Community cinema and top quality musicians - not a bad weekend for a small village in Dorset

We sat in our seats, the lights went down and there was not a whirr to be heard.

At the opening night of our very own Lush Places cinema in the village hall, we had a few shorts, including the Happy video I made with a friend last year.

And then it was the turn of Effie Gray, a beautiful film made by Emma Thompson, featuring a great, mainly British cast, and based on the true story of the ill-fated marriage of Victorian art critic John Ruskin.

The ladies in the audience, in particular, were gripped by this tale, even though nothing much really happened.

'It was miserable and too long,' said one of the men.

'Aren't you glad you're not married to someone like that?' said a husband to his wife in the front row.

But it was a hit as far as being the first film of our community cinema was concerned, despite the man behind the scenes (and behind the stage curtain like the Wizard of Oz) poking his head out from the side of the roll-down screen as the story unfolded.

It was almost a full house and the people of Lush Places are indebted to the National Lottery for paying for the state-of-the-art equipment and the local media, including Wessex FM who interviewed Mr Grigg, for their help in publicising the event.

Two nights later, and the stage was set for Five Star Swing and Hits from the Blitz. Toes were tapping, one woman turned up with a gas mask and the top prize in the raffle was a walking stick.

  

'I swear,' said a villager, 'one day I'm going to come to a wake at this hall and there'll be someone doing a prize draw.'

We had choruses of Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Run Rabbit Run and then the bass player got up and asked band leader Chris Smith if he might play the trumpet.

It all happens in Lush Places.

That's about it.

Love Maddie x