SHERINGHAM DIARY No 63 - Dash Those Pesky Expectations

Oh boy, if I thought shop sales being down in May was tough, I was self deceived. June proved to be further testing of our confidence and trust. The extended Platijube celebrations brought not a lot business wise. In fact it appeared to mark the watershed between what came before - unpredictable but just about manageable decline in shop sales - and what came after - remaining unpredictable and a still further drop.

Which somewhat put the heebie-geebies up us, as you could imagine. That this eventually perked up and returned to what we would consider something like 'normal' for the time of year, in the final week or so, was something of a relief.  By the end of June still substantially down on 2021, but not as disastrous as we'd first envisaged. Yet not particularly encouraging either.  What the coming summer season, our usually profitable months, will bring we must wait and see. Without holding out any hope. We don't want any of those pesky expectations. Not at all advisable in the current retail Zeitgeist. Dash them before, not after, they've taken hold.

Still, we're being careful, and gradually buying in new stock for the summer as well as replacing stock that we've sold. We've improved our offering on the stalls we have outside the shop, of lower priced pick ups. This year we are having to work even harder to counter the perennial problem for our shop - getting them to come in. Some folk will never step across our portal unless they've already decided to buy. 

Maintaiing an open mind about the future. Not getting into catastrophising. Just calmly keep putting energy into the shop. I cannot deny, this is a difficult thing to consistently sustain. Both of us can come home exhausted simply from the emotional effort of staying engaged and positive. Its either that or a giddy frothiness to our behaviour once we leave the shop. Similar to a bottle of fizzy water that has been rather too vigorously shaken and needs to expel the explosive pressure of it all.

In the week North Norfolk was declared the area in the UK with the highest number of people over 65, I quietly passed that watershed and entered the slipstream that ends in the elderly drain on limited health resources. My birthday celebration was pretty much wall to wall cake. Including a fabulous Vegetarian Afternoon Tea at Heydon Tea Rooms, which was well up to its usual very high standard. Jnanasalin had also made a petite sized white chocolate and ginger cheesecake too. 

The day concluded with watching a play on National Theatre at Home, called London Assurance from 2010.  It starred Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Beale, both producing wonderful larger than life characters. With delightful idiosyncracies, that were a hoot from start to finish. A very enjoyable end to the day.

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As I have written elsewhere I've begun a new knitting project, a meditation blanket. It is a little labourious, but I knit an inch or so most days. The thing is growing, like a beast it's becoming ever more unwieldy to knit with every stitch. I reckon I'm about half way now towards what I imagine might be its full size. So sometime in August it maybe completed, or at least have found there is insufficient wool to attain the requisite length. So the search will then be on to find another wool of a similar grade. A complementary colour edge perhaps. Anyway, we shall see.

After a two years hiatus due to the pandemic the Potty Morris & Folk Festival returned to the streets of Sheringham. I for one, was really pleased. It was able to bring a much needed zest back to the town. An injection of vivacity, colour, fun and extravaganza. Due to its high level of elderly population Sheringham can often feel sluggish and lacking in vitality and engagement with life. Potty Morris gave the whole place a welcome shot of viagra. Even the shop had a good weekend.

Things adapt and change even in the world of Morris, so steeped in maintaining traditional forms of dance. There are the specialist sides doing Rapper, Cotswold and the like, straight, in traditional costumes and manner. But more broadly the dress style is becoming ever more flamboyant. Each side still has always had it's own identifiably distinct dress code. Its own particular twist on the Morris legacy. The mummers rag coat, has morphed with Gothic influenced steam punk, the top hats now decorated elaborately with feathers,cogs and flying goggles. This contemporary inventiveness is what will keep Morris alive and popular as a folk tradition. 

Since the arrival of the Witchmen a few years ago, the very overtly physical thwacking of sticks, in a darkly aggressively Border style of Morris became fashionable. The number of sides you saw increased. Something similar appears now to be happening with Molly. In many ways a gentler, charming, more whimsically laid back form, its the very opposite of the groins and grunts of Border. I saw many different types of Morris side over the weekend and got the feeling many were a bit under rehearsed, no doubt due to pandemic restrictions. Maybe by next years performances will have tightened up a bit.

When we lived in Cambridge one of our first visits of the year to Sheringham would be for the Potty Morris & Folk Festival, the first weekend in July. Due to my past experience as a Morris dancer I still get a big thrill of excitement from watching a side like the Witchmen or Pig Dyke Molly. There were over forty two Morris sides this year. So its not a small event. With plans to expand its Folk Music element over the next few years. Next year being its 30th Anniversary is particularly going to be big. I cannot wait.