moving on

Tomorrow we leave the club campsite with all its facilities including wifi and go to the centre of the Lakes near Hawkshead where we will be staying on a 'certified' site, which means we should be one of only five campers on a very quiet site.

After our last visit to Gretchen on Friday afternoon, I again felt tired but not exhausted, but I also had a deep feeling of calm which has stayed with me and it is still there! although I do still have my tremor but I can at least eat my dinner with a knife and fork instead of a spoon which has been happening recently!

We have been taking things very easily over the weekend - no strenuous walks - but a gentle stroll this morning on the shore of the Esk estuary. This photo was taken last year, but the weather was just the same this morning, except for a few clouds until we got back to the camper when the heavens once again opened! We think the posts originally held up fishing nets but today often hold up washing lines!

catching up

Although I have not written anything here recently, it is not for lack of something to say - just that I seem to be busy when something comes to mind!
Paul successfully completed the Etape and just came in the first third of those completing the course but it did take him a couple of days to recover!

When looking forward to our holiday here we were prepared for it to be much cooler than at home and very wet. But having been here for four glorious days this is our first wet day and we had already decided to have a restful morning 'doing nothing' before going for our treatment at the Centre for Complementary Care this afternoon.
I first met Gretchen when we lived on the edge of the Lake District and I attended a day of Christian Contemplative Prayer and she was one of the speakers. We then visited the Centre on a regular basis but I did not have any treatment until a couple of years ago when my tremor was getting particularly bad and any pills I took just zonked me out!

One would think that lying on a high bed for nearly an hour, sometimes falling asleep, sometimes chatting while Gretchen sitting on an office wheelie chair slowly goes around you lightly touching first your left upper arm, moving to your left hand, down to your feet, up the right side of your body and then lightly holding your head, would make you feel relaxed and revived!
But although the feeling after the treatment is one of being relaxed, it is shortly followed by feeling tired and exhausted and being warned not to do too much for the rest of the day! We have now learnt that it is best not to go for a long strenuous walk the next morning either - hence our lazy morning while the rain patters on our camper-van's roof!
It will be our last session of four this afternoon and although I have not noticed a great reduction in my 'shakes', something has been happening!

etape

For those of you who like me, until a few months ago, had never heard of this word - the 'Etape du Tour' is a day's cycle ride for anyone up for it, in the middle of the 'Tour de France'. My younger son, who is just a few months off his fortieth birthday has been training hard and is flying off to France today, ready to cycle 100 miles up and down the French Alps on Sunday.
He has loved cycling since he was 10 and very briefly thought about taking it up professionally but decided against it because of the amount of drug use at that time, and as he would have to cycle 100 miles every day to keep in top form he thought he would like to have a life instead!
He is now a buyer for a chain of bicycle shops but loves to cycle whenever possible - mountain biking as well as on the road.

europe and bees

So Nigel Lawson has declared that when/if there is a referendum he will vote for Britain to come out of Europe. In the last referendum he voted for Britain to go into the EU while I was very grateful that I was away on holiday with friends (who I met at Assembly over the weekend). I remember it well - it was the same summer that snow stopped play at a big cricket match! I was 27 back in 1975, I knew how to sew and how to keep my sanity while bringing up two small boys but I didn't know whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing to go into Europe!
I am quite a bit older now, although I don't feel it inside and I am very fortunate to have a skeleton and muscles that still behave themselves even though other bits are not so good!
But I still would not know which way to vote. We don't know what life would be like if we had not gone into the EU back in 1975 and we don't know what would happen if we came out of the EU.
But I am very grateful that we are in the EU and I will now quote from 'Riverford', from whom we get a box of fruit and vegetables each week and who won 'Farmer of the Year' in 'Radio 4's Food Awards'.
"Hurrah! In a triumph for bees and the independence of science, our Environment Secretary and the chaps from Syngenta were defeated last week by an EU commission vote, which will now restrict the use of neonicotinoids on flowering crops. To descend to the Defra position, where nature is expendable unless it can be demonstrated incontrovertibly that it is worth saving on economic grounds, would be hugely depressing. It makes me ashamed to be human and even more ashamed to be British. Thankfully there was more enlightenment elsewhere in Europe - as well as a great number of passionate Brits campaigning here."

Women! written Saturday posted Monday!

Getting a wifi signal while at the Assembly can be difficult - and coming away without the laptop’s charger makes life even more difficult! At last I have some time to blog but this may not be posted until after I get home on Monday although I’m writing this early on Saturday evening.

Great news, we have a new General Secretary - a woman! Lynne Green - and if you read my previous post - she was one of the names I had in mind. I knew of Lynne when I was on the Baptist Union Council - everyone seems very happy. We also have a woman Moderator of Council, a woman Moderator of the Trustees and a woman Vice President. This has been a huge change - only a few years ago all the top positions were held by grey haired men in grey suits!

Today has been one of meeting up with friends as previously arranged but also bumping into friends; one from over thirty years ago and the other from my childhood and teenage years, totally unexpected and quite wonderful!

Having met my blogging friend for breakfast we went to Morning Prayers; a quiet reflective time which we both felt was very special. It was led by Amanda who I first met when I went to meetings at the Baptist Headquarters in Didcot. Amanda will be leaving at the end of next week, and I wish her God’s blessing in her few weeks off before starting an exciting new position. 

Blackpool

It has been a bit quiet on the blogging front due to Easter, a holiday in the Lake District when I went down with a bug that had been going around Chapel - although I don't think I caught it there as folk know they have a cold I appreciate it if they stay at home! and also more home improvements but with someone else doing the work!
I have now arrived in Blackpool for the annual Baptist Assembly.
There is so much to look forward to... and meeting friends comes top of my list - and I've already bumped into a blogging friend. I was so concerned that our paths would not meet that we have arranged to have breakfast together tomorrow.
Then I'm meeting a friend from teenage days - gosh we have been friends for 50 years!
Tomorrow morning the new General Secretary will be announced. The Baptist Union is going through a big shake up and like the position of Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope - no-one wants the job. It will be very interesting to see who gets it! I have a couple of ideas - but doubt if I'm right!
But first things first... I'm off to a prayer meeting - it is so good to start the weekend together in prayer.

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.