Thursday, May 01, 2008

Early morning call

Aside

I meant to have a lie in this morning but before 6am I was awakened from a nightmare. In my dream half a dozen hostages, including two women, were huddled in a shelter and were being stoned by an angry mob. I could still hear the thud of the stones and the menacing drumbeat - even though I was wide awake. Then I realised it was the first of May and the dreaded Minehead Hobby Horse was at large.

There are photos on the web site but all seem to be copyright

www.minehead-online.co.uk/hobbyhorse.htm Look here if you are curious. It was started to frighten off Viking invaders and to represent King of the May. The aim is to collect money for charity and anyone who refuses to cough up is ‘mock menaced’ by this slightly spooky apparition. The loud beating of the drum and squeeze- box intensifies the feeling of intimidation. One of these days I’ll get up at crack of dawn, brave the monster and take photos. Maybe next year.

Yesterday I saw the girls and they were sympathetic about our aborted week-end. Jackie is on her own with the cats whilst her daughter and SIL are away and is being driven dotty by the cats bringing in rabbits to keep her company. We planned our next day out in June. As we all have new bus passes we are going to go along the coast to Lynton – quite a hairy drive by car. It’s an open top bus so it could be wet and windy over the moor but we are not wimps.

13 comments:

Nea said...

I shall test Minehead's hobbyhorse on the Vikings here, but I think they're made of sterner stuff.

Happy Valborg!

Apparently Walpurga (see the link - hope it works) lived quite close to your hobbyhorse.

Pat said...

Nea: isn't that strange? trust you to come up with some rare titbit:) It would be great to see a confrontation. I'm not wildly enthusiastic about the Hobby Horse. I think it was Granny P - who used to live in this area - who said it was quite frightening.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

An open top bus, what fun, even if it rains...well, rain in the tropics. Rain *over there* is icy, brrr.

rashbre said...

Ooh - its good to see these traditions persist even if they are a bit scary.

First of May and all. I liked looking at the old pictures and the apparently lower key version 'back in the olden days' !

Happy May Day.

Anonymous said...

They start making a racket at at six in the morning? Yuk!
Were the rabbits brought in alive? I'm afraid our cats used to bring us the remains when they went hunting. Fortunately there aren't any wild rabbits near our garden now.
Happy Mayday.

Unknown said...

Looks like the Rio de Janeiro carnival, or Notting Hill!

Pat said...

GG: If it rains we're sunk:)

Rashbre: I'm touched that you and others have bothered to look it up.

Sablonn;euse: I can't bear to think of it bur they were alive. Poor Jackie.

Johng: I haven't been to either. I have sheltered life.

Keith: nutters? Certainly but they are a bit firghtening.

kenju said...

Wear a raincoat!

Anonymous said...

I rather doubt any of your readers would put you in the "wimp" category.

Cheers.

granny p said...

Oh that Hobby Horse - particularly sinister early in the morning when noone else is around - I managed that once!

Pat - I just picked up your aborted weekend with MTL - so sorry about that - and a shiver of fellow feeling considering my Beloved's similar affliction - not that we've had such a session yet. Hope all is well now and that you can get another good weekend soon. xx

Pat said...

Granny P: I thought it was you who had pointed out its sinisterness.
The upset seems to have been a false alarm but it was sufficiently alarming to alert the doctor. It's the first time in three years and we are back to normal again. If only one knew what triggered them. The doc said his are paroxysmal- some people have it all the time and because he doesn't, he feels it more. If that makes sense.

Anonymous said...

That's a bit creepy all right.

I finished reading the BFG to the girls the other night and had a nightmare about the people-eating giants. I never got nightmares from Dahl as a child.

It was the girls' and the hubby's birthday yesterday so I've been baking and eating and doing more baking and drawing a tail-less donkey etc. for their children's party tomorrow. Bloomin' knackered.

Pat said...

Sam: what a good Mummy and wifey you are! Belated wishes to all three and hope you can have a lazy week-end.