Christmas and New Year greetings from Joy & Eric at the end of a 2010 full of anniversaries. We used to say "From Joy & Eric and all the tribe", but the rest of the tribe sort themselves out nowadays!

[There is a French translation by Google of this letter here. But don't trust it to be accurate, there is a website which translates to a foreign language and back, and it usually ends up with total rubbish!]

[And see here for the notes of my speech at our 50th anniversary party on 18th December.]

Anniversaries this year included Joy's 75th birthday, our 50th wedding, and Freds Folks Band's 50th.

On the actual day of our 50th wedding anniversary (30th July) we were camping in in the Paimpont Forest in Brittany. We walked to the Golden Tree , a dead tree painted gold about 20 years ago. As you walk through the forest you see glints of gold ahead as you approach. Wonderful! Then we had a week with the whole of our tribe at Sylv & Sheridan's gîte "Les Tertres" nearer the coast. The complete camping summer holiday ( photos here ) started with a ferry to Bilbao (Spain) in storm force winds (we were supposed to be watching dolphins & whales en route, but with the rough seas they had the sense not to appear, and we wouldn't have seen them anyway), and a visit to the Bilbao Guggenheim Art Gallery there -- absolutely wonderful, with special exhibitions by some of our favourite artists, Anish Kapoor & Henri Rousseau. Then on into the French Pyrenees foothills,where we had an amusing day tangling with the Tour de France - the French really are nuts about cycling! We enjoyed annoying the gendarmes who were trying to control the crowds. On for a few days with Nicky's partner Maija in her beautifully converted farmhouse near Cahors. It was lovely for me (Eric) hearing Maija and Joy talk about Nicky's younger days - I felt I got to know him better. Joy & I then wandered gently northwards up to Brittany for the family get-together and then home. There were of course more 50th wedding celebrations when we returned back to the UK, and the biggest is yet to come on 18th December in a local village hall, see later.

A quick skim through the year. The long freeze in January meant I missed my cycling for several weeks, I don't risk it when it's slippery. So I did more walking instead, and we kept up our weekly walks throughout the year of course. Friends from Taiwan, Julia & Teng visited, lovely, we haven't met for ages. We enjoy the open country as well as the exercise and the pub lunches.

In March our usual short spring city break took us to Rome for our first visit ( photos here ). Fantastic city! We'd booked a small apartment near the Pantheon, and walked just everywhere. Fantastic sights and museums. Then in April a week in Brittany at Les Tertres with Russ & Lyndi & owners Sylv & Sheridan ( more photos ). This time we went by car, RyanAir has put up its extras so much that car is now cheaper. (Last year Ryanair's fares were the same as the year before, but the actual cost because of extras was more than twice as much!) Then in May yet another week at Les Tertres, this time with with good friends Mary Joan & Gerry (yes, more photos ). A week of relaxed good company and good eating, what more could you want?

All the usual Greenwood Clog , Foresters Morris and Freds Folks events during the year. For me the highlight of the year was a show ( photos) with all of us, clog, morris and the band, at Chatsworth House courtyard - what a wonderful place to perform! The captive audience were the members of an international Civil Engineering conference. The morris & clog gave a good show in Nottingham city centre for St George's day among many others; skillful photography makes us look like lively young dancers. Joy and I sang and played with the help of friends Ken & Marlene & Cecil at a pub for St Patrick's night - their advert predicted "Riverdance-style dancing", but with only 2 dancers we'd have needed mirrors! The biggest Freds Folks gig was Joy's annual charity do for her Bluebird Trust , we had 11 in the band !

The first ever public event for Freds Folks was in April 1960 - we did a recording for the BBC Home Service (now Radio 4) programme called "The Dancing English", with MC Kenneth Clark. They asked what the name of the band was. We didn't have one, we were just "Kevin Eric and Kath". So the name we invented on the spot was "Freds Folk Five" since we had imported two extra members for that recording. The programme was broadcast in May of that year. Eric is the only member for the whole 50 years!

The garden gets enough attention to keep looking beautiful . The huge beech tree (from a sapling planted by my dad in 1967 when we moved here) has sadly been taken down; it was just getting too big and taking light and water from the garden. All of the wood went to good users (a furniture maker and others), I shredded all the leaves onto our garden, nothing was burnt! The garden will be amazed how light and airy it is next spring! We're really holding back on serious gardening until we know when & how much of the garden the tram will take.

In early December there was a memorial service for Joy's brother Nicky in St James Church, Piccadilly, London. It has been organised by his daughter (our niece!) Natasha. There were talks about Nicky's life and performances of pieces of his music, as well as a song by Joy and Karen (over from Germany specially for the occasion). My favourite piece was a flute solo written for and played by by one of his partners. There is also to be an afternoon and evening concert of his music at the South Bank, London next year (2011) on Sunday 30th October.

So the year ends with a ceilidh in Attenborough Village Hall to formally celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Many of our friends hoped be there, but were prevented by snow from being there. We chose the wrong weather for the weekend. Joy and I have an evening off - Hamish & Rory lead the band, and Jean acts as MC. Songs, clog and morris and Indian Kathak dance shows happened, as well as dancing for all and super food by Diane and Steve Diacon. If you visit us fairly soon, you might be in time to obtain a special edition mug from Eric's fair hand with "JE 50" engraved on it! There is a copy of my speech here .

There is bad progress with the Nottingham tram line extension which will take a part of our garden. To everyone's surprise in these hard economic times the government recently approved the project, but will supply less of the money for it than originally promised. With the County Council backing out too, the City Council will have to stump up a lot more cash. We await developments, there's no time scale yet, but I assume that it will go ahead at some stage once the finance is sorted and contract awarded.

Our preferred e-mail is both@joy-and-eric.org.uk (but most older addresses will still reach us). Use www.joy-and-eric.org.uk for the website, where you will find up-to-date photos of all the above adventures, and this letter. Phone is still 0115 9786858 (now with answer-phone, we’re in the 21st century, and we DO listen to messages!), snail-mail is chezfreD, Dunkirk Arts Centre, 31 Greenfield Street, Nottingham NG7 2JN, UK

2010 totals statistics by Eric
Walking 68 walks, 450km = 6.6km each, 3000 metres ascent, average speed 3.5km/hr
Cycling 45 rides, 1089km = 25km each, 60000 kilo calories, average speed only 13km/hr
Pottery 31 firings, £250 of electricity, 303 pots, 620lbs of clay used = £250 for clay< /FONT >