Lanterns in Haregate

Tucked away on the edge of Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands is Haregate, an estate of curving roads and open spaces with the ragged edges of the Roaches rising on the horizon. It is also the home of Borderland Voices and over the last couple of weeks of October some friends and I were working with Haregate schools and youth groups to build the components of a lantern procession

this looks amazingly synchronised!

autumn themes and colours

Come the event, a dramatic Hallowe-en evening, it rained. And rained. One youth group got stranded somewhere on the way back from Nottingham (serves 'em right for spending a day down in dungeons!)

lanterns loitering, waiting for adventurous processioneers!

a Lady lantern admiring herself!

But a hardy company assembled and we squelched our way, undaunted, round the estate, entertaining equally damp guisers and giving all those folk hiding behind their curtains someone to point at, wave to and talk about

And then we were warmed with soup and spider bread and pumpkin cupckaes!

Delight persists even in the rain!

(Thanks to Andy Collins and Viv Young for the photos - and with Sarah Males and the school and youth groups for your help, enthusiasm and hard work! And thanks to Andy for getting it all going and keeping it all together!)