Tag Archives: church

Blue sky, cold wind

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David and Kristine Coomes at Blakeney

That blue sky is still with us – or with us again, depending on when you last looked. Reasonably warm today, so the visiting Coomes took a walk with us in the Rosary (Kristine is big on cemeteries) before heading home. Earlier we’d been to church, where I led the service and was relieved that Paul Cracknell, scheduled to preach, rose from his sick bed to join us. Odd sequence of events leading up to this: Howard was down to preach but had arranged a visit to a nephew in Scotland; apologised that he’d found no-one to take his place; at Dot’s suggestion I asked Margaret to do it, and she accepted, albeit reluctantly. Then, midweek, I got a call from Paul telling me what he would be preaching on: apparently Howard had effected a swap with him but hadn’t mentioned it to me. After discussions with both Paul and Margaret it was agreed that Paul would do it, as it was his last opportunity before he and Heather left the church. Then, on Saturday morning, I saw a general Tweet from his wife Heather saying he’d taken to his bed with flu. Cue panic from me and an attempt to work together a brief talk in case he failed to recover. But he did make it, and gave what I thought was an inspiring sermon.

Not a good week for organising things. Earlier had made several attempts to fix a date for five Paston poets to meet to discuss project; I went offline for an evening and in my absence they settled on a date I couldn’t do. So I came back with an alternative, and now I think we’re fixed on the afternoon of June 26. But it was a bit of an effort.

Back to the Coomes: they arrived on Saturday afternoon, and after coffee and biscuits we went to Blakeney for tea and scones at the Blakeney Hotel first-floor lounge, with its famous view over the marshes. Following this a brief walk out along the cut, but there was a bitterly cold wind despite the inviting blue sky. So in fairly quick order we drove on to Salthouse, where we enjoyed a brief foray on to the beach over the shingle bank, then on through Cromer to the cemetery at North Walsham. You remember that Kristine likes cemeteries? This one featured in a poem I wrote, and so there was a literary link. Not quite so cold there, but it wasn’t long before we proceeded via Field Lane (literary link number two) and through Wroxham home. Enjoyed a late dinner at Bishop’s and the revealing walk back along Prince of Wales Road just after 11pm.

Two more walks last week: on Wednesday I did the Paston walk around Norwich and got very tired in warm sunshine. Took a long time over it, though it’s probably less than three miles. St Peter Hungate was unfortunately shut when it shouldn’t have been, and I couldn’t find William Paston’s grave in the Cathedral, despite asking. Wasn’t feeling very well that day. The next day I did a 2-3-mile walk with Dot along the River Tiffey from Wymondham Abbey after a visit to Park Farm. Quite a bit cooler, but still pleasant, though the walk was not one I would recommend: too much wire, and the circular aspect was closed “due to lambing”. Everyone we met had a dog, and the Abbey itself was shut. What’s that all about?

On Friday we took a load of stuff to the tip, which was only slightly less picturesque. Got rid of an old box, which I suddenly felt sentimental about, because it harked back to my childhood. Wrote a poem about it.

Crab apple jelly in church

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Flowers on my parents' grave

Odd day yesterday. Felt tired out and on edge: walked into city to pay in cheques and got cold and wet in a sudden shower. Then played very good game of chess in the evening in a match against Fakenham which we won 2½-1½. Probably not enough to stop us getting relegated, but a good result nevertheless. Not as good as Norwich City last Saturday, who managed 6-0 against Scunthorpe.

Bitty sort of week all round. Had a chat with Phil and Joy on Friday about a situation at their church, then drove them to the doctor’s during the rush hour, which wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it might be. In the evening we had the Cracknells and Roberts from St Augustine’s round for a very pleasant meal and conversation. Heather C is training to be a vicar and Ruth R is about to become a mother for the second time, around my birthday. Her child will be roughly 66 years younger than me.

