A great week of dancing to 3D (The Three Dimensional Dewhurst Family band) and caller Ivan Aitken, interspersed with walks in the Quantocks in fine summer sunshine. The Manor’s lawns were frequented by ardent croquet and petanque fans and there was also a Sunday Cream Tea Dance (the latter organised by the Manor and advertised with a bill board on the main road/lane junction) which attracted a few intrepid tourists from as far afield as New Zealand!. I thought the tourists coped with the dancing and the grass underfoot very well and it was disappointing to suddenly realise that some had fled, after all the ‘excellent’ tuition from the Guildford folk and friends!The more serious event during the week was the devouring of some excellent food, however the task of eating breakfast was ‘lightened?’ by everyone’s frequent acquaintance with an amazing piece of industrial automation - The TOASTER! Like the assembled gathering, it had a good appetite for consuming bread until it threw out blackened tiles or smoke or flames, or all three!! Such was the reverence with which The TOASTER was held that the final night Ceilidh brought forth ‘The Folk Ballet Group’ amazingly dressed in bin liner (what else) tutus, who performed the swan song of The TOASTER. We were also treated to an interlude by our Poet Laureate of the week, John Graham, reprinted below with his kind permission!
It was a week full of excellent music, a good selection of dances with calling to match, fun and games of many kinds and superb weather.