SO Tired

OK Carrying on some time later so this may not be very accurate as my memory is appaulling though I'm sure my sister will let me know if I get it wrong. Next morning we felt better despite appearances...

... and the most uncomfortable bed EVER!!!! We vowed to put the inflatable mattress on top of the futon mattress for the next night.

We pop on our jeans and popped to the pub that we were camped behind for breakfast. They did a very passable cooked brekkie and we felt a lot more human after it. We vowed to drink more water today and filled bottles with squash and then got changed.

We ambled round to meet Cas, Ben and the kids and wandered via a shorter rout than last night, up to the field. I had wanted to hear the druid blessing and the fayre opening but they hadn't finished eating breakfast so we missed it. Kristy gave the girls a masterclass in poi'ing while we waited for the washing up to be done.

We ambled round the fair looking at the stalls and at some point got parted from Cas so it was just Ben, Me Kristy and one of the kids. Kris bought a basket for a pittance - it needs cleaning up but looked nicely authentic.





As you can see, Kris was wandering round as a lady of the night as I had her Coif and she was going to buy a new one but didn't see one that she liked unti the second go round.
Having had a quick look at the stalls we headed to the beer tent and watched the dark morris for a bit before entering the tent for a quick cider. Kristy carried on teaching poi's to the girls.
This is the only photo I manged to get of the girls poiing as they were very camera shy.



Finally we managed to find a coif for Kris - not one ofthe more expensive ones but far better quality than most and we sat at the "druid's garden" - a bunch of pots and a fence with flowers and dreamcatchers woven in.




After another wander around, and Kristy whinging the whole time about how it wasn't as good as last year and not really wanting to do anything, I insisted we go see the battle. I really enjoyed it, though it did go on a bit and would have been far more enjoyable if the tannoy had been working properly so we could have heard what was going on! I took loads of photos but this is just a few :

It was unbelievably hot and so we wandered back to the van to rehem the damn kirtle and get kristy some trousers for under her skirt and then headed to see the "beheading". Unfortunately, I had got the time wrong and they had already left so we decided to wander down to the town to see if we could catch up and see the medieval compline in the Abbey. When we got to the Abbey there so no sign of the angry we mob and it wasn't long until compline started so we decided to go into the abbey and wait. I am so glad we did - it was calm and cool in there and you could definately identify with a medieval peasant, awed by the magnifacnce of the Abbey. I had a slight probably bought on by heatstroke as both Kristy and I were looking a trifle pink, despite the sub screen we had slathered on previously. As we sat, resting our poor feet and fighting against dozing off, the sun began to set and turning the whole church and particularly the church ceiling, the most gorgeous golden hue. In the peace of the church we heard the hue and cry outside of the beheading (must have been round the back of the abbey) and then medieval peasants and lords quietly filed in, filling the abbey.

Very soon after, the monks filed in and then compline began. It was beautiful, the golden glowing abbey combined with the serene singing was enough to move me to tears a couple of times. Almost enough to inspire me to religon, but I think god himself would have to put in an appearance before that happens. Having said that, Kristy and I before felt both physically (due to the sit down) and spiritually refreshed when the service finished and we almost relucantly left for the walk back to the field for some food.

On the walk back, we spotted what looked like a shrew in the bush - I tried to get my camera off my belt to take a photo so we could identify it, but I couldn't undo the knot quick enough and a few people came along on their bikes, scaring it off. We wandered for a bit to get some food and got a text from Cas saying "We are at ades tent - got chocolate cake. We didn't know who Ade was so sent one back saying we were by the beer tent, eating, and when would they be down? Having finished our jackets pots etc I suddenly realised that ades uses the same keys on a mobile as beer so we had a quick wander round and soon spotted them. Luckily they had kept us some chocolate cake and we sat and drank lots of fuilds, in Kriss case cider in mine water as my headache was getting worse. The bands weren't very good (it was open mic due to some contraversy regarding the band from the previous year) so after a while, when it was getting dark, we headed off home to Ben's tent to chat - my headache was awful but it didn't prevent me from trying the strawberry vodka and vowing to make my own on the way home.

We headed to bed to try and sleep off my headache.