Singing to bring in the New Year

The weather had ameliorated as promised by the forecasters by the time we set off to our local pub, the Crown and Sceptre, to celebrate the start of the new year. It is only about a hundred yards away and has become a real community pub since Rodda took it over a couple of years ago, to wide local acclaim.

He is a larger than life character, with a heart of gold and a winning way with special events that he conjures up to provide a focal point for the community throughout the year. He had arranged for some fireworks to round off the midnight transition to better times and as Woodpeckers pointed out to me his idea of good fireworks are big bangs and lots of flashes. As a result he arranges that his display, which might normally take ten minutes, is all over in about three minutes with enormous impact. He had printed little flyers warning locals that there would be fireworks and to keep pets inside and attended to.

We met someone called Ian who Rodda had persuaded to take video pictures for his website, who was an interesting character and we chatted for some time. After the big bangs had finished to roars of approval from all the pub's drinkers, we stayed out in the car park to watch other fireworks being set off across the valley. A group of young revellers started singing Auld Lang Syne, which got everyone else singing along too. Then together they sang some carols and folk songs standing just below Helena and I who had climbed up onto a ledge from where I took this picture. They obviously not only knew each other well, but also seemed used to singing together with great skill, taking separate parts and harmonising. It was very touching and provided us with a somewhat more tender approach, to compensate for Rodda's big bangs.

We got home by about 1am and I stayed up far too late. We managed to get out again by lunchtime today and drove up the valley to Painswick and then took the old road to Gloucester which climbs up and over the Cotswold Scarp. Before we reached the top we turned off to park below Painswick Beacon, an old Iron Age hill fort complex, which is now visited by the Cotswold Way, a modern tourist footpath from the north of the Cotswold south to Bath.

The sky was blue, clouds were building in the west over the Severn Vale and the extremely cold wind was whipping up from the Severn Estuary. I've never seen so many other people there enjoying the light and a chance to stretch their legs and blow cobwebs away which we certainly did.

I have put a few pictures on my Blipfolio of the views of the Malvern Hills in the distance, and across to May Hill on the far side of the River Severn, and another south westwards looking towards Slimbridge, the estuary and the hills of the Forest of Dean. You can see some of the flooded land beside the river, particularly close to Gloucester.

Painswick Beacon towards the Malvern Hills

From Painswick Beacon across to May Hill

From Painswick Beacon towards Slimbridge and the Forest of Dean