I don't like to moan but . . .

Innit 'ot?  I just don't do hot.  With cold I'm fine.  A few more layers of clothing and a wrap, nice hot soup and (keep this secret!) maybe have the heating on all day and cold is coped with.  Hot is a different matter.

I was rather glad that I didn't have a service to take today as it meant I could take the trundle truck up to church for the eight o'clock service.  Now church is comfortable.  Cool.  Quiet.  Lovely.

Anyway, less of this moaning.  I've had a pretty good week (with one ghastly exception) including a card making session at Mandy's.  Here you go.

The ghastly exception couldn't have been much more ghastly.  Auntie Hettie managed to fall out of her armchair while I was with her.  My cousin and I spent six hours in A & E with her.  She's got two really black eyes but no further injuries.  Old ladies of 92 just don't bounce.  

Thanks

Six years ago I offered to help for one or two Sundays a month at a group of churches not far from here.  It would just be for a few months.

Over the last six years I have led worship on 222 Sundays. conducted fifteen funerals, three weddings and twelve baptisms.  I have prepared two people for Confirmation, visited the sick, and offered pastoral care.

In return I have been loved and appreciated, supported when facing major surgery, helped to recover from a mental breakdown, and encouraged as I have faced increasing disability.  I have been given tomato plants, flowers, cakes, wine and gin.  Those lovely people have laughed at my crummy jokes, forgiven me my boo-boos and made me one of their own.

Later this month they are getting their own vicar and I shall move on to other places where there is no priest available.  Yesterday I took my final service for the Brocklesby Park Group of Churches.  I cried then and I am crying as I write this.  I left with prayers, blessings and an incredibly generous gift.  Thank you.

Card making

I've went to Mandy's again last week.  These are the four cards I made.

I was also fed coffee and chocolate biscuits.  A very good morning out.  Thanks, Mandy.

Sabbath

Sabbath is a day to delight in the ordinary things of life.

It is a day to wonder.

This day there is time to delight in the crunch of an apple or the many flavours in home-made soup;

to savour the smell of baking bread or laundry fresh from the line;

to listen to birdsong or Bach: both have their beauty;

to follow clouds or watch a spider spin its web; 

to take an extra-long shower and pamper myself.

This is a day spent alone and so has time to think about family and friends.

Whether time is spent sewing or gardening or just plain idling; it is time for happy thinking.

God enjoys my daydreams!

Sabbath is a day of delight.

I delight in God and God delights in me.

May I?

May!  A lovely month and it's hardly started!  What can I do with May?

The big event will be my holiday.  I'm going to Poole to collect a friend and then we're going to have a few days in Cornwall.  I shall then take her to a railway station and have a few days in my own before driving home.  And while I'm in Poole I'm meeting someone whose blog I have been following for a long time!

Unfortunately Jack isn't well enough to help me in the garden this year.  His knees are showing rather a lot of signs of wear and tear so any time now he should be having a knee replacement. op.  I shall try an visit him but that will have to wait until after my holiday.  I think I've got someone organised to blitz the garden and then I shall do as much as I can myself and gratefully accept any offers of help.  It could be that I am in for an interesting year on that one!

The kitchen is due to be decorated this month and I'm looking forward to having everything in there completed.  

I have a feeling that I shall be getting very bored with politicians telling us how wonderful they are.  Local elections this week, general elections early next month.  Oh dear.  

And there will be days out at Normanby, lunches with friends, lazy afternoons on the garden swing. 

Bring it on!

Whatever happened to April?

Whatever it was it didn't get blogged about!  So, just for the record, here are a few things which I did.

The big event of April was Auntie Hettie's 92nd birthday.  In honour of that event I am doing something I have never done before - I'm posting a recent photo of myself with Hettie.  Two peas from the same pod or what!!!   Sadly, a few days before her birthday Hettie had a nasty accident so in this photo she is in a care home and since then she's had a stay in hospital but on Tuesday she is going back to her own home.  Her bedroom has been newly decorated for her so it will be quite a celebration when she can get into it. 

You've already met the three little pigs so no more about them.

I went to Mandy's and I made some cards.  I think this one was my favourite.  

I've started the round of farewells to the five churches I have been looking after for the past six years.  Happily they have a new vicar coming in June.  Truth to tell I am ready to take a rather more minor role but the farewells are still bitter sweet.  I shall probably blog about that a bit more but not just yet.  

I'll huff and I'll puff

I've been to Trefoil Guild today.  Trefoil Guild is supposed to be Girlguiding for Grown ups but sometimes we're more like Brownies.

Today's activity was sugar paste flowers.  Or at least it was supposed to be sugar craft flowers. Something like this.  I think this was Karen's first attempt.  It looked quite easy when she did it.  The rest of us weren't QUITE so competent.  Ann made this duck which I think looks as though it has aspirations to be a pop star.

I decided to make a pig.   Then I decided to make the Three Little Pigs and a house which looks as though someone has already tried to huff and puff and blow it down.  I don't think the Brownies would have me!