Can you tell the difference between the first and second photo?

20 February 1960 + 60 years
= Diamond Wedding anniversary

noted by Her Majesty and family: our family, that is. We met at Fosters and then had a meal at the Good Shepherd Hall. Strangely, no-one thought to donate any of those clear, colourless, crystalline, clumps of carbon.

As we will not have another Diamond Anniversary we thought we would celebrate with a trip to our honeymoon venue - which, strange as it might seem to the globe trotting present marrying generation, was enjoyed in London. Our last trip to London was December 2017 when went by bus, catching the 437 at the bottom of Pyrford Heath. We thought we would do the same again and it worked well. This time we stayed at a self catering apartment opposite the Tower of London (which we didn't visit as we went there 60 years ago and it won't have changed much in that short time given its own time span). We could have booked to see The Mousetrap but we saw that 60 years ago as well - when it had already been running for 8 years.

The Cirque du Soleil was at the Royal Albert Hall.

COVID-19 arrived and as among the older and potentially vulnerable we decided to isolate and placed a notice to that effect in our front door some time before loud alarm bells rung although it wasn't long before isolation became commonplace - but without the notice in the door. It stayed for at least 8 months by which time it was a little faded.

Self isolation, quarantine, lockdown, tier 3, vulnerable, households, super spreader, pandemic, sanitiser, etc oh and Coronavirus; a specialised vocabulary for 2020. Overtaken by events. Scientific advice, new legislation, self sacrifice, neighbourly help, community action. Death. Vaccine. 2020 will be more than 12 months - and the story is being told elsewhere and everywhere.

The church goes online - or on Facebook and, for others including us, You Tube. And the presentation is not far short of brilliant - Joe Gervasio and David Haysom. Main Sunday service, Thought for the week, Tot's Praise - all up there for ever (perhaps not quite ever).

And half a dozen different Zoom meetings each week aside from Homegroups which are becoming technically adept. Paul is doing Tot's Praise talks on video which are then incorporated in the programme. At the end of the Sunday Service there is a picture gallery of congregants - over 300 pics. This is ours, followed by one of Pat on Mothering Sunday.

About the first time we went out since lockdown. During all this period there was both gardening (no Andrew) and the Annexe refurbishment or rebuilding as it really was. The builders had departed for a while but then returned and at some time Paul was involved painting walls and ceilings etc. Our outings took us to Newlands Corner from which we walked the North Downs Way and in the following weeks spent a few hours walking the river Wey and then a wander around Box Hill.

With entertainment venues closed on account of the pandemic there were a lot of free shows and concerts on You Tube. We took advantage and watched productions fron the Globe. Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, Midsummer's Night Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. Well worth the price (in our case a free tv licence)

Cutting the grass one day there was an explosion. The sitting room picture window shattered. What happened? Those who (think they) know would say a stone thrown from the mower. I measured it at 18 yards. Who knows? What we do know was that it cost over £1k to replace.

Our house in Blockley was fairly well booked for this year but one guest after another had their flights cancelled or English restrictions meant they couldn't travel so it was cancellation after cancellation. Nevertheless some were able to make it and there were other newer applicants with a couple of WEC people, some more local ministers and a honeymoon couple from YWAM!

The last folk, who were on sabbatical from working with Rohingya in Malasia, stayed for 6 weeks. We never see these people and have little correspondence but this year did produce an invitation to inland Mauritius - which we probably won't take up. We were able to get there - Blockley, that is - one day in July to take a lawnmower we had obtained through Freecycle. An axial Web machine in good condition built around 1935! It would not have coped with what we found so just as well I also took a strimmer.

Closer to home we able to visit Wisley all according to Covid booking rules although Paul is actually allowed to go whenever he likes without booking by virtue of being a volunteer. There was a summer fruits theme well illustrated here.

Although we were not allowed visitors in doors we were able to form a 'bubble' with a single person houshold.Betty qualified and at that time children were not counted and so they all visited. Subsequently Betty came a couple of times to help in the garden - which was great.

