My week is divided into two parts, Monday to Friday,  which I regard as working days even though I do not get paid and then the weekend. On Friday I prioritize tidying things up, fiddling with semi important matters that can wait a few days.

My love affair with the English language continues with this dreadful pun (above), only suitable for winding down on Friday afternoon. I am not sure where it is but you will see a car driving on the right so it is probably the U.S.A. or Canada.

Fireworks celebrations occur this weekend. Thank you Guy Fawkes. I wish you had succeeded in your efforts to blow up Parliament. It has more or less blown itself up with a mixture of incompetence, corruption and declining  moral standards.

Due to fear of the wind and rain, the organizers cancelled the well-known Weston-Super-Mare event on Tuesday for the event due Friday (tonight as I write). It looked like a premature and fear driven decision. Listening to the BBC Weather fear forecast you would think that we were going to get 100 mile an hour winds, a month’s supply of rain in a day, snow, pestilence, probably raining frogs and we are lucky to be alive at the end.  Looking at the forecast, the wind had died down and the chances of rain were low.

In previous years we have watched the firework display at the cricket club here in Midsomer Norton and we normally watch from a field up a  hill slightly outside the cricket field itself. The fireworks go on for about 20 minutes so its not that great but the quality is there and ‘a good time was had by all’.

There are many events going on in Bristol over the weekend but somehow I don’t quite fancy going there of an evening. It is about one and a half hours each way if you are lucky and I’m getting to the stage in life now when I don’t particularly care to do this at night in the dark although of course if there was an emergency I would certainly do it.

There are four events in Bath on the Saturday and none of them are free. The one in the Rec, the rugby club venue in the centre, costs £10 per person. We could watch it for nothing on the road that overlooks the weir on the River. When all said and done it depends on the weather and if it looks rainy we shall probably not even go out and just listen to the bangs and wooshes from our house. Forget taking the car. We shall take a bus if we go at all.

Now we focus on Sunday

There is a different opportunity:  to go to Rockaway Park. Search my site for many many references for a place you would not believe unless you see it.

Somehow I don’t get a very high intuitive reading on the firework displays. Interestingly, the Rockaway Park venue which we eventually chose and which had a high ‘reading’ has no fireworks. This is probably because the space is too limited to let off fireworks safely. What they do have is a bonfire,  plus vegan roasts, open studios, art market plus music and festive activities. There is no entrance charge apart from a five-pound parking fee if you wish to use the adjacent field.

There are many tongue-in cheek activities here for example

Festival artist, Sarah Slater, will also be on hand performing as her comic creation, Lady Button of Haberdasher. Having fallen on hard times, Lady Button has set out her stall, giving personalised guidance through the medium of buttons…big ones, small ones, fancy ones, vintage ones and totally random ones to suit every kind of enquiry. The lightly spiritual, deeply meaningful, virtually present wise woman will amaze and amuse as she reads the buttons you’ve ‘chosen’ to weave a thread and sew colours into the rich tapestry of here and now. Brace yourselves to be button boozled!

Many people could learn from the quality of the website. As the particular page which describes the event may change,  I will give you the main site. It is always worth a look and I am very happy to accompany anyone who has not been to this place before. You will find my contact details on this site. I have been about 40 times and I never tire of going.

So, plans made. We are going to the Rockaway event for the first part of the evening, it starts at 4:00 p.m. so we will be there shortly after.

Christian Sing-a-long event

Our second event will be The Vineyard Bath – Somer Valley bonfire sing-along which is curiously timed to only go on for one and a half hours, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. It will be held on a farm. I believe there are at least 80 people going so I would have thought the party would just be starting at 7.30 but I am not the organizer so I must just shut up and fit in with whatever is planned. Maybe they did not know when they conceived the idea that there would be 80 people and they guessed wrongly that there will be just a few. The event will develop a life of its own I guess.

They advertise

SOUP   SPARKLERS     S’MORES

I have absolutely no idea what a s’mores is so of course I had to look it up. First of all it is a food item which is a good start and it is described as ‘a confection consisting of toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of Graham cracker. These are popular in the United States and Canada, traditionally cooked over a campfire. In the realm of camping, smores are a staple dessert.

Reading that, my reaction is this is junk food writ large. A chocolate sandwich doesn’t exactly excite me but then again I might actually just have a taste. I think this is mainly aimed at children so maybe they will have something else for us adults.

Anyway you will get the full gory details when I write my diary on Sunday evening. Oh by the way in case your interested, I always finish my diary on the day of the event except when I’m away on vacation and I will then start by writing the last day which is fresh in my memory and then go back to day one and go forward from there.

That’s about all I have to say today. In the background as I write, the odd firework bang is to be heard. Francoise made a very nice apple (from the garden) cake, which tasted even better when grilled.

Tidying up a garden

We went to finish a garden job this afternoon. It was still a mess on Wednesday when we abandoned the job due to rain but when we arrived  today we found a ground was just as wet so I cut the lawn with a strimmer which believe it or not does a good job and then we raked the weeds  and grass and put them aside. The lady herself is too old to conduct her business and when we arrived on Wednesday at around lunch time she was still wearing her night attire.

She is very nervous and although she comes out to see what we are doing she closes the door and locks it immediately. I have an intermediary social worker type of person called Anne who pays her regular visits and it is her to whom I report to get paid. We trust each other completely and she is very conscientious about paying me as soon as she can get round to popping a cheque through my door. I have been with her for nearly 5 years now.

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday we went to have coffee at the Mendip Pantry. Across the road there is a little slice of 19th century Britain. We always walk along the road to visit a relatively un spoilt combination of an old track road, a weir, a foot bridge and a stream. It is only a few yards away from the main road but it’s atmosphere is delightful nevertheless.