Windy.

A grand night was had by those of us who went to the ceilidh last night. It was in the community hall in the artists/ex-fishing village of Appledore and was hosted by the Taw and Torridge Gig club. The evening started with  a meal and we had the choice of a mild chicken korma, a hot madras or a vegetable curry. The men chose the hot madras while us ladies all went for the korma. While people were arriving raffle tickets were being sold which happens at every local event. Sally was lucky enough to win a case of lager which she was able to swap for a bottle of Merlot. I was also lucky and won a tin of shortbread biscuits. Once everyone had eaten their fill we cleared the tables away and the dancing began. It was a real shame that Peter's knee is so bad at the moment but between us we managed plenty of dances. It was a real mixture of dances, I know the last one was the Virginia Reel and there was a graceful Jane Austin Regency style dance. Mainly they were fast dances and it was as much fun to watch as to take part. Naturally each dance had to be taught first which produced a lot of laughter. Gary the caller used to be a teacher and was incredibly patient as a floor full of beginners tried to sort themselves out. Even getting into the starting positions took a while as sometimes it was 4 couples in a square or 6 couples in 2 lines or even one large circle. But everyone had a really good time and it didn't matter if you were skipping around gracefully or stomping around hopefully. 

Today has remained cloudy and windy but it feels quite warm, a forerunner of the hot spell we have been promised for next week. Before Sally and Vytas went off for another cliff walk Vytas and Sam carried around the triple ladder and cleared out the long gutter that was clogged with leaves and weeds. They also carried the big wooden garden table back up the the scree garden shelter. At the moment Peter and I are not able to do heavy lifting jobs so I was thankful for a couple of strong men to do them for us. While the ladders were up I went up and cut back the climbing rose that was trying to get up onto the roof. After that I cleared all the branches and swept/picked up all the fallen leaves. 

A roast lamb dinner is soon to be served and Sam and Vytas are happily playing a 40k wargame in the conservatory while everyone else is in the kitchen knitting or on their computers.