The Holly Bears The Crown

I've been out a lot over the last few days....
On Saturday, I was taken to Cwmbach by Brian, clutching my cushion for the hard pews and wrapping up warm - because last year it was very cold. This year it was comfortably toasty! Susan, who has started to go to the Baskerville musical evenings with us, joined us at the church. Earlier in the evening she was elsewhere in Glasbury watching a puppet production of a story from the Mabinogion. Jo, who also sometimes comes to the Baskerville with us, joined us too.
It was a fairly full church, lit by candles in jam jars - the Village Quire have little lights clipped to their music scores.
The first half featured a poem by John Clare, interspersed with the singing, and the second half was mainly Cider with Rosie. Each half ended with a Welsh plygain - and the encore was getting the audience to join in with Gaudete!
There were mince pies (lots of them!) and mulled wine at the interval, delivered to the audience in their seats by the singers and helpers, and a raffle with a secret draw - the winning numbers were taped to the prizes and the tickets consulted on the way out.
It was, as ever, a great evening out, and Phil Smith, who does the readings, finished off with a very funny performance about a Northern man describing the production of the Messiah he's just been to - "and I 'ope they find them sheep they lost."
I came out feeling quite festive!
The Village Quire will be performing at the Globe next week (though the acoustics are not so good there as they are at Cwmbach Church). They also have a new CD out, and their website can be found at www.villagequire.org.uk