STORIES AND PICTURES FROM OUR GROUP
Click on the year to find out what happened, and maybe see some pictures.
Click on the year to find out what happened, and maybe see some pictures.
2024
Gaynor the hero of the hour pulling victory out of the jaws of a disaster. Having worked so hard for over a year to bring us an Easter meet, she nearly ended up with nothing (again), but within a week Midland stalwarts pulled a great meet out of the bog. Chairman Mark provided the flowers.
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Anne provides Ann and Barry with more flowers to commemorate them providing singing and Tai Chi workshops for over 20 years. They say it was the last time........
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EVESHAM Midland Easter replacement
29th March-2nd April
Could be described as the Phoenix meet, risen from the cancelled Easter meet or perhaps Atlantis from the sea?
Impressions of the Midland Easter Meet.
What a fantastic time considering we had been planning for two years and we had to condense the usual 200+ units into 68.
Although it wasn’t our fault (the weather made the field unusable) I would still like to apologise to all those members whom we couldn’t accommodate.
That said we managed workshops of glass painting, encaustic art, friendship bracelets, decoupatch, book covers and cute egg cosies. We had Tai Chi, Club, Morris and evening dances. Singing was catered for with shanties, unison in harmony, skiffle and evening singarounds.
We had a music session, two styles of ukulele playing and beginners’ concertina.
Friday night was a social occasion, meet and greet with a singaround interspersed with dancing.
On Saturday and Sunday we separated into different groups but all came together on Monday for the showcase and display of crafts.
I could mention names but what an amazing Midland Committee and friends I had backing me. I might have been at the helm but what a crew!
Will I go down in folk group history like one of Henry V111’ wives – did 2014, had 2020 and 2021 cancelled, did 2022 and quartered 2024 and ran out of biscuits. So don’t ask me again to run anEas ter Meet, I might just be the jinx!
Gay.
Feedback from the Midlands 'Mini' Easter Meet.
Report on the Easter Meet with the Midlands
After initially being disappointed that the National Easter Meet had been cancelled due to all the rain and the water-logged field, we really appreciated the Midlands efforts to arrange a Midlands Meet, led by Gaynor and her team, in its place.
We eventually arrived at tea time on Good Friday – just too tired to attend the evening activities. We threw ourselves into the workshops provided the next day and, again, were too tired to go out after tea!
We were told that the Saturday evening events had quite a few young dancers thus promoting the future of the club. I wanted to do everything but (but could we stand the pace!) couldn’t, so we, mainly, did the dancing and I must say the band and callers were excellent.
The atmosphere onsite was lovely and one day a number of people gathered outside playing music and singing. The ‘showcase’ on the last evening showed how much talent there was at this Meet and the craft on display was fantastic!
A big thank you should be sent out to Gaynor by the Folk Group for organising, re-organising, re-re-organising, changing and amending various Easter Meets with her team, especially due to Covid and now the weather.
We had a great time and met very friendly people. We missed some of our friends from further afield but we are sure this will be possible later in the year and next Easter.
We hope that other members were able to have a happy Easter too.
Jane Clapp
Good Morning Gay & Bob, well its just about still morning….we overslept, forgot we had not altered the clocks at home!
Just to say a big thankyou to you both for forging ahead to save Easter, we are aware of how much extra work it took to re organize and thank you both very much also all your ‘worker busy bees’ who without them it could not have happened (don’t have all their individual email addresses).
As everyone who was there knows it was a huge success and I just hope you manage to cover the costs it incurred.
Well done Midlands….brilliant
Rosemary & Dave
We were pleased to see you on the Saturday evening and thank you very much for your hospitality - sorry we didn’t spend more time with you but it all got rather complicated toing and froing and keeping in touch with everyone.
Patsy and Ian Paterson.
ASTLEY
8th-10th March
Our first outing this year was to join the Midland Section of the FSDG in a beautiful village not far from Stourport on Severn. We were warmly welcomed by the stewards who quickly got us to our spot for the weekend. A hot drink was also ready in the beautiful village hall.
Friday evening we had a bring your own dinner to eat together, this was something we hadn’t done before, but it was a great icebreaker rather than sitting on your own in the caravan. The stewards gave out a quiz for us to complete with answers given at the later tea break. The evening’s entertainment was a bit different to our usual section, they had a scratch band to play the dances. Each expertly called dance was interspersed by two floor spots.
