Our first night under canvas!

Rather than head of for 4 nights camping at the Cambridge Folk festival without a trial run we decided to take advantage of the good weather and having no guests in on Sunday night and pitch the tent on a site 2 miles away from home.  It was a lot of work for one night, although the tent is fantastic, its a breeze to put up even for a control freak and her much nagged husband! Took us just short of 2 hours to be sat outside in the sun with a beer and took only 50 minutes to pack everything away.  We bought everything, apart from our sleeping bags, from a couple who loved camping and were only selling their stuff because the friends they had always camped with had had enough and they didn't really fancy it on their own.  Everything is really good quality and has been looked after fantastically well, hopefully we will get a lot of use out of it as we both loved our first night.










Cant wait for the end of July when we get to go again!

Ness, these ones are for you!

As promised Ness, the pics I took at the start of the month.  Not sure any of them are what you are looking for but if there is anything that you like let me know and I'll put it on a disk for you. xx
 


























I like the two above of Porthleven and this one below too.


 

 



 

 
Nice dramatic sky I guess but really a shame the weather was a bit pants to be honest!

 




Sure I am destined never to get a good pic of St Michaels Mount!

Flora Day - its all down hill from here!

So, after the splendour of the Midday dance and the cultured ambience of the gardens at Lismore House everyone piled back to my Mum's and Dad for the now infamous Flora Day party.  Blessed as we were by blazing sun shine their decking is the nearest place to heaven with good company and a lake of wine on tap.
 











Not everyone one there was old and drinking, some were more intent on feeding the tortoise!
 

 
Love his little grubby face, proper "little boy" pic!

Apparently passing the hats round is a big tradition.



 



 

The day ended with us all heading back down into Helston for the Five O'Clock dance, by which time everyone was three sheets to the wind and it began to rain.








I really hope its not another 25 years before I am home again for Flora Day, but if it is this one will have stood me in good stead!

Flora Day

I have a feeling I am going to have to do this lot in two posts as there are masses of pics from Flora Day.  If you aren't in these pics you wont know what Flora Day is, please google it!  If you are in these pics and want to download any of them send me an email and I'll get them to you.

Flora day starts early, we didn't get to the 7am dance but we made sure we had had a glass of bubbly before we went down for the Childrens Dance at 9.40am.  I love this pic of my sister!



The streets are decorated with bunting, bluebells and leaves to celebrate May Day.

Helston Town Band leads the dancers through the town - I have danced once when I was at school and it's a bloody long way!


 

 






The weather was fantastic, we were so lucky.

This lady was dressed up for Hal An Tow - ashamed to admit I have no idea what is involved (it happens at about 6am!) but involves men in tights!





I love both of these next two photos of my Mum and a colleague of hers from Goonhilly.









After the Childrens Dance we all headed to the gardens to wait for the Midday dance to arrive.  You have to apply to dance in the Midday and the leaders of the dance have to be Helston born and bred, this year a friend from school that worked with my sister was one of the four leading the dance.





A friend of my sisters, Sally, was also dancing with Mark - they are part of a big group of really close friends and everyone came along to support them.  I loved taking pics of Sally, isn't she beautiful?



And Mark scrubs up well too!









Sally's sister in law, Carol, and her partner, Chris.

I really like this photo!



Cath's brother and his wife.

Ness and Cath - who was leading the dance which is a massive honour and requires some serious dress shopping - Cath's dress was gorgeous and she looked fantastic!











Flora day is all about the detail.





Cath was wearing a necklace that belonged to her husband's Mum, it set off her dress perfectly.











 
Considering the amount of alcohol consumed before the Midday dance even arrived in the gardens I am pleased with how the majority of these photos turned out. 

More to follow!