Oswin and colic

 I promised you Oswin updates.

She's starting to get the hang of this growing business.  She's taking a lot more milk now and her arms and legs look a lot longer (though that's partly because she stretches out more now) and though they still look thin, they don't look like matchsticks any more.

She's about the size of  an average newborn now.  (she's just over two months old)

She's very cute.  Tuesday night is RPG night, and Oswin has colic at the moment, so I volunteered to take her while Mummy Lindsey had a chance to do some gaming (I'll rejoin the game when the colic passes, but it really isn't fair to inflict screaming baby on the gaming group).

Luckily for me, she settled down and went to sleep in the baby sling as soon as she'd had her feed (Magic granny superpower), so I went out for a walk and showed her off to my friend Janet.  Then I went for a walk round Co-op, where she was drooled over by various passing women.  Then I went home and met my next door neighbours who were also united in adoration.  It's partly the size that does it - really tiny babies are irresistible to a large proportion of the female population.  Add in soft fuzzy hair and smooth skin and you have a killer combination.  (I'd add in grey eyes, but she was asleep, so didn't even have that part of the weaponry available)

She's far more aware of people now.  Very responsive to sounds, turns to listen to things, but now she can focus on faces and turns to look at your eyes.  Saw something that I like to imagine was an early smile.

The colic is a killer though -both parents are really drained.  I'm lucky, my children didn't have it, but an awful lot do. My friend Janet said she assumed that all babies had it. All hers did and all her grandchildren to (breastfeeding or bottle feeding makes no difference on this front).  No one really knows what causes it.  It may have nothing to do with tummies at all.  

The NHS website says "Colic is the medical term for excessive, frequent crying in a baby who appears to be otherwise healthy and well fed. It is a common yet poorly understood condition, affecting up to one in five babies."

The only good thing about colic is that babies grow out of it after several months.  But several months is a long time when you have several hours of screaming baby every day.

Come and share my festival!

 Alex Holden was looking after bags and stuff for dancers during the procession, but it put him in an ideal position at an upstairs window to film the entire procession (there's just a couple of minutes missing where he had a camera glitch, but it's wonderful footage. Nearly every side stops and does a short dance just under the window.

See the children from the local schools, the sheer variety of colours and styles of dance.  Note the old hands, especially the Cotswold and North West dancers, who are used to processions and have processional dances that move gradually down the street, just stopping for the occasional figure when the procession slows to a halt.

Some groups, like the Welsh dancers, don't have a processional dance, and thus walk most of the procession (but may have done the odd dance or part of a dance at other points along the road).  Appalachian dancers don't do the procession, as tap shoes on tarmac really don't give the desired effect!

For me, this is a wonderful chance to see the procession that I mostly didn't actually see on the day.  I note with some amusement that the Fezheads have worked their way forward from their official position nearer the end and are now up near the start. (Look at the way they carry their carpet with them and lay it down whenever they perform)

See the Knights of King Ina (who quickly became favourites of mine).  They dress in black and white and do jigs.  A jig is a rather energetic solo (or two man) dance in the Cotswold style.  Even when they're two thirds of the way through the procession, they're still putting in a lot of energy.  I remember seeing them pass the finish line, still with energy in the leaps even after all that dancing.

See if you can spot Richard, dressed in a bright orange tatter costume passing through the audience with a collection tin. (If you think he looks like the Librarian, that's because the costume was originally made at a Discworld convention)

Right at the end, you get Whitethorn ladies morris.  I put them at the end for a good reason.  I knew I could rely on them to turn up in good numbers and dance well to give the procession a good ending rather then dribbling off into nothing.  They didn't disappoint - lovely crisp footwork, even after having spent well over an hour queueing and dancing down the road.

I'm so glad Alex took this film, I think I shall return to it when I want to remember what Wimborne 2014 was like.  This is what I spent six months hard work for, and it happened and it was good.

"" (Watch on YouTube)