Look at the picture books - people and places
New Year, new arrival. 7th January, Lola puts in her appearance at East Sussex NHS hospital. She was totally oblivious to the snow that made old people nervous but nevertheless we slithered our way there. Couldn't find anywhere to park the car and when we did it somehow locked itself and stopped answering to the remote. Eventually realised that one could still use the key! Simon came with us, A A & B travelled separately and Timothy then joined us - such a shame that Zuzana was in Prague with the twins. Still lots of pics and cuddles and smiles and congratulations. Well done, Melanie and Phill and welcome, Lola.
for further pics for Lola's first year click on the feet
At the end of last year Paul had a word with the Archdeacon which resulted in the suggestion that Paul helped out at West Ewell - a 30 minute drive outside the rush hour - and that was talked through and negotiated and finally resulted in 6 month's attachment. Before and after it has been simply helping out at other more local churches in the diocese. One of these was what may be the highest parish in the diocese and the only one which still had objections to female ministers. The request to help was due to a vacancy and they have taken the opportunity to reorder their regulations! We have enjoyed the half dozen times we have been there for 8 o'clock followed by croisants and coffee before the main liturgy. They use the Roman Liturgy and the Roman Lectionary and have some very pretty dresses! The closest church to them geographically is St John's Egham where Paul served in 1991. It is also about the furthest away in churchmanship. Who cares? - one faith, one Lord, one baptism!
Here in the Parish of Wisley with Pyrford we enjoy a whole host of different services and many clubs and functions which we mainly do not support. Perhaps we are not very clubable. Early in the year Paul presented the results of an enquiry he had been making at the request of the Rector as to whether the church shortchanged the older folk of the parish whilst concentrating resources on the younger. One of the results is that the parish now seems to be taking more interest in how the congregation lives out its life in the community. We may not have mentioned the church cafe before but that is one thing that is regular on a Friday morning providing a drink and cake or a full English breakfast which are very popular. Over 70 people work a rota to keep the cafe going - we think it's brilliant.
February 20th was a red letter day for us.
For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health we promised 50 years ago. Worse, poorer and sickness might have been our lot but as it has turned out we have had a lot more of better, richer and health. And it is so easy to take it for granted instead of taking it for grace. Since retiring we have had prayers together every day and we are always saying that we will make every endeavour to remember God and his gifts, his creation and his creatures throughout the day attempting in some way, even if only under our breath, to give thanks and to bless and to love and to tell people that they are loved by Jesus. And at the end of the day, day after day, we find we have spent all our time thinking of the daily round, the common task
How we would love to meet all those people again that we have known over 50 years especially from our first days at St Clements Road when we had many guests in our home, a number of whom were from overseas - Florence was a Uganda princess, Sadiq a disinherited Pakistani - for becoming a Christian - Jim was a kindly older man who had given a couple of 'thumbers' a long lift and then stayed the night, Alan lodged for over a year as he studied garden design, and so it went on. (And then we had four lovely children.)
We've had eight homes and greatly enjoyed them all. And although Paul has nominally had all the employment we have both had great experiences from 30 years in the Bank, 31 in HM Forces, 4 in the Childrens' Society, 12 in non stipendiary ministry, 13 in stipendiary ministry, 5 in Church Tourism and now 6 in retirement. All right, some of them did overlap and some were part time but it has all given us an extremely varied life.
The intention, in this anniversary year, was to do a lot of exciting things in a long running celebration - but as it turns out we don't seem to have done a lot - although we did upgrade our dining room 'china' and our kitchen cutlery and renew some bed linen!
The old cutlery was bought with coupons from Kellogg's Corn Flakes (the only Corn Flakes in those days). After 50 years it was a little worse for wear. The new set has a V for Viners but it hasn't been anywhere near Sheffield. How things have changed.
We did enjoy a celebratory lunch at Fosters attended by the children, grandchildren (other than the twins, still in Prague with Zuzana) brother David with Joan, brother Brian and sister Joy.
Simon has been working at his new software project since September and Paul has been working with him on the admin side registering a company, setting up VAT arrangements, putting up a temporary website and generally getting to grips with all things commercial. The annexe at Fosters is our official address. In consequence of this and in prepration for the big business bonanza the annexe underwent a certain amount of refurbishment.
Early April we were invited to join Patrick and Cynthia Whittle for their 50th anniversary. Pat remembers 50 years ago when we ran the Young Marrieds at St John's Boscombe that Paul welcomed Patrick and Cynthia as 'the young and newly married' - a whole two months after our own nuptials.
