Barton Christmas Festival

Many hundreds of people braved the freezing cold weather and threat of heavy showers on Saturday to attend the annual Barton Christmas Festival. Thankfully, the showers never came and we were left to enjoy the many stalls and entertainment on the big stage, as well as the ever popular parade through the town from Santa and his Reindeer and their many followers. 

A beautiful ex-racing greyhound, from the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust stall.

Morris Dancers performed to an enthusiastic crowd.

The stage was packed all day with big crowds.

Traditional Victorian Christmas decorations at 51 Fleetgate.

Waiting out the window of 51 Fleetgate for the Parade to come past.

The parade: here come the reindeer. The streets were packed, lined with people waiting for a glimpse of these magical animals.

Apparently Father Christmas was underneath that mound of curly white hair, handing out sweets.

Nutty Norman did his bit on the stage..

... followed by the excellent Barton Youth Band.

World Hello Day

Today is the 37th World Hello Day: but what is this day I hear you ask! Well, World Hello Day was begun in response to the conflict between Egypt and Israel during 1973. Since then people in 180 countries have taken part in this day. So what do you have to do to take part? Well, go up to 10 people and say hello, that's all. It's all about promoting world peace through communication rather than conflict. So I thought why not promote peace in Barton by taking a wander around the streets and seeing who I could find to say hello to. This could also be known as 'Picture with a Pug Day'!

My first victim: Ray Elliott, Baysgarth Museum Volunteer Extraordinaire.

Mark from The Volunteer Arms, with Pug.

Alan Sipling from The Pet Shop, also with Pug.

Ciao! It's Paul Farrow and Elio Grossi from Elio's Italian Restaurant.

Salvatore Cardone, busy in Elio's kitchen, but with enough time for a quick hello.

Josh Mundey from Sylini's, with Pug.

Hello Mr Mark Tastee Loughran! 

My final two victims: Jo Edge and Maureen Collier from The Wilderspin School.

Thanks to all my Hello victims!

For more information about World Hello Day see: http://www.worldhelloday.org

Children in Need

Look what I found in The Volunteer Arms last night; two little fairies doing an incredibly good deed and collecting money for Children in Need. Good for them!

Lizi Jones and Rebecca Pearson trawled the town with their collecting bucket and stopped for a while in The Volunteer Arms with us.

Taking a well-earned rest.

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Behind the scenes: Barton Town Band CD recording

Take a sneaky peek at the town band during the recording of their latest CD, a varied mix of popular theme tunes, all of which you will know very well. I went along during the recording of The Flintstones and it sounded great to me the first time they played it, but they played it again and again, and again, such is their attention to detail. The poor band folk though, it was freezing in the church and they were there all day! Still, no pain, no gain...

Just one of the theme tunes being recorded today at St. Mary's Church by the band.

One of the sound recordists at work at the recording station.

Gary gives the band instruction before another take...

.. and then checks it all sounds absolutely perfect. I couldn't notice any mistakes, but they recorded it again.. and again..

On the computer: there were many microphones picking up the sound and here they all came. Who is making the large waveforms near the top?

Not quite in the right spot: the other sound recordist adjusts a microphone.

Getting ready for another take.

Look at these poor Cornet players; they may as well have been playing outside it was that cold!!

Still, the temperature gave band leader Jon an excuse to get out this tasty piece of headwear.

Humber Keel and Sloop Society exhibition

The Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society are holding an interesting exhibition at The Waters' Edge this weekend, with panels, pictures, old parts of ships and plenty of people to talk to who are renovating and sailing these ships in their traditional waters. There is lots to see so I recommend a visit tomorrow if you missed it today.

For more information about the society visit: www.humberships.org.uk

The Barton Lions Grand Fireworks Display and Bonfire

Wow, what a display we were treated to tonight by the Barton Town Lions! If you missed the bonfire and fireworks up in Baysgarth Park, you missed out! I hope you enjoy the photos.

Make a Difference Day

Make a Difference Day is a national initiative run by Community Service Volunteers (CSV). It is the largest single day of volunteering in this country and aims to get as many people across the country involved in projects large or small. The Waters' Edge and Far Ings teamed up to help run a local project for the day and got a large group of people together yesterday who, when you take the weather in to account, really did want to make a difference!

So with horrendous wind and rain pouring down it was surprising and heart-warming that a merry band of 16 volunteers turned up at The Waters' Edge to do what they could to help. 

Emma Wilmot from the Lincs Wildlife Trust and based at The Far Ings centre said, "we have been amazed at the numbers that turned up today given the weather. Ages have ranged from 9 t0 people in their 60s. We have got families, students.. all sorts of people all here to help".

So what was the project then? Basically it involved cutting down and pruning out young Sycamore trees, which are a non-native species. They're fast growing and they out compete lots of native trees in woods, so they need to be cut back.

Emma added, "we're doing this so the wood stays nice and healthy and in the meantime the volunteers are learning to identify the different trees".

They were all pretty hungry as I went to visit them and all headed off for a well-deserved lunch break.

Emma Wilmot, Project and Education Officer for the Lincs Wildlife Trust, cuts back a Sycamore tree.

Rhianna Raynes and Janette West work together to chop up some branches.

Lots of young trees: Marina Copson shows a large handful she collected in a small area of the wood.

Off for lunch: volunteer Brian Gould takes the wheelbarrow and heads back to base for some well deserved rest.

For more information about Make a Difference Day: 

http://www.csv.org.uk/campaigns/csv-make-difference-day