We’ve been busy trying to reclaim the house from the clutter and untidiness - well, actually, Katy has been doing most of the work 
. We didn’t quite make the target of 30 black sacks out of the house by Friday night (to the bin, recycling or charity shops) so stayed at home on Saturday to crack on, and for Katy to go to a SlingMeet at Truly Bumptious, which is a lovely place.
Sunday was the Festival of History, and unforecast rain. Fortunately everyone apart from me happened to have at least a jumper in the car already, but I did not and so got a bit cold and wet.
BZents were there as ever, and excellent too. They are on the children’s non-negotiable list for FoH and the St. George’s day thing that English Heritage do. J and L were 2/3 of the French army (which involved scary war cries, sticking out your tongue and shaking your bottom) and K was the black knight in a joust.
The other highlight of this year was the Agincourt / Azincourt re-enactment. I often feel underwhelmed by re-enacted battles, but seeing volley after volley of arrows from the English archers to the French at Harfleur was really effective. Katy saw the Agincourt bit itself, which was apparently very interesting despite camera problems.
There was a big dose of Britishness towards the end - a D-Day thing had a Hurricane zooming around just above the trees and looking amazing, and walking away from that we came to an excellent Beatles tribute band. Unfortunately, there was a period dancing group and their band next door, and the dancers had a hard time doing their gavotte (or whatever it was) to Love Me Do / hurdy gurdy music.
The childrens’ tent, beach and Punch and Judy show all went down well with the children. L got to dress up as a Regency lady, and they all made something or other (including A making a crown).
Fortunately we managed to bump into the Beans, Nic / Ady / Monster / Minx and half of the Porticos. Alison has gone up even higher in my estimation by not only being a Kentwell courier but also fixing an imminent sense of humour failure with a cup of tea . Thanks too Alison and Nic putting up with me when I turned into a bit of a history bore while waiting aaaaages for the jousting to start.
I’d mentioned the FoH to Andy, who gives me a lift to work. He and his family happened to have a gap in their sports-filled weekends and came. They enjoyed themselves, joined English Heritage to reclaim their entrance fee (no commission for me though ;-), and happened to bump into me while I was queueing for the loo.
We braved the rain for the final parade, and I was impressed by how the commentator could recognise each of the groups (from Romans to WW2 soldiers) and tell you details about them. By the time we’d got back to the car I was tired, cold and wet. We’d brought a thermos of tea for then, but I’d forgotten the coffee whitener (we’d run out of milk). Fortunately I’d made it weak enough that we all could drink it OK, so that and chocolate cake largely restored good humour for the journey home.
Photos as ever on Flickr, plus bonus giraffe photos that will soon go onto the giraffe web site.
Yesterday Katy uncovered a seam of easily-dispatched stuff (clothes that we hope the RNLI will pick up tomorrow) and so we have smashed through the 30 bag target. Not content with that, she moved a couple of shelf units and some benches and helped me move a freezer.