We have an annual festival in our village. It lasts just over a week and incorporates all aspects of the Arts and various other things. It's been going for 10 years now and it's growing every year.
Over the last 10 years I've been to the Food Fest, which is always the first event - all the restaurants (and there are many) in the village have stalls in the centre, which is closed to traffic for the evening, and sell samples of their food that you eat al fresco. It's great because we have Chinese, Indian, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Turkish and various English restaurants (all this in a tiny village centre that used to be full of useful shops). Sadly, last year it rained so hard I was soaked to my underwear - as was everybody else - but I still ate plenty.
I went once to the music evening in the grounds of Lymm Hall, very pleasant classical music with a good orchestra. I was lucky that time, it didn't rain. I've also been to various Trad Jazz nights, viewed art exhibitions, listened to poetry and prose (I always mean to submit some of mine and I always forget until too late) and heard choirs. Of course we always go to the Dance Night as it's put on by Laura's Dance School and she's always in it.
One of the best bits of the whole thing is the Scarecrow Trail. Every year I say to Nik, "We'll do one next year," and every year we don't. I get annoyed with myself because, 20 years ago, I'd have had the energy to do it. Now I'm a living example of the old saying, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," or, in my case, the flesh is completely knackered.
The Scarecrow Trail entails people making scarecrows to fit a given theme and displaying them outside their homes. They are all numbered and directions given on a programme so you can drive around the village, or walk if you've got all day and good feet, and see them.
Over the years there have been some beauties and they're so cleverly done. One year someone had a "Bill Oddy" in a tree in their garden, complete with binoculars, and there was a "window cleaner" sitting on an upstairs window sill (legs inside) of a shop in the village; he had a chamois and had rubbed a clean circle in a very mucky window pane. The wine shop once had a couple outside, sitting at a table drinking wine.
The one I remember best was about 7 years ago. The theme was Sport and this scarecrow was a cricketer, complete with whites and pads. He was lodged in a front garden on the main road through the top of the village. He'd been there about 3 days when he disappeared from his moorings but was soon located - across the road leaning against the inside of the Altrincham bus shelter. He was taken back but, the next night, he went missing again and was discovered in the porch of the pub down the road. The next night he was found leaning on the ATM at the Co-op Late Shop, then he tried another bus stop, this time in the opposite direction, going to Warrington. Nobody ever found out who kept moving him but it was fun while it lasted.
This year we had 2 on our road. One of them was Dora the Explorer, complete with Boots. The other one was a Thunderbird character.
The Festival ended on Sunday so I've got another year to come up with a scarecrow plan. Oh I've got plenty of ideas, if only I can put them into action and, more importantly, remember to get on with it early enough. I really should put a poem or a short story in, too. I keep writing the things and my computer's full of them but I haven't done anything with them for years. Maybe next year..............
Over the last 10 years I've been to the Food Fest, which is always the first event - all the restaurants (and there are many) in the village have stalls in the centre, which is closed to traffic for the evening, and sell samples of their food that you eat al fresco. It's great because we have Chinese, Indian, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Turkish and various English restaurants (all this in a tiny village centre that used to be full of useful shops). Sadly, last year it rained so hard I was soaked to my underwear - as was everybody else - but I still ate plenty.
I went once to the music evening in the grounds of Lymm Hall, very pleasant classical music with a good orchestra. I was lucky that time, it didn't rain. I've also been to various Trad Jazz nights, viewed art exhibitions, listened to poetry and prose (I always mean to submit some of mine and I always forget until too late) and heard choirs. Of course we always go to the Dance Night as it's put on by Laura's Dance School and she's always in it.
One of the best bits of the whole thing is the Scarecrow Trail. Every year I say to Nik, "We'll do one next year," and every year we don't. I get annoyed with myself because, 20 years ago, I'd have had the energy to do it. Now I'm a living example of the old saying, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," or, in my case, the flesh is completely knackered.
The Scarecrow Trail entails people making scarecrows to fit a given theme and displaying them outside their homes. They are all numbered and directions given on a programme so you can drive around the village, or walk if you've got all day and good feet, and see them.
Over the years there have been some beauties and they're so cleverly done. One year someone had a "Bill Oddy" in a tree in their garden, complete with binoculars, and there was a "window cleaner" sitting on an upstairs window sill (legs inside) of a shop in the village; he had a chamois and had rubbed a clean circle in a very mucky window pane. The wine shop once had a couple outside, sitting at a table drinking wine.
The one I remember best was about 7 years ago. The theme was Sport and this scarecrow was a cricketer, complete with whites and pads. He was lodged in a front garden on the main road through the top of the village. He'd been there about 3 days when he disappeared from his moorings but was soon located - across the road leaning against the inside of the Altrincham bus shelter. He was taken back but, the next night, he went missing again and was discovered in the porch of the pub down the road. The next night he was found leaning on the ATM at the Co-op Late Shop, then he tried another bus stop, this time in the opposite direction, going to Warrington. Nobody ever found out who kept moving him but it was fun while it lasted.
This year we had 2 on our road. One of them was Dora the Explorer, complete with Boots. The other one was a Thunderbird character.
The Festival ended on Sunday so I've got another year to come up with a scarecrow plan. Oh I've got plenty of ideas, if only I can put them into action and, more importantly, remember to get on with it early enough. I really should put a poem or a short story in, too. I keep writing the things and my computer's full of them but I haven't done anything with them for years. Maybe next year..............
