Getting observant in lockdown

Wednesday 27th May 2020

    In lockdown there's a limit to the variety of scenes to photograph; but recording the development of early summer brings me to familiar favourites.  
    Here is the lime tree at the entrance to the Rectory glebe, arching over the track with slightly less grace than before its matching neighbour was tragically felled.  Soon the way through to the paddock should be scented with linden blossom and buzzing with bees.  This is a lighter scent than the intoxicating poplar which flowered earlier  at Catholic Corner  (the local name for the road junction outside St Oswald's Roman Catholic church).

Things come together

Wednesday 13th May 2020

     The weekly walk took me partway up Dunterley fell, passing a signwriter who was at work hand painting lettering on a vehicle.  I discovered that he had in the past done church notices boards and was willing to bring ours up to date.  As I continued to walk home, I encountered (at appropriate distance for a shouted conversation) the relevant Churchwarden with whom I made an arrangement for a phone discussion.
     These are the kinds of apparent coincidences which happen repeatedly during normal life when I'm constantly out and about parish visiting and  meeting people in the natural course of events.

Life in lockdown

Saturday 9th May 2020

A Northumberland National Park ranger arrives with a consignment of parcels from Age UK.  So I start to go through a list of residents in the parish to decide who would appreciate receiving some treats and groceries to vary the monotony of housebound isolation.  (Meanwhile fourteen boxes are stored in my hallway  --  which must be distributed before the contents get stale.)  

75th anniversary of V.E. Day

Friday 8th May 2020

The bell was rung 75 times (by the lone person allowed into the building) after a 2-minute silence at 11 a.m....

...during which I read the names of the fallen which are inscribed on the ring around the carving of Mother and Child on the font cover.  (This is the War Memorial in St Cuthbert's Bellingham.)
Then back into the Rectory for the VE Day cake made to Churchill's favourite recipe...

...and the V.E.Day video with a message from our bishop:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W-coBfca5zjL46SQD6ah-1RdMyLaHREK/view?usp=sharing,%20https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s0Z29xrVSjTU1Zp5umsztBrGvyOZTXxH/view?usp=sharing

VE Day video .m4v https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DdU_WmFm2NJ9QXl6HML89J_UCzEbTE24/view?usp=sharing

Community life at a distance

Thursday 7th May 2020

      Even if we cannot get near to each other, neighbours wave at 8 o'clock on Thursdays when we go outside to applaud health workers and others who keep us going during the pandemic.  

     For me the other highlight today in a life of confinement was being allowed to go into church to say Morning Prayer there for the first time since mid March.  Otherwise the day has been spent at the computer with morning and afternoon meetings online and admin in the evening.

Day-off cake

Wednesday 6th May 2020

Made to the National Trust's recipe for Winston Churchill's favourite cake, this one is now ready for marking the 75th anniversary of V.E. Day on 8th May.  On Friday the church bell will be rung 75 times after we have kept a silence at 11 o'clock.  The cake will get eaten later in the day.

Summer is on the way

Monday 4th May 2020

Once the trees start to come into leaf, the summer landscape appears at a great rate in the upper North Tyne valley.  
     My administrative spring-cleaning is far less rapid, as I sort out the remaining copies of the May parish magazine for complex distribution:  they are left under the protection of the overhanging roof of the outbuildings to be collected by appropriate people observing social distancing.  There are also messages about Age Concern parcels and church finances as well as an online discussion about how to move the St Cuthbert's Three-Church Trail project forward. 

Enjoying isolation

Friday 1st May 2020

How beautiful the weeds are outside the kitchen door!

It was a lovely break from sitting at the computer fielding between fifty and sixty e-mails.  Some of those related to my taking my turn to set the online Friday Quiz for the community in Tarset.  (Most of them were more straight-forward work.)