We had our hair cut on Saturday, and I was feeling distinctly odd for most of the day – so much so that we decided not to go to the cinema as we’d intended. Bit better on Sunday, which featured lunch at church, orchestrated by aforementioned Ruth R. Lovely atmosphere appreciated by new woman (well, new to us) and by everyone else, I think. It was Mothering Sunday, and Nicholas went for the “God, our Mother” approach, which worked well. Music seemed good too.

In the afternoon the weather was nicer and after putting some flowers on Mum and Dad’s grave at The Rosary we proceeded to North Walsham to put more flowers on graves – in this case Dot’s parents’ and sister’s. Called in at Jessie’s, but she was out with Roger, and so we headed for home, but we followed a sign we’d often seen for an exhibition at a church, and it turned out to be Stratton Strawless, former home of the Marsham family, one of whom had been a tree enthusiast. This was mainly what the exhibition was about, but there was something deeply attractive about the place. Dot used the facilities to make herself a cup of tea, and we bought some crab apple jelly. The sun was shining, and the church was an unusual one, with a low, square flint tower. Didn’t see a soul while we were there, but felt we had been made very welcome.

Cold and grey with showers again today, but the forecast is good for the rest of the week. I’m getting behind on my Lent poems and need to catch up. Have read two very good but very different books recently: Salt, by Jeremy Page – a novel of the North Norfolk marshes, with a dash of the Fens, and some unusual characters, beautifully written; and The Woodcutter, by Reginald Hill, a totally compulsive thriller set partly in the Lake District. Both books gained a lot for me from being set at least partly in places I know very well: a key section of the Hill book is set on the Pillar high level route, which I have walked and can easily visualise. The Page book spends much of its time on the marshes between Morston and Blakeney, another well known and favourite spot of mine.

Cold and misty landscape

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The stunning village of Kersey, in Suffolk

Lots going on, as you might expect for the time of year, and more travelling too. Last Saturday Dot and I went with Phil to watch Norwich City lose 2-0 to Portsmouth. Actually, that’s not why we went – we went to see them win, but I suppose our run of seeing only victories had to end some time. Phil came because Jonathan had three spare tickets. Quite a pleasant day, but it got cold rapidly after darkness fell.

Huge amounts to to take to church on Sunday, what with Christmas presents and music stands, and it was one of those mornings where things did not run smoothly. Nevertheless, an excellent talk from Mark Heybourne and a good atmosphere, with Howard leading. Dot was playing at a Julian Window music and meditation event later, and I picked her up so that she could come home and change before going (driven by Heather Cracknell) to an evening meal (cheeses,quince jelly, beef wellington) with the Archers at the home of the Greens, who must come close to being the perfect hosts. Lovely food and intelligent conversation, with plenty of humour.  And Bridget drove us home, so I didn’t have to watch my wine consumption too carefully.

Highlight of Monday was my chess win for Dons B against a player ranked well above me. I didn’t play the opening well and got into a position where I had to sacrifice the exchange for a pawn to avoid losing my queen. But after that he played too passively and got into bad time trouble: I got a really nice attack and sacrificed a knight which won against anything really, but with seconds left he played the worst line, and walked into a mate. Satisfying, but not the prefect game by any means. We lost the match 3-1.

On Tuesday Dot and I ventured into Suffolk again. Dot left fairly early for Metfield, where she spent much of the day planning for a P4C event at Dulwich College Prep School in January. After rushing around preparing in various ways for Christmas, I joined her late in the afternoon, after nearly losing the MX5 in a skid on mud near Harleston. I would say it was beautifully controlled, but there was nothing very beautiful about it: I just reacted instinctively and apparently did the right thing, since I was still on the road at the end of it. We left the MX5 at Metfield and drove to Little Waldingfield, near Sudbury, after a tortuous, dark drive down the A143 in a tail behind a huge lorry doing a constant 40mph. In the end we took an alternative route and heard on the radio immediately afterwards that we had avoided a big hold-up. Still not easy, though, and even after we got to Little Waldingfield (after taking the wrong road out of Lavenham because of a misleading map) we took ages to find the B&B. I walked up and down the main street, then we looked at the directions and found that the place was far from where the computer postcode-generated map indicated it would be. All got a bit tense, but the place itself was fine, though not nearly as grand as it seemed on the web.

