Men with Bells on

Had Miss M. stay over (won't even mention how much fermented grapes we drank!) and decided to show her some of the lovely gardens and homes that are close to Woking. Well she never did see all that much of the UK seven years ago and any excuse to go hooning down though georgeous tree-lined lanes!
Spent the day wandering through a mere fraction of 1400 acres of landscaped gardens, exploring a gorgeous Edwardian house and then discovering men all dressed in white, bells tied to their legs, wearing purple braces and then waving handkerchiefs, banging sticks with each other and jigging about! There were several musicians playing the hugely popular fiddle, pipes, concertinas and my personal favourite the accordian!
Yes, it was Morris Dancers performing The Morris! They had all the components, the Squire, the Bagman, the Foreman (whom I'm pretty sure was playing the Fool!) as well as the Beast - or in this case a man sitting on a pretend horse!
All the sniggering aside for this all male dancing (this group had 70 separate dances alone!), and in 28 degrees celsius I might add!, it was all quite enjoyable, and yes a programme of the rest of the year was taken! Though I'm sure I'm going to be dreaming the bells, the bells!