Return to Free-lance Island

In kitchens across Arcadia kettles are being boiled dry, Elgar is on the radiogram and dogs and cats are being kissed once again.  From the pantry the last drop of an old bottle of Victory Gin is being raised to all those heroes and heroines who made the days between the opening day of Port Eliot Festival and the closing night of Caught by the River Thames Festival such a magnificent inspiration and joy.  Oh yes! Indeed, 'we live under fantasy oak trees' as Gruff once sang and did again on Sunday night.  My good friend and comrade in arms the photographer Neil R. Thomson chronicled both weekends and his work can be seen in the districts known as here and there.