Weekend Wandering: Festive Chippenham
My walks have seen me in the centre of Chippenham a lot more lately because it's taken on quite a festive air. Whilst Christmas is set to be a much quieter affair this year, it's time to celebrate what's actually happening to cheer us up out there. It also means there's a chance of surprises - like the well-known local rider who often brings his horse down the traffic-free high street. Sunday's get up meant he was stopped quite a bit on his travels!
There's a charming Joy of Christmas window display which consists of artwork from 24 talented residents - both children and adults - together with their thoughts on what makes them joyful at this time of year. The canny town council have placed these in the windows of civic buildings and also at some of our independent shops. As a result the trail covers quite an extensive area and I found some not-known-to-me before shops which I plan to return to. I was also pleased to my friend W's work is one selected for display and in a prominent spot to boot - at the Town Hall. Now all I have to do is vote for my favourite...
The Knatty Knitters have been at it again! This year's display consists of postbox toppers dotted around the town. The station's Christmas pudding is our favourite and there's a jolly snowman outside the main post office, plus an exhausted Santa propped against a chimney on the high street - one of my WI friends thought he might have been on the sherry! There's at least one more to find and the word on the streets is more knitting is set to appear over the next couple of weeks...
...and then on my way home yesterday, I found there is indeed more. I'm pretty sure this wasn't there a couple of days before. Then I looked at the redundant telephone box nearby and found it had its own Christmas tree!
