We have just thawed out after an evening singing Christmas songs and carols around a bonfire in the community wood. It was a good evening. It started with us walking down to the wood with lanterns and lighters and stakes to help light the way from the gate to the bonfire site, and finding a car already there, parked across the gate. I thought it was an early singer, keeping warm, so I bent down to say hi, and it was a policeman. He was just catching up on updates, but when he heard we were holding a carol singing evening, he said he’d come back later – if it was okay?
It was an open invite. We had around thirty people gathered around the bonfire by the end, with varying degrees of tin ear from my basso growl to a group of serious choristers discussing who would take the descant roles. The policeman turned up close to half-time and was directed to take a mince pie and a mug of coffee or tea – we were all standing laughing and chatting when the serious choristers started up on the second half.
From ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ to Mariah Carey and ‘Fairytale of New York’ (though they didn’t take up my suggestion of ‘WTF Are My Presents?’ by Letters From Cleo), we covered the range and finished with ‘Come All Ye Faithful’. We did teach our version of ‘Shepherds Watched’ to the tune of ‘Ilkley Moor Bah Tat’ to a friend, and it was echoing across the field as we packed up all the lights and left.
It’s just past full moon, a perfect frosty moonlit night to be singing round a fire. When we doused the fire with water, the steam rose up in a column and fell around us as flakes of glittering frost.
From this day on, the days will get longer and the hours of stargazing shorter. We have the hardest weather yet to come, but there’s hope, and Spring is on its way.
Julia Chalkley 