Large animals

We have a big garden and a glorious view from here extending on all sides. On a good day the sea is visible on two sides, one at the back of the house the other at the front. We are surrounded by fields and in the distance is the church spire of Gerrans.
From various windows we have brilliant views all round and we dont miss much! From Tall Boat racing to hikers and animals of every kind. I do not hallucinate...even after a couple of Scotches but I am often accused of having an over active imagination. As dusk falls I often see foxes quietly going about their nefarious business, rabbits are everywhere, the cows take up residence every winter and of course the birds are wheeling and diving about even  today when its very cold.
I walk around our land at least once everyday usually more but yesterday for various reasons I did'nt go out there...so today I was surprised to find a large patch of disturbed ground quite close to the house.
My husband wondered what it was so I took a picture of it. Its a large area of flattened grass which looks for all the world as though a large animal has slept there.
In the past I have noticed bits of trees being eaten, and found several hoof marks but I didn't pay them much heed until last year I did see a deer, very beautiful with antlers  and which moved very fast when it became aware of me.

I am putting the picture here....any ideas?

Policeman Jean

This was a new one this morning. We had to cancel a service. No one can remember it happening before but there seemed little choice without endangering our aged  population. At ten O clock I got a phone call from the church warden who had only just got back from doing the eight am.
St Just is reached down a long narrow lane  leading to a gate from  where there is another steep drop down to the turning circle which gives access to the church. Both slopes were icy. Our verger had tried to salt the path but this morning someone slipped and fell and then a car got stuck on the road out.
Help arrived in the shape of the local boat yard owner  with a Jeep and  the car was sent home safely. After the call from the church warden we both got busy ringing around all those we see regularly and I spent a very chilly three quarters of an hour with my car parked over the opening to the lane, explaining to all and sundry including would be walkers that the service had been cancelled. From Priest to policeman was quite interesting I met some nice people .
 I told everyone who turned up that they could come back to my house for a hot drink and a very short sermon but oddly there were  no takers...Can't think why.

Postscript to the Baptism

We were a jolly group in the church last night...it was very cold outside so everyone was well wrapped up. The baby was handed to me before we started by a very anxious mother who needed to know that I could hold him, he was so heavy. Apparently he'd been ten and a half pounds at birth and was now so enormous they had stopped weighing him!
He was very heavy indeed so I arranged that the church warden would hold him  close to the font whilst I did the water bit. He was as good as gold despite all their warnings that he had enormous voice to go with the body!  Before we started I asked for his full name. His middle name was Cameron.
" After the Prime Minister?"I asked.
Oh yes, he was born on the same day in the same hospital as the Cameron baby."
Its a rather nice name actually and its certainly better than Endyllion

An evening baptism

It snowed here this morning and it was actually very pleasant outside for a while. Now its very cold again and the winds got up so the wind chill will be doubled so I am not looking forward to going out later . However I know I will enjoy it when I get there. I am christening a baby this evening. This sounds weird but the parents wanted it at this particular church on this particular day. It should have been in the afternoon but there was already a Christmas Fayre  booked to take place all day. The church warden thinks it will all have gone quiet by five o clock.
Hmm This is a church I know well. Used to be its PCC secretary. We go back along way. Of its present officers the two church wardens are friends . I have known one of them for at least 20 years if not longer and the other one and I moved into the village in the same week and we have been friends ever since so its quite  a family affair. She is a worship leader and is doing most of the service herself apart from the holy bits!  We have had some interesting discussions on this subject and she has written  and printed off a service sheet with great effeciency and sent it to me over the internet.
So far so good.  But as yet I don't know the name of the child, the names of his parents or his God parents and even as I type am not absolutely sure that he is a boy...I did send her a form to fill in so that we can do the Register but as yet I am not aware that its been done.
The priest in charge is off sick and will continue with this absence  for some time. I am certain that her Church wardens are more than capable of running the parish for her, but not necessarily to her liking!
I have promised to get there early so that we can sort out who does what and promised to take the Holy Oil from here...but the chance that everyone selling stuff on their Christmas stalls will have gone home is I'm afraid none. There could be a lot more people there than we expect.
I really hope that the snow holds off for a while...the potential for cock up is unusually great without that.

Audio books

As it approaches Christmas I have been wondering about giving some of my presents as Audio books. I actually have quite a few now on my various bits of equipment but I'm pretty sure that Apple will have made certain that trying to pass them along is not easy as it might look. The old days of passing a paper back along to the queue waiting for it has I'm afraid gone if all you buy is audio. To my astonishment I find that that is all I've been buying in the way of both Novels and History books lately.
This has its draw backs if you need to consult a work of reference as theres no point in trying to find it in several hours of recordings so some books are needed. BUT my book cases are full, the spare room is full of books as is my office, my husband's office and the kitchen though I have now a cookery app for the iPad which I can prop up in the kitchen and watch the video on how to cook as I go!
Buying audio books is not a wicked way of cheating authors...they still get their royalties but that does not seem to stop them from complaining and I would be interested to know if there is any real problem for them.
The best thing about the A books is that when my OH wants the light out to go to sleep I can stay reading for a long time in the dark, no annoyance to anyone..The fact that I often fall asleep myself and lose my page, if you'll pardon the outdated expression is a nuisance but for those of us brought up on The Childrens Hour (note capitols as befits its Godlike status ) its a minor problem easily solved by starting the chapter again the next day and lying curled up in the dark listening to a wonderful story written by inventive people is probably the nearest to perfection I have come to since I left the womb.

Enjoy the snow!