Our B&B at Little Waldingfield: hard to find, but a nice breakfast

The following day there was ice on the windscreen, and after an excellent breakfast I had to scrape around before dropping Dot at Great Waldingfield School, which left me about seven hours to fill. I returned to the B&B for a bath and cup of tea, then ventured out into a cold, misty landscape that had nothing very appealing about it at first. First stop was Lavenham Church, where I talked to a couple of people, including a guy burning solidified candle wax off a candle holder. The previous night we had dined at the Swan Inn (excellent fish and chips, ate too much) and met another guy who was staying at our B&B. He had mentioned the window at Lavenham Church and told us about a man who had shown him the sunset through it, which he describesad an unforgettable experience – “as if it was on fire”. It turned out that the candle-burning guy was the man he had met. What are the chances of that happening? Well, reasonably high, because he was the verger, but still unexpected.

After this I drove into the middle of Lavenham and walked briefly, but it was very cold. So I drove to Kersey, a village recommended on a leaflet I’d bought at the church. It was truly stunning: a long narrow street running down steeply on both sides into a valley, with a ford running through. I drove right through and up to the church, where I stopped briefly. Very nice feeling to the whole area. Not far away I stopped at the 13th century St James’s Chapel, which was bare and cold, but atmospheric. Wanting to warm up I drove into Sudbury, then back to Lavenham, where I bought a cheese baguette and took it back to a viewpoint not far from the chapel, where I ate and read for a while. Afterwards I drove on again through beautiful countryside (despite the damp and mucky weather) and even found Kettlebaston, home of one of Dot’s college friends. Unfortunately I also found lots of mud, stemming from the sugar beet harvesting going on nearby. When we got home later I had to get the car cleaned, as well as checking the tyres and replenishing the screen-wash.

After hearing from Dot that she would be finished by 4pm, I paid a brief visit to Long Melford, but it was getting too dark to see much, so I returned to wait for Dot, who had unsurprisingly found the school outstanding. We drove home by the normal route, but it was tiring, because of the diversion to pick up the MX5 at Metfield, and it was over two hours before we arrived in Norwich.

Today it is raining steadily and we are awaiting icy conditions again, with a threat of a white Christmas on the horizon. I say “threat” because of the difficulty it might cause with travelling for David, the grandchildren and myself. Dot is out doing a bit of essential shopping: picking up some table coverings for church, mainly. I’ve just finished another poem, which I’m quite pleased with. After a period of writing nothing much, I’ve written several in the past few weeks. Quite exciting. For me, not for anyone else.

Dodging the raindrops

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wedding
Charlotte and Chris with her parents plus bridesmaids Louise and Sophie, and Sophie's husband Richard

After the internet connection worked fine all weekend, with everything relocated to the kitchen table, I moved the computer back into the study this morning, and it immediately stopped working again. I am now in a secure unit – no, wait, I’m back in the kitchen again, and it’s working again. You may think this is a location problem, but I don’t think it is. I managed to reset the wireless channel, and I am more confident now that it will continue to work. No thanks to BT, though, who made me do the pointless resetting in the first place. As a safety precaution I am staying in the kitchen for a while.

The accountant duly came on Friday morning, and immediately after he left we went for lunch with the Higbees at Newton Flotman. Stopped to buy flowers on the way, which was clearly the wrong thing to do because it triggered a huge downpour, which continued all the way to Newton Flotman and into the afternoon. Very nice lunch and subsequent conversation, although I was feeling well below par, as I have been all weekend. I suspect some kind of food poisoning dating back into midweek, but I don’t know where it came from. Occasional diarrhoea, aches and pains in peculiar places, slight headache and so on. All the things you like to read about. But it didn’t prevent us fulfilling our multiplicity of engagements over a very, very wet weekend.

