The wine press is returned

Last summer the vines in the beer garden at the Swan public house produced an abundance of grapes and Brian Blundell decided to try and produce wine from them. To do so, we borrowed a traditional wine press from Halfpenny Green Vineyards near Wolverhampton, one of our regulars on our monthly Farmers' Markets.

The harvesting of the grapes and the pressing of the grape juice caused a lot of interest and was used to publicise the Food and Drink Festival. However since that time the press has stood in the Swan's back yard. So today Brian, John Moss, Jill and Steve Hood and I hitched up a trailer onto my car and returned it to Halfpenny Green where it now stands proudly outside their shop and restaurant.

Brian then decided we should return by the scenic route so we didn't get back until early evening! As always on these sort of trips, you see things which remind you of issues back in Stone. A row of recycling bins contained within a metal frame with padlocked bars across the front - no more overturned bins there! And a section of road outside the railway station at Bridgnorth painted in yellow cross hatching and signed 'Coach parking only' - the solution to persuading coach operators to bring day trips to Stone. perhaps?

So not entirely a day without Stone's well being in our thoughts!