Mama Mia

The warden showed me something of the technique.  So my Mother got a very special portrait.

Not quite

I spent fifteen years as Rector of a small group of parishes and was privileged to work with some very talented people.  One of my wardens had a great talent for manipulating images.  He took an image of Leo X and two of his cardinals and created a portrait of me with two of my wardens.  I think I look a little jollier (and I hope more approachable) than did His Holiness.  

Words

Isn't language fun!  I've just been over to visit Terra Garden where she has been giggling over "pootling" and "faffing" both of which words are very familiar this side of the Atlantic but apparently not yon side of it. 

I love the richness and diversity of English wherever she is spoke!  The classic is of course that a man going out in the USA in vest and pants would, I believe, look quite respectable whereas here he would raise a few eyebrows especially if he were wearing suspenders as well.  A President can be called Trump in the USA but the word has a very unfortunate slang meaning here. 

I had a batch cooking session last week and I made ratatouille using courgettes from the garden and an aubergine I was given but over the pond I would have had to use zucchini and egg plant for the same dish.  Swede and carrot would have involved the use of rutabaga to go with the carrot.  Bubble and squeak is commonplace here but when I mentioned it previously a couple of American readers didn't know that it could be eaten. 

Come on - can you highlight a few fun differences?

A seasonal pleasure

Summer can be lovely but autumn brings its own delights.  Comfort food.  Leaf kicking.  Autumn colours.

The downside could be that autumn is the start of cold weather.  And the upside of cold weather is finding cosy blankets to wrap up in.  

I've just fetched my crochet blanket from the airing cupboard where it has spent the summer.  And it is beautifully warm.  I am wrapped up and enjoying something totally mindless on the TV.  Bliss.  

Autumn and winter can be a little depressing but they have their own joys.  

It's been a while . . .

. . .  since I posted on this blog.  I'm having one of those times when getting anything done seems to be an impossible dream.  My get-up-and-go has, as they say, got-up-and gone.  Not unhappy, just a bit flat.

But who could be a bit flat when card making calls!  I went to Mandy's today and came home with three cards - here you go.

You may be thinking that I can't count as there are clearly four cards.  Well, the "Thinking of you" card has already be posted.  

I'm not as dim as I look.

Courage, determination and love

I don't usually officiate at many weddings but by the end of the month I will have done five this year.  They're quite stressful occasions as everyone wants their wedding to be "just so" and some are even more "just so" than others.  

Yesterday I conducted two weddings and one of them will live vividly in my memory.  Like most of my favourite weddings it was on a very limited budget.  These are often the best because they allow family and friends to give of their time, their skill and their love to make the day special.  

Tilly has had a sad year.  They had hoped to get married a few months ago but the wedding was postponed because her father was ill and sadly he died.  However a few weeks ago she and Pete named yesterday as the day.  I knew Tilly slightly and was delighted to be asked to officiate.

Tuesday morning I got an e mail telling me that Pete had an accident on Monday evening and had suffered severe burns to his legs.  He wanted to go ahead so he was well dosed up on morphine and together we worked out the best way to do as elegant a wedding as possible given his limitations.

He was at church in very good time yesterday but he and his best man had managed to leave the rings at their hotel so we waited outside.  Then we got a message to say that the photographer who was also at the hotel had parked her car in such a way as to block the bridal car and she had managed to lock the keys inside the car so not only no rings - no bride!  Eventually she smashed a window and got into her car, bride and rings arrived at church, and the wedding took place.  Pete was obviously in pain but nothing could hide the love which they have for each other.  

There was another sign of love.  Tilly sings in the church choir so all the choir members came and sat in the congregation and sang their hearts out for her.  Not only that they wanted her to have a beautiful wedding so on Friday night they had all nipped into church and filled it with flowers. 

God bless you, Pete and Tracy.   

A favourite website

I love words.  One of my reasons for publishing this blog is that I enjoy writing short pieces and thinking of the best ways to express my thoughts.  Each post is saved for a while before it is published and by the time I hit the publish button I will have re-read a post several times.  I like to structure my writing and vary my use of language. 

And I love words!  "Serendipity" is a word which always makes me smile.  "Clariflocculator" is a lovely bubbly word.  "Twill" is a short word which suits its meaning and suggests purposefulness and smartness.

I could go and on but as you will have guessed from the title of the post, I want to suggest a lovely website, viz. https://wordsmith.org   Each week they have a series of linked words - this week all the words are to do with space and space travel.  Sometimes they are words which I know already: today's word is "light-year" but I enjoy the background information and derivation of the word.  Did you know that to get a light-year’s worth of frequent-flier miles you’d need to travel between New York and Moscow only a little over a billion times?  Me neither and I'll probably have forgotten by this time next week but it has amused me today.  Sometimes they are words which I have never heard - could you tell me the meaning of satyagraha?  No?  Well, I'll tell you that it's the policy of passive nonviolent resistance as a protest against injustice.  It was coined by Gandhi during the independence struggles in India and is again in use by civil rights activists.

Each day I get an email from the site.  Why not pop over and take a look!

Old vicars never die they merely pray away

"Greet one another with a holy kiss" was Paul's instruction to the church at Corinth and he would have been pleased with the church at Croxton today.  I used to take services at Croxton regularly until they got their own vicar a couple of years ago, but today their vicar was away on holiday so I went back. It was wonderful!  I got hugs and kisses and there was a noisy catch-up on events since I was last there.

Ministry in retirement is great fun but it can be very sad because I am inevitably just a stop gap.  I grow very fond of the people (and I think they become fond of me) but what they really want is someone who is very specially "theirs".  At that point I move on and I avoid going back so that the new person can form a special relationship with his/her new congregation without anyone glancing back over their shoulder.  They are in my prayers but not my diary.  

But today I was back at the invitation of the new vicar.  They knew I was coming so they even baked me a cake!  nd I am eating it as I write this post.

Thank you, Croxton!