Port Eliot Festival 2012, Friday 20 July, Part 3

To continue the story...



Offspringette, Becky and Knit Angel at the end of Friday's sessions in DoveGreyReader's Tent

I got yarn bombed by the Knit Angel, a decoration to my hat.  Sadly we didn't get a photo showing it.  But The Kayaker did, and it's here.

Once things began to be packed up for overnight at DGR's tent we did the zig zaggy trundle with the wheelchair back down the path to down by the river, and then along to the foodie places in front of The House.  We chose wood smoked pizzas, and very delicious they were!  While I slurped on some G&T from my pre-prepared "water bottle" John enjoyed a pint of St Austell Tribute from the nearby beer tent.  Then around 8pm we trundled back along by the river to the Caught By The River Tent for the Stealing Sheep gig.



Stealing Sheep setting up

John managed to push me fairly well to the front in the wheelchair, after all I wasn't in anyone else's visual way!  He squatted down beside me so he wasn't either.  So I had a great view, and was able to video several full songs by resting my elbows on the arms of the wheelchair.



Stealing Sheep - Gold

What can I say about Stealing Sheep that hasn't been said already in loads of reviews of their first album 'Into the Diamond Sun'?  Well one thing that I can say is that they are a fantastic live band.  Their sound doesn't rely on a lot of techy studio stuff that can't sound anything like the sound of the real band.  They sound like themselves.



Stealing Sheep - Circles

Emily, guitar player, shared with us all that it was her birthday, and invited the audience to go to the Rough Trade tent to share Champagne with her and the band. Which we did, when does a Liverpudlian refuse Champagne?  Bought the new 7" single Genevieve, and the band signed it for us.  Since then we have purchased the new album, the sparkly vinyl version, which is very sparkly and very pretty and the music's just great too!

I asked Emily about the band's name - why Stealing Sheep?  She told us that initially the name almost put her off joining the band!  But the name is to do with stealing ideas, you can read more about it here.  She also said she thought of it as linked to falling asleep (counting sheep) and hence to the unconscious.



The lighted obelisk that you see behind and above the stripy Caught By The River tent is a landmark we trundled by each day on the way to the Walled Garden where DGR's tent was.  We didn't get a daytime photo of it, but John took a photo of the plaque placed in front if it later.

For the gift of Port Eliot

to his son at an early age 

this finial, once part of

Westminster Abbey,

is erected in gratitude to

NICHOLAS

9th EARL OF ST. GERMANS

1914 - 1988

Back to our tent after a wonderful musical interlude.  Put on multi-layers of clothes to sit outside for a while as it was a bit chilly!  But oh how bright the stars were in a clear cloudless sky!  When it got so cold that we could see our breath we headed for bed, me with my trusty hot water bottle.  I'll leave the last word on this magical day to John:

And after midnight a miasma crept out of the Matmos and enveloped the City of SoGo.

When I'm 64

Woke to a sunny morning, three buzzards wheeling over, and a flock of swallows swooping overhead.  But by golly it was chilly!  The bathroom was exceptionally frigid, so I put the central heating on to warm it up a bit before showering - I like to be clean on my birthday! Breakfast was an omelette, prob should have had muesli, but thought I'd skip it as it was my birthday, why force something so loathsome down on a celebratory day!

First card opened was from John.  We both agree that the red sailed boat is surely Ruddy Duck!



Yes, I still need you
Yes, I'll still feed you *
Now you're 64...

* subject to the usual negotiations

Sarah's card arrived yesterday with a large parcel, but I held off opening both till this morning.  Strong minded or what!  Sarah is well acquainted with my love of hats obviously.  The one I wore to her wedding to Mark is marginally smaller I think, but not much! My purple Chelsea/Port Eliot hat might be approaching this size though!







So then I was able to rip open my parcel, and delighted to find this book inside.



John then put up our shark windsock again.  The lashed up bamboos had broken in a gale last week, we were lucky to catch it before it disappeared into the next door field.  But he found some more bamboos and has lashed it up again...  Showed a lovely west wind, but since then the wind has backed (usually a bad sign!) to the South West.  And the hills began to disappear, and now it's completely closed in and has been drizzling.

