animal!

I'm now back home after a flying visit to London yesterday to help my eldest celebrate his 40th birthday.
When we were all much younger a Saturday tea-time treat was to watch The Muppets and we all had our favourites. Mark's was Kermit but as he grew older and took up drumming his favourite switched to Animal.
Mark and Katie live near the lady who won the 'Bake off' competition and Katie was given the opportunity of having some lessons and this is what she made for Mark! and it tasted wonderful!

for one night only

I have not missed many Baptist Assemblies in recent years, especially when for a few years I was on the committee that discussed the arrangements. When I lived in suburbia I thought it was great when the Assembly was held in London, but now I am in Wales I'm not so sure! Although I have two children who live within a short commute of London they both have cats and I am allergic to them so I can't stay there! and I have never liked traveling home from London in the late evening anyway. The other option is a B&B in London but the cost of that is way out of my league!
So I asked my daughter if she would like to come with me for the Friday evening so that I would feel safe on my journey out of London to a cheaper hotel! Mandie has recently moved but has not, as yet, got the courage to go to the local Baptist church on her own especially as she does not know anyone there. But last summer I met Pete who was leaving college to take up the post of minister at her local church.
Are you still with me...?
As we walked into Westminster Central Hall, immediately in front of us was Pete and his wife! Mandie was duly introduced and she now feels far more comfortable about taking that brave step!
It was lovely to catch up with a couple of friends, albeit very briefly, but I was disappointed not to see C from Glasgow, I know she was there but our paths did not cross.
The evening was superb, from saying thank you to Pat Took for being last year's President to welcoming Chris Duffett as President for this year. I have enjoyed reading about his street evangelism but to hear him talk about it and encourage us was very special. And although what he does seems a million miles away from my ministry, the way it has impacted me, I am sure there will be something that I can take from the inner city and bring to rural Wales!

I survived

Was it the walk up Cadair Idris or the cycle ride along the Mawddach Trail? No it was being without the internet for ten days! I did have my computer with me so that I could download the day's photos but I did miss keeping in touch with my facebook and blogging friends.
We spent the first five days camped - in our camper-van (plugged into electricity! = fan heater!) at the bottom of Cadair Idris in mid-Wales. On one of the days we planned to walk up to what we termed as base camp! It had been raining hard but it turned to drizzle and there had been some very heavy hail the day before. We had a good walk which included some scrambling up some rocks - really good fun in good weather! But as we had only planned a morning walk, when we reached the snow-line we thought it wise to turn round and re-trace our steps.
Bob took all the photos because my shakes mean blurred photos but I wasn't quite sure if the camera was working properly - hence my quizzical look!

For our second five days we moved camp to just north of Barmouth so that we were near to Cycle Route 8, part of which is the Mawddach Trail which runs along side the Afon Mawddach. But first one has to cross the mouth of the estuary along side the railway on a wooden bridge.

We cycled for nearly two hours reaching a good pub for an excellent meal before returning! My bike has front suspension, for which I was very grateful but cycling over the wooden bridge on a full stomach was not very pleasant!
As you can see from the photos we had very mixed weather. We (he) took lots of photos, including this rather 'arty' one as a friend has a painting just like this!

Last year we had a holiday across the bay and it was fun trying to work out the various coastal towns below the mountains.
Having come home I dread the mountains of washing and although it is all done now, I could do with another holiday!

at long last

I went to a technical school - I don't think they exist anymore. They were for the ones who weren't quite bright enough to get through to a grammar school - they had a secretarial stream and nursing stream and usually took 'O'levels in the lower sixth and 'A'levels in one year in the upper sixth.
We all had a general education for the first three years and specialised in the fourth and fifth years. I took both Maths and English 'O'levels in the fifth year - but failed English. So took it again at Christmas along with cookery. Having got three exams out of the way the rest of my sixth form was more manageable for me. But my most difficult 'O'level was embroidery - it consisted of three exams - one where we had to make a design, another on the history (which meant visits to the London museums) and the theory, and the third to test our actual skills of doing it!
I still love it! but it is so time consuming! I find I am attracted to books of it and pre-packaged packs of it - and have a chest full, some I inherited from my Mum who had the same compulsion!
Thirty one years ago, having been widowed a few years before, she met up again with my Dad's best friend from their teenage years, they fell in love and married. And I decided that I would make them a cushion cover that I had seen in one of my many books. The wedding came and went and I had only completed a fraction of the embroidery. The following year we adopted Mandie and the little spare time I had vanished. So the embroidery was taken off the frame and put in the chest.

