As I meandered my way from Monmouth to Oswestry I realised that I would be passing very close to one of my earlier WWOOF hosts so, on the spur of the moment, decided to drop in and see how they were. I tried to phone first but mobile signal in the Welsh Borders is notoriously bad so I couldn’t pre-warn them of my arrival. Luckily it didn’t matter as they were there, but busy, so I had a chance to look round (and help with a small fencing job!) and then I was invited to stay for lunch, which was really enjoyable.
When I got to my next WWOOF hosts I almost collided with them in the lane as they had to go out to a Maypole dance practice which had been re-scheduled one hour earlier than I’d been told, so I quickly parked my car and went with them so that we could catch up on the way. I was last here in early September, and it is almost a year exactly since Jeni and I were here together, so it was interesting to see what had changed and how the season compared to last Spring. When I arrived there was snow lingering on the mountain in front of the house and the temperature was much colder than last year. In fact, they had had a really bad snow storm the week before I arrived with trees down across two of the lanes and the mountain lane almost impassable.
The weather continued to be pretty bad with some torrential rain so I did quite a bit of potting up in the greenhouses and also started painting the inside of the summer house.
Dawn and Tony each compiled lists of jobs that needed to be done as they were off to Brittany for ten days and I was going to house-sit for them and continue to progress garden jobs if and when the weather allowed. One of the things I made a start on was constructing a new pathway to link up two different areas of the garden. Dawn helped me move two large tree trunks into position to form the edge of the path, before she went away, and then I dug out wheelbarrows of shaley earth from a bank that needed to be flattened to enlarge the lawned area, and took them along to make the path. Luckily both these areas were on the same level, as it would have been even more tiring if I’d had to move the earth up and down steps.
The whole ten days passed relatively peacefully, apart from the day when the sheep from the next field invaded the garden – it is extremely frustrating trying to herd sheep out of a 3 acre overgrown garden on a 45 degree slope on your own! At first I thought there was only one sheep and I managed to get her to go back through the hole that she’d come through originally. I then did some emergency fence repairs using an old pallet and some baler twine! Annoyingly, when I went out later on with Jasper (the Miniature Schnauzer) there were two more sheep in the garden. As they were trying to get back into the field through the hole I’d just repaired, I concluded that all three had come through together but that two of them had lost themselves in the garden and I’d failed to spot them. I managed to persuade them out through the garden gate and left them to work out how to get back into their field!
While Dawn and Tony were away a stray thought popped into my head – why didn’t I have my hair cut short for charity? I have no idea where this thought came from but sometimes they are the ones that should be acted on, so after running the idea past Jeni, I went ‘public’ on Facebook before I could change my mind! This was on 28th April, and I’d aimed to raise £300 for CLIC Sargent by the beginning of June (the date I’d decided was Big Cut Off Day) – to date the total stands at £542.50 with more money pledged by email! I am amazed at people’s generosity. I have also found an organisation that can use the resulting hair for wigs for children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy or alopecia, so another plus. The appointment is now booked with my hairdresser back in Somerset for 6th June, so there’s no going back now.
Dawn and Tony duly arrived back from Brittany and I then had nearly another week with them during which I attended a Hand-fasting Ceremony and the May Day Celebration. Hand-fasting is an ancient form of marriage which harks back to pre-Christian days but has several elements of similarity with the Christian marriage service, including the binding of the couple’s hands with a cord. The couple involved were really retaking their vows as they have been married for 21 years, but it was a beautiful ceremony held in a marquee decorated with fresh flowers. At one point in the ceremony when the bride was reading her personal vows to her husband, she started to weep with emotion, she then turned to look at the ‘congregation’ and there was hardly a dry eye in the house, which made everyone laugh in a slightly embarrassed way! Afterwards there was a lovely feast and a bonfire to sit round until late in the evening.
The May Day celebrations were held at the same venue as the Hand-fasting – a privately-owned Nature Reserve a few miles from Oswestry. Last year Jeni and I both went to this festival and it was great fun, so I extended my stay for another couple of days to enable me to go to it again. The Maypole had been erected with all its colourful ribbons blowing in the wind, there was a small band of musicians and, this year, a choir who had been rehearsing the traditional songs for some weeks. The dances are all traditional ones that involve the dancers in intricate ribbon weaving around the pole – it is actually quite strenuous as some of the dances go on for some minutes. While the dancers were doing the traditional steps, the Fool was exhorting the rest of us to join hands and form a dancing ring around the outside – it all got very raucous and ended up almost like a conga line with the Fool leading us on a merry dance around the site! Everyone brought food to share and there was a fantastic amount and array of different dishes – we had made pitta pockets filled with salad leaves from the greenhouses and grated carrot and cheese. They looked very colourful and went down a storm – I don’t think there was one left.
After that the male Champion had to be chosen – this is done by a feat of strength which involves throwing a granite ball as far as possible (a bit like shot putting), and Tony won! He has been close to winning for many years but this time he did it with knobs on, spurning the efforts of the much younger males present – it must be all that gardening! He then had to choose his May Queen, and this is done by all the women placing the garlands that they have made and worn in a circle around the Maypole, and the Champion must choose the one that appeals to him most. The owner then steps forward and is proclaimed Queen of the May and they take up their positions by the maypole while the dancers weave their final dance. Amazingly, the weather that had been so awful for days prior to the event, cleared up and it was sunny and warm for most of the day! Magic!
The next day, and all too soon, it was time to repack the Peugeot and head south to Llanidloes where I will be spending nearly two months, apart from the time when I am house-sitting near Bristol.
