Never mind etchings - how about:
"Do you want to come and see my eagle owl?"
OK, it was late and I'd had a few ciders (er, rather too many ciders actually!) but I didn't take up the offer and see his eagle owl, or his buzzard, or snowy owl or any of his other birds. He was a falconer and a Welshman with a nice singing voice. This bird is a crossbreed, beautiful creature! I do like birds, and I understand the conservation work that falconers and other raptor rescuers do, but I love to see them fly free - not chained to little posts in the ground. I know - they probably know no different - but I like watching birds wild, not captive. However - I digress - what was I doing to get asked this question anyway?
Well, another of those 'mad gigs' that we end up doing, of course! We played at a medieval fair in the depths of the Fens, an evening gig for the stallholders once all the visitors had gone home.
By the way, on the way to the gig we saw hot air balloons - I will try and download the photo from my phone showing them descending near the windfarm. It was quite spectacular.
We set up outside the beer (and cider, did I mention the cider?) tent and played as the sun went down. Thankfully there was enough ambient light from a nearby food trailer and the bar itself! It did get a bit chilly though.
It was a fun evening with Penni, Craig (a friend of Penni's) and Martin on drums (me on the old bass). Much to my surprise I met up with some of my friends - people who I knew as Viking reenactors, not medieval! "We just slipped a few centuries" Emma explained. It was great to catch up with them and to meet their lovely nippers - feet and faces dirty from running round the field all day. A lovely passtime for little ones, these
medieval fairs and reenactment shows.Later in the bar, I met a chap who asked if I had played in Aardvark and No Money. Goodness gracious, yes! That was our first folk rock band back in the 80's - it was Mark, the guy who engineered our very first recording at Woodworm Studios all those years ago. Small world! We munched on a pig corpse in the bar - leftover from the hog roast. Weird sort of bar snack to offer, but tasty.
After we finished playing is when the enthusiastic (and also a little drunk) falconer targeted me for some further entertainment and though the offer of a night in his caravan (shared with his birds?! I don't know) was politely refused, it was still charmingly made and gave my ego a bit of a boost.
I usually go swimming on a Sunday morning - this morning I decided to sleep in. You know, just because I was tired, not because of a headache or anything like that, oh no... not at all.
