It has been another beautiful weekend! I have done no work, but that doesn’t matter, because instead I took time out with family and friends to enjoy the annual Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival. I love this event, and have attended every year since we moved to Middlewich back in 2006 (I think). This year it seemed bigger and busier than ever, and the atmosphere was amazing. We saw lots of brightly coloured boats, both vintage and new, we enjoyed the dancing and music, and we browsed the assorted stalls selling anything from handcrafted wooden trinkets, to ethical clothing, to handbags made from recycled pallet straps.

I love the week leading up to the Folk and Boat festival. It is great fun walking along the canal on our daily constitutional and seeing the boats arrive. This year there was a boat selling sweets, which I enjoyed immensely! I also like watching the construction of the marquees around town, because the atmosphere is excitable and anticipatory. The whole town comes alive. There are posters in all the shop windows, bunting strung out across the streets, and lots of activity around the town wharf, the canal, and the festival field.

This weekend was a bit more difficult for me in my heavily pregnant state, but we managed. Fortunately I had plenty of people to help out! We enjoyed the Rose fete parade on Saturday morning, and my 2 year-old daughter was intrigued with the brightly coloured dresses worn by the girls in the procession. I enjoyed watching the Morris dancers come past, but my poor dog was frightened by the Black Stone Crows when they ran at the audience as part of their performance. It was very funny to watch my ‘big hard Staffie’ jump and hide behind Mummy’s legs!

All in all, it was another fabulous weekend. This is what I love especially about living in Middlewich, Cheshire. The town has a great community spirit, and there are always various activities happening that bring people together. The Folk and Boat festival is our biggest annual event. There are also less frequent events like the Roman festival, the military festival, the transport festival, and odd community events hosted by the churches and local organisations throughout the year. My aim is to become more involved with these events as my children grown older, because I love an excuse to dress up and indulge in some local heritage celebration…