Rising sunlight sends me out with the camera

Friday 18th November 2011

"This is the day that the Lord hath made: we will  rejoice and  be glad in it!"

Remembrance Sunday

13th November 2011

Bellingham Cadets approach for wreath-laying at War Memorial

Local Cadets from the Bellingham Detatchment

Details and further pictures on Events page

Diocesan Synod

12th November 2011

Remembrance Day

11th November 2011

Poppies ready for 11 o'clock on 11.11.11

There were many places that I could have been for the two minutes silence, but I chose to be with the smallest school (ten pupils) in the remote village of Kielder where the 4 - 8 year olds stood in total silence at the same time as the rest of the nation (some of whom we saw in pictures on the television screen).

An artfully designed arrangement to produce a naturalistic "Poppy tree" with a suggestion of a living bush.

Thursday 9th November 2011

Autumn sunset

Normal services, visits to pre-school and Middle School for planning and arrangements for future activities with children, staff meeting with other clergy and Reader to share out various duties in December and early January, telephone calls about the forthcoming funerals, meeting of the Deanery Committee to consider the next Synod on "Faith and the Future of the Countryside" as well as matters relating to the Olympics and to our 2012 pilgrimage to Canterbury  --  and finally home to settle down to work at the computer, writing a report in the hope of meeting a midnight deadline.

Three deaths in six days

Wednesday 9th November 2011

After Morning Prayer in church,  I rode over to a farm to deliver something.  Nobody at home and the horse wouldn't fit through the gate to the front door which might have had a letter box.  So I left the envelope on a doorstep held down by an old horseshoe that I found in a flower tub.

    The day became hectic after a phone call from the funeral director.  I spent an hour or so on one visit making the preliminary arrangements for a funeral next Wednesday.  A quick stop at the Rectory to contact an organist for the funeral and to collect e-mail  and telephone messages was followed by ten minutes for lunch and a fifteen-mile drive to the next funeral visit.  We finalised quite a lot of the order of service for Tuesday's service but I must remember to find an organist.  I await decisions from the family on a few details.  I'll need to get back to the Wednesday family tomorrow evening when they have all gathered for getting down to details.

      I was ten minutes late for my three o'clock appointment but he was very understanding, having come to talk over our Deanery "Mission Action Plan" which we interpret as to how best we (the local Churches) can share God's love with our neighbours.

      I gathered my papers together for this evening's PCC meeting and typed out the agenda before Evening Prayer.  That parish still hasn't found a PCC secretary.  So the next half hour was fully occupied with quickly  (and belatedly) typing out a formal version of the minutes of the last meeting  and photcopying them before I set out (late) up the valley to Falstone.

      We discussed how we should follow up the recent Deanery Day [see separate page of blog], our work with children, care of the church buildings, how to keep the sheep in the churchyard which they're supposed to be grazing, our ever-problemmatic finances, a new date for the Christingle service  --  to be in Epiphanytide rather than Christmastide, following the success of last's year's postponement which had been caused by snow.  

       The meeting broke up with our commenting how we had all prepared for an early winter so as not to be caught out this year.  "I've got all my logs stacked."  "I've got my snow tyres on."  "I've got extra hay in."  "We've got access to a house in Corbridge in case home is snowed up."  (Corbridge is down south near Hadrian's Wall.)......... So now we expect a mild winter!

        Came home for soup and toast but too late to ring to book an organist.

Monday 7th November 2011

Frost!

A temperature of about   -2  and thick mist in the valley meant a sharp frost.  Up on the hill the sun was shining; down the next dip we were back in the fog; and when I got to Newcastle (to see the Bishop and talk over the recent life of the Deanery) the temperature was +9      A different world!