Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Spring! bonnets & budding, ducks & Daffodil Day

It's blossom time: pink & white floral canopies along streets and gardens, wild garlic tanging the air, and a fecundity of bluebells in the local woodlands. Wow! No wonder we go spring-crazy and remind ourselves we're rural folk and rush about doing rural folk things ~ a bonnet contest plus duck race in Nunney on Sunday, while bank holiday Monday is ~ with or without blooming compliance ~ Daffodil Day in Mells. This year there's an abundance of flowers, and the sun shone obligingly on the marquees & bouncy castles, and presumably on the street stalls too although, after walking all the way from Frome along the woodland river path, we didn't get far beyond Milk Street Brewery's beer tent in the field where the rocking revivalist repertoire of totally fantastic Back Wood Redeemers made religion almost worthwhile. The four mile walk was glorious too, both ways.
Back in Frome, the refurbished Whittox Lane chapel, beautifully restored by new owners Ed Roberts and Io Fox, was officially opened as the HUBnub Centre last week. Cutting the ribbon here is Mayor Toby ~ whose 'impressive moustache' gets an awed mention in the most recent Times piece discovering Frome with surprised approval. Our 'lovely old town' must feel a bit like one of those bands that keeps getting the award for promising newcomer, the number of times it's been featured as a 'less obvious' spot to visit and listed on Top 10 charts. Confirming the thumbs-up journalist John Bungey gives Frome's regeneration since Independents took over the council, last week saw two more openings: Jo Black's Black Inc tattoo shop in Cheap Street on Saturday night, and the new Bottle Shop, Cheese & Tap Bar in Palmer Street ~ locally sourced food and drink, either sit in & relax, take home, or both, suggests entrepreneur & 'helmsman' Simon Bowden.

Contrasting holiday-weekend sounds in town to round off this bulletin: mellow jazz from Graham Dent Trio with Caroline Radcliffe at the Cornerhouse on Sunday afternoon, and Dreadzone at Cheese & Grain with a wicked Saturday night of rock/reggae. Like I said, Wow...

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