Wedding Day after after a Blue Moon

Last night there was a 'Blue Moon'.  It was the second full moon of August 2012 which is how it gets that lovely name, and here it is, just about to be banked over by clouds from the southwest, at dawn this morning.


Today was a Wedding Day - the fourth in two years in the village, they are one ahead of  funerals in the frequency stakes at the moment.  Don't watch this space for updates!

Above to the left, are Derek-and-Becs-from-'The Dunkery'. They'll always be known as that in this village - despite the fact that they've retired and someone else has taken over their hotel - and today their son Tim married Rebecca-from-Leicester in All Saints church.

As ever, many villagers turned out to applaud the arriving bride and then wait, gossiping at the crossroads, until the service was over. A couple of farmers drove up in battered old Land Rovers and they too stopped to catch up with news. (Bruce's new knee is just fine, thank you, and they'll be baling their second-cut hay tomorrow.)

On the reappearance of the celebrants there was further applause - I think the visitors from Leicester were somewhat surprised by our reaction to a wedding party - and then lavender and rose-petal confetti was scattered over Tim and Rebecca as they left for the reception in George-from-the-Garage's old Rover 3500.  The bridesmaids, having arrived in Eddie-from-Lowertown's open-top Morris Minor, left in a posh hired car.

The villagers then nipped up into the church to look at the flowers done by Jane and her capable assistants. There were many niches full of these displays, here are three:

And we also looked at our lovely retired vicar, Stan, who told us that this is the first wedding he himself has taken at this, his local church. Astonishing!  I'll send him this photo as a memento of the occasion.