Carnival Day.

Here we all are, waiting for the parade to begin. There were quite a lot of 'vintage' cars before the parade proper, but as most of them were younger than me I didn't bother to include them! The parade was led by the excellent military band of the Royal Logistic Corps but I somehow lost the two photos I took of them. It is really hard to get good shots of moving objects or groups while standing in a crowd. I'm not a good photographer at the best of times and my admiration goes to the professionals.

These two shire horses looked splendid with their polished harness shining in the sunlight. They were quite unfazed by the cheering and clapping.

I thought I had better include these Allied Forces support vehicles - we never know when we might need them.

As we are just a small country town, our carnival doesn't have those amazing huge decorated floats that larger communities have, but hundreds of people take part from all sorts of local groups. There were several pre-school and junior schools taking part as well as youth groups and the entire event is organised by volunteers. I can't remember who these little ones were.

These Irish dancers were very sweet and at certain places along the route stopped to perform a short piece.

A gymnastic group also performed along the route. I was quite concerned as they had no mats to land on - just the hard road surface - but all went well.

We have won prizes several years running in the Britain in Bloom competition and our committe took part wearing some very fetching head gear.

The good old WI was there, and these ladies had pushed a laden tea trolley the best part of a mile before they got to the carnival field. The Townswomen's Guild was also represented but as I was once a member of the WI I include them here.

There were several excellent bands taking part and I was surprised by how young some of the members were. They looked very smart in their uniforms.

I really wanted these next three shots to be clear and good but must have altered a setting. I do apologise for the poor quality. Our youngest daughter and her husband are members of a re-enactment group called The Lawmen and here is my son-in-law about to 'hang' his friend who also belongs to the group.

Our daughter is only just in this shot - I can't think what I was doing with the camera!

Part of the reason for poor picture quality could be because I had turned round to take these and was looking into the light.

Our son-in-law is wearing the cowboy hat and the hanging has been postponed!

Another excellent band. I noticed that for the parade they had all taken off their jackets. We caught sight of them beforehand looking very smart in black jackets.

One of the local fire engines ended the parade for us and got a rousing cheer.

My legs knew I had been standing for 2 hours by the end of it and I was glad to sit down. I am in training for next Saturday when we hope to go to the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. Hope the weather is a kind then as it has been today.