Saturday 7 July 2012

Mi-nute detail

As John G. points out, it's a lizard not a newt.  He's right that a newt's tail is not so long, but the clincher is, as any ful kno, that a newt has only four toes on each foot and a lizard has five, and this fool didn't count them.  I'm just as happy, mind you, as happy as when I found a slow worm - which is also a lizard, of course.

Today has been jolly good fun.  It was the village festival - that is, fête and beer festival.  Last year, for the first time ever, it was rained off and the forecast wasn't good this time.  But we decided to plug ahead,  not believing the forecast and deciding that the worst would be a brief shower that we would cook a snook at and carry on regardless.  And, in the event, it didn't rain at all and was a beautiful afternoon.  It rained five miles down the road, mind you, but the village micro-climate kept us dry and warm.

And there seemed to be an especially cheerful atmosphere this afternoon for some reason.  Well, this morning too, while we were setting up, come to that.  I went to the church at 10 to help get out some tables to bring, and when I arrived at the green, two men were mowing grass, several people were erecting stalls and gazebos and someone else was shinning up a tree to put up bunting.  I helped put up one of the gazebos, for the children's crafts, and was the one crawling around putting all the bits in place while other women held it up.  Which is why my once-clean jeans now have grass stains on the knees.  I was glad I'd worn old jeans rather than anything smarter.  Not that I'm very fussy about clothes I have to admit.

We'd always booked an attraction such as a bouncy castle in previous years, but last year we were let down because the people we'd booked didn't turn up for the rescheduled date, even though they'd confirmed only the day before.  So we decided to go without and see if it was missed.  We don't think it was, and we hope it meant that people spent the same money but on the games and other attractions.  We've got a follow-up meeting on Tuesday and will see what the feedback has been.

I joined in with goodwill not to mention gusto myself, having a go on all the games, participating in the djembe drum workshop and even the calisthenics done by the village schoolchildren.  That is, they did a display first and then all-comers were invited to join in.  Remarkable, I know.  This is not the Z you know and love, being one to observe and applaud normally, not display my physical ineptitude.   But what the hell.  It was fun and after all these years I finally seem to be able to let my hair down.  Probably be a one-off, mind you.

In the course of the day, I also drank beer, had a cheeseburger, drank beer, had an ice cream, had a home-made biscuit, drank beer, munched a home-made (by me) flapjack and ate a cherry cake.  The last was a slight mistake, I've been too full ever since.  But the Sage has bought steaks for dinner, so I daresay I'll manage to eat something.  Right now, I'm going to see how the men's doubles final is doing.  


8 comments:

Unknown said...

Minor query Z. Have you a recipe for cooking a snoot???

Tim said...

I knew 'twas a lizard.

LẌ said...

Damn, we're out of eye of newt! But on the bright side, we have lizard's leg!

allotmentqueen said...

Cock a snook? Are we going back to BW's post of a few days back?

mig said...

I didn't kno (not being just any ful) that newts had four toed feet. Do frogs and toads too?

That sounds like a wonderful day. I'm glad you had plenty of beer, I'm sure it's an essential ingredient in djembe drumming.

Blue Witch said...

Only Norfolkers could cook snooks.

*wonders to what AQ alludes*

Unknown said...

Hoist with me own petard. I meant, of course, have you a recipe for cooking a snook ? Everyone knows how to cook a snoot.

Z said...

I've never turned a toad upside down, Mig. And of course I didn't know how many toes a newt had, I looked it up! I should have just asked John and Tim. They know everything.

I can give you a recipy for cooking snoek if you like, Mike.

And I should make it clear that I was drinking half pints. Still quite enough for a Saturday afternoon, but I felt I was advertising the pub as I wandered around, smile on face and glass in hand.