Winter lights at West Norwood

West Norwood Feast hosted the Winter Lights Festival at St Luke's Church tonight. I arrived on site around 3pm and helped to share leaflets around the high street. At 4pm, we began in earnest, especially around the children's activities area. This didn't stop until 8pm - we made loads of Christmas decorations with great enthusiasm. It was lovely to meet several of my neighbours, some of whom I didn't know before tonight. This is what the Feast is about - people in the community have an opportunity to chat. Otherwise, we commute to work, sit in the workplace for a day, commute home, sit behind the TV/computer, collapse to sleep and it all starts again. When do we have the opportunity to chat to our neighbours?

Creatmosphere worked their magic on the front of St Luke's Church. We oohed and ahhed at snowflakes falling, exploding fireworks and pretty colours.

One of the many bonuses of Feast is that volunteers have some perks, especially towards the end of an event. Tonight, those of us litter picking were told: "If you don't drink this Glühwein, I'lll have to pour it away." Well, that effectively stopped the litter picking for a wee while as we helped ourselves to steaming mugs of gorgeous mulled wine (with rum and black tea in the mixture). Our last job was to wheel the generator to its safe place in the local art gallery. This was a bit of an effort as it was so heavy - Helen and I left the guys to it (there really wasn't room for us to help push). Instead, we shouted encouraging words.

What a fabulous evening. Thank you to Feast, Sally at Floral Hall, and the West Norwood community groups for the wonderful tree!