Autumn is on its way: chillier times forecast for the rest of this week. But we’ve been fortunate over the last few days, when we’ve had a lot of sun and warmish weather. The Paston poetry book is on its way to being completed. I have got just about everything to David, and I’m pretty excited about the way it’s looking. It’s involved quite a lot of work, but it should be worth it. After delivering early versions on CD to Rob and Lucy, I took one to UEA to give to Caroline on Thursday, had a chat with her about it, and in the evening we were able to duscuss her reactions (and everyone else’s) at the Paston trustees’ meeting.
That set me up nicely for a visit to Coventry on the Friday, with Phil driving. Really easy journey over there in glorious weather, and the meeting went well, all of us agreeing on maintaining the status quo. Andrew again seemed very well; we took him to buy some jeans at Matalan afterwards, and then for a very good meal at Fridays, followed by a trip down Memory Lane – the lane in this case involving Beanfield Avenue, The Chesils and certain parts of north Coventry which I did not know before or during our visit there. Yes, we got lost – but not seriously, and Andrew was actually able to guide us back towards the end. He was in good form.
During the trip we just avoided a nasty accident when a car pulled out in front of us: Phil managed to avoid both the car and a crowd of women on the nearside pavement, which was quite an achievement. Later, as we were about to enter the M6, another car shot round from our left and in front of us. The slower the speed limits, the crazier the drivers. Happily, Joy was praying for us. The journey home was not bad, though we had to detour around Elveden as usual.
On Saturday Dot and I went fieldwalking in Paston as part of the latest project. I suspected this might not be my cup of tea, and it wasn’t – but I’m glad we gave it a go. It was another lovely day, and it would have been nice to spend longer than the ten minutes or so that we devoted to actually finding artefacts. Richard Hoggett, who was in charge, was if anything too thorough in his preparation and said the same things several times. But a lot of it was interesting. On the whole, though, I am not all that enthused by bits of things from a long time ago: there always seems to me to be too many possible explanations for things being what and where they are, and the ones settled on are too random. (Dot managed to listen to the Norwich City game while fieldwalking: we beat Swansea 3-1.)
Sunday was a quieter day after another child-friendly communion service, though we did manage to lock ourselves out of the hall after Elizabeth bolted the kitchen door and the Yale-operated main door slammed shut. Had to fetch the Yale key from the vicarage , but no real problem.