Tower Tours & Endless Wire**

Volunteering at the Church Fete at the weekend was fun – as long as one can be phlegmatic about the weather which was typical of a British summer!  For example, I trundled up to the greenhouse to collect the tomato plants I was donating for one of the stalls, and within just those few minutes had to change my top as I got soaking wet!  Thankfully, then, upon arrival at the church – when it was just a dank drizzle in the air – I found my spot was inside the building, and the first table close to the entrance.  So, my remit was to sell the tickets for “Tower Tours” as well as covering for the Teddy Zip Wire sales.  Well, both proved very popular and despite limited ticket numbers for the Tours (because of H&S rules) I took over £100, and The Teddies must have raised a similar amount.  That’s a lot of stuffed fur hurtling through the air!!

It was good to put some faces to names too.  Obviously, I have had fairly regular contact with individuals linked to Winchcombe Open Gardens and Friends of St Peter’s but have only met a handful of people – because of Covid rules and the fact that many are older and therefore shielded more than most.

However, a few things made me laugh!  Whilst chatting to my Zip Wire colleague and making small-talk I mentioned that as children [and teenagers] me, Kate and Ali were the bellringers at our local village church, as well as being stalwart members of the choir.  The choir comprised a raggedy bunch of kids, but we did our best!  My sisters and I rang the bells for at least six years – but it was just a peel of three bells- and even then it might sound very temperamental and just a cacophony of clanging!  Anyway, literally less than fifteen minutes after mentioning this background information, another woman turned up at the table to see if I would like to join the bell-ringing team?*!  I don’t know about Zip-wires but the speed at which this news spread was phenomenal!  Needless to say, I have not committed myself to this venture but have said that I will go to a Wednesday rehearsal one evening to see what and who is involved.

Another thing that made me smile was the enthusiasm of the kids to have their stuffed toys lurch into space from the height of 90ft, from the top of the church tower.  One small child surprised his mother when buying a ticket for the event suddenly produced three toys from his rucksack!  Needless to say, Mum paid one pound for one bear, but the small boy had to use two pounds of his saved pocket-money for the others – which he was very happy to do! Bless.

I also had interesting conversations with a whole range of people – volunteers and visitors alike.  The majority of people were local but there was a smattering of tourists too – from Italy, Portugal and America. 

Of course, it all happens at a Cotswolds Church Fete… I found myself deep in conversation with a chap who was (or used to be) the sound engineer for The Who / Pete Townsend, and amongst other things, an award-winning photographer for books /images associated with The Lost Gardens Of Heligan (by Tim Smit). A tenuous gardening link for this Liability-Brown Blog!

It was interesting...different…unusual! 

** BTW - "Endless Wire" is a song by The Who (although I don't know it - I just Googled their song list).