Summer is taking a break again, though to be fair the temperature is staying fairly high. Pleasantly warm, anyway – just a bit too much wetness. Norwich got quite a lot of rain over the weekend: happily we were in Clare, Suffolk, staying at the Augustinian Priory, and the rain there consisted of a few scattered light showers.
Dot and I took Judy on the Friday afternoon; Bridget and David arrived for the Mass on Saturday at 10am, and Claire just failed to meet the same target on the Sunday, though she had lunch with us. Clare and that part of Suffolk are very beautiful, and there is an air of peacefulness surrounding the Priory, which dates from the 13th century. Residents when we were there were three ageing Friars – David, Aidan and one other – plus a sister, Eileen, and Mary, whose function was uncertain. There were elements of Father Ted about it, but only now and then.
We ate with the residents, and shared in the washing up. We were all able to go to morning prayer, evening prayer and Mass, and in fact I only missed Mass on the Saturday because I’d had a very bad night. Everyone was very friendly, and the food was excellent. The rooms were comfortable too. The walk into town was delightful, and there was a good viewpoint from the castle.
Dot and I went for a longer walk in the surrounding countryside, but missed the “official” track because the book was out of date, and the paths had multiplied. Still, it was very much worth doing. We also visited a couple of antique shops, one of which had a cafe, plus the tiny museum and a kind of fair celebrating the Queen’s Birthday on the Sunday afternoon.
On the Sunday we arrived back at the Priory to pick up our cars for the journey home and found we couldn’t get in to any of the buildings to go to the toilet. This created a slight panic in certain quarters, and Dot and Jude did a new tour of the town trying to find a loo that was open. Happily, they did. In the end.
Earlier we spent some time discussing the Augustinian Rule, but we also caught a glimpse of the Euro 2016 football, because there was an unexpected TV in one of the communal rooms. Two other visitors, Charles (from Sudbury by bike) and Jonathan, had birthdays over the weekend, and a cake appeared at one of the meals.
On Sunday we went for Mass in the main church, and it was a big affair – a first communion for five children. Beautiful building and a nice atmosphere. We left Clare about 4.30pm and got home about 6pm.
I thought I had got rid of the treasurer’s job, but today I got a list of questions from Ollie, most of which he could have answered from reading the files. I had to ring up the bank to get a form to change the signatory on the account, and needless to say they couldn’t do it without my answering questions that I no longer had the answers to. Exactly the sort of thing I was trying to avoid by resigning.
Meanwhile Phil has been languishing in hospital, recovering from his spine operation, and only improving slowly. However, Joy says today he is now making substantial progress and has been out of bed. She hopes he will be home at the weekend. When I say “home” I mean Mattishall, where he and Joy will be staying while he recovers. Birgit and Joe have a downstairs annexe on their new house.
While I was in Clare I got a Facetime call from Daisy and was able to talk to Andrew. He did not seem all that impressed and seems to expect me to visiting him every other weekend.
Earlier last week there was the usual Archant pensioners’ coffee morning, which Dot didn’t get to because she was on her way to a meeting that had been cancelled – e-mail failure at Diocesan House. Later we had the usual haircuts, and the Hendersons came round for nibbles.