Yes, readers, at home this time, honest! When Battleaxe is here, she’s busy. Well, people will say, she ought to be here more… Take yesterday (Saturday) as an example. Craft Fair, Conquest Friends AGM, and a concert in Winchelsea. Meanwhile, our house has been partly covered in scaffolding for weeks while we have a load of pointing done – and that is not the half of what is due to happen – and I’ve got an infected tooth which will have to be pulled out… but on a positive note, just look at our wisteria. This has been its first proper flowering year, after five years of hanging about. Battleaxe is very pleased.
But here’s our house right now. The scaffolding is supposed to be going tomorrow morning. Then, all the decking round the side of the house has got to be pulled up – it is going rotten, partly becasue we have so many pots on it. It will be quite exciting to see what is underneath. There are a good few changes in level – we will probably need works done.
Anyway, back to yesterday.
In the morning, Philosopher and I walked down to the Old Town to the relatively recently re-opened Isabel Blackman Centre, where our WI had a stall at a craft fair, master-minded – or maybe mistress-minded – by my indefatigably energetic friend Jan Kelly. Some of Battleaxe’s friends think Isabel Blackman is the place to go, and to be sure, the lunches in the caff looked very good value, and it has some exercise classes which look promising – but it is still an Older Person’s day centre…. But hell, Battleaxe, maybe you are an older person… Anyway, the Craft Fair was a bit quiet. I got in trouble with Jan because I had donated some nice fabric, some of which she had made into a bag, which I ended up buying!
Back for a quick lunch – and oh, look at our lovely clematis….
Then, off to the Durbar Hall at the Musuem for the Conquest Friends Annual General Meeting. Yes, I know I have stepped down from being a Trustee, but the General Manager, Mike Eastwood was leaving, so thought we would go along and say goodbye. Honestly, Battleaxe does not have one single second’s regret about giving that malarky up. Just far too stressful. Now, apart from giving the odd bit of support to Angie, the Deputy General Manager, which I have carried on with since I left, that will finally be it, Battleaxe will disappear. It is a shame in some ways – The Friends is a vitally important charity. They have appointed two new Trustees, both members of the Hastings Great and Good, neither of whom I have ever met. When I introduced myself, I said I was the Wicked Fairy at the Christening. Fnarf fnarf. Battleaxe is not Great, and she certainly isn’t good…
In the evening, off to Winchelsea Church for a Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra concert conducted by the also indefatigably energetic Marcio da Silvo. How often he has appeared in these blog posts. Hastings is very lucky to have him.
The church was absolutely jam-packed. The concert was supposed to celebrate the return of Swifts to Winchelsea – cartainly heard plenty of swallows on our way across the churchyard, but they may have been swifts, I don’t know. I gather swifts are very much under threat in this country – their nesting sites are so easily destroyed. The programme included the Pastoral Symphony, which always makes me feel a little nostalgic because it was my father’s favourite piece of music. ‘Listen to the cuckoo,’ he’d say. ‘Can you see the peasants dancing?’ Anyway, it was a very pleasant evening – the church is beautiful, the acoustic is excellent, and the orchestra played well. Some of the pieces could have been slightly more spring bird focussed – The Lark Ascending maybe? Apart from that, can only think of Casals, The Song of the Birds, which is beautiful, but you’d need a good cellist to play it. Here’s Marcio, in the middle, taking a bow.
Tomorrow morniing am off to Rye on a very strange mission indeed – about which, more later. Then it’s Pilates… onwards and upwards.
