simplicity

Having wondered in my last post what the Archbishop of Canterbury would be wearing last Thursday, I was left with mixed feelings. On one hand I was a bit disappointed that he was not wearing a cope that had been specially made for the occasion but that was more than outweighed by the fact that it was the same outfit that he wore as Bishop of Durham and even then it was second-hand!
The cope, stole and mitre had been made for the Revd. Ian Cundy and given to him as a gift when he left St. John's College, Durham where he was a tutor to take up the position of Bishop of Lewes and then Bishop of Peterborough. Sadly he died at the age of 64 but his family kept the set of vestments in the hope that one day this 'mantle' would pass to the right person.
Ian Cundy was Justin Welby's tutor at college and both families worshipped at the same church and became friends, and when Justin became Archbishop of Durham he was offered the vestments and they fitted perfectly! And so, on being appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Justin declined the offer of a new set.
Likewise the new Pope, Francis 1 is wearing simple vestments, so unlike the previous Popes. He is also wearing black shoes under a simple white habit rather than the hand-made red loafers worn by Benedict. Pope Francis 1 is also placing himself on the same level rather than elevated on a throne when welcoming people and has also started inviting guests to his early morning Mass - including Vatican gardeners, street sweepers, kitchen staff and maids working at the hotel where he is currently staying.
I look forward to the ministry of both Francis 1 and Justin Welby.

Justin's cope

I've never been quite sure if I passed my 11+ or not. This is mainly due to my Mum emphasising that the adults in my life got together and decided that I would enjoy a more technical education. When it came time to choose my subjects for GCEs, I chose along with a few academic subjects to take cookery, needlework and embroidery! And the most difficult subject that I undertook was embroidery!
I not only had to know all the different stitches but I had to be able to do it and design for it and know the history of it. Like maths there were three exams to cover all aspects but the exams were far longer.
Studying for the history of embroidery entailed several visits to museums including the British Museum where we looked at copes which were hundreds of years old. They were kept in huge semi-circular wooden boxes so that they were stored flat.
A cope is the cape worn by bishops on ceremonial occasions.
Back last November, Rowan Williams handed back his cope to the people of Wales (he was previously Bishop of Wales). It is thought the the cope cost around £10,000 and was made in Wales from Welsh materials. It was hand-woven in silk, embroidered with gold wire work and lined with Welsh flannel.
For the legal ceremony yesterday, Justin wore plain black and white but at his enthronement in March he will be wearing a cope, mitre and stole. The delay between November when he was chosen until his enthronement could be because there will be some very busy people designing and making these garments. I wait with interest to see his outfit!

riding bikes

I got my first two-wheeler bike for my eighth birthday - it was too big for me so until I grew I had wooden blocks on the pedals!

We were a bike riding family - Dad rode to the station everyday, parking his bike in the bike sheds at the church near by. Mum rode hers to do the shopping with a basket on the front and my brother in a seat behind hers.

And later on we all cycled to church; Dad in front, then me, followed by my brother and then my Mum. By the age of ten I was cycling to school, dancing lessons, Girl's Life Brigade and Sunday School - all of which were at least two miles away.

I passed the cycling genes onto my sons and daughter all of whom have cycled to school and work at one time or another, even if it was over ten miles into the centre of London!

Paul, my younger son has always had a very special love of bikes. At a very young age he borrowed my bike to do the London to Brighton Bike ride with Mark and his Dad. And within a few years he was doing it on his own bike by himself and arriving in Brighton within a very good time, ringing me up to tell me the good news.

While at school he got a weekend job working in a bike shop - his wages each week came home in the form of bike bits in a carrier bag and his 18th birthday present was a bike frame for all the bike bits! He joined a cycling club and raced.

It was very obvious to us all that cycling was Paul's life!

When it came to choosing a career, as parents we thought cycle racing would be his choice.

But no! as a seventeen year old he knew and told us that not only would he have to practice by cycling a hundred miles everyday he would have to take drugs.

A schoolboy knew that over twenty years ago! There are some things in this life that many of us just don't know!

Paul is still cycling, sometimes with his 5yr old son and he carries on buying bike bits but this time for a firm who pays him! He was offered several tickets by his suppliers for various cycling events at the Olympics and chose the Friday when the big races took place. He loves his job!

Congratulations to Nicole Cooke who has just retired from a drug free career in cycling and paving the way for women cyclists.

someone else's 'muriel'

Our decision to move to Wales was one of the spirit and heart rather than the head. It was far from logical, especially when my younger son said that he and his wife were expecting their first baby and we were planning to move miles away.

There was no suitable house for sale that fitted our criteria and we knew that we had to choose a property with our heads and it had to fit our list of 'must haves'. So we rented for two years.

Of course during that time we did fall in love with a 250 year old cottage. 

