I finally did it. Having fully intended to go visit the Lymington Folk Club real soon for a lot of this year and so having made arrangements with a mate for Christmas drinkies, we decided to chance our arm at some live culture. No, not the sort of thing you get in yoghurt nowadays. So off to the Thomas Tripp we erm, tripped.

It was billed as the Christmas bash where every offering had to be Christmas related. Now I don’t know about you, but at such a time stuffed full of traditional, and stuffing filled with Thyme, I don’t mind the annual trotting out of standards. Seems that everyone is trying to be edgy and ironic which doesn’t exactly help the sing-along aspect of a lot of traditional songs. Of course when I say traditional songs that includes Santa Claus is Coming to Town and it’s ilk.

So when it was announced at one point that the performer wasn’t going to do the obvious choice of songs, I have to confess to feeling a tad deflated. It’s not like I was expecting All Around my Hat, but I was hoping to exercise the vocal chords to some degree. As it turned out the song that followed was the Fairytale of New York, though the Christy Moore one, not the Pogues version. And a decent fist was made of it as well, though to my mind it’s become something of a Christmas standard in it’s own right.

Enough of the high-falutin music discourse, the evening was about enjoying yourself and aided by the Ringwood Brewery, we did just that. An added bonus was that having walked into the bar at the start we met our friend Mr Jim Anderson, accordion player extraordinaire, who not only got the first round in, but was shortly afterwards up on stage exercising his superb accordion stylings. In theory it was a Christmas medley, but so many tunes were included so quickly perhaps a Christmas mash-up would be a better description. For me one of the highlights of the evening.

Now if I were any kind of a diligent reviewer I would have taken note of all the performers and therefore been able to steer you on their relative merits. However the convivial atmosphere and the assistance of Messrs Ringwood meant that I can’t do that. Oh well. However I did particularly like the band with the young bloke playing the ukulele banjo. I like ukuleles, I like Christmas. What’s not to like.

What I can do is recommend the Lymington Folk Club as a good way to spend an evening. If the Christmas bash is representative of their regulkar meetings, then don’t wait until the evening is due to start to turn up. The seats will all be gone and you’ll have to stand at the back. There are worse things to have to do but I’m just saying.

Finally I can only wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It’s not Folk, but it’s my Christmas song for this year. A wonderful Reggae track from the Maytals. Apologies for the advert at the start.

Well believe it or not that’s exactly what we were told on our first visit to the vets when we moved to Lymington. Initially it was pretty much right, but with five snowfalls in the last four years, it has latterly turned out to be a tad inaccurate to put it mildly.  

So snow came and went and came and has now comprehensively gone again. With the New Year shortly upon us we are in enjoying a balmy six degrees Celsius. Virtually tropical. However whilst it was around, the denizens of Lymington made the very best of it at Buckland Rings. Fortunately without the need of an ambulance and fire engine to allow access to the injured as happened at the beginning of the year.  

Sledging At Buckland Rings

You probably can’t see too clearly the two figures on the left carrying a large piece of plastic, provenance unknown. Unfortunately I don’t have any shots of them coming down again with a significant number of their friends on-board, but you’ll have to take my word that it was quite a sight to see and more importantly not be in the way of!  There was a most enjoyable carnival atmosphere about the place with people just enjoying themselves and no-one being objectionable. Not so sure the various Estate Agents represented by their for sale signs being pressed into service would necessarily concur, since that appeared to be the sled of choice for many! En route I came across this candidate for not entirely useful notice of the year award….  

Keep Off The Grass

On an entirely different note, an appropriate phrase if ever there was, I get contacted from time to time to mention things going on in Lymington. In this case it was to do with a folk and acoustic music club meeting at the ‘Thomas Tripp’ every first and third Wednesday of the month. I’ll be honest, I was told about this quite some time ago, so I hope it’s still relevant! Anyway, entry is free and open to anyone who plays acoustically or sings or likes listening to real music. As it happens that description fits me quite well, so maybe I’ll just wander along one evening and see what it’s like. All in the spirit of public information of course. In the nick of time I was contacted by what turns out to be the Lymington Folk Club and apparently all sorts of info is available from their website at Lymington Folk Club.  

And speaking of public information, I feel obligated to mention the most excellent customer service recently rendered by Tribal Gatherings, oriental rug specialists in Lyndhurst. If you’re in the market for a bit of oriental ruggery, it’s a pretty good place to start! And no, they aren’t paying me to say this, they were just very helpful. In case of interest, their website is HERE.  

Hope your Christmas was good and your New Year will be considerably better than we are being told to expect!

Every year in Lymington someone moors a small boat in the Lymington River just off Bridge Road. In past years it has contained snowmen and santas among other things. It looked particularly festive when it snowed, but due to the inflatable nature of the occupants, there was a tendency to turn around whenever there was the slightest gust of wind and face the wrong way. Which is not to say that the backside of an inflatable snowman isn’t amusing in it’s own right, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t what the civically-minded individual had intended when they originally moored the boat. There was one year I recall when the inflatable figure sprung a leak, and started to deflate. If you’ve ever wanted a definition of a sad-looking sight, that was it.

This year, and in the face of political correctness requiring the purging of all religious reference from this season of celebration, there is a nativity scene. And underneath the nativity scene on the side of the boat, is a car number plate with PEACE2U on it. I couldn’t put it better myself. Happy Christmas.