Troubadours at the Green Gathering

(Backblip) A day of intense heat, of wandering from stage to stage, from tea tent to shaded woodland, from free clothing shop to vintage pop-up. K. dragged me to Camelot, a shop where I'd admired a vintage 70s costume the night before. I thought it looked too hot, but picked another dress off the rail, that at first glance looked like a tea towel. I knew it was my style, though, and it certainly was! K. even found a skinny belt in the same shop to replace the missing one. I'll see if I can get a photo from K. showing me in the dress.

What else? K's first experience of a poetry slam. The Extinction Polar bear, a human-supported 'puppet' of giant proportions. We think we witnessed its silent funeral procession. Very unsettling. Not hard to contemplate the melting of the ice caps in such heat as we were experiencing.

We also got chatted up. That rarely happens these days, we are old ladies now. Of course, the guy was drunk, but even so, he was a looker, from Pontypandy. We hoped he'd found a girl later that evening, maybe after a little afternoon rest period.

I loved the wooded area with the Jamaican sound system and the bar, and the woodland stage on sandy soil. K has worked in Jamaica, and she said she can imagine such a stage, with people dancing in the dust, in Jamaica. We didn't dance, we just sought the shade, and the cider, or Perry, and later the bonfire.

Favourite band of the day? Seize the Day ( even though I nodded of for a moment). Favourite moment? When we sat for a moment on a sofa in a field, troubadours (above) came and sang to our small motley crowd. A passing lad came and accompanied them on the piano. The troubadours left after one song, but the guy continued to play, in a style reminiscent of Tom Waits, until he suddenly stopped, mid-phrase, and wandered away. No one told him he couldn't.