Prompted by memories of family holidays long ago we set out in April for Upper Norton in Shropshire where we had booked two cottages on the HPB site. We had a lovely time together with each sub family planning activities for successive days. The youngest ones took us hundreds of miles to Drayton Manor where the senior citizens declined to experience the spine crushing, vertigo inducing, stomach churning, astronaut preparing torture aparatus. Actually we did go on the water splash and the centrifugal chairs but later in the week when it came to the old people's choice of activity we went just over one mile to Stokesay Manor.
Click any one of these pictures to go to a new page showing many more from the same holiday.
Craven Arms on the left, Hampton Court on the right
Cadbury World on the left (no further pics) Ludlow town and castle on the right
Drayton Manor on the left Stokesay (and Long Mynd) on the right.
Sunday we went with Zuzana to the Catholic Church in Ludlow and then had an easy time back at the ranch. Monday it was home for the workers and off on a Welsh Progress for the Senior Citizens.
In 2006 our sunshine van had taken us along the south coast, in 2009 to Yorkshire and the Lake and Peak Districts. Now to Wales and environs. Click here to go to the Welsh Progress picture gallery.
We started by visiting Clare in Shrewsbury. From there to one of the few NT places in that vicinity - Attingham Park.We booked in at Chester and, having checked out Tesco, started to walk around the city walls. They claim that this is the most photographed clock in the world. When this picture is enlarged it shows a young man sitting down a few yards beyond the clock. We passed him and then, within a few seconds, he had snatched Pat's bag. Over the next couple of days we experienced police procedure and personnel and found that they were very good. We learned first hand many things we had previously seen on The Bill.
Finally into Wales we took the back roads to find a pleasant place to rustle up our lunch. No doubt the locals know what it is called - all we know is the spelling! Ysbyty.
Next stop was Bodnant Garden. We have seen dozens of NT gardens and it would be difficult to put them into a league table as they are so different. Even so all we can say is that it must have a claim to be right up there with the best. If you ever get the chance then do go out of your way to visit.
Penrhyn Castle was build with slave money. It's a country mansion in the style of a castle. Frankly I didn't like it one little bit. The main entrance was closed but Pat managed to open it! In - and with - distinction Beaumaris is a real castle with it's own royal swan in the moat.
We are told that all these castles around the Welsh Coast were built by the same workmen - up to eleven or twelve thousand of them and many from France. To think of the logistics and other fancy words would be truly mind boggling. There is a modern glass balcony built at Caernarfon - probably for royal occasions. It looks onto the market square town to which the shops add their colouring.
Travelodge is our normal hostelry but this time we have booked in with an hotel and a B&B. What a good job we have a sat nav and didn't have to ask the way to Penrhyndeudraeth. Our next castle was Criccieth and with the pics in the gallery one of an ancient farm house Penarth Fawr and the last pilgrimage stop on the Lleyn Peninsular before Bardsey Island, St Hywyn. And then the spectacular Harlech.
Churches and Castles were always highly decorated although little has withstood the ravages of time. (We discovered some when repainting St Maughans on our own Welsh patch a few years ago.) But for variety, spectacle and 'something else' Portmerion stands on its own (I expect). We 'knew' it because of the iconic (that word gets everywhere and means less and less) series, 'The Prisoner' which happens to have been reshot this year.
Our next building was another ruin - Strata Florida - and then a B&B called Ty Roshan which had a Full Welsh Breakfast with everything on the menu labelled as from Wales - even the porridge - just to curry (wrong word?) favour with the Welsh Tourist Board. Cannot remember what they said for Kellogg's. The next spectacular was the Bishop's Palace at Lamphey which is down by Pembroke Docks - it was just a stop over for the Bishop of St David's, much like Blockley for us (no pictures for Blockley). Next day we went to look at his proper palace and enjoyed the Cathedral and then the coast line at Caefai.
Dylan Thomas was Welsh and he lived in Wales, a place called Laugharne. Of course he couldn't live in an ordinary house in the town: he chose a boathouse and hang the little woman who would have preferred to be in the town. There is a castle there as well - as there is everywhere: the troublesome Welsh certainly cost us poor English tax payers a bomb - and they still do.
Apart from a final happy weekend with Kath and Dick at Bridgend and a day in Rockfield, Llanfihangel, St Maughans and Llangattock - with Grosmont thrown in - meeting some old friends, that was our Welsh Progress 2010.
