Two weeks later saw us in Moulton in Northamptonshire for the Moulton Village Festival weekend, ably organised by Moulton Morris. We were only able to join for the Saturday, which featured dancing around the village and in particular a Maycart, containing the May Queen and her attendants. This is decorated with flowers and pulled around the village by lines of Morris Dancers heaving on long ropes, which also bear greenery decorated structures. BB quickly worked out though that by taking up stations behind the cart, the amount of pulling required would be minimal. The day finished up with a crowning ceremony and show dances from the guest teams, followed by a highly civilised high tea in the Village Hall. So despite the slightly grey and unseasonable weather, this turned out to be a highly enjoyable day, and one which we all agreed we would like to repeat some time in the future.
2 days later a small but worthy team had a very pleasant evening dance out with Jackstraws and Customs and Exiles at The Alfred, Upper Hale, near Farnham. This was followed on Sunday 27th by a return to the Kirtlington Lamb Ale, an annual event which we had missed for the last few years. The day always starts early with quite a long procession from the edge of the village back to the church, for which this year, to our surprise, we found we had a full team. After a church service there is another procession back to the village school playground for a sweet ceremony featuring local children before various dance spots around the village. The day culminated with one dance from each of the visiting teams, and we know by now that Kirtlington’s Nigel will always insult us over the PA system during our dance. This year we made it easy for him by doing Coconuts, trying to ensure they got stuck or broken as much as possible. But as always an excellent day blessed with copious sunshine, despite the generally very poor weather throughout the rest of May.
