Carnival time

 As I contemplate writing a blog post, I am looking out of the window and it is raining/pouring and all the leaves are dripping. This is especially unfortunate as it is the main day for Notting Hill Carnival. I am sure that people will still be singing and dancing, but a sunny day would be better.

Fortunately the weather was reasonable yesterday. Sunday is traditionally the day for the children. (Strangely I don’t have many pictures of Notting Hill Carnival, but here are two little girls at the Carnival in Tobago.)

And a joyful participant

A year ago a meeting was set up by our church and a church in Amersham. It was the turn of the Amersham folk to come to us in Harlesden. We arranged a walking tour around Harlesden. The kind of shops were rather different from those in Amersham. The Amersham folk were very interested to see so many hair and beauty shops.

The most exciting visit was when we were invited into a shop where costumes for the Notting Hill Carnival are made. As I remember, I think planning takes a whole year. We were taken aback to witness the creativity, the colour, textures and inventiveness of the costumes. Costumes from previous years were on display throughout the shop. We lingered there a long time and met some of the people who work painstakingly with a variety of interesting materials.

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

“Keep Follow My Dance Steps”

I am thinking of the participants at today’s Carnival.