There Be Dragons

It’s been a good week. Eventful, I might say. We’ve had battling dragons, a bee swarm and a couple of fire engines to contend with. Fortunately all is well.

On Sunday, we finally made it to see the dragons battling it out in Glastonbury’s High Street. It happens twice a year. There are two dragons. A white one representing winter and the red is summer (or Saxons versus Celts, if you prefer the Arthurian version). Each Beltane and Samhain, they battle out to see who will control of the seasons, as the wheel turns. Fortunately for us all, the Red dragon/ Summer won.

The parade was fabulous to see. Being Glastonbury a large portion of the crowd were dressed up and I even spotted a small dragon clutching a human’s hand. Or was it a child? I guess we’ll never know.

Back to the big dragons. Each dragon had its own set of drummers and, combined with the Dragon Heralder (also the town crier), put on a good show. The atmosphere captured the whole crowd. The battle is a dance and, rest assured, no dragons were harmed, which included the volunteers acting as dragon legs under the cloth bodies. I told Mr TTC that we should volunteer next time. Afterwards, the parade continued along the high street, up the hill and into a field. Most of the crowd follow after it, but we bowed out. We could still hear the drums as we reached the car.

They also had a Dragon Fayre, which as you can imagine, had dragon themed stalls. I found a necklace and a bag.

Gardening

I’ve planted up the tomato greenhouse and added in marigolds to help protect them from pesty pests. Dragons were obviously on my mind as I planted, as I kept thinking of that scene in Reign of Fire, where some of the surviving humans are harvesting the tomatoes in the field and dragons incinerate the lot. Hopefully my tomatoes will fare better.

I still have trays of seedlings, so I’m planting up a raised bed with them this year. I’ve six different types this year, ranging from cherry to beef tomatoes. Making pasta sauce is a staple for me. The more I can grow the better.

Other moments

Unfortunately, a neighbouring house caught on fire. Everyone got out and the fire engines put it out quickly. The black smoke billowing out (picture dragons breathing out fumes) was worrying and closer neighbours were concerned that it would spread. It was contained, but I suspect we’ve all gone home and looked at our own escape/emergency plans.

I made a raspberry cheesecake, which should have been straight forward. First I forgot the cream cheese. Then I bought cream cheese with garlic and herbs. For a brief split second I did consider using it, but instead rushed out to buy more, as I’d already whipped the cream. This time I didn’t buy enough. I started to wonder if cheesecake was a good idea. I’m going to try again this weekend, as I can confirm that the ratio of cream cheese and double cream is important. Not that anyone cared, as the cake quickly disappeared..

Oh and the swarm of bees. We’ve started to talk about getting bees again. We’ve figured out a spot and other obstacles have been removed, so there is little to stop us. The next day I drove through a swarm of bees. Not on purpose, I feel I should add. Maybe a positive sign to go ahead. We’ll see.

Bunting up. We listened to a few interesting stories on the radio about WWII. Angles I’d never considered. Our cottage is old, so I always wonder how the occupants at the time fared.

Joining in with lovely Anne’s word of the week link up. My word is dragons.