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.

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.

The Pod

Well the pod has finally arrived in Aston.  It seems very popular with the youth in the village and I've seen hardly any of them hanging around at the Lych gate, which was the reason it was built in the first place.  So far, it's achieved it's purpose.

This shelter has speakers and you can blue tooth music from your i-pod to it, and it plays the music.  It is powered by a handle which you wind.  It has lights that work when it gets dark and has lots of entrance/ exits to prevent bullying.  One lad, when his friends told him that there was this shelter which plays music from your i-pod, thought it sounded so good that he didn't believe it was real until he saw it.  Apparently it got covered in graffiti within a week of it being put up, but someone from the parish council went and cleaned it up, and when I went there today there wasn't any.

I have heard a lot less noise from the race track recently.  Maybe they've finally listened to the protests from the residents of Aston and the nearby villages.  Instead I seem to hear a lot of cows mooing, which gives the village a more rural feel.  I wonder if anyone will start up a protest against cow noises?

Summer activities

The South Derbyshire District Council have put on some free activities on the rec this summer.  What it doesn't say on the leaflet is that the Parish council also pay a donation to have them come to the village. 

The different mobiles come at various times according to a timetable, but they came to Aston every Tuesday,  often 2 a day.  This seems to be a lot more than other places get so it very generous of the Parish Council to fund these.  These are a really great way of amusing kids for zero money, and during the summer holidays amusing children can get rather expensive, so these are really helpful.  Some kids did enjoy putting on sumo suits to wrestle, play laser shooting games or go up the climbing wall, but I was quite surprised at the amount of parents I heard trying to persuade children to have a go on these things when all they wanted to do was throw and catch a ball or run around with their friends.  They had these special nets which the child throws the ball at and it bounces back.  When I was a kid we just chucked a ball at the wall.  It had the same effect.  Anyway the nets were really popular.  But whatever the children did they seemed to enjoy themselves and that's what's important.  It also gets them away from the telly or computer.  So big thanks to the organisers/ staff for these events.

More about the speed detecters...

Well it seems they have moved the speed detecter thing to the road where you come into the village from Shardlow.  I wonder if it is getting any different results there.  I read in the Acorn (a free magazine about the village that come through the letter box) that the thing also collects stats about peoples speeds as they pass and apparently there are an awful lot of people breaking the speed limit.  I'd like details about this like what percentage of people are breaking the speed limit and by how much.  For instance, it's hardly a scandal if several people are going through the village at 31 mph.

I read the acorn from front to back and I have to admit it gives a much more thorough coverage of village like than I do.  I particularly enjoyed the neighbourhood watch page which gives crime stats for the area (we seem to get on average 1 burgulary a month) and the info about the speed detecter.

Speed signs

Not so long ago one of those signs appeared at the side of Weston Road that tells you how fast you're going.  Originally they put it up in the middle of some trees so it was really hard to see your speed let alone feel prompted to slow down if you were going too fast.  Recently tho, someone has turned it around so that it faces the other way and is not obscured by the trees.  I find it very useful; when I went past on my bike the other day it told me I was going 10mph, and when I walked past it, it told me I was going 3 miles an hour.  

It is much better than the one they have in Shardlow.  I drive past that one, speedometer dead on 30, and it flashes 30 at me like I'm going too fast.  Considering that most car speedometers are set 3mph too fast to help avoid speeding, I think this sign must be set wrongly.  The fact that when I go through Aston at dead on 30, the sign says I'm doing 27 seems to back this up.  So in other words they want people to drive at 25mph through Shardlow despite it having a 30mph limit.

Well dressing

I walked around the village with the children and we looked at the well dressings and pointed out the bits we had done on each one. I wish I'd got a photo of the Charles Dickens one too, as that was really good.

The post office were giving away free ice tea, which was very kind of them.





We saw the black pig morris dancers outside the white hart.  They are morris dancers who do the traditional dances in non-traditional clothes.  The costumes were fantastic.  The photo doesn't really do it justice.  It was the attention to detail with the costumes that I was particularly impressed with, things like the flowers and feathers in the hats, the pig in the baby carrier and the bag with the vote monster raving loony party rosette sewn to it.  I overheard a young woman saying she wanted to be a morris dancer after watching a performance and that's not something you hear very often from anyone under 50.

Some youth workers had been working on a well dressing with the youth in the area and at the same time working out what the youth in the are need.  They heard a lot of complaints from locals about them hanging around in the lych gate so they have plans in place for this amazing pod thing that they can sit in.  Apparently it has a handle they can wind up and it generates power for some lights.  Also it's blue tooth compatible so they can play music from their phone in there.  It sounds great but the only problem I can foresee its that it will be on the rec which is right on the edge of Aston and maybe some people won't be bothered to walk there and still hang around the lych gate.  I guess time will tell.


The weather managed to stay mostly dry apart from a few quick downpours towards the afternoon.  We sheltered in a phone box and it's a credit to Aston that it didn't smell of wee, as most phone boxes do.

There were loads of other things happening, but that's enough writing for one day.

