With the summer school term now well under way and our house finally free of chocolate Easter eggs and all the mini accompaniments of deliciousness that come with them, I can turn my full attention to May. There is much to look forward to locally this month, but as my BABY is going away on his first residential school trip this week, you may just find me sobbing into a bottle of rosé instead!

Fortunately, we will be reunited in time for the Dulwich Festival, which will explore and celebrate the theme of ‘home’ this year. Art will spring up throughout the area in Artists’ Open House and the Festival Children’s Art Competition; musicians will bring extraordinary sounds throughout the 10 days, wonderful walks will awake the senses, talks and theatre will stretch the imagination and fabulous fairs will welcome all throughout each weekend.

I will be back with my homemade Greek dips (plus baklava, spanakopita and kalamata olives) at the Dulwich Festival Fair on Sunday 14th May and the Dulwich Park Fair on Sunday 21st. The fairs are a wonderful day out for all the family with amazing food, bouncy castles, donkey rides, magicians, live music and free face painting for kids! If you pass by my stall ‘Vasso’s Kouzina’ please do say hello and sample our dips – it’s always lovely to see a friendly face!

There is much more to look forward to at this year’s festival too with an exciting programme of events planned. Over 200 artists will be opening their doors as part of the popular Artists’ Open House event held over both weekends of the festival. Other highlights include journalist and broadcaster, Robin Lustig, in conversation with John Pienaar, The Harlem Meer Cats in concert at JAGS, and a demonstration at Dulwich Picture Gallery on how to Paint like the Old Masters.

Away from the festival, Angela and I will be learning how to transform our look with expert colour and style analysis from House of Colour. I have a feeling my go-to grey/black jeans with grey/black waterfall cardigan combo will be told to go… although, I am hoping our consultant will insist yellow is my colour as I have my eye on a lovely new spring coat.

As this month draws to a close, long-standing members of the 7th XI Dulwich Cricket Club team will head off on their annual cider-drenched tour (jolly) to Somerset, taking my husband with them! However, in contrast to my BABY going away without me, this particular solo trip has me skipping towards the rosé as it means 3-days of having the bed to myself, sole custody of the remote control and no dirty socks to pick up off the floor! Oh, he knows I’ll miss him really. Probably.

As always, you can find details of all local news, events and ticket information over on our events page. You can also find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @arounddulwich.

This article first appeared in the May 2017 issue of SE22 magazines.