The most prominent of these engagements was Charlotte Robinson’s wedding to Chris Wickham on Saturday. It was the least wet of three wet days, in that there were occasional dry periods, which enabled the photographer to function outside for a while. Quite chilly, though. The wedding service was at Yelverton Church – very familiar ground, yards from our home for 12 years in Church Road. Nice to be back: we met the mother of the bride with the bridesmaids at the gate, all looking stunning. Uplifting service, and a pleasant reception afterwards at King’s Church in Norwich, where the food and everything was provided to an extremely professional level by church members. Lovely meal, and I was able to hear all the speeches before I had to make a rapid exit as one aspect of my below-parness asserted itself. Pity, I would have liked to chat with people, but they you are. What can you do? I’d recovered enough to meet Dot as she walked home about an hour later.

Felt pretty rough and had a less than perfect night, but was well enough to go to church on Sunday morning, which on this occasion was followed by a meal at Vicky and Jared’s. I was a bit worried about this for obvious reasons, but in fact my condition gradually improved and I was able to enjoy more splendid food, including a quince crumble, which you don’t come across every day of the week. Plus some really good conversation with our hosts and with Howard and Anna, David and Bridget and Helen and Rob, who brought delightful little Florence (2). Amy (3) showed prowess at jigsaws and elsewhere and took a motherly interest in Florence.

Got home (after transporting Howard and Anna) just after 5pm and surprisingly felt well enough to drive to Lowestoft with Dot to read some poetry as part of a New Words, Fresh Voices evening hosted by Ian Fosten, an old friend who used to be a governor at Tuckswood School when Dot was deputy there, and later lived on Lindisfarne as the URC minister. He is now remarried and owns the Seagull Theatre. Lovely setting in a very basic way and an unusual evening, opened by a three-strong band of youngsters who could go far. Called Hilltop Mile: remember, you read it here first. Chatted to one of them – a very likeable lad. The rest of the performers were much older: the poets were mainly women of a certain age, plus me and another man of similar age. The cast was completed by an acoustic guitarist who was good in a very straightforward sort of way. To be honest, some of the poetry wasn’t very good, but it all had redeeming features. I read two poems in the first half and three in the second. They seemed to go down well, but everybody was being nice to each other. The audience was about 20-25, many of them quite young.

We got home about 10.40pm, and it was still raining. Today is different only in that the rain is closer to a drizzle. The sky is still grey, and the lights are on. Margaret Malt has just called for one of her pictures, which I brought from Oxburgh Hall for her, and I am expecting Alan Higbee later, to pick up my old computer. I think I’ll have some lunch.

Noise outside

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Long DCC meeting last night, with much discussion about possible changes to the morning service at St Augustine’s. In the end we decided to set up a smaller group to look at the liturgy and other issues, and another couple of people will be looking at the signage to the hall, which can be hard to find if you’re not looking in the right place – as with so much else. Last night woken two or three times by loud discussions outside, and this morning, as we prepare to leave for Wales, the city council contractors turned up to mend the road. Not that it doesn’t need mending, but isn’t their timing wonderful? No warning, of course. Just hope we can get out. Feeling very tired.

Baguettes, potatoes and sunglasses

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House at Lamole
The house we stayed in at Lamole, near Greve in Chianti. You can see only two of the three storeys.

An odd week. Dot has been very busy: on Monday she did a church school inspection at Ellingham, on Tuesday she wrote the report, and yesterday she started off at Hapton School, moved to the Bird in Hand at Wreningham for a swift baguette and drink with me, then on to the Diocesan Office for a 2pm meeting, followed by a visit to Catfield School and collapsing on the sofa at home. I have been making vague preparations for our Welsh holiday, cooking some jacket potatoes for the Tuesday Group and buying some new sunglasses. Not simultaneously. I also seem to have fitted in arranging for a new church service leader to take over on August 1, when everyone else is away, writing a new poem and keeping various websites up to date, as well as writing a chess article for En Passant, the Norfolk chess magazine.

