A grand weekend — An Elegant Sufficiency

Like many parts of the UK, we can't remember when it last rained. Our poor garden is looking very sad indeed and I don't think we've ever seen the grass so parched. I've mentioned our sad pond situation here previously - we continue to try to find the leak in the system and taking one step at a time are hopefully getting somewhere. Last week, the pump wiring was repaired and as we stood watching the water circulating again, a few slugs found themselves being transported to new grounds as their cosy home in the pipe was flushed out.

We'd never seen such enormous slugs - or such a variety of them! The Yellow slug was easily identified but the others - well, who knows? Within five minutes they were off out of the pond and in search of new ground and though there were four of us watching them, did any of us disturb one? (What do you think?!)

Someone else was hanging around in the pond, disturbed by the commotion going on. We didn't bother him/her either.

As we were observing wildlife in the garden, we were also noting developments across the way on the Pleasure Grounds, where preparations were being made for the village festival this weekend. When the heavens opened on Friday afternoon we were torn between wanting/needing the rain and hoping it stayed dry for Saturday.

On Friday night, we went out with friends and house-sitters, enjoying the delights of our local favourite and savouring yet another tasting menu and wine pairing. Getting to be a habit, it seems! Thankfully, our favourite Tequila Slammer was featured in those nine courses: tequila sorbet with a salt crisp and a lime juice sphere. Love it!

Whilst we were there enjoying ourselves, Edward and Amy had been stuck on a broken down train in Swindon, making their way home eventually albeit rather later than planned. So the four of us gathered up our festival kit on Saturday and went over to see the first highlighted event on our programme: our not-so-small friends were part of the local dance school performance.

The most impressive aspect of this fun day is the way the organisers involve so many local community groups on stage, bringing together all ages and interests. So when we found our spot and settled into our chairs, we soon found ourselves surrounded by families, youngsters and most of our neighbours!

There were several different performance locations around the site too, including a cookery demonstration stage and several "stages" for music and dance. Plenty to do, see, eat and drink!

By mid-afternoon, making our way around was becoming a challenge and involved a little tiptoeing around the picnic blankets. But the general mood was good natured and relaxed - but oh my goodness, we were getting warm.

Jane had tipped us the wink to be somewhere near the gin tent (oh yes!) around 3.45pm so we were well placed to enjoy the flash mob

Meanwhile, the main stage was warming up with a great performance from The Mariachis. Huge fun, they had everyone singing along to a few old favourites!

By the time the local favourites, Casual Six came on stage, the crowd were relaxed, happy and just a wee bit pleased that the clouds had closed in. There were quite a few very pink shoulders to be seen here and there - and yes, some red necks....

At last, then, the headline act. In the publicity leading up to the event, the question had been asked, "how far would you go to join in the fun?" but we had to wait a while to get to that familiar line.

The Proclaimers played for over an hour, included several of our favourites and ending on the crowd pleaser which had the whole village jumping....

The best dressed babies had taken the best precautions too! How sensible.

What a day...what a great celebration of our little corner of the world, eh? There was such a buzz as we made our way home. Here's hoping we can do it all again next year!