Saturday Gala and Dancing a Quadrille on Sunday

What a hectic week-end wev'e had at Freddy's place.

Saturday was over to Brighouse to see the charity gala.
The gala always starts with a procession and at the front of it is the town crier. He wanders a good few yards in front ringing his bell and shouting at the top of his lungs warning everyone that the procession is on it's way and to get ready to put your coins in the charity buckets.
No gala would be complete without a Queen and her entourage. This young lady in the back of the car was clearly up to the task, waving to the crowds as the procession wound it's way slowly to the park, where the gala was being held. also in the procession were some floats that the local children had decorated, a few bands, majorettes and some tumbling gymnasts.
My two kids loved this character. I think he/she must have been very warm in that costume! When the procession ended, it was down into the park where all the side-shows, fairground rides etc were. We watched the gymnasts go through their stuff in the arena, had a go on the coconut shy, saw the dogs being judged in the dog-show, the kids went on the tallest bouncy castle slide I've seen and loved it. The lad won a couple of prizes on one of the many tombola stalls, which upset the little lass because she didn't win anything. When he collected his prizes, one of them was a doll, so the little lass won in the end. We enjoyed the gala and are already looking forward to next years.

On the Sunday it was over to one of our regular haunts, Red House at Gomersal.
There were quite a few things going off,including guided walks around the garden by a guide in period costume, dancing on the lawn, "Pride and Predjudice" style, plant and herb stalls, craft activities for the kids and pot pourri making. These sort of events are provide free of charge by the local council, and they always are interesting.
We watched the Arbeau Dancers going through a couple of Quadrilles and Magot's. It certainly took you back to Jane Austin days. When they had finished their performance, volunteers were asked from the audience to have a go. Guess who got roped in! I enjoyed it though, and it's not as easy as it looks.
We took a guided tour of the gardens next with a guide in period costume who showed us around as if it really was 1820. He told us that Charlotte Bronte was a good friend of his daughter Mary Taylor, and often stayed at Red House. Charlotte had written about Red House in her novel "Shirley".

The wife descended on the plant and herb stalls with a vengeance and made the wallet suffer so much I had to retire for refreshments. Whilst we were resting, the kids got on with the craft activities, which consisted of colouring in a victorian fan and a flower decoup'age.

We called in at the PYO strawberry field on the way home so by the time I pulled up outside the house the kids had very red faces!