The Thing On the Rec
On Saturday 12th December, we hosted The Thing On The Rec: A real Local Christmas.
It was an event we'd been planning for a while, and, despite the rain and bad weather, it was a wonderful day!
As often is the case with these things, it's hard to really sum up in words how it was to be there, to pin down the atmosphere and the overall warm (again, despite the weather!) festive, community feeling that came alongside.
So, I'll let these photos do the majority of the talking - this time provided by a mixture of people, our very own Mark Loudon (http://markloudon.com/photography/), Ronnie Hughes of A Sense of Place (https://asenseofplaceblog.wordpress.com/) and my young nephew Jamie's own unique take on the event.
In the weeks leading up to The Thing, it was hard work getting everything together!
We had an excellent team of volunteers on board to help us with this, and all of that tough work really paid off...
It looked beautiful when finished!
We had a number of fantastic stalls at the Rec, but there were also plenty of things to do inside the bakery itself.
Myself and Ronnie chaired the 'Storytelling' table for a while, with the help of Michelle Langan of 'The Story Arc'.(https://twitter.com/storyarccic) We were collecting and sharing stories of Anfield and memories of things long gone - not to mention our hopes and plans for the future, too.
And Grace, of Cake Club, hosted a Gingerbread House making event for children to take part in and build their own Anfield in sweets form!
Outside on the actual rec, plenty of stalls were there for perusing, with lots of lovely local crafts to buy or treats to eat and drink!
There were honeycombs...
Micro gardens...
Italian street food...
A bin monster!
And smiles all around!
Not to mention being able to take away a little bag of cheer - who doesn't need some of that from time time?
As the night crawled on, the stalls were closed up and made way for dancing!
Just as we planned in the beginning...
It really was a wonderful day, and there was a real sense of electricity in the air - a buzz about Anfield and our community again, and plenty of happy, smiling faces - just what we've always been hoping for, really!
For the first time in a long time, this sign promising a "Brighter Anfield" seems to ring true.
Bring it on!