Jeanne Bice LOVED summertime!  The arrival of June meant that ‘Murky March’ was far behind us – and that the April showers had truly brought with them beautiful flowers that could be enjoyed in the warmth of the summer sun.

Having lived in London for over 13 years – where the weather is mostly misty, dark and gloomy – you can only imagine how happy I am when June arrives, and the days are longer.  It still amazes me every year when June hits just how late the sun sets over here in London.  At the height of the Summer Solstice, the setting sun can naturally light London until as late as 10:00 at night. To see this beautiful city and her iconic buildings like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace & the Houses of Parliament lit by a summer sun in the evening, is priceless – it reminds me just how lucky I am to live here.

Here’s a picture of St. Stephen’s Tower (which houses Big Ben) & the Houses of Parliament on one such evening – just look at the hues of blue in that perfect summer evening sky!

June is also the time that I head out to the countryside of England with my best friends, and go camping for a week at the ‘Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts’.  This is a 5-day arts & music festival where one can enjoy contemporary music, dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret – well heck, just about any type of artistic live performance you can think of!

It all takes place in one of England’s most beautiful areas, Somerset – known for its farmland – and friendly people.  This was my 4th time going to the festival – and I was just as excited about going this time as I was my first time!  And this year we had over 35 friends in our group – the largest yet!!  Now, that may sound like a lot of people, but Glastonbury had over 175,000 people attending and camping at the festival this year!!  You can only imagine how much coordination an event that size entails – not only for the festival organizers, but for our group as well!  But we were in good hands because two of my best friends, Chris & Paul, are ‘old hats’ at this and they were simply amazing getting our group ready for the week. 

I was supposed to arrive into Glastonbury on the afternoon of Tuesday the 24th – but I had a show at 11pm on QVC UK that day.  My good friends Jo and Greg waited for me to finish my show,  ensuring our UK Quackers would have enough sparkle and shine to last them while I was on vacation!  They picked me up at midnight and I could immediately tell that vacation had begun.  Jo is a policewoman in London – so I knew that I was in safe hands as we took off at midnight to drive the 2 hours to Somerset.  And Greg is an Air Traffic Controller at one of the worlds busiest airports, Heathrow, so I knew with him in the car, we’d have NO problem navigating the country back roads!!

The next day the sun was shining and we all set out to find a space to pitch our tents for the next week.  Here I am putting my tent up – that boy scout training really came in handy!!  And the 2nd picture is my view for the week – isn’t it stunning?!

While I was walking around the field, I saw lots of other fun tents as well – here are two of my favorite’s – how neat are these?!

Now, we all know that it rains a LOT in England – and guess what?? – we had our fair share of rain as well – but not as bad as in the past years.  The trick is to be prepared for any type of weather – and that’s what we were.  Here I am with my friends Rob and Miranda getting ready to go for a walk – we thought it might rain – and we were right!

And you definitely can’t go camping in the middle of a farm in England if you don’t have your Wellington boots (or as the English call them, ‘Wellies’) with you.  Here I am with my buddy Nigel showing off our wellies.  (I think Jeanne Bice would have made sure mine had a little more bling on them – what do you think?!)

But with every rainstorm, there is always a Rainbox – and I found mine!

One of the great things about being at a Contemporary Arts Festival is that you NEVER know what you’re going to see when you walk around.  I think I just might have found the worlds largest Twister mat!!!

One night when we were walking around, we even found this plane!  It was part of one of the art installations that was put up by an artist just for the week!  Here are Chris and Nigel having fun in the cockpit!  (Would you EVER believe there would be a plane in the middle of a field in England?!  I didn’t!)

And here’s something else we found.  This is the entrance to one of the many entertainment venues in the nighttime part of the field.  Can you believe that it is really just a fake façade, like in the Hollywood movies – and that when you walk through it, you’re actually in a big circus tent?!  How incredible is that – and it’s only there for the week of the festival!  I was just amazed at how creative the organizers were – and this is just 1 of MANY other venues/exhibitions like this!

But of course one of the biggest reasons for going to Glastonbury Festival is to see and hear music – and I’ve been blessed over the 4 times I’ve been there to hear some great bands perform.  Some of which include, U2, Willy Nelson, Coldplay, Brian Ferry (one of Angel’s favorites), Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, Blondie, Kenny Rogers, Mumford & Sons and Paul Simon. Here’s a picture of the main stage – which is called The Pyramid Stage – where most of the big-name acts perform:


What a Quack-Tabulous week it was!  I’m so very blessed to have some of the best (and FUN!) friends in the entire world!! 

What are you all doing this summer for fun?!  Please do let me know.

Whatever you do, make sure you always look for, and find, the rainbow through the clouds!

 

Quacker Hugs & Love From Across The Pond

Patrick

Xoxo

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