Local festivities - some of them cancelled, some resurrected, some just continuing.

Last Friday should have been the Whit Friday Band Contest, the annual brass band contest that is the closest thing we have to a “fiesta” around here. On rare occasions it’s a beautifully sunny day but as a rule it’s dull and damp and often cold. As a rule that doesn’t stop the bands marching through our village to play their music before getting in their coach to go on to the next village and repeat the performance. It doesn’t stop people turning out to watch them. This year was a moderately decent day for it but for the second year on the run Covid has put a stop to it. The Delph band played in the village in the morning anyway. Maybe next year it will return fully.

Band Contest day always used to be followed by the Beer Walk. Coordinated, I think, by the Round Table, teams signed up for this, got themselves dressed up along some theme they had chosen and walked, or in some cases ran, round the Saddleworth villages, stopping at designated hostelries for a half pint of beer along the way - a sort of officially sanctioned pub crawl, but the rush from village to village mostly burned off the alcohol. Teams collected money for their selected charity along the way. Another bit of local carnival. 

It stopped happening about ten years ago. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it actually was turning into too much of a pub crawl, too drunken. Who knows? But it seems that some people have been dressing up anyway and doing an unofficial Beer Walk, just for the fun of it. A young friend of ours takes part. (When I say young, it’s all relative. She’s the same age as our daughter. Both of them have pretty much grown-up daughters of their own. Time was, I thought 40 was ancient, and now it seems very young. That’s how it goes!) When my daughter and I came back from a walk late Saturday afternoon we came across a “monk”, a “nun” and a “cardinal” having a drink outside the pub next door to our house. What a surprise!

They had a lovely day for it as well. Blue sky and sunshine on Saturday,

 

 

  yesterday,

 

  

and today. Perfect for tidying up the garden and for getting washing dry!

  

Some people went to the beach yesterday. We stayed home and had the family round for dinner. I made blueberry cheesecake for dessert. 

 

The recipe instructed me to bake it for 45 minutes. I did so. It was still semi-liquid. I gave it a further ten minutes, and another and another, before it seemed sufficiently set to come put of the oven and cool down. It was much appreciated. 

 

I ran along the Donkey Line this morning, stopping only to admire the squirrels.

It’s time for the Delph Donkey Trail as well. Eager participants set up dummies with donkey masks in their windows or gardens. You can buy a map and go rpund the village spotting them. I think it’s organised by the Wake Up Delph committee, selling the trail maps as another way of raising some money for village projects. Her’s one donkey I spotted this morning.

I read this morning that a Donkey Sanctuary in Devon has arranged for their do keys to be used to “tread in” wildflower seeds in farmland that is being rewilded. Apparently the trampling helps germination. And it seems it’s good for the do keys too. One of the Sanctuary workers said, “It is important to us that our donkeys benefit from different types of activities and experiences. Our donkeys will be able to enjoy a walk with our grooms and benefit from one to one time while they walk over the plots.” 

I’m all in favour of looking after donkeys’ well-being but maybe the Sanctuary workers get a bit sentimental about it. 

Donkeys are not the only useful animals in this respect. I read that “Other animals including wild horses and cattle are widely used as “conservation managers”, with their trampling and grazing helping wild plants to flourish and flower. Tamworth pigs have also proved extremely useful in “ploughing” wild turf with their snouts and making space for annual wildflowers to germinate at the rewilded farm of Knepp in West Sussex.” 

There you go! That would explain why a farmer up the road from us moves his pigs from one patch of land to another in his field; the pigs are doing a useful bit of digging with their snouts. 

That’s enough local culture and nature commentary for today. There’s sunshine to enjoy.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!