I heard from the Wood Dalling Christmas Market organiser and the news was not good. Apparently they can’t fit me in! No compromise options were offered, like paring down the presentation and giving me a small table out in the hallway, for example. It does make me wonder how much local interest in the project it’s possible to drum up. I mean, they even turned down the free beer! Ho hum … a great excuse for an Advent party, anyway.
And, I’ve heard from one of the three local Societies I contacted about the possibility of going along to one of their meetings to chat informally about the project. It’s the one that’s based in my home village – and they’ve turned me down too! It’s true that they seemed to think I was offering a formal talk and their programme is full for 2008, but it’s always a bit disheartening to be told that your records will nonetheless be kept ‘on file’ and to be ‘thanked for your interest’! This community-inclusion thing is really not going the way Jo and Katie (my mentors) seemed to envisage.
Anyway, there are positive things to report – for one thing, Kalender has gone together well and is finished and is with the printer. Unfortunately, when I went to collect the 180 copies on Friday afternoon I discovered they’d printed it as a postcard-sized image in the centre of each A5 page. It was pretty hard having to turn it down having struggled across the rush-hour traffic – and actually seeing the box of condemned Kalenders – but there was nothing else I could do but go home empty-handed. The printers are going to re-do them, but I probably won’t be able to get over there again until Friday. Meanwhile, this new edition – Michaelmas, issue 6 – is now downloadable from the website:
Last Tuesday and Wednesday were All Saints and All Souls’ Days – Julian calendar style – and I spent some time at the church on Wednesday afternoon. There was no sign of the builders, and I had a great time taking photographs as the afternoon sunlight shifted around the old building. Plastic sheeting has been hung to separate the south aisle where the builders are working from the nave, and I found the reflections and shadows really evocative. A real piece of luck.
Afterwards, I was lucky again as I was able to warm up with a cup of coffee beside the woodburning stove of Kay, my Wood Dalling friend who I’ve met through the project (another good thing about Festial!)
And later an idea emerged for some work connected with All Souls’ Day, so on Thursday I baked a dozen fairy cakes …. but, in the tradition of fairy stories and soap operas alike, I’ll leave the rest until my next blog entry … !
