Open to the world

I am somewhat thankful that it's a dry morning, and not blowing a gale. The 1970's wooden frame had rotted, so it's out with the old and in with the new.

Blue streak

Been a very grey and cool day today .... but yesterday it was so different!

Another good man done gone

So, we've lost Keith Floyd, and cooking will never be quite as anarchic again. What he didn't drink ended up in the pan, or was it the other way round? His chatty relationship with his cameraman ("Follow me over here") as he gathered together his ingredients, or showed us them cooking in the pan, and the occasions when it all went wrong and he chucked it away and started again....

He cooked in deserts, on beaches, on a trawler in the North Sea, in a howling gale, for young and old, for armed forces personnel, and for us, the viewers.

Damn it. He was entertaining and we learnt something each time.

In the eye of the beholder

A comment on my last post makes the point that what may seem fairly new to us here in the UK will seem ancient to those in the New World. There's truth in this, and in this Benefice of 11 churches where 10 of them have roots that go back 1000 years, the Victorian re-build at Flixton seems positively recent.

Yet I stand by my comments about the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds feeling like an overgrown parish church. Compare these two photos, the top one is of one the nave of Bury and the bottom one of the nave at Norwich and you'll see where I'm coming from.



Bury simply isn't on the same scale, and for me, doesn't come close to my mental image of a cathedral. That's not to say others won't prefer it or find it more homely, warm and welcoming than the huge echoing vaults of history. And of course the reality is that it was built as a parish church and was only upgraded when the Diocese was formed.

A small question

A day spent in our Diocesan cathedral yesterday - a clergy study day as a preliminary to the Conference Days next year. The speaker was of some interest, but the building always disappoints me. I like my cathedrals to be old, echoing, with numerous side chapels and uneven flagstone floors. Bury St Edmunds is relatively new, and just feels like a large parish church, despite the new and impressive tower that has recently been completed. Still, there's one interesting memorial to a judge which makes me wonder if he would still be on the bench in these days of over-protection of children. Would he have got his Criminal Records Bureau clearence certificate?

Do my eyes deceive me?

The answer is YES.

"Seven Whole Days" put this up on his blog, and it's a fascinating snapshot of the development of special effects in the movies.

Hustle and bustle ...

... of Liverpool Street main line station as I left on Thursday evening. The pulse of the city's life was palpable.

A visit to the big city

I ventured into central London last Thursday in order to attend the Annual Postcard Exhibition and Fair at the Royal Horticultural Halls. My last visit was in 2002, and every year since then my Diary has conspired against me getting there. This year I set aside the day and saved up some spending money, coming back with around 50 cards to add to my collection.

The Fair aside, being in the city was quite exhilerating - tourists, different ethnic groups, the familiar sights - the Monument, St. Paul's, Westminster Cathedral, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Boudicca's statue, the RAF memorial, Cleopatra's Needle, the London Eye. No chance to visit any galleries or Museums this time, but I did get an unplanned opportunity to attend Evensong in Westminster Abbey, which has given me several things to think about in relation to how our Church of England daily offices are presented.

The weather was fair, bright and breezy, and I was indoors for the duration of the heavy rain shower in the afternoon. None of the three journeys I took on the Underground were packed, and walking back along the Embankment during the evening rush hour, the main traffic seemed to be runners doing their training session. In all, quite enjoyable.

Late summer weather

Breezy, cool, and with heavy showers. Just right for ripening off the autumn fruits. Not as many apples on my trees this year as last, but that was an exceptional bounty. Forecast is for high winds and rain tomorrow and Thursday, but we'll see. Quite often East Anglia misses the worst, but the farming forecast suggested there might be some tree damage due to them still being in leaf. Que sera, sera.

Bank Holiday Monday

Regular bloggers such as OCICBW may be away for the day, but others of us are still here at the interface.

The day started grey and cool over here in "The Saints", but from early afternoon it has turned into hot brilliant sunshine and cloudless blue skies. All in all a very untypical English Bank Holiday Monday.

One activity I have held to be traditional on such a day is the watching of a good movie on television. In my youth (and in black and white!) it used to be "Disneytime" with extracts from Walt's greatest movies. However, that show disappeared from our screens a long time ago, and so I have to come up with my own filmatic amusement, as what is being broadcast today is fairly trite. So at lunchtime I slide my dvd of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" into the player and sat down with a cup of coffe and a small dish of cheese biscuits and cubed cheddar cheese, and snacked my way through the story. I only pressed "fast-forward" during one song, and thoroughly enjoyed it. With Dick van Dyck, Gert Frobe and Benny Hill, what could go wrong?

And there was even the wonderful Stanley Unwin - "super performance-lode in partiful character" - as he might have said.


The sun is now over the yard-arm (somewhere in the world, anyway), so I think it's time to fill a glass with something pleasant.

Shelter from the storm

As it happens, we were invited into the home of our supper host rather than sitting out in the garden by the lake, freezing our whotsits off, and it was warm, comfortable and very enjoyable. And I've had a glass too much red wine ....... but it was a very nice evening, with good food and company.

A late summer in England

Hot sunshine, violent squalls, thunder, rain ... and there's an open-air Shared Supper in the Benefice this evening! Oh joy!

Thinking of others

There I was on a short visit to a well-known supermarket this morning. There were plenty of spaces available, and yet, as I walked to the store, a lady decided that she needed to be as close as possible and parked as the picture shows, not caring that her positioning made it difficult for other vehicles to negotiate the corner. The striped white lines are there for a purpose, but she was oblivious to their meaning. That's her, in the blue, walking down to the shop entrance.

Daft bat.

The sunlight this evening was just superb ...

All quiet on the rural front

Several people have commented to me that it's about time I updated my posting as they're tired of seeing our athletic young gentleman flying through the air and crashing itno the table of judges. Personally I can never get enough of short video clips of people falling over, but only if there's no physical and enduring damage done to themselves or others. But if everything is quiet and just plodding along in these warm August days, what is there to Blog about that's of any interest to readers near and far?

However, this picture was posted on a slightly befuddled priest's blog (who could of course be wrong - let the reader understand), and even a few days later it still makes me chuckle.

Once more unto the gym, dear friends ...

... though thankfully we don't have any of this sort of equipment!

Magazine is in the post ..

... for better or for worse. Now for Sunday's sermon .... and the hymns for September ... and a PCC meeting tonight .... and it's hot and sticky (and that's just the weather!)

Intermittent blogging ...

... as I'm busy at the Editor's desk compiling the September magazine for the Benefice. Almost done.

Strip field system

With reference to the previous entry, in this aerial view, with the "island" village to the top of the picture, the remnants of the old mediaeval strip system of farming can clearly be seen in the long narrow fields that still exist.

(Image from Google Earth)

Living on an island

At least, that's what it looks like from above. Photo of our village from Google Earth.