July

I won’t remember July 2018 for what I did but I will remember it for how hot it  has been.  On several days all I have been able to do is sit! 

 My garden is looking good.  I’ve got a flourishing bed of brassicas and courgettes and lots of vegetables mixed in the flower beds.  Jack will not approve of that!  Tough.

 I’ve led worship each Sunday, visiting Claxby, Normanby, North Willingham, Croxby and Thornton le Moor.  None of these is a village which many people visit (and a couple are very well hidden) and I have the privilege of being warmly welcomed each Sunday. 

I’ve met up with various cousins for coffee or lunch or just for a natter.  And I’ve met up with three friends whom I haven’t seen for ages.

I’ve made cards and I’ve done some knitting, not a lot of knitting as I’ve just been too hot. 

I've had comping wins of a skin care voucher (which I haven't spent yet) and a bumper box of snacks (which hasn't arrived yet)!

Nothing dramatic, not earth shaking, but deeply satisfying.

Truly a joyful July

Thornton Le Moor

Out into the lovely Lincolnshire countryside again today, this time to Thornton le Moor.  Thornton is a tiny hamlet within the civil parish of Owersby which also includes North Owersby, South Owersby, North Gulham and South Gulham.  From that list it sounds as though it should have a lot of people but at the 2011 census the total population of the five settlements was just 275 and they have two Anglican churches between them.  

Driving there was lovely as  I passed fields of nearly ripe barley.  This part of Lincolnshire grows a lot of barley.  There was no harvesting happening today as it was RAINING!!!  

Thornton has a very rural church, this time up a rough track.   The church is used only once or twice each month so various people bring flowers, bread, wine, linen and anything else which is needed.  The time before the service tends to be very busy as everyone makes sure that the building looks worthy of God.  This church is so rural that it doesn't even have electricity so one thing to check is that I have enough light to read the service book!

People came this morning from various villages around as tends happen in rural areas on the fifth Sunday in the month.  There were a couple of dozen worshippers.  Sheer joy.  

CHEAT!!!

I've scarcely left home for a fortnight as it has just been so hot but today was the day to visit Mandy, AKA Dunholme Crafter.  I wasn't feeling at all energetic but as ever I enjoyed my morning playing.

I made four cards.  Here you go,  

The Christmas card is a cheat.  I nabbed the demonstration piece which Mandy had made.  Well, it was a very lazy-making day!  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  

Back to Croxby

I went back to Croxby today.  It will be my last visit for the foreseeable future as the new vicar will be in post by this time next month.  

Croxby is a very odd little church but it has real charm.  It's been there for the best part of a thousand years and, indeed, the Norman font is still in use.  

However, I wonder if those Mediaeval worshippers would still recognise their parish church today.  Back in the day the church was very large and had three aisles instead of the single aisle seen today.  Arches had to be filled in when the north and south aisles were demolished after the Black Death (1348-1349).  Doubtless windows were created but the one inserted in this arch was inserted in the Victorian era.  

This one dates maybe from the Tudor period.

The whole building is a hotch-potch of styles which no architect or planning authority would choose but it has sprung from the abilities of local craftsmen in response to local needs.  

Revd Chris becomes Rector of this and eight other parishes next month and doubtless he will use his particular gifts and abilities to bring something new in response to the needs of the Group today.  May he and his parishioners know every blessing as he serves in this lovely corner of Lincolnshire.

What's the weather like where you are?

I'll start off with a simple fact that I am British through and through.  Slice me like a stick of rock and it would be United Kingdom you would find written.

What's more I am a yellow belly.  This is not a term of abuse but rather a title of which I am very proud as it says that I hail from the lovely county of Lincolnshire.  My late sister traced the family trees of all four of our grandparents back to the early eighteenth century and I can assure you that few bellies are more yellow than mine.  

So now we've established my credentials I now feel free to talk about the weather.  Anyone reading British blogs over the last few weeks will have picked up that we are having an unusually hot summer.  We Brits like talking about the weather.  A Lot.  

Although I don't usually like hot weather I have to say that this is not as bad as it might have been as we have had some very pleasant breezes and it hasn't been sticky at night.  I can't remember when Caistor last saw rain.

However, I am suffering from 'orrible inertia and can't-be-botheredness and I started to wonder what it's like elsewhere.  I discovered this lot online (places chosen as I know that people from those places have commented).  Temperatures are cited Celsius/Fahrenheit and I have no doubt that it will get hotter as places pass noon. (It's nearly 16.00BST, 15.00GMT)

Toronto 27/80

Grand Haven, Michigan 24/76

St Paul's Minnesota 26/79

Kansas 27/81

Fort Worth, Texas, 30/86

Baltimore, Maryland 28/83

Truro, Cornwall, 24/75

Isle of Lewis, Scotland 16/50

Auckland New Zealand 11/52

Caistor UK 28/82

So, what's the weather like where you are?

Feeling thoughtful

Taking the photos of the poppies in my front garden has made me feel a bit thoughtful. 

Almost four years ago I went to our local war memorial for a vigil making a hundred years since the outbreak of The Great War.  It seems like a very long time ago.

Four years ago come October I went to the Tower of London to see the poppies and to remember the 888,246 British troops who died during that war.  Since then I have seen some of those poppies as they have travelled around the country.

I have remembered my mother on what would have been her hundredth birthday and thought of my grandfather who delayed his departure to the front so he could see his precious daughter baptised.

And it seems like such a long time.  

It must have felt like a hundred lifetimes for those who lived through it.  And at this time one hundred years ago there were still 138 days of that bloody war to endure.

Whoops!

To start with the blooming obvious, innit 'ot!   I'm not complaining though.  This is one of the loveliest summers I can remember here in Lincolnshire.  It may be hot but for much of the day there has been a slight breeze keeping life very pleasant.  And best of all it hasn't been sticky at night!

Moving on from the blooming obvious, the blooming garden is flourishing.  In this the hundredth anniversary of the end of the Great War, I have grown a few poppies.  Each morning there are new flowers but they last only a few hours.    

Last year I planted three hebes all of which are flourishing and attracting butterflies. 

To my ears (and possibly yours) all this sounds great but not to everyone.  I called on Jack today and I am definitely in disgrace.  (OK so what else is new?)  Jack loathes both poppies and hebes.  Whoops.

But while I was there I asked him why I he had a plunger on his head at his anniversary "do" as several people had asked.  He reminded me that he had been telling us that one day he had been going around a hardware store and had picked up a plunger and stuck it to his head.  But he couldn't get it off.  Whoops!