Sigh.

Folkiedave - Again you totally miss the point - have you ever heard the suggestion that men came from another planet? Not the mars venus thing. My personal suspicion is that men came on a club trip from Alpha Centaurii and got so drunk they missed the bus back.

I do folk - me and other people altogether singing, playing music dancing - can I explain it any simpler?

I am not claiming Copper Family status but my father's father played little devil doubt in a mumming play - somewhere around Youlgrave in Derbyshire I think, my mother's father was a good Irish tenor when not drunk, my mother's mother had a tendency to sing quite a lot and so do several of my aunts - my mother always sang around the house, but she is gone now - my dad played an autoharp in his youth but seemed to take no injury from it, and we had a piano in the house for my sister to play - I always favoured more portable instruments.

I do sing at home - and in the car, and in the garden - and when I go out it is to the folk club and I go to Sidmouth, even if only for one day in the year, every year for the last 26 years - so I can sing with other singers - does a pattern begin to emerge?

This year I took my drum and went to find the Motley Morris - and I bought a whittle - one of those three hole whistles. The fun is in joining in.

Anne