Here we meet one of our “naughtier” customers in the guise of Krampus. He bought this bottle on St Nicks Debit Card – naughty Krampus!!!
Our now biannual pilgrimage to Thornborough Henges saw us setting up on the Friday in the wind and rain, and as the gazebo is the first thing to set up, we had shelter from the occasional deluge. We had decided to van-camp this time so we were able to make the most out of the evenings trading.
Setting up showed us we had been neglecting the gazebo frame and had to pinch a screw from here and put it there to hold a leg in place – a big thanks goes out to Dagda Aus who had a screwdriver to loan us! By breakdown the screw had vanished once more – permanent repairs have now been done back at base.
This is an event that the Meadmeister had been attending long before making mead had come in to being, in fact it was a discussion we had with one of the original organisers and it had been in existence since 2002, so the official 20th Anniversary has been and gone, but take 2 years out for that Covid-19 thing and it really should have been this year.
The event is always on the May Day bank holiday weekend and so most years it coincides with International Star Wars Day, which is also our Handfasting Anniversary (or Han-niversary). This year it was, once more, on the Saturday as it was when we jumped the broom.
Saturday morning allows us to look at the other traders wares, and this year hopefully we have made a symbiotic relationship – further details to be announced! This weekend both Friday and Saturday seemed very muted with Traders Alley being quiet for most of the day, we had a few day visitors come through, but not as many as previous years, but with the weather not knowing what it wanted to do, it is no wonder.
This year we had decided to follow on from Mabon in 2023 by offering a “By The Glass” opportunity which was very popular and also expanded that into doing a few cocktails including one of our own “Futhark Fizz” (for those without knowledge of Runes it refers to the Elder Futhark)
- 25ml Lancashire Mead Company Elderberry Mead
- 25ml Lancashire Mead Company Elderflower Mead and
- 125ml Prosecco Frizzante
This seemed to be a very popular choice over the weekend. The weather held out for most of Saturday with the wind dropping off and temperature rose a little.
Sunday is the main day and is attended by many day visitors who come for the elaborate Opening and Closing ceremonies. The idea of the Ceremony being on one day dates back to the very beginning where camping was at other sites and all converged on the Henges on the Sunday.
We packed down Sunday evening and travelled home via the Meadery to unload so we could do nothing on the Monday. We got home about 1am, had a cuppa then hit hit the sack about 2am!
THANK YOU to all that came over the weekend, I even spotted a George Chaplin pass by, however I was too busy to go and catch up.