Thursday was fairly mild and mainly dry, though there was rain while we were in the Maddermarket in the evening, watching Iolanthe. Very good production, including David Archer and some other people we knew, Sillars related. Caught up with chess games, posted a parcel, and put blog on site. Dot went to Cringleford School, and when she came home we went up and voted. Sent Steven some money towards a new laptop. Val says Luke has not been doing too well.
Friday was pretty nondescript, until at about 3.45 there was thunderstorm. Quite dramatic. Had our hair cut at 10.30, but before that I had caught up with various small jobs, such as choosing the hymns for Sunday, checking my bank account and editing my pictures. Most of the rest of the day was spent preparing the evening meal – I like to think I helped quite a bit with clearing away, vegetables, and so on. In a spare moment watched East of Ipswich by Michael Palin, which was really good – brought back memories of my adolescence.
Met in street despite threatening clouds. Des, Chris and Mark only. Howard and Paul round for meal – Anna was ill – went pretty well. Very long story from Howard about a book he’s reading. Nice fish pie and cheese with mushrooms. Extremely tired by the time we got to bed – around 11.45pm.
Saturday was very odd. Dismal weather – lots of rain in the afternoon, ideal for the King’s Coronation. Not. Obviously we watched it – all two and a half hours of it. Quite spectacular, as expected. Managed to write three out of the four pieces for Parish Pump – on William Byrd, Henry Moore and the birth of the NHS. The first two were unexpectedly difficult – or maybe I was just tired, for some reason. The bathroom fan broke, annoyingly in its “on” position. Eventually managed to turn it off after finding our from the internet how to get the front off (turned power off upstairs first). Can’t switch it on, of course, but I can live with that. Watched a two-parter of Dalgliesh, which was superb, then the last episode of Magpie Murders, which was is possible even better. FTd David and Chrissy: they seem well. Had a discussion about generational issues – firm/floating and few/many.
Sunday was mainly dry, at least where we were, and quite mild. Went to church in the morning: played guitar with Steve and Adrian; Dot on violin; Matt on piano. Anna still not well. Howard did more on Ecclesiastes. Daniel and Nikki came. Graham popped in at the end: he wasn’t very happy with the Coronation, which he saw as a glorification of privilege. After lunch we drove out to Buck Brigg to see Rosie, who looked very fragile – so much so that we didn’t let her make tea for us. She said it was almost entirely her back that was the problem.
Dot popped up to the local Coronation picnic afterwards – but only briefly. I prepared some poems for the evening session at the Seagull, which went quite well: fewer people than usual. Read Kingfisher Suit, Bubble Room, Where the Deer Come Through, Hide and Two Penguins. Also Figure in Stone, which is a Mother Julian Poem and is now on a few railings around Norwich, together with 19 others.
Joan Murray, who I used to know as an artist at InPrint, turned up: good to see her. Lynne and Sue not present, and no music! HIgh Christian content. Met Jenny, Ian’s daughter, who Dot used to teach at Tuckswood. She now has children aged 5 and 8. Bridget came over too. Watched MOTD2. Bed very late.
Yesterday was hectic. Mild and dry until evening. Wrote my last Parish Pump piece (on the Loch Ness monster) and then Dot and I walked up to St Gregory’s green, where Dot was bell-ringing with the Greens, the Archers, Georgina, Eugena and the Greens’ neighbour. Bit windy, but they did OK. Kim was also there, and I had a chat with her.
Afterwards I tried to find some of the Julian poems, but without success – apart from the one at St Gregory’s. Tired from so much walking, and after lunch we had to walk again to the football, where Norwich lost to Blackpool 1-0. Pukki got dramatic send-off. Really tired after walk back, but after fried eggs we went over to Des and Chris to see their holiday pix from Mexico and Costa Rica. Great cocktail and interesting talk about Christians and Jews. Recommended The Chosen. Felt surprisingly better, despite the excellent cocktails.