Build up to the well dressing

The well dressing is probably the biggest event on Aston's calendar and it starts tomorrow.  People come from all over Derbyshire to see it.  It seems a bit bizarre that Aston would have a well dressing when it doesn't even have a well and more bizarre that it isn't something that has been happening for years and years which started when there was a well, but was revived in the late 1990s (I think).  Anyway not that I'm complaining, as it's a great event and fun for all the family.  There are several stalls and also shows from magicians, pinxton puppets, black pig border morris dancers as well as well dressings made by several local organisations.  There are many local organisations and in fact it's a standing joke in the village that if you see 2 people talking in the street, they're probably talking about forming a committee.

The bunting went up a couple of weeks ago and the all the groups in the area have been working on them this week.  They have to be made completely from natural materials, so there's no leisurely making them over a long period of time, they're worked on intensively the week before or else stuff will go off.  Any flower petals used are put in a day or 2 before the event.  It never ceases to amaze me the variety of things people use to make a well dressing, anything from leaves to coconut to curry powder to berries, wool and stones.  The church has also been decorated by various groups doing little displays all around it.  The whole village has been a buzz with preparation and I'm sure many people will be up early in the morning to set things up.

Lets just hope the weather is ok and there's no rain left in the clouds after we had a whole months worth of rain in one day today.

Beacon

Across the country, beacons have been lit in honour of the Queen's diamond jubilee.  Here's the one on Aston church:-

Not the best photo I know, what with it being a bit dark.  Quite a lot of people turned out to see it.  They had some music accompanying it.  Very atmospheric it was too.

Jubilee

I have not been to any of the Aston jubilee events so far, not because there aren't any; there are events running over all four days.  More than we have had visitors or been doing other things.  Nice to see lots of bunting up all around the village.  My daughter made bunting by drawing on paper and threading string through it.  Unfortunately it absolutely chucked it down with rain...

We did go to church on Sunday morning.  The vicar was a real royalist, the Queen was very much in the prayers and at the end we had the national anthem.  In the press I have heard a lot about street parties and how there's loads of them happening all over the country.  I haven't seen any tho.  I want to go to a street party.  Still, there's two days left so you never know.

Rainbow over Aston

Been very changeable weather over the last couple of days but I managed to get a picture of yesterday's rainbow.

If you look really closely you can see that it was a double rainbow.

Writers Block

I've been having a bit of writers block lately and, although there have been things to write about I haven't been motivated or able to think of an interesting slant on it.  But as living things die if you don't feed them, blogs die if you don't write in them, so I'm going to write something and hope it flows.

Today was the May Fayre in the Memorial Hall.  It was run by the church.  They had several stalls, the usual village fair type things, plants, bric a brac, homemade cakes, tombola etc.  I picked up a few bits which I was pleased about and a carrot cake which was very tasty.  They did a ploughmans lunch, which consisted of some salad, but the diet went out of the window when you saw what went with it.  There was a choice of some large wedges of pork pie, huge hunks of cheese or massive slices of pizza, (and from what I could tell you could have more than one of those choices too) followed by a choice of puddings with cream.  No-one could say the folks at the church aren't generous.  The hall was full of people and there was a good atmosphere.  Hopefully they made lots of money.

Spring into Jazz

On Saturday evening it was Spring into Jazz at the Memorial Hall.  This was a jazz band who played music and talked about the history of jazz in between.  They were a 5 piece band which consisted of a banjo player who did most of the talking, a trumpet/cornet player, a clarinet /saxophone player, a keyboard player and a guy who appeared to have a thing about playing really huge musical instruments.  The first thing I noticed as I walked in the hall was the massive white sousaphone which was apparently made with 3 miles of pipes.  He also played a double bass.  I don't really know a lot about jazz and didn't recognise many of the tunes but I still really enjoyed it. Jazz has a seedy background.  In the early days jazz was played in brothels.  They man telling the stories was very considerate of the fact I'd brought my 11 year old son with me.  At the beginning he called them brothels and then changed to saying house of pleasure or unmentionable places.  It's roots were in the recently freed black slaves in New Orleans starting roughly around 1890 and getting really big in the 1920s. They told colourful tales of the jazz musicians. Louis Armstrong was born to a 14 year old mother and never knew his father.  His life changed when he got put into an orphanage at 13 where he learn to play the cornet in their band.  There was a guy called Sydney (I forget his last name, but bear in mind I had never even heard of most of these people before Saturday night) who discovered the alto sax when visiting London, then he got deported for brawling.  King Oliver (he wasn't really a king, he just called himself that) had a band with lots of the big names in jazz, but they all left his band when they realised he was ripping them off.  There were lots of tales of musicians being ripped off by record companies, and many more stories of musicians turning to alcoholism.  There was a big blues singer called Bessie Smith who, when the Klu Klux Klan came along with torches to burn down their blues tent, she went out to challenge then to a fist fight and they all backed away quietly.  My personal favourite was the tale of Mr Moore whose act was to dress as a frog and was shut in a box which he had to escape from and the tune that went with it.  Anyway I'm not doing these tales justice.  The guy from the band told them a lot better.

As well as telling good stores they were very good musicians.  We heard many good sax, clarinet and cornet solos as well as maple leaf rag on the keyboard.  The whole evening inspired an interest in jazz I never knew I had and left me wanting to know more about the musicians and what was happening in the world of jazz in that era, and most importantly I wanted to hear more of the music.