After the windsock went back up I became a Boat Widow again...  Three hours later he came back, more boat problems (centreboard jammed half way down), so off into Abersoch to talk to some people.  Meanwhile Duck is on a borrowed deep mooring.

Now he's back again, and we are listening on BBC iPlayer to DoveGreyReader on Radio Devon's Interactive Lunch (begins about 2.08 in).  (Note: this will disappear in a week from today)  So lovely to hear dear DoveGreyReader on my birthday!

And then it was time to listen to Stealing Sheep on Woman's Hour (about 33.55 minutes in) from this morning. This is another one that will sadly only be available for a week. But a great live acoustic version of their new single 'Genevieve' on it, so do have a listen.  We went to their gig at Port Eliot, which I haven't managed to blog about yet, but here's the video I made then of 'Genevieve'.

Chicken in the oven, so think I will sign off for now.

Port Eliot Festival 2012, Friday 20 July, Part 2

Once the new tent was up and decorated and running we all scroogled in and waited for Tracy Chevalier to arrive. I was entertained to see a big bumble bee lazily floating around the flowers in the tent. Unfortunately I didn't manage to capture it on camera.



Dove Grey and Tracy Chevalier began the session with a "show and tell" about their quilts. Dove Grey's quilt was one she started for her firstborn, Tom.  Who co-incidentally was the dovegreyreader official photographer, as well as being about to reach his 30th birthday!  Still not finished, but she assures us that she will might in time for his 30th.



Tracy's quilt is, I think - not enormously up on quilting - a traditional American quilt pattern.  Before reading us an extract from her new novel, Tracy told us a little about how she likes to work.  As part of the research she does for writing she tries out the things that she is writing about.  She also mentioned that research can go too far, citing a novelist who went several times some hundreds of miles to find out about making guns, that eventually resulted in about 3 lines in the final novel.  Her new novel is about a Quaker woman who after emigrating to America gets involved with the "underground railway" for escaping slaves.



The extract Tracy read to us told how her main protagonist is trying to make sufficient quilts so she can get married.  Her future sister-in-laws are prepared to lend her quilts, but want to have them replaced as part of their own dowries. Our heroine makes quilts by piecing, in the English fashion, her new (about to be) family complain it takes too long, and suggest she should stop making quilts in that way, and make them using applique which is faster.



After questions about 'Girl with the Pearl Earring' amongst others, Tracy signed books...  She has recently edited a book, 'Why Willows Weep', sold in aid of the Woodland Trust.  She was kind enough to sign my copy to give to my dear Mum-in-Law who had broken her wrist and was in hospital at the time.

Once this session was over, I caught a photo of Dove Grey with Michelle Roberts, who was to speak on Saturday about Angela Carter.



=====================================>>>

Tomorrow is my Birthday - I'll be 64.  I may well not manage to continue this saga tomorrow...  So I'll share a picture of the view from our caravan with you before closing this post.



Lots more to come, including Stealing Sheep!

And then the moon began to rise! So have to share this.  It's a Blue Moon on my birthday tomorrow!

Dr Dorothy Morris, Deemee to me, has died

This morning an email dropped into my Inbox from Tom Kindlon, from an email he had received:

I regret to advise that Dorothy passed away last week from a rare form of cancer. She battled hard for the past year and eventually to treatment and the drugs took their toll.

Her funeral will be held in Leongatha, Victoria, tomorrow.
-------

(snip)

I am not sure what age she was. My guess is 70-75.*

Dr. Morris, who had M.E., did her PhD on M.E.: "Double Disability:  Lived Experience of Australian Tertiary Students with ME/CFS." She was a former teacher.

Tom

*I like to give such information as I imagine many people, like I am, are interested in/concerned about risk of death.

=============>>>

I was fortunate enough to meet Deemee at the MERUK Conference in Cambridge back in 2008.  I was very saddened to hear that she has died.  We had quite a correspondence years ago when I was early on in my time as a Co-Cure Moderator.  I remember how much she loved roses, but had to lose them from her garden due to drought.  It was a real joy to meet Deemee at the Conference.

