Foxton Festival then back to Brum

I went over to Foxton festival last weekend as Luke's Record Deck was trading there and other family members and friends had said they were going along. The weather on Saturday was awful so I was glad I didn't arrive until about 3pm when it started to clear up. There were many stalls at the festival field itself as well as quite a few trading boats. My friend Kevin had a stall as he is now wood turning. He had some very nice designs and fine work. I met up with five family members and missed two others. I also met up with several friends. I must be almost local to Northamptonshire/Leicestershire now (after 36 years :-)) as I knew loads of people. Luke, Heather and I had a meal at the Black Horse in Foxton Village on Saturday night and very nice it was too. Huge portions and plenty of veg for a change. I stayed on Heather's boat and Sunday turned out to be a much better day weatherwise. Along with revisiting the festival, we also went to the museum which now has some good archive film material. I would like to see the museum improve its offering even more as it is quite expensive for a family to visit and really half an hour is the most time you could spend there.

I am now back in Birmingham where I am trying to visit some of the heritage properties. However, all the literature I had was out of date as Birmingham has a new system this season. Most of the properties need to be booked for a guided tour when you visit midweek and are now open 11 until 3pm rather than my publications 12 until 4pm. So I didn't visit Soho House or Aston Hall but did walk 6 and a half miles (pleased with that) and had a nice break in the gothic cemetary in the jewellery quarter. Last night I went to the open mic at the Fiddle and Bone. All the players/singers were excellent and we also had a poetry performance. It was a shame that there were so very few in the audience. I believe that this is a new venture so I hope word will spread and more people will go along and join in. Today I am staying in the city to visit the art gallery and maybe St Chad's and to use the wifi at the library (which is fab).