It was a beautiful night for a wassail – dead calm with enough frost in the orchard to make it look that it had been snowing. We raised £400 for Afghanaid in the end thanks to all that came and in particular all the groups and individuals who came from far and wide to bless the orchard and ward off the evil spirits.
Owlswick Morris have been coming for 10 years now to help us celebrate and they never fail to disappoint with their skill and enthusiasm for supporting Adstockistan.
A new addition this year was a fantastic drumming group lead by a gregarious conductor Zac that entertained us with their rhythms and I’m hoping thay managed to attract a few new recruits.
Thank you as always to Felicity Finch and Kim Durham our famous honorary Adstockians who have become a very welcome fixture at the wassail and Adstocktoberfest. Also to our Green Men Nick and Andrew don’t have to find much of an excuse to dress up and frighten off evil spirits.
Winslow cider provided us with some beautiful mulled cider during the event which was very welcome amongst the trees in the freezing orchard and thank you so much for the very kind donation.
A special thank you to Lucy and the Adstock singers firstly for the beautiful song, but also for composing our very own wassail song which was so much fun to sing, but the words really convey what the event means in our Fundraising Orchard!
Adstockistan Wassail
With singing and dancing and lot of good cheer
We toast to the trees drinking cider and beer
We make lots of noise so cruel spirits will flee
and welcome the good for the sake of our trees
Chorus
Here’s to the trees of Adstockistan
Here’s to the apples pears peaches and plums,
1st group: Wassail
2nd group: Wassail
Together: A happy New Year to you!
1st group: Wassail
2nd group: Wassail
Together: A happy New Year to you!
We meet in the winter, come snow sleet or rain,
So that in the Spring there’ll be blossom again
In summer the fruit starts to grow ‘mong the leaves
In autumn we harvest the fruit from the trees
Chorus
And here in the green fields of Buckinghamshire
We celebrate growing the fruit every year
So farmers can toil in far Afghanistan
to grow their rich crops in the dry desert sands,
Chorus
