Fix Bay-Knits & Hit The Field!

It was lovely to be back playing in a field at The Gathering (Good Times N Tha) down in Devon. We played late afternoon on a sunny Saturday to an appreciative crowd all sat round inhaling the great outdoors. There was a diverse line up of great acts over the weekend from roots and folk through to indie and klezmer. It was a perfect sized site, the tents just being minutes from the stage area – I do prefer these boutique sized affairs these days. Though the sun shone sweetly through the daytime, the nights did get chilly, so we gathered around a large roaring campfire where impromptu music jams would break out and we found ourselves in deep conversation with new friends. One fella gave me a slug of his Peruvian Maca concoction – mildly buzzy and kinda bitter and barky – nice.

Campfire at The Gathering

On the Sunday we drove in to nearby Sidmouth which is a lovely little seaside town with a welcoming and friendly air. Back on site, the chill evening setting in, we bought super-warm ponchos from the wonderful team at The Hippie Boat on Wheels which doubled as extra blankets when we finally retired that night.

It was so good to escape computers and phone signal, news feed and messaging for a few days. So much, both at home and around the world, seems to be travelling in the wrong direction at present and can leave one feeling quite helpless against the tide of human disconnect, abrasive rhetoric and disinformation. I see good folks swept up in the most crazy and hateful narratives and it feels a somewhat hopeless task to try and inject any sense of truth, love and compassion into the spinning cauldron - eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog. The irony was inescapable when witnessing the VE Day celebrations just days after Reform UK had blustered their way in to so many seats. Another day, another pope, another war, and repeat.

The previous week we had a lovely family weekend in Whitby, ostensibly to celebrate our daughter’s 25th year, which was a great reason to travel en masse up to the Yorkshire coast. It also happened to be Goth Weekend in Whitby which made for a vibrant and darkly stylish atmosphere around the town. There seemed to be almost as many amateur photographers around snapping the proud paraders in their amazing outfits and costumes. All seemed happy to stop and pose, and it struck me as a lovely thing that the town is so welcoming and friendly to this outsider culture.

Emelia at Robin Hood's Bay.

We took a ride on the North York Moors Railway from Pickering to Goathland, though sadly not steam driven as a recent large fire combined with the very dry conditions had led to a temporary suspension of those engines, so a vintage diesel was at the head as we trundled through the beauteous countryside. We also popped over to Robin Hood’s Bay for a nice mooch around, resulting in a lovely new Bay-knit Beanie. It was lovely to spend time with family – a relaxing few days for all.

As the Arts Team is no longer employed, we are in the process of setting ourselves up as a CIC and hope to continue to some degree with projects and events as and when we can identify appropriate funding streams. I also, for sure, have a certain amount of blank canvas ahead of me and have started to think around how I might sketch in various plans and ideas – watch this space. In that spirit, I have started to share some poems over on Substack - you can find me at https://substack.com/@graewall – if you fancy following, that would be sweet.

See ya soon!

Grae J.