Have heard from another friend that when Deemee moved house she was able to plant roses in her new home. Which is some comfort in a way.

Thank you Deemee for your friendship, and for all you did to help ME Patients.

Port Eliot Festival 2012, Friday 20 July, Part 1

Friday morning we woke up pretty early to a lovely sunny morning, after mug of tea in bed I donned my wellies over my jim jams, plus my trusty jacket, and crutched the nine mile hike towards the dreaded toilets.  Was warned off before I made it all the way - two ladies told me that they were all full.  Thank you ladies, saved some of my precious energy!  So crutched back (good thing I wasn't desperate!) to the tent, and made use of the bucket we'd brought "just in case".  (NOT the flower bucket in case anyone - Fran? - is worried!)  Next time we'll take something like this with us. OK, TMI, but it had been something that worried me!  I guess it's all part of the rich festival experience!

John fired up the little gas stove again and we had more tea followed by a bacon, egg, tomato and fried bread fry up followed by another couple of mugs of tea. I had woken several times in the night to the thunka thunka of music, which went on till about 3am I think. But was cosy wrapped in my duvet cuddling my hot water bottle, so slept pretty well all things considered. Some of our neighbours had found the music more intrusive, and all who passed as John was cooking were almost visibly drooling!

After breakfast we set off towards DoveGreyReader's tent in the Walled Garden.  I had a bucket (not THAT bucket!) of flowers brought from our garden that I was clutching against my knees while also trying to hang on to a pair of crutches and a walking stick. We did stop off at the toilets en route, just to be on the safe side.



John had found a zig-zag course up the hill, past the Elephant Field, that did actually prove mostly possible for the wheelchair, though once or twice I got out and crutched it so he could get the chair over the roots growing across the path.  I was so glad that John had searched out this route, as it meant we didn't have to ask for more help from the friendly people in the site office who had said they could arrange a buggy ride. Much better to be independent if at all possible in my experience.



We finally found our way to DoveGreyReader's tent, through a lovely doorway that reminded me immediately of the entrance to "The Secret Garden".  I asked a bearded man (I had seen photos on DGR's blog before) if he might be Bookhound, and he acknowledged he was, made us feel really welcome.  Dear DoveGrey arrived soon after, and gave me a big hug.  It was a very emotional time for me, as have been following her blog for ages (6-7 years?) now, and she was so incredibly kind to me 5 years ago when my parents died.  Got ensconced comfortably in the entrance to the tent, and began to do some knitting.



Oh, also managed to deliver the bucket of flowers to Fran (in charge of the entry to The Flower Show as well as floral decorations in DoveGrey's tent), who managed to make some nice arrangements combined with lots of other flowers that she had brought along too.  I apologised for the "fragrance" of the Elephant Garlic flowers (they were rather pungent!), but she pooh-poohed that, said that one of the flowers she'd brought (I sadly didn't catch the name - Hen something?) had rather stunk out her car on the way!



We did have a couple of heavy showers in the morning, I sheltered under DoveGrey's big garden umbrella, and at one point I was entertained to have the gazebo lifted up and over me and it!  I should have taken some photos.

Our first author in the DoveGrey Tent was Susie Parr, author of The Story of Swimming.  She spoke about loving to go into the sea to swim, take a look at what Dove Grey had to say about her talk.  The main thing that I took away from her talk was what she said about going to visit Byron's Pool.  She went there, it was horrible and polluted and full of litter, had council warnings about not swimming...  But she had travelled so far to visit that she decided to swim anyway, foul thought it was.  This is the pool that Virginia Woolf and Rupert Brooke are reputed to have swam in together naked.  Very sad that it isn't really available to swim in now.  But how many rivers are?



After Susie Parr had spoken we all had to leave the tent, so it could be struck and replaced with a bigger one.  John gave a hand taking stuff out, removing bunting, and so on.  While this was happening the rest of us sat outside and knitted!



It was amazing how fast the new tent went up.  Meanwhile Tracy Chevalier had arrived and met up with DoveGrey.  It's a shame this photo is focused on the wall behind, but I love the big smiles!



More on Tracy Chevalier, and our Port Eliot adventures soon.