Feast Weeks and Reader Days. June 30th Gornish Guardian

It’s all go today, sometimes it can be quite quiet in the shop, chatting to customers and tidying shelves, finding orders and organising displays. Today however, has one or two other things to sort out, namely getting all the stock in for St Austell’s first Reading Day being hosted by the Library. They’ve got poets, travel writers and authors including EV Thompson and Tessa Hainsworth, there’ll be Du Maurier’s archives as well as lunch and informal sessions. It’s going to be really interesting but if anyone wants to buy any of the authors’ books I’d better get on with it. It’s a balancing act to make sure that I’ve got enough for everyone but not so much that I have loads left over afterwards. If I get it wrong you can look forward to a few columns praising the merits of so and so and their “must have” book. Knowing my luck I’ll err on the side of caution and get glared at by all and sundry as we sell out within the first hour! The event will take place at the College on July 14th, why not come along and meet the authors and see whether I got my numbers right. Tickets are available from the Library.

I’ve also got to get the window dressed for Feast Week. For those of you who don’t know, every year for Feast Week the shops all dress their window as a song title. This year the theme is transportation. I’ve chosen my song and am now trying to make my window match the song. The public go from window to window trying to guess which song title belongs to which window. I was so “clever” one year that most people thought we hadn’t bothered. This is the first one I’ve been allowed to do since then. We have a blackboard outside our shop which has a weekly puzzle on it, hopefully people will find my window easier than the puzzle. Incidentally, the puzzle this week is “A woman has 7 children half of who are boys. How is this possible?”

I like Feast Week, the village, always pretty, fairly dazzles when all the flags and bunting are put up, we have a load of new flags this year around the harbour and it’s positively shimmering. There’s always so much going on, catching crabs and pavement art and of course the Raft Race which has added obstacles this year, hopefully not a stampede of escaping crabs though. The Flora Dance performed by the children always reminds me of a grudge match at Twickenham, I don’t know why rugby springs to mind but there is something in the grim determination of the girls’ faces that the boys will skip properly that makes me smile.

It’s all go today, sometimes it can be quite quiet in the shop, chatting to customers and tidying shelves, finding orders and organising displays. Today however, has one or two other things to sort out, namely getting all the stock in for St Austell’s first Reading Day being hosted by the Library. They’ve got poets, travel writers and authors including EV Thompson and Tessa Hainsworth, there’ll be Du Maurier’s archives as well as lunch and informal sessions. It’s going to be really interesting but if anyone wants to buy any of the authors’ books I’d better get on with it. It’s a balancing act to make sure that I’ve got enough for everyone but not so much that I have loads left over afterwards. If I get it wrong you can look forward to a few columns praising the merits of so and so and their “must have” book. Knowing my luck I’ll err on the side of caution and get glared at by all and sundry as we sell out within the first hour! The event will take place at the College on July 14th, why not come along and meet the authors and see whether I got my numbers right. Tickets are available from the Library.

I’ve also got to get the window dressed for Feast Week. For those of you who don’t know, every year for Feast Week the shops all dress their window as a song title. This year the theme is transportation. I’ve chosen my song and am now trying to make my window match the song. The public go from window to window trying to guess which song title belongs to which window. I was so “clever” one year that most people thought we hadn’t bothered. This is the first one I’ve been allowed to do since then. We have a blackboard outside our shop which has a weekly puzzle on it, hopefully people will find my window easier than the puzzle. Incidentally, the puzzle this week is “A woman has 7 children half of who are boys. How is this possible?”

I like Feast Week, the village, always pretty, fairly dazzles when all the flags and bunting are put up, we have a load of new flags this year around the harbour and it’s positively shimmering. There’s always so much going on, catching crabs and pavement art and of course the Raft Race which has added obstacles this year, hopefully not a stampede of escaping crabs though. The Flora Dance performed by the children always reminds me of a grudge match at Twickenham, I don’t know why rugby springs to mind but there is something in the grim determination of the girls’ faces that the boys will skip properly that makes me smile. My favourite Feast Week memory is when I bought my brother some huge crabs sold off for at the end of the Fish Festival. I popped them in his sink and left him a message on his phone. Turned out he went away that weekend. He came back 4 days later to find that the crabs that hadn’t been dead at the time had escaped the sink and roamed the flat until they found suitable dark and awkward crevices where they duly hunkered down and died. I understand the smell was extreme. Feast Week is on all this week at Mevagissey, pop down and join in the fun.

My favourite Feast Week memory is when I bought my brother some huge crabs sold off for at the end of the Fish Festival. I popped them in his sink and left him a message on his phone. Turned out he went away that weekend. He came back 4 days later to find that the crabs that hadn’t been dead at the time had escaped the sink and roamed the flat until they found suitable dark and awkward crevices where they duly hunkered down and died. I understand the smell was extreme. Feast Week is on all this week at Mevagissey, pop down and join in the fun.

I’ve been drinking a rather palatable Chenin blend “Coolest Cape” from Ken Forrester, apparently he is the Stellenbosch king of Chenin Blanc and this wasn’t a bad drop. It’s gone down rather nicely whilst reading Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin, a tale based around one the characters in Virgil’s Aeneid. Despite being full of blood and battles it’s a very calm, quiet read.