On a clear day
Hither Green Festival on Saturday 28th May, was and will always be one of my highlights of 2022. The event brought joy to so many people, young and old, visitors, performers, stall holders and even the dogs who came along looking suitably happy, wagging their tails, gazing around and enjoying the ambience of the day.
We were privileged to witness the talent and variety of so many performers and musicians. It was remarkable: there was classical music, a choir, a drumming group, jazz group, the concert band, DJ, singers and dancers. From where I was on my stall, I was able to catch a glimpse of it all. The various dancers went from the popular ‘Electric Slide’ and the ‘Zumba’, encouraging people to take part. It was interesting to see that lots of those who weren’t actually dancing, couldn’t help themselves from doing little moves from side to side or tap their feet.
I always love watching how small children respond to music: swaying, shaking their limbs about without any inhibition. I envy their unfettered pleasure; if only we as adults could move so freely without worrying about what people will think. They also had a lot of fun climbing onto the fire engines and being shown around by the patient firemen.
There were lots of stalls which included plants, arts and crafts, cakes, food, poetry and books, a testament to the skill and creativity of our community. I was delighted to sell quite a few copies of my novel, ‘Masquerade’ and spent a long time chatting to people about the main theme and narrative which led into some interesting conversations as you can imagine.
‘On a clear day’, the title of this piece is a favourite song of mine: ( Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner, 1965). As a highly regarded jazz standard, it is fairly recent, many of the others having been written decades ago and still playing a vital part in jazz music. I was so pleased to hear the concert band and the jazz group playing some of my other favourites too.
We first moved to Catford back in 1974. I’ve been here ever since except for a couple of years spent in Cardiff recently but after a while I was yearning to return to London.
The final performers at the end of such a wonderful day were the elegant belly dancers accompanied by music symbolic of a culture thousands of miles away, its minor sounding melodies soaring into the air. I finished packing up my stall and strolled back to my flat as the music faded.
The whole world is represented in our borough. That’s what is so special about dear old Lewisham.
‘On a clear day, rise and look around you.’
Take care everyone.
Laters. Anna x
We were privileged to witness the talent and variety of so many performers and musicians. It was remarkable: there was classical music, a choir, a drumming group, jazz group, the concert band, DJ, singers and dancers. From where I was on my stall, I was able to catch a glimpse of it all. The various dancers went from the popular ‘Electric Slide’ and the ‘Zumba’, encouraging people to take part. It was interesting to see that lots of those who weren’t actually dancing, couldn’t help themselves from doing little moves from side to side or tap their feet.
I always love watching how small children respond to music: swaying, shaking their limbs about without any inhibition. I envy their unfettered pleasure; if only we as adults could move so freely without worrying about what people will think. They also had a lot of fun climbing onto the fire engines and being shown around by the patient firemen.
There were lots of stalls which included plants, arts and crafts, cakes, food, poetry and books, a testament to the skill and creativity of our community. I was delighted to sell quite a few copies of my novel, ‘Masquerade’ and spent a long time chatting to people about the main theme and narrative which led into some interesting conversations as you can imagine.
‘On a clear day’, the title of this piece is a favourite song of mine: ( Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner, 1965). As a highly regarded jazz standard, it is fairly recent, many of the others having been written decades ago and still playing a vital part in jazz music. I was so pleased to hear the concert band and the jazz group playing some of my other favourites too.
We first moved to Catford back in 1974. I’ve been here ever since except for a couple of years spent in Cardiff recently but after a while I was yearning to return to London.
The final performers at the end of such a wonderful day were the elegant belly dancers accompanied by music symbolic of a culture thousands of miles away, its minor sounding melodies soaring into the air. I finished packing up my stall and strolled back to my flat as the music faded.
The whole world is represented in our borough. That’s what is so special about dear old Lewisham.
‘On a clear day, rise and look around you.’
Take care everyone.
Laters. Anna x
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