Fancy dress parade

Friday night of Beltane week is Fancy Dress night! It's amazing the topics people think up, international, national and local topical themes; characters from fairy tales, films and TV, including TV ads, etc.

Here is a general view of the parade coming across Cuddy Bridge. In the foreground are two Beltane horse riders trotting along on hobby horses, and a flower girl wearing a dress covered in the plastic or paper flowers that decorate many a banner and float! Behind them is a group of Disneyland characters.

Of course the parade had led off with the pipe band and I got this photo of the little piper mascot with his toy bagpipes, getting into a bit of a fankle too by the looks of things!

We had the Beltane Olympic team ready for Beijing, and the US elections were represented by two little kiddies dressed as Hilary and Obama! The outrageous price of petrol (It stands at about £5.20 per gallon in Peebles just now! That's about U.S.$10!) along with Recycling are also big topics right now, and the siting of the new building for one of the local schools has been quite controversial, so of course all of these were obvious subject choices! Heathrow airport's new terminal 5 was lambasted, and film titles were played with too, resulting in Pirates of the Peeblean, St Trinians, and Willy Wonka and the Beltane OompaLoompas. A rather sleepy young Little Red Riding Hood was there, dressed in a beautiful red cloak, carried by dad, and accompanied by a Wolf with a big tummy and a notice saying "Granny inside!" There was a tiny Beltane knight in shining armour.......

Then there was Colin dressed as Elvis! Colin is fanatical about Elvis, and if you remember, when I got my hamster, it was this Colin who named her Priscilla! Colin frequently drops into the shop for a chat, usually starting with the announcement, "Poor Elvis!" Anyone not in the know will ask why! "He's deid!" Colin will reply! (deid = deed = dead!) or in rhyming slang Elvis is sometimes "broon breid!" (broon = brown, breid=breed=bread!)

And this is Helen. Peebles is twinned with a French town called Hendaye, and here, Helen is dressed as one of a group of French ladies, with her tray of wine too! She is also sporting her Beltane rosette, in the Peebles colours of red and white!

There were lots of laughs, lots of cheers and lots of good humour throughout the procession. Lorry loads of children and adults also came out to join in the fun, dressed as Vikings, Circus characters, a futuristic Beltane group, as well as nurses and doctors in another local controversy about the Health Service!

We closed the shop during the parade, so we could come out to watch. Most of the people out and about were also watching the proceedings so we didn't really miss out! Besides we knew that later we would exceed our target for the day - which we did easily!

Beltane week reaches its climax today, Saturday, so until next time, with pictures of the crowning of the Beltane Queen, take care.

Talk again soon.