Thirty years later, Mandie having married and after many, many moves of house, I decided to see if I could complete the cushion cover. Then there was the problem of which would happen first - finish the cover or run out of wool! It was the latter - I think some wool got lost in one of the moves. Unfortunately - they don't make that embroidery wool any longer, so I had to buy a different make to get the right colour, and that wool was very slightly thicker, but fortunately unless you know you can't see the join! Unfortunately neither Mum or my step-Dad are a round to see the finished article.

My favourite part of the embroidery is what they call velvet stitch, a cross stitch with a loop in the middle which is then cut, giving a carpet like effect.

my Easter

Most people's Easters last for a long weekend, but mine lasted a whole week!
It started last Thursday evening when the folk from our Chapel were invited up the road to join in the Maundy Thursday supper at the local Anglican Church. We have been doing this for several years now and have got to know the folk at Church really well.
We have a simple meal of home-made soup, home-made bread rolls, cheese and grapes and our time together concludes with Holy Communion. The father-in-law of the Anglican Deacon who was leading the service was a Baptist minister and the service was taken from the small red book known by many Baptist ministers.
On Friday we had a service at our Chapel at 3pm which was well attended.
Saturday morning saw many of us back in the Chapel decorating it ready for Sunday morning.
And on Easter Sunday we were joined by several visitors who were staying at the local caravan site.
Monday was a day off, but Tuesday was our monthly bible study, where over lunch the vicar said that one of his favourite passages is the story of Jesus meeting the two disciples travelling on the road to Emmaus - little did he know but that was our passage for the day! We had a new face to the bible study - one of our longest serving members at Chapel.
And yesterday instead of our regular coffee morning at the village hall we had an Easter Tea.
Each week we pay £1 for our coffee and biscuits, but the money is saved and every few months we go out for lunch at the local hotel or pub and once a year we have an amazing tea. I knew what to expect, so this year I took along my camera. There were about 25 of us to eat this tea and many took sandwiched and cakes home as well!

clusters

and I don't mean nut clusters... or maybe I do, hearing the amount of laughter and glorious silliness at the meeting we had yesterday!
For those of you reading this who are not aware of Baptist structures, about 30 years ago, churches were encouraged to link up with other Baptist churches in their area for support and encouragement.
When I lived 'up north', there were three churches in our cluster but one was a large inner-city church, one a small sea-side church and the third a rural farming chapel. Apart from being Baptist we had nothing in common.
However, here in Wales we have the 'Rural Churches' consisting of eight small churches and chapels all around the English/Welsh border; some are in villages while others seem to be in the middle of nowhere but all are struggling. Two have full-time ministers, one a part-time minister and there is also a lay pastor both who regularly preach at the chapels without ministers. But one of the main reasons it works is because in this area of farms you will often find relatives marrying someone from a different chapel! and it seems to be quite a static community with farms being passed on down the generations.
Over the years we have been meeting four times a year where there is plenty of time for conversation catching up with friends, eating, worshipping and praying together. But this year we also held a study group looking at small churches and many folk come to our Services of Prayer for Healing.
Yesterday we had a Prayer Lunch; we used to have a Prayer Breakfast but it meant a very early start for those who prepared the meal! In early summer we have a Praise evening, in late summer we hold a barbecue and in December we have an Advent Service. And this morning we had the pleasure of Joy, the Lay Pastor take our service.

the walk pt.2

Today the legs seem to be OK but yesterday afternoon, having walked to Chapel and back they were telling me that they knew they had walked up the hill the day before!

This is the view of the hill taken from my study window. I am very grateful to our neighbours who cut down their large ugly conifers last year as the trees had obscured my view! I don't get this view when sitting at my desk but by kneeling on my desk and leaning out of the window. As you can see the weather was glorious this morning!

On Saturday we walked up to the top which is in shadows and then along the top to as far as you can see. One day I would like to go further but not sure about walking all the way to Hay! although I know that one of my blogging friends, now in Scotland, has walked the Offa's Dyke path which runs across the fields at the back of our house and then follows the route we took.

As a diabetic I have to be careful over my insulin and food input with the energy I use walking. So on a walking day, I skip my breakfast injection and just before we leave I am allowed to have toast or bread spread liberally with marmalade! Within half an hour, I have a treat of a sugary biscuit, another half hour and I can eat a sweet and then with my sandwiches, I can have a piece of cake! such luxury!