Take your partners Jan. 24, 2007

A ceilidh (pronounced kaylee) is confirmed for the barn and farm behind my house at Blaze Fell, to see in the summer, Sunday evening from 7pm 27th May. The band will play from one end with the tables and chairs and the food feast and cider at the other. Inbetween will be glorious dancing.

If sun-kissed, attendees might want to wander up the Blaze to take in the views of the Lakeland Fells and the Pennines and the sun setting over the Solway & Scotland shortly before ‘the last dance’.

The organisers are not sure yet if there will be a theme to the dress sense. Pre-Raphaelite as well as cow girls are particularly welcome. The staging of the ceilidh will coincide with the opening of Charles Lowther’s new horse paddock parade (there will be quite a few horsey types looking for a dance) and will coincide with my beginning a massive outdoor ‘installation’ exhibition to do Cumbria proud.

The thing with a ceilidh – quite magical – is not only the hypnotic music (of Cumbrian band Striding Edge), but everyone gets to dance with everyone… with farm boys and with fathers, with beautiful girls and with smiling grannies-who-have-traded-their-teeth-for-beards. It’s the most humanising experience and one of those things you must experience at least once if not a hundred times in your life.

Contact us if you want to come.