Bearing in mind the weather earlier today and now, we had a very lucky break this evening, for the procession to the orchard, led by the Wassail King and Queen, for some traditional wassailing and story telling.

Seemingly the origin of the name ‘Wassail’ is a mix of Anglo Saxon ‘good health’ and Norse ‘be healthy’ and the activity consists of singing, dancing and making lots of noise to wake the fruit trees (plum, pear and apple in this case) and encourage them to bear lots of fruit, and to banish any evil spirits.

Food and cider followed and just as the very moral tale of the Apple Tree Man was finishing, so back came the rain…..

Hip, hip, hip…..Huzzah!!