Inspiration

It’s pouring with rain, the valley is drenched, and we’re all exhausted. But it’s that happy sort of exhaustion that comes from knowing that you’ve just put on the best party ever – and that the weather was on our side. Because after two days of rain, yesterday afternoon the clouds parted to reveal a brilliant golden evening, casting our village Jubilee celebrations in the most amazing sparkling glow you could imagine.

Festivities began on Sunday with ‘The Big Lunch’ – 65 of us in the village hall with an extraordinary feast donated, can you believe it, in a prize from Iceland. (the supermarket, that is, for our overseas readers). Who knew? Enough to feed a 100 people. And it was delicious as well as exuberant.

On Monday morning, a flurry of activity moving all that bunting down to the cricket pitch, where decorations were in full flow, marquees raised, and a 7 ton truck collected and parked to make the stage for the band later.

There was briefly time to inspect the fireworks being installed:

and to try out the stage

before heading down to the river where Honor Slade’s duck race was about to commence.  A nerve-racking event followed:

I don’t think I’ve laughed quite so much in a long time.

Time for a brief cuppa at home and for Mum, Dad, Will and Maggie to arrive – and then we made our way down to the cricket pitch where the village social club had put on what can only be described as the event of the decade. The grounds were bathed in fantastic sunshine.

and it was hard to imagine a more magical setting:

Classic cars…

Raffle ticket sellers…

Brilliant wood fired pizzas from Jalopy Pizzas…

A prize every time (that’s my sort of competition)…

And then the whole glorious evening merged into, well, a slightly hazy time. Perfect picnic, bonkers party in the Morris Minor, patriotic Dunovaria Silver Band, brilliant ‘Slipped Disc’ on stage (the amazing sight of my Mum and Dad, aged 78 and 79 respectively, dancing to AC/DC… unexpected to say the least!!)… bouncy castles and sumo wrestling, the Queen Liz Bar, superb fireworks from Fireworks Solutions who we could not recommend more highly… A ‘Rock’ National Anthem performed by Slipped Disc followed by the lighting of a brilliant flaming beacon on the skyline (which I just did not manage to photograph). A night to remember.  The village rocked the valley!  Happy Jubilee!