Today we had the first rain for some time, occurring roughly ten seconds after Dot and I started doing a bit of gardening to put something in our hungry brown bin. It didn’t last, though, and tonight it’s warm again. I’ve checked the car over and bought some new sunglasses (early birthday present). Spoke to Pieter at The Langleys today, and he’s very concerned about Andrew’s condition in hospital: apparently he’s sedated and hardly makes any response at all. He’s going to keep an eye on him, but I hope we’ll be able to call  in on our way back from Wales.

Changing and staying the same

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Dot
Dot sunning herself on the balcony outside our room at the Manor Hotel, Blakeney, not long ago

Spent a warm and sunny day at Mangreen Hall on Sunday. More than 30 of us from the church made it, which makes you wonder why our average congregation is about 14. We were discussing how to change our Sunday service – if at all. Being radical and notoriously keen on change, I proposed that we stay the same, with a few amendments. Others went for moving it to the evening or making the liturgy more traditional, which is a bit odd, since we have traditional liturgy already, including a bit of Celtic and a bit of translation from the Aramaic. Anyway, it will all be discussed on Thursday at the DCC. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we shall be leaving for Wales the next day for our holiday with David and the grandchildren. Will we recognise the church on our return?

In the afternoon we had a kind of service at which several of us contributed songs, poems or readings. I sang Man in the Mask, which I wrote some years ago and lost the music  to. Happily I came up with another tune a few days ago, and it seemed to work quite well. It’s a song I’ve always been pleased with, and it was nice to give it an airing. I also read one of my poems – This is not home. Ruth sang a beautiful Shaker song, and some of the children read.

Today it was very slightly cooler, though not much. Dot was doing a church school inspection at Ellingham, so I decided to embark on some multi-tasking. I started by walking to St Augustine’s to take back the music stand we’d borrowed for Sunday, together with one of the hymn books. Shortly before I arrived a bumped into Anne, who seemed a little less than her usual sunny self. I’m a little worried about her. Then when I reached the church I coincided with Vicky, who was picking up collection money to bank it and had lost her key. I was able to give her mine, as I have a spare. We walked back to Magdalen Street together; she had a bright Amy with her.

From Magdalen Street I got a bus to Costessey. At least, I meant to. In fact I got on the wrong one and almost got locked into a bus on St Stephens. I transferred quickly to Theatre Street on this being pointed out, and caught a number 16 (and not 26) to the Bowthorpe roundabout, from where I walked up to Costessey Junior School and returned a “Visitor” tag that I had walked off with some months ago. It may take me a bit of time, but I eventually get round to returning things… Took the bus back into the city, called in at WHS for a refill for my Parker ballpen, and walked home, calling in at Budgens for bread and fruit on the way. Nearly four miles altogether. Quite tired after early rising.

Fairly snug days

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Sun through the trees behind our house.

There’s been a slow thaw for the last couple of days. We’re hovering around the 1C – 2C mark, and although there is the occasional light snow/sleet shower, there’s no increase in the snow covering, and our road is gradually clearing. Other parts of the country are different, with very low temperatures in the Midlands, North and Scotland. Things were not looking so good on Saturday, and we had been considering walking to church, but yesterday morning there was no real problem. About the usual number at church; my sermon was a bit controversial (fire and water), but there was no riot. In fact everyone hung around for a long coffee, except Liz.

We’ve been fairly snug for the last few days, not going out much, except to the supermarket. Dot did go into the city, though, and bought a new frying pan. I’ve been working on the editorial training stuff for Anne, but today will be switching to the poetry talk I have to give at Costessey Junior tomorrow. This afternoon Dot is doing a Philosophy session at Sprowston, with a follow-up next Monday. We’re catching up on a recording backlog, and yesterday saw The Cider House Rules, a film from a novel by John Irving. Very moving and beautifully constructed. I love the way he writes.

