The White Rabbit at the Watermill

The air is filled with the sounds of the combine harvester and attendant tractors and trailers as they wend their way up and down the fields.       Great clouds of dust and the dry scent of grain linger in the air.    Farmer T gives a cheerful wave, makes another turn with the combine,  leaving golden stubble and straw in the wake of the machine. 

It all has that deliciously exciting air,  as though we are teetering on the brink of a holiday.   In one sense, we are,  for as soon as the great lumbering machines head off down the road to the next fields I will take Toby out to enjoy the freedom.     We can roam at will; we always walk through the field, but now that the barley has gone we can roam the whole field, it will become our playground for a few weeks.     Then one day the plough will move in and golden stubble will be turned into brown corduroy, the whole process of the growing year will begin again.

Yesterday evening I had tickets to attend a performance of Alice in Wonderland at the watermill around the corner.    Once again they were lucky with the weather, though the actors may not have thought so.    It was hot and humid and it stayed hot and humid through the evening.

Imagine wearing these outfits and putting on a cheerful performance.

This is one half of the twins Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, not sure which one though.

Alice and the Cheshire Cat.

This was the full cast;  the White Rabbit had been played by one of the Tweedles and didn't make a reappearance after the first few scenes.       It was a fun production, lots of jokes, singing (some very good voices) and dancing.   

The evil Queen of Hearts deserves a special mention.   A short time before the performance she had tripped and hurt her ankle quite badly.   She insisted that she went on stage, and she was magnificent, the audience would have been quite unaware of how much pain she was in.   She really knew how to play her part, wound the children up nicely and had them shrieking out warnings to the other cast members.

Adults and children had a great time.    It was light-hearted and fun.    Some people ate picnics, others indulged in a pizza or two from the wood-fired pizza oven, others ate hot dogs.     I don't eat in the evening, so I settled for a pot of tea.    It was all very relaxed and enjoyable.

All we had to do afterwards was fold up our chairs and walk a couple of hundred yards along the lane to home. 

Well done to the watermill for bringing us yet another bit of enjoyable evening entertainment.    Bring on the next one!

The barley field has gone quiet, it is time for me to take Toby out for a mooch around the field.   A mooch, because it is too hot for anything else.