Pat's birthday fell in a slot when one was allowed to meet a certain number of people outside. We took advantage and had four visits from the children spaced over Saturday and Sunday afternoons and evenings, all keeping to the proper social distancing which meant no group pictures. Zuzana took this one of the senior lady and her man.

Largely because a programme on the National Trust was on tv and in one episode visited Cliveden we decided to grace them with our presence. It is only 40 odd miles away so it's a mystery as to why we had not been there. We had to book a timed slot due to Covid rules. It seemed that their visitor numbers were very high just because of the television publicity. Wonderful gardens. I thought in some respects even better than Wisley even though to say so may be counted as heresy.

October saw a tremendous amount of pruning, lopping and generally attacking things in the garden that occupy more space than their entitlement permits.Twenty one ton builders bags were filled and taken to the tip by Adrian to whom many thanks. And that was without the leaves! The laurel hedge just grows and grows. Paul got tennis elbow for doing this mainly with secateurs but latterly with Adrian's loppers

The excercise required the step latters but they were not tall enough and so the ladder was laid against them to provide extra standing height. That worked well for most of the hedge but near the house the hedge is on higher ground than the patio which meant that the front legs of the step ladder were fine but the back legs needed a platform. Nothing could be found other than the wheelbarrow which seemed ok but it was only wide enough to take one side (ie one foot) of the stepladder. Nevermind the whole of the base of the extending ladder could be accommodated. Aware that perhaps it was not the best health and safety practice Paul took a photo that could, if necessary, be offered to the Coroner by way of explanation.

The front garden was more difficult. Those trees are rather large. They also need Council permission to prune as there is a Preservation Order on them. On application We were allowed to cut branches back by 4 metres which is just as well as they were attacking the upstairs windows. Somehow it reminded Paul that he needed a haircut - but at the time the Covid law forbade. The leaves had already started to fall before the branches came down but when all was done the effect of a full haircut was clear.

Later, whether because there was more light (unlikely) or because it was wet and the leaves had not been swept we became the premier local mushroom growers.

Stella's first communion was celebrated at St Joseph, Guildford. The interpretation of changing Covid regulations was difficult but immediate family were allowed but the rest had to watch through zoom. A few days later the regs changed again and the next group of children will have to wait until January. Stella was not the only milestone as Levi was baptised at Our Lady Help of Christians and Pat and Paul stood in for the Godparents.

Several of our mini excursions during this Covid year have been to the Nuffield Hospital in Woking. When Pat went to Specsavers last year they referred her to St Peter's hospital eye clinic for cataract surgery. We waited and waited but nothing came so we went privately for examinations and, in due course, two procedures. They both went well and then a return to Specsavers and new glasses. Now the dust has no hiding place

And so to the end of this remarkable year with 8th December the day when the first anti Covid vaccine was administered. An amazing feat of medical science for which we praise the scientists, the God of miracles and the thousands who unbeknown to us received or, by virtue of blind trialling, didn't receive the experimental dosage.

Just a note that even without Covid this would have been a remarkable year. The Australian and Californian wildfires, the Black Lives matter protests, the impeachment and then the defeat of that peculiar man, Donald Trump, who at the time of writing this - 7 weeks after their election - has not yet admitted defeat, and all the activity on the climate debate.

So all that is left now is to hope that anyone who reads this had a blessed Christmas even though it will be a very different one. One thing is certain and that is that we are still able to rejoice as we remember our Saviour's birth. And more, the hope of Advent - and this is being written in Advent, the time of waiting and preparing both for the birth and, to come, the return of our Lord - the resurrection and a new heaven and a new earth. Maranatha - come, Lord Jesus.

And this is post Christmas- and it looks as though none of the family were that put out - although Phill seems to be down rather early. Guess he recovered. Forbidden to meet due to Covid on Boxing Day we zoomed from our own homes with quizzes that Melanie and Timothy provided. And so Christmas pictures from each, the closest we can get to a family photo.