The Fifth Day of Christmas – 5 Gold Rings, four on two planks, three legged race, two in a sack and an Inter Village Blood Bath

This is the Fifth day of Christmas, traditionally a line in the song that allows a break while you sing out Five G –old rings, take a deep breath and then run on with the rest of the words. In the UK of course 5 Gold Rings in 2010 and beyond will be focusing on the London 2012 Olympics. Where I used to work in the North Cotswolds there was a tradition of Robert Dover's Olimpick Games, at Dover's Hill near Chipping Campden; including shin kicking and other cider fuelled activities. If you are a regular follower of the blog you will know that in the past I have been very involved in village activities and one of those is the Inter Village Games.

The Inter Village Games involve 10 North Suffolk villages, some with no sports facilities of their own, competing in a range of events. They range from traditional sports day type activities to, four on two planks, two in a sack, slow bike, wheelbarrow race (with real wheelbarrows) and egg throwing. In 2010 Dennington will be the host village, in the past the games were known by our local St John's team as the Inter Village blood bath. If you want to see the calibre of the sportsmanship look here http://www.nearthecoast.com/laxfield/index.htm at the entry for ' su 17 ju 2007 ~ Final day of the Inter Village Games at Laxfield, Suffolk'.

Your challenge today: I am always on the lookout for new sports activities or fund raising ideas for fetes etc. What is the best sport or fund raiser you have ever taken part in; not necessarily for the amount it raised but for novelty and fun?

Forgot to add earlier - 5 gold rings = no legs therefore today only another 20 legs added.  We are now up to 60 legs delivered so far.

Harvest, season of mists, ironing and witches mirrors

The full industry of harvest arrived today. Most of the time in our little lane it is all peace and quiet; not a lot happens, so when something does it is worthy of comment. This morning, the lawn was covered in witches' mirrors; dew covered spiders' webs, a sure sign that harvest is upon us. When I was a child we used to collect the webs on pieces of looped grass, straw or thin twigs from the hedge to make witches' hand mirrors. Of course we were all witches; you couldn't see our reflections.

Just a few hours later, when the dew had dried off, the field behind the house became a hive of activity. A combine, trailer, baler, lorry, and bale lifter all arrived and a great speed the field was harvested, baled and cleared. The gap between the first and last picture is only 4 hours, during this time I ironed and thought back to harvest in my youth. It makes me feel about a hundred years old but things really have changed. My father went from dairy to arable/beef farming in the mid 60's, in the Cotswolds an area much better known for its dairy than arable farming. The lanes around there are narrow and banked hedges rather than open verges mean that the size of equipment used here in East Anglia would still not be viable. Also, back then as children we could be employed as child labour blistering our hands on baler twine, and ripping our knees when stacking bales and because health and safety hadn't been invented we were able to ride on top of the bales on the trailer back to the farm. The bales today are cleared within minutes; whereas we used to stack them

one day and if not finished, the children from the 'other' end of the village would destroy some of the stacks by making dens that evening, we would then have to restack before carting back home the next morning. Where now the farmer is hooked up to his Bluetooth and satellite my mum used to communicate with the field by hanging a bath towel out of the window of the farm (which sat on the hill above the fields) to indicate that lunch was on its way. I wonder if we can still describe rural England as bucolic.