from room to room ,there were many other visitors [mostly women], admiring, discussing, comparing the textiles. It was good to talk with other people who share my passion for working with fabric, restoring old materials, reclaiming forgotten techniques ....

It is a good, worth seeing. But Bob and I both felt the information panels were a little short on facts- which places in Russia were represented by those robes,  how did the designs link across the world? Where are they telling the story of how the boteh motif of India appearing on the Norwich shawl, and then on Paisley shawls and now often called a Paisley Pattern? what was the symbolism of the different colours used?  I did feel sorry for the volunteer NT guides, because many of the visitors were asking these questions, and they were not sufficiently equipped to answer them. 

But that deficit means I only award 4*

It's Too Darn Hot!

 I am up to my eyes in making bears, with frequent breaks to wash my hands and rehydrate. The neighbourhood cats are sheltering in their homes, avoiding all hot roofs [tin or otherwise] The solar panels are quietly generating lots of energy. 

Here's a brief excerpt from Kiss Me Kate. 

I am left with two questions...

1. If it was that hot, why were they all leaping about so much?
2. Have I left it too late to take up tap dancing?