My Birthday–Kingsteignton Village Fete

It was my birthday on Monday 30th May and it was a glorious sunny day, so we went to the Kingsteignton village fete. It was a traditional village event with their annual ram roast and all the usual fete activities and we had great fun wandering around and seeing all the different things.

This is the ram roast. At one point there was a huge queue for it, and it was moving so slowly that we didn’t bother, and got our lunch elsewhere!

Donkey rides.

The stand of the Guild of Devonshire Ringers. Note the bells set up so that people could have a go!

Hoopla – a very old traditional activity at village fetes.

Hand-made walking sticks.

Japanese drumming. This was very noisy.

The owl lady. This Canadian owl was very splendid, and quite tame, and allowed us to stroke him. I was amazed at how warm he felt. He had great golden eyes.

Swing boats. I used to love these when I was a child.

The stand of a delightful lady exhibiting her small tapestry weaving pieces. I had a lovely chat with her and was so inspired by her work. I gave her my email address and she sent me details of her upcoming classes – there is one later this month and I am keen to go.

Free tapestry weaving. This is the subject of the next class.

Her tapestry weaving sampler. She had mounted it on an artist’s canvas painted black.

Her table showing more weaving, and some hand spinning. Her spinning was beautiful, and incredibly even – she had sample skeins of various fibres including one of a silk and Merino wool mix which was very soft.

There was also some May-pole dancing which was going on when we arrived but I didn’t photograph it. Apparently they were making a right mess of it and getting all the ribbons tangled up! What fun.

Altogether it was a lovely day out, and an excellent birthday outing! I bought a few bits and pieces including a scarf made of silk with pieces of silk velvet which I thought I could cut up and use for art.

When we came home, after a bit of a sit-down with a cup of tea, I started in the kitchen and prepared for the little dinner party we had to celebrate my birthday. I cooked Spiced Lamb with Sweet Potato Topping (a sort of glorified Middle-Eastern-style shepherd’s pie), Sticky Toffee Pavlova and home-made Lychee and Rose Flavoured Ice Cream, using my new ice cream maker which is a great success. This was served with home-made shortbread. The food went down very well with everyone and we had a great time. I had done most of the cooking in advance and laid up the table before we went out, so there wasn’t much more to do than assemble it all and cook it, and cook the vegetables – baby carrots and steamed rainbow chard. As usual when I’m entertaining, I was so caught up with the cooking and preparation that I completely forgot to photograph the table (which I’d made a special effort with, and it looked really pretty) or the food! So you will have to use your imagination.

Another year, another birthday. If it wasn’t for the miracle of modern medicine, I might never have lived to see this birthday. I count my blessings daily, and hope that I never grow too old to enjoy celebrating my birthday with child-like enjoyment!