Kentwell Tickets (old)

RainAs I write, it is raining and has rained steadily, though not heavily, for two days solidly.  The Moat is full and even the Pond that leaks (despite every effort to seal it) is full.  The Canada geese are back in strength - actually two pairs never went away - to be joined recently by others.  Last year's pair have hatched off another 5 goslings which are all thriving, while another pair have just one.  Just the weather for geese.We, like many people, moan about the weather.  We want it to rain when we need rain (preferably during the night) to be dry and sunny, warm or cool when those conditions matter on important (for us) days.  Yet this spring has produced some wonderful greens.  Round us there is a patchwork of fields in green in countless different hues when the new crops come through and trees and bushes burst into leaf. Best of all are the lime trees in our Avenue.  Their green is a lime colour but of such delicacy that the tunnel of the Avenue, especially when lit by warm sun, is absolutely stunning.  Alas, this delicate colour lasts only a week or two before the leaves darken up and the magic is gone.  But for that week or two it is difficult to think of anywhere more perfect. I thank the rain for that but it may be that the two are unconnected.  On the other hand last year's late and heavy rain undoubtedly produced the wonderful show of daffodils we enjoyed this year. None of the blind plants which drier Mays produce.More WeatherOver Easter we were snowbound.  We looked very pretty but not good for visitors.  Whit weekend just gone was wet, again too wet for visitors. It certainly seems that visitors are more easily deterred by wet or cold (or, perhaps more to the point, by forecasts of wet or cold) than they were a few years ago.  Are we as a nation getting softer ?  Reluctant to leave the comfort of central heating to which we have got used in home, car and office ?Fuel & CostsLike everyone we are feeling in spades the effect of the rising cost of fuel and wheat.  The prolonged colder temperatures which stretched well into May meant we had to keep our heating on longer.  1,000 to 1,500 litres a week is extremely costly.  We run a diesel car as it is less polluting than a petrol one, yet diesel fuel has risen far more steeply than petrol.  Government attempts to encourage control of carbon emissions seem empty rhetoric when diesel users are penalised so .   High wheat prices meant that food costs for animals doubled this winter and again the weather meant we kept animals in longer than we would have wished. There is no sign of meat prices rising sufficiently to compensate.Kentwell 1588Our main Re-Creation this year (from June 15 to July 6) is set in the year of the Spanish Armada.  The weather saved England from invasion; keeping the Spanish fleet in harbour long enough for the English fleet to prepare.  The weather then blew the English fire ships into the Spanish Galleons and eventually what remained of the Spanish Fleet up the East Coast on a long journey round Britain to get home but very few made it back. The country was greatly threatened but, lacking media, I reckon that the people did not feel as threatened as in 1940 but just as threatened they really were.  A strange side effect of the Armada was that Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke, the first English settlement in the New World, went unsupplied during 1588 because all vessels were needed to face the Armada. Probably for want of supplies the settlement failed.  How would history have turned out if Roanoke had succeeded and the English did not have to wait another 20 years for Jamestown and the first settlement that survived ?  Probably events would have unfolded much as they did but they might not have done.  During our Re-Creation we shall re-create Tudor life at the time these momentous events were unfolding.ConcertsWe have two Opera and our Glenn Miller 1940s Night this year. Madama Butterfly brings us my favourite opera. The tale is believable and very affecting, the music is sublime and in Opera Box we have a company which we know will do it justice.  Their Butterfly here a few years back was as good as any I have seen, a quite wonderful evening that we hope will be repated this year.  The Yeomen of the Guard has a complicated plot (well complicated for G&S) and does not resolve with everyone marrying everyone else as usual for G&S. It also has some of Sullivan's best music. The South Anglia Savoy Players are to my mind the very best interpreters of the genre. There have been a few commercial successes with G&S (I can think of Papp's Pirates of Penzance and the Black Mikado and another Mikado) but prfessional productions are usually too stilted, tired and knowing to work well.  Good amateur productions are far better.  They only play a night or two and give it there all.  The SASP are supreme here and its little wonder they have won so many awards internationally. I'm looking forward to this production.  This year for Glenn Miller we shall welcome the Nick Ross Orchestra for the first time.  Why do so many of us never tire of Miller's music ?Obviously, because it is good but more I feel because it evokes in many of us a nostalgia for a past age.  Its a curious nostalgia because you do not have to lived through WWII to share it. Its a nostalgia for a view of the past that's gone (and may never in truth have existed) but in some ways one for which many of us hanker to some extent. No Shakespeare, no Last Night of the Proms and no Tribute Bands this year.  The weather and the economy are too uncertain, we feel.  Our caution may appear justified when it seems Glastonbury has not sold out immediately as in recent years and elsewhere theatres, concerts and Festivals are struggling.  However, in addition to the above we are hosting the Festinho Festival at the end of August this year.  Small boutique Festivals of this sort fit us well. Especially Festinho which is charity driven to help the street children of Brazil.Ghost Tours & ScaresvilleOur Ghost tours in October have proved very popular over the years but last year we created a wholly new event to provide the scares some claimed the Ghost Tours lacked. The Ghost Tours were never intended to scare but this new event, Scaresville, is. Many of those who came last year have told us it was the best scary event they had experienced anywhere.  By way of example, there were four girls who screamed hysterically for about 90 minutes almost without stop and could be heard wherever they went. Afterwards, they said it was one of the best experiences they had had.  It takes all sorts ! Try it for yourselves.  Its the chaps who usually can't take it, the women seem to thrive on it.