Fundraising for cats

Good morning, it's glorious here today. A blue sky, sunshine, makes one feel glad to be alive. Here are the pictures from yesterday at Barton Christmas market. The stalls and entertainments occupy two streets which are closed off to enable people to unload. We arrived just after 10am. They remain closed to traffic until 8pm when traders are allowed to drive on and empty their stalls. I was lucky and found a parking place close by just outside the exclusion zone, which meant that we could dismantle earlier. Trade finally dropped off at about 6.30pm. 

Our stall is the one on the right with the red table cloth. I have a couple of throws for this purpose. Janet is hiding somewhere, she is a bit camera shy. They provided us with a backdrop, so only my clips were needed to fasten it to the metal railings behind us. 

I took a little stroll before the crowds built up. Wow, what an eye catching stall, as you know I like a splash of bright colours.

Hasn't she been busy, all very tempting, but I resisted.

Ten out of ten for presentation. I asked her at the end of the day how she had done, she said, very well.

At the end of our row was the stage. There was entertainment on there for most of the day. There was a lot of singing and dancing, by all ages. It was lovely to see the kids enjoying themselves. I have to say though that at times it was a little too loud for me, made it difficult to chat to our customers. 

A few fairground rides and games were in attendance. More colour. I thought the entrance price was a bit too much at £2 a go, but I suppose they have lots of costs involved in getting the equipment there and paying the ground rent.

In the middle of the afternoon came the parade, they all came past our stall. I'm not keen on the idea of bringing real reindeer into such a noisy and busy environment. I would rather see them in there natural habitat strolling and grazing in woods and parkland. 

The Burmese dogs however looked like they were enjoying it. I have seen these before at various shows, they love to meet and greet people.

Then came a lot of children dressed up, accompanied by their parents.

Dancing troupes.

The view of the stage from our stall.

As darkness fell there was another parade, led by a very loud thunder of steel band drummers.

Aha, I snapped a pic of Janet when she wasn't looking.

At about 6pm everyone was waiting in anticipation of the big Christmas tree light switch on. It was sited just behind our stall in the grounds of the childrens day nursery. A big cheer went up.

I had an email last night from Janet with the total money taken. We did very well, slightly up on last year, so we are well pleased. Although I have to admit I didn't fancy standing around for that length of time, in the end it was worth all the work. It was great to join in with the happy Christmassy atmosphere, and we had lots of laughs.

This is why we do it, an email from Janet.

Some pics of Lucky in his new home a few days after he was adopted.  Isn’t he gorgeous and doesn’t he look happy!!  Sue contacted Lucky’s original owner to let her know he had been homed and sent her the photographs.  She was so pleased and sent Sue a ‘thank you’ card.  The lady had kept in touch with Sue since Lucky came into rescue as she was very upset that she had to give him up.

We need more happy endings like that.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have a lovely Sunday.

Toodle pip.