Have also finished The Girl who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, by Stieg Larsson. Brilliant, compulsive book, but you have to read the first two of the trilogy before attempting it. Its plot is almost entirely devoted to the aftermath of the second book and rather depends on your having read it. So sad that the author died after writing it. Nothing more to come…

10 December 2008

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Winter sunshine shot of St Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich, taken from outside the Forum during my swift guided tour of the city for Jeanette and Graham, who are now in Liverpool, or possibly Southport, and thinking of buying a car, which is hardly surprising, given the size of their suitcases and their lack of any permanent hall to leave them in. They sent us a nice message thanking us for our hospitality and inviting us to Cornwall when they (a) get there and (b) find a house. They seemed quite happy with out cold winter weather: apparently Jeanette, at least, “likes the cold”.

Meanwhile things have quietened down a bit. Today I spent quite a lot of time making Christmas cards and then addressing envelopes. I surmounted the problem of replacing two ink cartridges while Dot was away with Barbara working on P4C in Metfield, though I did lose it momentarily while trying to use of one of those cheaper cartridges where you have to switch the electronic tag, or whatever it is. Definitely not worth saving the money. Incidentally the P4C website designed by David with content by Dot and Barbara is now up and running. Proof-read by me, so any mistakes are my fault. I’m hoping there aren’t any.

Dot finished her inspection at Carleton Rode on Monday morning. I took some stuff up the tip. That pretty much sums up our different roles. In the evening I played a really good game of chess against Colin Payne, then lost it through one bad move late in the evening. Unaccountably, I have been feeling down ever since, though I don’t think it’s entirely the chess. I’m not sure what it is.

Dot went to the dentist yesterday and apparently needs some work doing, despite the dentist’s admiring both the quality of her teeth and her general fitness and stunning appearance.. Apparently she would never be taken for a woman of 63. Tell me about it. We had a mammoth number of people round in the evening, and Dot and I ended up sitting at the breakfast bar. Still, the carrot soup didn’t run out, and we had a good session. I may not have mentioned (yes, I could check) that we also went to Ambient Wonder planning on Sunday, and tomorrow we have the big AW adventure, when we take over St Stephen’s Church just outside Chapelfield Mall and try to entice passers-by into talking to us and seeing what we have to offer. There is some excitement about this (quite rightly), but I find it difficult to cope with the chaos of it. This is a character defect. I have just been reading Jack Earl’s autobiography (he is in his late 90s), and it is amazing what he has done in his life – on a purely geographical level, apart from everything else. I put this down to his enjoyment of camping, which I could never get enthusiastic about. Oh, and the war.

17 November 2008

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Went to Paston country today, had lunch with Lucy, who is off work more or less permanently with leukaemia, and then went with her and her friend Diana to Cromer District Council offices to take down the small Paston exhibition there. Diana took this picture. The weather was miserable: very cold and damp. Afterwards I called in at Wroxham Barns to take the Martin Laurance print for framing. I had intended to take Lucy’s too, but that turned out to be already framed. While at Lucy’s she showed me how to use Garage Band to record poems, and I hope to be able to record Caroline and Lisa. I am also intending to help Lucy with her guidebook of Paston walks, in return for which she’s going to teach me how to edit movies.

Yesterday was a significant Sunday, as it saw the farewell from St Augustine’s of our friends David and Bridget. They are going to a more traditional type of church in Norwich. Bridget is training to be a reader. We had quite a moving farewell liturgy, followed by wine and a delicious chocolate cake cooked by Anna. Howard preached a great sermon on thankfulness (among other things), and I led the service. We hope D & B will continue to come to our Tuesday Group. They have been a big part of what has been going on at St Augustine’s and will be sadly missed. In the evening Dot and I went to the Ambient Wonder planning session. We are doing a special AW at Stephen’s Church on Dec 11 – a Thursday evening when people will be passing on late-night Christmas shopping and might appreciate a bit of quiet in the middle of it all. Or not, I guess. Worth a try. Anna wants Dot and I to go to Greenbelt with them next year. Staying in a hotel, of course. Camping is right out. An over-my-dead-body scenario.

On Friday the four of us (Anna, Howard, Dot and I) had dinner at Vicky and Jared’s: a really lovely evening with Spanish food that was surprisingly wonderful.