Sunday 11th June - Unusual Authenticity

Church today was a joint service - the " 9 o'clockers" and the "10:30" congregation all together. This was because our curate was "priested" yesterday, so this was the first time she had officiated at a Holy Communion.

We had service sheets - now there's a novelty. We only bother with them on special occasions. Ah but yes, this was a special occasion, and very joyful and cheerful it was too.

I hugely enjoyed the way the Confession prayer was printed;

All those question marks kind of mirror the thoughts I have in my mind sometimes. Saying the prayers cann be a bit like making promises with your fingers crossed. I'm often NOT truly sorry. The only bits of which I can be certain are that I will have sinned against God, and I would like to be forgiven. No question (marks) about that.

Later on, at the beginning of the Communion prayer, more queries;

It may well be "our duty and our joy, at all times and in all places to give you thanks and praise, holy Father" but you know as well as I do that this just doesn't happen.

Heigh ho. To err is human, to forgive is divine.

Monday 5th June 2017 - Rain

It's pouring outside. The sound of the rain rattling against the windows is music to my ears. He managed to get the grass cut before it started, and there's no need to water all the vegetable containers.

I may have a different opinion about the weather if it is still like this in the morning.

Sunday 4th June - The Vegetable Garden

Who would ever have thought that this, back at the beginning of April,

would become this?

The brown and black square tubs with sticks in them are now overflowing with broad bean plants, and the huge leaves belong to the nearly invisible brussel sprout seedlings in the first picture. We've eaten all the first batch of lettuces and pak choi and radishes and spring onions, and very good they were too. The spinach was well worth growing; I pick a handful of leaves most days which I store until we have enough for a meal - more like a garnish, perhaps?

Apart from the early days, slugs haven't been a real problem. We started with the extremely smelly wool pellets (made of scraps of wool and sheep-poo, according to one source) called "Slug Gone". I guess it is one of those products which tells it like it is on the packaging.

Here it is, doing a good job of protecting the peas I bought in the market yesterday.

Many years ago I had a few lettuces, bought from a school fete, growing in a trough. I used some plant containers made of tinselly wire mesh that had been used for poinsettias at Christmas, and discovered that slugs and snails can't climb them. The tinsel has worn off, but the pests are just as reluctant to climb up the rust. So, using the same principle, He has made me some chicken wire mats which I am hoping will save his spring onions from destruction.

The spare hanging basket frame seems to be thwarting any attacks on the young lettuces;

We watered them all thoroughly, which means that it is sure to rain tonight. Now that we have all these containers that need watering, I take quite a different view of rainy days.

Friday 2nd June - unwelcome telephone call

I'm typing this on my tablet, a slow process compared to rattling away on the computer keyboard. That's because I am a little reluctant to switch on the computer until I get the all-clear from the IT guru (currently rescuing daughter from the snarls of Southern Rail).

We had one of the usual scam phone calls; "this is *insert name of famous computer software company* and you have a problem with your security blah blah"

The IT guru responded robustly, but not rudely, and put the phone down. The scammer called back, and again, and again... with increasing urgency about the imminent security disaster that would ensue if we didn't switch on the computer and let him on straight away.

We resorted to the samba whistle...

Is he still out there, lurking somewhere in the wires, ready to pounce?

I think I'll wait for a while before I use it again.

Hang on. Visiting IT guru has just appeared and said we are safe; said scammer cannot actually fit through the cables. Phew.

Thursday 1st June - Saturday in Kircudbright

I've just come back - on Tuesday evening - from a long weekend reunion with some friends. We used to live within an hour or so of each other, but then one moved to Cornwall, one to Suffolk, and one to Scotland. Get-togethers where we ALL came together in one place became harder to manage, as you can imagine.

Sadly, one of the group died almost exactly a year ago, and our reunion was partly to share memories, as well as catch up on what we had been doing.

We have had a GREAT time - at least I hope I can say that for all of us! I had been watching the weather forecast - blistering hot on the Friday that we were travelling up, and then cold, wet and rainy for the next few days until the Tuesday of our return journey. The reality was not a bit like that...

Saturday started with a walk along the shore of the River Dee, in warm balmy sunshine. A stop for sandwiches part way round was interrupted by the incoming tide which threatened to surround the rocks we were sitting on, and cut off our retreat to the slipway we came down. No matter, we relocated in good time, and the only one who got wet was the dog.

 
  We carried on munching as the sun shone on the fields across the water. It was a most perfect place.

Kircudbright is an artist's town, rather like Newlyn in Cornwall. This weekend past was their "Spring Fling", so we spent the rest of the day dodging hot sweaty marathon runners and prowling round the artist's studios.

This is probably my most favourite image, by Claire Cameron-Smith, from my most favourite studio of the day:

http://www.cameronsmithdesigns.co.uk/home

I hope they don't mind me copying it from their website. I would have bought the print, but made do with buying a card, which I shall be using for a "bread-and-butter" letter - "thank you" letter to our host. These are the traditional "Belties"; Belted Galloway Cattle found in the area. A piece of furniture made by Ian Cameron-Smith would have been a lovely souvenir too; have a look at their website; but too expensive, (and too impractical to bring home on the train).

So, that, apart from food and wine in the evening, was Saturday. I recommend the Fechan Red, well chilled.

Wednesday 31st May 2017 - A Useful Find

This website - I'm blogging it, so that I don't lose it.

www.britainexpress.com


full of information about various places one might like to visit - I mean places I might like to visit - and somehow slightly quirky, not the usual ones.

I've just printed off a list of historic churches and we're off to go and have a look-see.