Saturday morning began with tea , then until their AGM began; musicians got into huddles for jamming sessions, some craft work was shared between other groups, whilst the remainder spent the time catching up.
Dinner was a shared table with lots of various dishes, it always amazes me how very little is duplicated. Another quiz was provided. The entertainment followed the same pattern.
Sunday morning came round far too quickly. We finished with coffee before departure before noon.
We were warmly welcomed and by the end of the weekend we felt we had made many new friends. We will definitely go out with them again.
SHATTERFORD Village Hall
Winter Day Neets, 20th January and 17th February
These were a new departure for Midland group, an idea which we had decided to try for a number of reasons. Firstly, we felt it seems to be a very long time between our final meet of the year at Astley in November and the first of the year in March, and secondly because we have had to give up using Shatterford for our regular meets, as there are issues with getting caravans onto the site, but really wanted to continue to use the hall in some manner.
We were lucky with the weather for both ‘day meets’, which were well attended with more than 30 participants on each occasion. The first, with a theme of New Year, was hosted by Colin and Julia and was their first experience of hosting. It was a busy afternoon with a music session and a craft group, who were doing threading cards under the tutelage of Julia. Other people just enjoyed the opportunity to sit and chat. We were pleased to welcome several people who were joining us for the first time. In the evening, we had a lovely, shared supper followed by music and dancing with Colin doing a marvelous job as MC and with sufficient musicians to have a band for the dancing. There was also a quiz with questions based around the New Year theme, the prize for which was a rather wonderful red sequined top hat. Well done Colin and Julia on a very successful afternoon and evening.
Our second day meet was hosted by Gay and Val, with a Valentines theme. We were pleased to welcome back the people who had joined us for the first time at the previous ‘day meet’, who had since become members of the Midland folk group. There was again an afternoon of music and song, a craft group with June explaining how to create boxes from pretty card and a determined group working hard to complete a 500-piece jigsaw in the short time available. Our usual shared supper followed, with another wonderful selection of food, followed by a tricky Valentines quiz with Val as the quizmaster. Gay was our excellent MC for the evening of music and dancing and again we had a band for the dancing.
Both of our ‘day meets’ were felt to have been a tremendous success, and I am sure they will become a regular event in our calendar.
Beth Hughes
29th March-2nd April
Could be described as the Phoenix meet, risen from the cancelled Easter meet or perhaps Atlantis from the sea?
Impressions of the Midland Easter Meet.
What a fantastic time considering we had been planning for two years and we had to condense the usual 200+ units into 68.
Although it wasn’t our fault (the weather made the field unusable) I would still like to apologise to all those members whom we couldn’t accommodate.
That said we managed workshops of glass painting, encaustic art, friendship bracelets, decoupatch, book covers and cute egg cosies. We had Tai Chi, Club, Morris and evening dances. Singing was catered for with shanties, unison in harmony, skiffle and evening singarounds.
We had a music session, two styles of ukulele playing and beginners’ concertina.
Friday night was a social occasion, meet and greet with a singaround interspersed with dancing.
On Saturday and Sunday we separated into different groups but all came together on Monday for the showcase and display of crafts.
I could mention names but what an amazing Midland Committee and friends I had backing me. I might have been at the helm but what a crew!
Will I go down in folk group history like one of Henry V111’ wives – did 2014, had 2020 and 2021 cancelled, did 2022 and quartered 2024 and ran out of biscuits. So don’t ask me again to run anEas ter Meet, I might just be the jinx!
Gay.
Feedback from the Midlands 'Mini' Easter Meet.
Report on the Easter Meet with the Midlands
After initially being disappointed that the National Easter Meet had been cancelled due to all the rain and the water-logged field, we really appreciated the Midlands efforts to arrange a Midlands Meet, led by Gaynor and her team, in its place.
We eventually arrived at tea time on Good Friday – just too tired to attend the evening activities. We threw ourselves into the workshops provided the next day and, again, were too tired to go out after tea!
We were told that the Saturday evening events had quite a few young dancers thus promoting the future of the club. I wanted to do everything but (but could we stand the pace!) couldn’t, so we, mainly, did the dancing and I must say the band and callers were excellent.
