Halloween

I noticed lots of my facebook friends from other areas have been bemoaning the lack of trick or treaters, but the Willow Park Way estate in Aston has had loads.  It was absolutely manic from the moment it got dark.  Sometimes householders barely had time to shut the front door after one lot had gone before the next lot came.  There are a lot of children living on the estate but also I did hear rumours that people were coming in from other places, which is fair enough if they're coming to go trick or treating with friends from Aston but if not, maybe they should try their local area.  There's probably lots of people who've got sweets in especially and they're probably disappointed that not many people came.  This was the first year we put pumpkins out and them still be intact at the end of the evening.  In previous years they've disappeared and later we've found smashed up pumpkins half way down the street looking like someone's used them to play football with.

Update on a previous post.  Some people did step forward to take over as Guide leaders, so 1st Weston Guides is able to continue, which is really good news.

Well dressing

The well dressing is probably the biggest event on the Aston-on-Trent calendar.  I'm often surprised by how far people come to go to the well dressing.  People from as far away as Nottingham have heard of it and are willing to travel the distance to come.  I've also seen it advertised in a what's on in Derbyshire guide.  In case anyone was wondering what a well dressing is, it's one of these:-

It's made with all natural materials such as petals, seeds etc stuck into clay.  People from village come in and stick a few bits in each.  That one was made by the well dressing commitee.  Other groups make them such as brownies, and the local schools.

There were also stalls and people performing music and drama.  There was a puppet show and a teacup ride.  The church had several displays in it.  There were the old stocks and historical records of the market.  Also a display of what school was like in the Victorian times.  They had some finger stocks to put the fingers in of children who fidget too much in school.

The Malt shovel got the barbecue on.  They did some very good chips.  My only complaint was that there wasn't enough of them.  It wouldn't have hurt to fill the box to the top instead of half full.  My son had a burger and that disappeared very quickly, so I guess that means he enjoyed it. The church people made some really nice cakes to sell and  they'd put out chairs and tables in the church yard.  It was very pleasant sitting out in the warm sun eating cake and chatting.  The weather was perfect the whole weekend.  Sunshine all the way.  Well some people might have complained that it was too hot, but that's very British.  We like to complain about the weather whatever it's doing.

In the evening the pubs put on live bands so the well dressing festivities continued in the evening too.

Girl Guides

There is a notice up in Weston village hall about the Guides.Weston Guides is in a bad position at the moment.  One of the leaders is stepping down and if no-one else comes forward to do the job then it will shut down.  This would be a shame as Aston Guides has already shut down, so Weston Guides takes in the girls from Aston as well.  The girls only option if this happens is to go to Scouts, which is already full to the seams and has a massive waiting list.  (These days, under equal opportunities laws girls can't be turned away from Beavers, Cubs or Scouts, and although these groups are still mainly boys, they do have girls in them). However I've never known any boys try to get into Rainbows, Brownies or Guides).

Girl Guiding is a great organization.  It teaches girls life skills, explores faith, encourages them to be kind and helpful to others and be community spirited.  They have great adventures and fun too.  They have experiences they may not normally have had otherwise.  It also helps to keep them out of trouble.  If anyone can step forward and become a Guide leader it would be much appreciated by Weston Guides, even if it's once a month on a rota basis.  It's on a Thursday evening.  While we're at it, Brownies and Rainbows need more leaders too.

Aston woods continued...

Not so long ago I noticed this sign had appeared in the woods.

Apparently the reason for this is that someone has been coming into the woods with a chainsaw and cutting down trees.  I hope the sign puts whoever is doing this off.

Aston woods are beautiful and I could probably write a whole blog about how they change over the year.  I saw one of these nostalgia posts on facebook about how, in the past, kids used to play in the woods instead of on computer games all the time.  Well in our village kids do have video games but they also do play in the woods.   I've seen dens built in the woods and there's also a bmx track. That gets a lot of use.

Red campion in Aston woods

The bluebells are gone now but they've been replaced by foxgloves and  red campions.  The picture doesn't do the colours justice.  They are much more pink in real life.

Weston school fair

This Saturday we had the Weston school fair.  The Aston school fair was on the same day at roughly the same time.  I went to the Weston one. They both had a fancy dress competition too.  This was the first time Weston had done that at their school fair and quite a few people took part.  They had all the usual stalls, the refreshments, pick a bag, book stall, bric-a-brac, barbecue, hook a duck, panning for gems and splat the rat to name a few.  The turnout wasn't as good as on previous years, although still quite a lot of people came.  This could have been due to the weather, as it was overcast and there was a sudden downpour part way through and several people who were doing the penalty shoot out came in looking rather drenched.  Maybe the lower turnout was due to the Aston school fair being on the same day, but I don't think the Aston and Weston people go to each others school fairs, not many of them do anyway.