Things quieten down now as far as the diary is concerned and we pad along at a measured pace. One benefit of Fosters is that the family like the space and the garden for family meets. If there is no special occasion we still seem to get altogether every couple of months. 29th May it was the boy's joint birthday party followed by the twins first birthday on 19th June. Then came the flower show on a very hot day with Belinda presenting a dance with the school and the twins keeping cool. Again an event to which all the family showed up and then returned to Fosters for Pat's birthday. It was all going well until, nursing a glass of wine (the first?), she tripped over one of the gazebo's guy ropes. Blood everywhere - the wine spilled and the glass embedded in her hand. The party guests were left to clear away, clean up and depart while we spend hours at the hospital getting tetanused, x-rayed and bandaged.
15th August saw the Twins baptised at St Joseph RC church in Guildford - the church that Zuzana and family attend every week. It was a 'stand alone' service but with a very resourceful liturgy which was sympathetically conducted especially as the deacon had an appointment which was being put in jeopard by the late arrival of one of the god parents. Adie and Simon had not got their act together and the former arrived without the latter and then had to return to collect him. Brian was also due but after wandering around Guildford for some time eventually made his way to Fosters for a follow up party. The first party was in the church hall attended by various friends and neighbours and it was only after an hour there that it occured to us that Brian might be waiting so we hotfooted to Pyrford and found him there! An hour later all the others arrived and so, once more, we had all the family together again - plus Brian.
Llanindloes, 'Beauty for Ashes'. Kath and Dick arranged our accommodation at Llanurig together with a friend, Peggy, whom they had brought. Bob and Janet Pitcher were the organisers and hosts - just a few weeks before Bob retired. Speakers included Jennifer Rees-Larcombe and Phil Rees. We were very happy to meet various friends from 'the old days', especially those who would have been at Flames of Fire.
The weather was Welsh: we did get out and sometimes the rain actually stopped. From there we made Llanerchaeron which we had visited on our Welsh Progress only to be too late in the day to visit the house.
September is Belinda's birthday. Now she is 11. She had a treat with her friends but we also had a family get together.
We had rain twice but not more than a very few drops each time. Paul counted 17 on the magazine page he was reading on the beach. Lovely time - something great about the sun shining from early morning to the evening with the whole time between 25 and 28 degrees and a gentle breeze along the coast. Again we had tried to get other people to go but only had one taker for August.
In October, for the first ever since 1974, we went to a performance of the Pyrford Little Theatre in the village hall. It was a murder mystery evening in which we arranged a table of 8 (ours was 9) - Barry Gadd and Penny, Janet Watson, Sally and Graham Elliott, Clare and Chris from nextdoor and ourselves. In the interval we had to determine the culprit of the dirty deed - answered in the conclusion of the second act - and we also had a quiz about dirty deeds the world over as well as a ploughman's supper. All very good. Paul chose the right culprit but was outvoted. Only one table came up with the correct answer!
November was the exception to prove the rule - a party outside of Fosters. Melanie's 40th. She hired a local hall and made it look glad and then she hired a chocolate fountain, a magic man and her long time favourite pop star, Dan Read, an aging hippie, well travelled and very pleasant and intelligent guy. She chose a week that the snow had fallen for the first time in 'winter' and for that reason or another, who knows, we were held up on the M25, and arrived an hour and a half late. Probably standard time for that sort of party. Plenty to eat and drink, buffet style. Pat missed it as she had fallen for a bout of whatever which eventually becomes laringitis and lasts between 3 and 6 months.
And so to preparations for Christmas. Having turned Blockley over to the Parsons for 7 weeks we had booked 2 hospital and one dental appointments for the last week with the intention of returning home late on 23rd. We had 13 due for Christmas and prepared all before we left Fosters. A bit of trouble on the road with areas of snow but travel and first appointment went reasonably well - with a doctor's clearance for Pat's cancer, now just one year before she is signed off. Saturday it snowed. Two inches below the top of the car tyres. Minus 20 at night. Help! The main roads are cleared as well as they can be but how to get out of Blockley? And so we cancelled the two further appointments, engaged and enjoyed a ride by a friendly 4x4 to Moreton-in-Marsh and caught the train home, leaving our poor car marooned (but very white) in Blockley and being buried ever deeper by still falling snow.
And so, Christmas at home - with everyone on the Day and Caroline, Ellie and Katie on Boxing Day in lieu of Phill, Melanie and Lola. There are a few party pictures including another like this, of a pretty princess if you click this one.
If you wish to go to a list of Picture Galleries