The atmosphere onsite was lovely and one day a number of people gathered outside playing music and singing. The ‘showcase’ on the last evening showed how much talent there was at this Meet and the craft on display was fantastic!
A big thank you should be sent out to Gaynor by the Folk Group for organising, re-organising, re-re-organising, changing and amending various Easter Meets with her team, especially due to Covid and now the weather.
We had a great time and met very friendly people. We missed some of our friends from further afield but we are sure this will be possible later in the year and next Easter.
We hope that other members were able to have a happy Easter too.
Jane Clapp
Good Morning Gay & Bob, well its just about still morning….we overslept, forgot we had not altered the clocks at home!
Just to say a big thankyou to you both for forging ahead to save Easter, we are aware of how much extra work it took to re organize and thank you both very much also all your ‘worker busy bees’ who without them it could not have happened (don’t have all their individual email addresses).
As everyone who was there knows it was a huge success and I just hope you manage to cover the costs it incurred.
Well done Midlands….brilliant
Rosemary & Dave
We were pleased to see you on the Saturday evening and thank you very much for your hospitality - sorry we didn’t spend more time with you but it all got rather complicated toing and froing and keeping in touch with everyone.
Patsy and Ian Paterson.
ASTLEY
8th-10th March
Our first outing this year was to join the Midland Section of the FSDG in a beautiful village not far from Stourport on Severn. We were warmly welcomed by the stewards who quickly got us to our spot for the weekend. A hot drink was also ready in the beautiful village hall.
Friday evening we had a bring your own dinner to eat together, this was something we hadn’t done before, but it was a great icebreaker rather than sitting on your own in the caravan. The stewards gave out a quiz for us to complete with answers given at the later tea break. The evening’s entertainment was a bit different to our usual section, they had a scratch band to play the dances. Each expertly called dance was interspersed by two floor spots.
Saturday morning began with tea , then until their AGM began; musicians got into huddles for jamming sessions, some craft work was shared between other groups, whilst the remainder spent the time catching up.
Dinner was a shared table with lots of various dishes, it always amazes me how very little is duplicated. Another quiz was provided. The entertainment followed the same pattern.
Sunday morning came round far too quickly. We finished with coffee before departure before noon.
We were warmly welcomed and by the end of the weekend we felt we had made many new friends. We will definitely go out with them again.
SHATTERFORD Village Hall
Winter Day Neets, 20th January and 17th February
These were a new departure for Midland group, an idea which we had decided to try for a number of reasons. Firstly, we felt it seems to be a very long time between our final meet of the year at Astley in November and the first of the year in March, and secondly because we have had to give up using Shatterford for our regular meets, as there are issues with getting caravans onto the site, but really wanted to continue to use the hall in some manner.
We were lucky with the weather for both ‘day meets’, which were well attended with more than 30 participants on each occasion. The first, with a theme of New Year, was hosted by Colin and Julia and was their first experience of hosting. It was a busy afternoon with a music session and a craft group, who were doing threading cards under the tutelage of Julia. Other people just enjoyed the opportunity to sit and chat. We were pleased to welcome several people who were joining us for the first time. In the evening, we had a lovely, shared supper followed by music and dancing with Colin doing a marvelous job as MC and with sufficient musicians to have a band for the dancing. There was also a quiz with questions based around the New Year theme, the prize for which was a rather wonderful red sequined top hat. Well done Colin and Julia on a very successful afternoon and evening.
Our second day meet was hosted by Gay and Val, with a Valentines theme. We were pleased to welcome back the people who had joined us for the first time at the previous ‘day meet’, who had since become members of the Midland folk group. There was again an afternoon of music and song, a craft group with June explaining how to create boxes from pretty card and a determined group working hard to complete a 500-piece jigsaw in the short time available. Our usual shared supper followed, with another wonderful selection of food, followed by a tricky Valentines quiz with Val as the quizmaster. Gay was our excellent MC for the evening of music and dancing and again we had a band for the dancing.
Both of our ‘day meets’ were felt to have been a tremendous success, and I am sure they will become a regular event in our calendar.
Beth Hughes
Our History and earlier reports