FULMER NEWSLETTER - Fulmer Village

WHODUNIT AND THE HARVEST THANKSGIVING
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The Harvest Thanksgiving Supper took place in the Village Hall on
Friday, 30 September. It was the prelude to the Thanksgiving Service
in Fulmer Church on Sunday, 2 October. On this latter occasion the
Church was beautifully decorated with a profusion of colours and a wide
variety of flowers, fruits and vegetables. It must be many years since
the majority of Fulmer‟s congregation ploughed the fields and scattered
and how different it was when the importance of a good harvest meant
so much to the prosperity of a very rural community. But if the
thanksgiving of today is of a different nature, the fact that when society
moves from one economic crisis to the next, our local fields and gardens
testify to the fact that Dame Nature has an agenda of her own which
defies the vagaries of the Stock Markets. For this we can join John
Milton‟s „gladsome mind‟ in thankfulness. By and large we had a
bumper summer in the garden and I hope you did too.
From the moment of entering the Village Hall to a warm welcome, one
sensed it was going to be a fun evening. It was a full house and
particular praise was given for the delicious supper provided by the very
capable Brendan and Kay Keane (and very grateful thanks too to Tracey
and Gordon for all their assistance). The piece de resistance, however,
was to be the performance by the Royal Shakeup Company in their first
production in two Acts of “Much Ado About Something”, possible the
Bard‟s last masterpiece performed in Thirties‟ evening dress. In fact it
had been written by Ken Peters, reasonably fresh from his own historical
masterpiece in celebration of the 400 th Anniversary of the consecration
of our Church, which had been staged eleven months earlier. We began
with a disappointment and were horrified to learn that Ken and Jennifer,
his wife, had been involved in a car crash in Hertfordshire while on
holiday. As a result they could not be with us and some hasty
adjustments had to be made to the cast as Ken was due to play the part
of Major Blunder. Tom Holbird stepped in to play Ken‟s role and Phil
Mann helped out too by playing Tom‟s son, Minor Blunder.
I once had the privilege of sitting next to Dame Agatha Christie at a
Dinner and I am sure she would have been delighted by this spoof of
one of her murder mysteries. The drama was in two parts – after the
first act we ate (and drank) our supper and then rejoined the household
of Lady Virginia for the second act. The stage was peopled by such
celebrities as Sir Cumference Blossom, Mr Minor Blunder MP and Mrs
Cheri Blossom QC. There were occasional echoes of Downton Abbey but