It needed quite a bit of work and the owners were reluctant to accept our offer. But as the cottage had been on the market for over a year and they wanted a sale they agreed. Two days later it rained, and rained, and rained and a stream up the hill blocked with debris and a torrent of water came straight down the hill flooding the cottage as well as the Chapel so we pulled out and waited another nine months for a suitable house.

When we came for our first viewing, we were a little concerned that the previous occupiers had moved the bathroom to one of the double bedrooms leaving a small box room just big enough for a single bed and a small chest of drawers but no electric sockets. So we had to allow enough money to move the bathroom back and we made it bigger by removing the wall between the loo and small room.

But...

someone had painted a mural in the double room!

Over three years later it is still there but parts of it have been abused by me getting rid of excess paint on my brushes and roller when I finished painting my study and the bathroom. And by the end of today I'm hoping that it will disappear for ever!

how many chapel members does it take to put up the Christmas lights?

1. H. is our treasurer and part-time organist and lives over the road from the Chapel half way up a hill and so she has a very good view of the Chapel. And she thought that the Chapel would look so much nicer if there were Christmas lights on the tree in front of the Chapel.

2. B. spent quite a bit of time working out how to get the electricity from the Chapel to the tree and came up with a couple of methods.

3. G. thought one of these ways was best.

4. R. drilled holes and inserted hooks in the Chapel walls.

5. R&G  bought some lights.

6. V. offered the use of her 40mtr cable.

7. R&B ran the cable from the stable ( for over a hundred years the horse was the mode of transport for the visiting preachers and they needed somewhere to shelter!) over the door to the kitchen, under the windows of the School Room and Chapel and over the porch using the hooks already in place and then into the elm tree and then into the holy tree where the lights to the tree were plugged in and encased in several heavy duty plastic bags!

8. R&B with the aid of the ladder, climbed into the silver birch tree and arranged the lights which were then switched on.

9. G and everybody else agreed that 80 light bulbs seemed to disappear in the tree and more were needed.

10. number 5&8 was repeated.

11. H. is very happy with the result but....

Next year yet more lights will be in the tree! 

The rest of Chapel life happens in a very similar way with everyone contributing in their own special way.

If it's Wednesday, it must be ...

Village Coffee Morning!
A couple of years ago, I was persuaded by one of the members at Chapel to go along to said group. I think it was originally set up for the more elderly of the village but it constantly needs new and younger blood.
We pay a small annual subscription and pay £1 each week for a cup of coffee and biscuits. And then at the end of each term we go out to the local hotel for a very nice meal. For many of the ladies and gentlemen, this is the only time that they go out for a meal. Usually we all pay £5.00 with the club paying for the rest of the bill but sometimes when the bank account is nicely flush, we all get a free meal.
A few weeks ago the three ladies who had been running the club for many years had had enough and all stepped down at the Annual General Meeting, leaving us all in a bit of a fix as no-one felt that they could commit to being there every Wednesday.
However, one lady in her eighties (a Chapel member) volunteered to be the treasurer and another younger lady volunteered to be the secretary, leaving the post of chairperson vacant.
But it had to be filled, especially for signing cheques which needed at least two signatures.
Well, if all they need is someone to sign their name, I said OK!
And for my first week in post I had a prior engagement but since then I have been there on the other side of the counter.
Fortunately, I have been able to take on this extra responsibility without it incurring too much extra work.
If the Chapel isn't suitable to run coffee mornings for the village then the Chapel will just have to go to the Village Hall!

Autumn

There has been a rather long pause in my blogging over the summer due to my 'get up and go' disappearing for a few months but recently some of it has come back!

I don't usually listen to Radio 3, preferring Radio 4 or BBC1, but one evening recently I heard a piece of music and it seemed very familiar so with the aid of the internet was able to find its title. The music turned out to be 'Automne', a piece I knew very well as a young teen as it was my solo piece when the dancing school I attended put on shows. However hearing it many decades later it didn't sound quite right but then I was not dancing to a record but to a lovely lady playing the piano and it is only recently that I have been made aware that different performers can play the same piece of music in very different ways! Why does Eric Morecambe come to mind?!

I get my dressmaking skills from my Mum and she made all my dresses for the shows including several tutus. The one to dance the part of Autumn had a brown satin bodice and a skirt of many layers of green, brown and orange net and it is rather disappointing that the one photo I have is in black and white and as tights were not as stretchy as today, although I don't have Nora Batty ankles, the knees are rather baggy, so no-way will it get scanned and put on-line!

I spent many hours painting and cutting paper leaves that I held in my hands and then wafted over the stage during the dance and I'm always reminded of the dance at this time of year, especially when the leaves are as colourful as they are this Autumn.

And then I saw this which explains everything!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20083813