Colour and community

Time has flown by this week in a flurry of work, golf, going out and trying to sort some wedding stuff out. 

Wednesday I was re-zipped and played golf in the morning. Not a bad round for first Lady Captain's, not leading but could get in the prizes if I play alright on Wednesday (it's a 2 part comp).

Rich was playing in the evening straight from work so, after a brief shower of rain, I took the girls out for a leisurely walk around Bradwell to check out the well dressings as it is Carnival Week here. 

It was a beautiful evening, all fresh and washed clean by the rain, sparkling in the sunshine and there was colour everywhere! The rowan trees have gone crazy with berries this year.   

This is the Smalldale Well commemorating Christopher Columbus's journey to the Americas.

In case you don't know, the dressings are frames of puddled clay on which pictures are created out of seeds, leaves and flower petals. All the villages round here do them during their wakes weeks (also known as carnivals, festivals and galas).

They take a lot of time and effort by many people and are a beautiful, highly skilful and ephemeral tribute to the true spirit of village life. They seem to just pop up in their colourful glory but each one has required effort, teamwork and sacrifice of time from many people. I've done a bit of petalling in the past but will get more involved in the future, definitely.

After the first well we headed up the hill and I just happened to look up as we passed the old bowling green (now 2 bungalows with famtastically flat lawns in front!). These flowers against the blue sky caught my eye. So cheery.

Halfway up the hill we turn left onto Granby Road and admired the views of Bradwell Edge and down the valley. More colour in the form of drifts of rosebay willowherb.

Then down a field in the middle of the village to the goat path. I love the views over rooftops and gardens and down to St Barnabas church where we'll be getting married next year. It is so pretty nestling under the Edge.

The lady goat posed handsomely in the sunshine while her companion behind carried on chomping away.

This little Hart's Tongue fern was an almost luminous green in the shade. I have tried to plant a few of these in a shady corner of my garden but they haven't taken.

Then we get to the main Bradwell well. It looked amazing on pictures I saw on facebook when it first went up on Saturday but had already deteriorated badly by Wednesday. The clay had cracked and petals had shrunk back. It must get more sun than the other 2.

Still the workmanship is amazing. To be able to capture such life and expression in the faces working in a medium of flower petals is just incredible.

Just look at Grumpy scowling!

Choosing subject matter for each well is always an issue. Bradda Carnival is quite late in the summer and the hot anniversaries and milestones have usually been covered by other villages. This year's top designs were womens' suffrage, 100 years since the end of WW1 and the 70th birthday of the RAF. We had a nod to Votes for Women but the main picture is Disney's Snow White, no idea!

The final well is the Townend Well which is done by my neighbours. (It was in full sun so the photos aren't great.) This one celebrates the 50th anniversary of the village's Centenary Players (aka my panto drama group!). They are called the Centenary Players as they were formed in the year St Barnabas Church turned 100!

Dick Whittington was the first panto they performed.

I love that they used real hair and fur for the audience and Dick Whittington's cat!!

So, it was a great walk and reminded me how much I love this village and the people in it.