The Elm Dance

My local parish church is quite literally over my back fence. The bells put a pleasant ring into my life on a Sunday morning but I can't admit to being a regular visitor to St Paul's. However, this is a church which has a great name for it's community activities and I've recently opened my vegetable garden to the gardening group so they can grow produce for their community kitchen. A friend invited me to join them on May Day for her birthday party in the church hall and explained that beforehand they would be performing the Elm Dance, which is danced world wide as a means of remembering the terrible consequences of the Chernobyl incident. This is the Elm Dance, well under way, at the back of the church. And for the record, immediately afterwards, copious amounts of champagne are consumed in the hall - a regular post service celebration. This is a church group with real attitude! And the birthday lunch rounded the morning off well. It was a day which reminded me of the quote from the film Breaker Morant: "Live every day as though it's your last because one day you're going to be right".