Friday 15th April 2022 - Always an odd kind of day

 Good Friday is always a strange, unfocussed, unsettling day. In years past I have sometimes been swept up into all kinds activities - church services, walks of witness, bandstand services in the town centre, helping to create the Easter decorations in church.

Recently, more so with the 'stay-at-home' nature of this year, and last year, and the year before, there has been none of these events and distractions.

So I pottered slowly in the garden, sowing sunflower and marigold seeds, potting on other seedlings, re-potting the half-dozen cuttings that have survived the winter. It was hot and sunny, like a Summer's day. We had our morning coffee under the apple blossom, ate out lunch outside, and returned to the dappled shade of the apple tree for after-lunch coffee.

We chatted to neighbours, I wrote, and Himself posted the last few letters and cards. (Yesterday I took some post to the post box - a round trip of just over half a mile, but the first time I had gone for a walk since the end of February. Today my legs begged not to repeat the walk so soon!).

All through the day I felt as though I was waiting for it all to be over, for 3pm when traditionally Christ is taken down from the Cross; 'Consummatum est' - 'it is done', or 'it is finished'. I do think it is necessary for us to remember how barbaric, how cruel, human beings can be, and how low we can stoop; whether or not you are Christian or religious in any way. 

Noah's Ark

A raven today - after all, the calendar is based upon Noah's Ark, and we are nearing the end of the story. 

"After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up."    Genesis 8; 6-7

Sewing

I can reveal my designs for the last 'postcard swap'. I've made a 'postage stamp'; it is a copy of a stamp that Ukraine issued using a design by a popular artist called Maria Primachenko. There is quite a lot about her on the internet. Her art was in the news recently because a museum in Ukraine was destroyed by Russian bombing, and many of her works have been lost.  

I also added a clock, with the hands set to 8 o-clock, a national time of prayer for world peace. This is an international movement, with other countries praying at different times.

Ang sent me this Easter triptych, representing Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Day. It is beautiful.

Knitting

Ang also asked about the wool I used to knit my latest jumper; I promised I would post the details.