Scarecrow trail 2013

This weekend was the 12th annual scarecrow trail in Weston-on-Trent and it was sunshine all the way.  Which was a good thing as scarecrows don't look so good after being rained on and the sunshine brings out the crowds to look around.  Various people make scarecrows to put around the village.

Sometimes they are made by local groups

Sometimes they are made by individuals or families

Sometimes people put them in weird and wonderful places

Everyone who goes around the trail gets to do a quiz and to vote for their favourite scarecrow.  Judging from my conversations with other people who went around the trail this is my prediction for the winner.

If walking around the trail got to be hungry or thirsty work there were drinks and cakes for sale in the village hall.

Aston woods

 I thoroughly recommend a walk in Aston woods at this time of year.  They are absolutely beautiful with the bluebells and rhodadendrons.

Photos don't do it justice really.

Glastonbury Astonbury. The Friday night review.

2 names for 2 festivals.  The same apart from 2 letters, and the fact they both had music but the similarity ends there.  One is famed for mud, camping, outside stages, stone circles and various hippy type stuff.  The other took place in a church or a village hall and served tea.  Ordinary tea which you get from a supermarket, not tea made with herbs or mushrooms or whatever.  Well I don't know about the Saturday, but the Friday concert which took place in the church was definately not like Glastonbury.  Not that it mattered.  It had it's own character and charm.

Apparently this has been one of the most well attended Astonburys ever. The church was almost full to capacity.  This could be due to there being a lot of childrens acts performing.  The panto kids and teenagers sang some songs from the panto.  Aston school choir sang too.  Kathy Razzell did a showcase of her music students, my personal favourite being the one who did the Monty Python theme tune. Dan Jefferies played his guitar and sang some songs.  He is a confident, natural performer who was completely comfortable in front of the crowd. If he keeps going the way he is I can see him joining the next big boy band when he's a bit older.

Of the adults to name a few, we had Joe Nutman on his keyboard, Alison Hurt and Luke Fitchett (They did both nights), and Tony Luke, our vicar.  He has a really great singing voice.  He got as far as boot camp once on the x-factor you know.  Oh and some hand bell ringers.  They were surprisingly good.

Most of the acts were people from the village or nearby and did short slots. They were all quality acts and it showed that Aston definately does have talent.

The church was toasty warm, much warmer than on a Sunday I hate to say.  (Not that I want to put anyone off going to church on a Sunday.  In winter wear a good coat and sit somewhere in the middle and its usually not too bad.  In the summer it's pleasantly cool ).  They put the side heaters on as well as the middle ones.

Yard Sale 2013

Today we did the yard sale again.  We did ok, but not brilliantly, certainly not as well as last year.  This could be for a number of reasons.  Firstly there seemed like there were less people, just a few less.  Then I suppose these are not good times for people economically, although that could make people buy more stuff second hand rather than new.  The weather was a bit patchy as well, there was sunny patches and rainy patches.  At about 12.45 there was quite a more persistent shower and quite a few people packed up then, even though it was supposed to finish at 2pm.  In the end I think the main reason I didn't do so well was that I didn't have as much stuff to get rid of as I thought I did.  I looked at it all once I'd got it out and thought "Is this it?"

Later on in the day the sun came out and we went to take the sign back to the organisers.  We spent some of our profits on a swiss roll at Colin's and all was right with the world.

Spring into Jazz (part 2)

After enjoying it so much last year, I was very pleased to get tickets for this years Spring into Jazz.  This time they did a set called Tin Pan Alley in which they played songs and told the stories behind the music.  Tin Pan Alley is a street where all the jazz publishers were in the olden days (I don't rightly remember the exact era its from.  Probably somewhere around the 1920s.  Good job I'm not being tested). After the amount of stories about musicians, publishers and songwriters they told last year, I was surprised that they had any more to tell this time but there was hardly any repetition of stories and not much repetition of tunes either.  The fact I actually remember what they repeated from the previous year says a lot about how good it was as my memory is rubbish.

The band consisted of a singer who also played banjo, a trumpet/ cornet player, a saxophone/ clarinet player, a pianist and a euphonium player who had the most huge instrument ever.  Just lifting it up was a feat in itself, let alone playing it.  Apparently he used to have a metal one which was even heavier, but now he's moved onto a plastic one.  They were all very accomplished musicians.

This time they didn't have a bar, it was bring your own drinks and a fish and chip supper was ordered in from Georges.

Return of the Phantom Blogger

Yesterday someone said to me "you're the phantom blogger aren't you".  Once I'd got over the embarrassment of people knowing it was me who wrote this blog, I quite liked the idea that people were reading my blog and trying to work out who wrote it.  I like a good whodunnit myself.  I suppose if I wanted to write an anonymous blog it's probably not a good idea to write one about the village where I live.  At the end of the day, it just nice to know that people are actually reading it.

After the events at the end of last year, I haven't felt like writing much, but maybe it's time to get back to it.