We
gathered under the shade of the biggest plane tree I have seen in
England, the trunk of which must have taken six people to surround with
outstretched arms. It was a joy to see such a natural tree,
unpollarded and reaching out over our heads. Also reassuring, as
it
had been raining all week, and those leaves would have protected us
from rain as well as the sun which actually, miraculously, shone all
day. Our dancing field was bordered by a narrow lake, with
a coot
calmly sitting on her nest, and an eight foot waterfall which fell from
a rustic stone arched bridge. The worms rose to our drumming
feet, and
were duly rescued. The other border was planted in spring blues
and
purples.
|
|
Annie
Toy, Sue Palmer and Sally Fletcher
|
We
were a bright, exotic lot, in costumes and colours of red, gold,
orange, brown and black. The Food - it has to be said, second to
dancing the food is most important - was fantastic, lots of goats
cheese and feta, spicy chickpeas, broadbeans, fresh mint and parsley,
lamb and chicken, salad, fruit, Interesting Things in Pots of Hot Oil
(but chili-hot, not boiling!) And of course CAKE. Even
CHOCOLATE
Cake. There were passersby who stopped to watch at
respectful
distances, but we hardly noticed them, except for the goodlooking
men....Hey, we're circle dancers, Women of a Certain Age mostly,
what
do you expect?
There were four of us from
Ipswich - Annie Toy, Sally Fletcher, Andrew Hardwick and Richard
Hemmings. It was an early start, 0800, with Richard starting even
earlier from Woodbridge, and we piled the boot up with picnic table, 4
chairs, and lots of bags of food. There were thermos flasks.
There was
a bottle of something fizzy and reviving, discretely wrapped in a
thermal jacket. An easy journey in sunlight, down the A14, up
the
A11, bob's your uncle, and we were there in an hour and fifteen, at the
back gate of Audley End, waiting while an attractive raven-tressed
houri empowered the heavy iron gate to swing slowly open. |
