Expert help

Monday 7th March 2016

A well-built stell (sheep shelter) symbolises the work of every expert; and today I gave thanks for the computer expert who got me back in action  --  hence the sudden return to blogging.

Mothering Sunday

Sunday 6th March 2016

     Flowers to give to people who look after us (or have looked after us) and the remains of the Simnel cake which we shared in church  --  decorated with the traditional eleven pieces of marzipan to represent Jesus's faithful disciples (the  twelve apostles minus Judas Iscariot who betrayed him).  This is the origin of it being thought unlucky for thirteen people to sit down together at a table, the same number as Jesus plus the Twelve including Judas.

     Today, of course, we thank God for our mothers and for Mother Church and for everyone who has cared for us.

On the road

Friday 4th March 2016

A week of driving  --   to Corbridge to plan some teaching in the Christian faith, to Simonburn to see a Churchwarden about marriage records, to Corsenside for a PCC meeting, to Mitford for an Area Deans' meeting with the Archdeacon, to Newcastle to conduct a funeral service at the crematorium and to Bellingham to officiate at the local service for the Women's World Day of Prayer  --  and how wonderful it is to do all this driving in such beautiful surroundings!

"Oh, there's the snake: good!"

Monday 29th February 2016

That must be a sentence that my family never expected to hear me say.  But the green snake which I was going to put under the palm tree in the felt picture seemed to have gone missing. 

     Luckily I found it in time to go to Greenhaugh First School for an assembly about Jesus' forty days in the wilderness with the wild animals, a time of solitude to re-assess what his life's calling would be   --  which is what Christians try to do in the forty days of Lent. 

     So today's thankfulness was about situations that get sorted out, disasters averted and problems solved.