Bartimaeus

The bar down from our mooring had live music two nights in a row. The second night I was enjoying the powerful songs of the likes of Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin. The woman singing was belting out the numbers and getting loud cheers. Shane was a little less enamoured with her singing. It didn't go on too late.

On Sunday we had another musical treat in store. We were heading for the 1940s themed Cherry Fayre in Bewdley. The gardens had music and a barbecue on. Cherries were for sale and a few people were wearing cherry patterned dresses and a few vintage vehicles were around. We set our chairs in the shade. I went up to order our barbecue as the band were getting started and I had a good view of them.

The woman taking orders and money had asked my name. I had said Macaulay but whether it was the band starting, her own distraction or her unfamiliarity with the name, she appeared not to know I had answered the question and looked up from her pad and said, "Just so I can call you when it's ready, a first name will do".  While waiting I was entertained by the band. I went back towards the stall to be in earshot of the call. A man standing at the barbecue table was talking to the chap cooking the food. I heard an exchange about payment.  Then the cook said to the man "Are you Clare?" He said he wasn't, and I chimed in that I was Clare and that was indeed what I was waiting for. The other customer hadn't realised the ordering system, and had just fancied the look of our lunch! 

Back at our seats, we enjoyed the music and the food. The microphone was a bit quiet though so while we heard the band well, we didn't always catch the full story in the introduction of each piece. In the second half one of the musicians put down her instrument and took the mike and sang a song. I could hear it but it was gentle. Shane liked her voice better than the woman the previous night, but thought it was a shame the amplification was not nearly as good! She turned up the volume, before she returned to her seat, so we could hear the conductor better and her better, when she got up to do another couple of numbers over the afternoon. 

Another woman had done a solo on the flugelhorn using the mike, but at a distance and she was easy to hear - I don't think she needed the mike at all.

Quite a few dancers in pairs had been getting into the swing of it. I recognised one woman who was dancing on her own, as a lady who had been dancing a lot last week. She was also in the spirit of things with a cherry dress and earrings. The conductor got lots of people up at the end with Sweet Caroline.

We were sitting next to a farmer's stall, selling fresh apple juice, bags of plums and beetroot, so we had some delicious apple juice and I bought a large bottle for the fridge and a beetroot. The plums were sold out.

I remembered the air raid shelter was meant to be open but I was either too late or that hadn't happened, when I went to check. All the craft stalls were going away too. I went to remind myself what the massive stone was - part of a cider mill. I expect our apple juice was made on a very different machine.

Before leaving I had a quick browse of the museum again. There was a display of what looked like a wedding outfit, which looks very small for a woman, if it is full length. However nothing is written about the dress just saying the four MacDonald sisters all had famous sons. 

When were about to leave, a man came over to chat about the bike, accompanied by the woman we had observed being a keen dancer. Her parents had had a tandem too. The man was very interested in our tandem and was only dragged away when she said her feet were aching from standing. Dancing puts less stress on the feet than standing still, or the pleasure is worth the pain.

Cycling back we stopped briefly at an impressively tiled monument, to a benefactor, Richard Eve. The surnames Adam, Adamson, Adams and MacAdam are all common, but not Eve, or indeed other women. It used to be a fountain but not any more.

  Later in the evening we heard the loud cries of gulls. They were swooping just in front of the boat where a young woman was flinging out food. They surrounded her but did not attempt to dive at her or her bags of food. It seems a surprise given that gulls will grab food from out of your hand. I had a crisp taken as a child on a ferry. The next evening the same thing happened. I had a good view of it as I was sitting knitting at the bow. The gulls recognised her coming and started gathering and calling before she got there. A woman coming out of her house, opposite our mooring, told me this happens every single day, "ever since COVID".