All the reports of snow, either having fallen or about to fall have reminded me of the joy that was living in North Wales. On our first year there it snowed every day for the whole winter right through till April. Some times it was only a very small amount but we stayed below freezing for most of the time and as our heating had a freeze warning system we used massive amounts of oil when we could least afford it.
I bought thermal underwear for us all and we wore it, even the precious teen age girl whose first snort of derision at thermal knickers gave way to shoving on everything she could lay her hands on.
Driving could be tricky..my husband worked in Chester and got there late fairly frequently in all our winters. The school bus failed to get through so a Landrover was sent. On several occasions we dug our cars out of drifts only to find a sudden thaw on the roof had given way to big slides which covered them again moments later.
Our weekend were amazing. We lived half way up Moel Famau and cars stacked with skis and sledges passed our front door so we just had to join in. Lacking several sledges we used to climb to the top of a steep slope and throw a plastic sheet down and jump on, dog as well and slide till we ended trying not to land in the stream at the bottom Great fun! Quick scramble back up to the top and down we would go again.
On the day we were supposed to be moving to Essex our furniture van failed to turn up. It had got lost in the snow. The removal finally took place two weeks later and life was never the same again.
The only snow that fell in Essex was the sort that really was a nuisance and there was no where to use our one sledge and our plastic sheets...it was too flat and we were too staid...
So enjoy it whilst you can..Here in Cornwall we have other ways of enjoying ourselves.

Bad day for Democracy?

I am getting old and I fully accept this today. Synod is voting to try to stop schism, students on the other hand are demonstrating yet again against the proposed increases in student fees.
I do not imagine that any frustration or anger at synod will be shown by throwing over the chairs even though some might feel like it but the latest reports from London seem to show that both students and police are escalating the demo which seems to be turning into a riot.
Ever so easy to say in a quavering voice, "It wasnt like this when I was a girl." But of course it was. One of my ancesters got killed in the Peterloo riots. My grandad got locked out of the mines as a young man and had to move his family north because after the strike he would never have got work again. He should have been a very angry man but he wasn't. Being a Christian scientist saved him from that.
Injustice seems to be a fact of life for all generations but we have had some quiet years...years that looked very good indeed until our bubble burst.
I have friends in America who are struggling financially for the first time in their lives, so they are lashing out. Poor Obama who was elected in clouds of glory has now hit the fan. The tea party is gunning for him in a big way and we have people here who support everything they say.
This blog is not about politics or religion...we all have our points of view and because we are human they differ, one from the other, especially people with well established religious views...we are the worst!
But really why on earth should we actually fall out with each other because we take a different point of view?
We are the sum total of our experience..and all our experiences are different. so its no wonder we have different beliefs.
I who have never ever voted Conservative have had two arch Tory husbands and loved them both.
I would very much like to take Nick Clegg to one side to ask him what the hell he is doing...but thats just one of my hang ups...having actually voted for him...it gives me a right to be dismayed. Others may well disagree.. and that is what this blog is all about...we are all different, we have different points of views but if we like each other...love each other even then learning to tolerate a diverse view, that may stem from a deep seated unhappiness or frustration is part of the growing process..
I hope I am still growing...may even yet produce a flower...

RBS and pain.

As the latest news on the Royal Bank of Scotland fills us with yet more angst I have to declare an interest.My first husband also called David was a bank manager in what was then Nat West. It was a good organisation to work for in that it looked after its staff and opportunities for advancement came fairly easily for anyone with half a brain.
My husband enjoyed his time with Nat West and became quite senior. He saved diligently for his old age and the way he did that was to buy shares in the company. These shares would, he told me give us a comfortable old age and some luxury. When his colleagues were spending their bonuses on luxury cruises he was buying more shares.
He retired at 55 and had a massive heart attack at 57 and died. His clothes for the cruise were in the wardrobe at the time, never used. I gave them all to an Italian builder who worked for me for a while.
Now I feel its just as well he did not live to see the steady decline of the bank he'd worked for all his life. Nat West got taken over by RBS and he would not have liked that much but what happened later when it had to be rescued and nationalised would have sent him apoplectic!
I still have the shares, now virtually worthless...thousands of them. His children will inherit them eventually but I fear that everything David worked so hard for has gone and will not be coming back.
I am alright...I am a non stipendiary priest with no need for a vast fortune...but there are plenty of people who did the same thing as David, I am still in touch with some of them and they feel betrayed and very very angry. But at the same time as they acknowledge their impotency they are growing before my eyes. Pain does that to you.

Clergy dogsbody

Yet another lost post!
This one was about our clergy meeting today We are a small team here on the Roseland of which I am the dogsbody, and I may say happy with that description. During a long interegnum I had experience of running this parish and I know what hard work it is. Now it is with great relief and gratitude that I find myself as a willing helper to cover other people when they are away and generally help out most of the time, giving my colleagues some easier Sundays than they might have.
We have someone on sick leave right now so I have been very busy and today's meeting in the local pub was pitched just about right for me. We talked , had a glass or two and then lunch.
Then the real meeting started as we adjourned to another place! We have now worked out the rota till Easter! The fact that I am away for 5 weeks in Jan and Feb fills me with Protestant guilt but David and I have to do this whilst we are still able to. Who knows what next year might bring?

St Just in Roseland

I live about five minutes away from St Just. It's the church I am at most frequently and this morning in the pale winter sunshine with the tide up and filling the creek I felt the luckiest woman in the world at eight o'clock. It's the church we discovered when my children were small. It's a Holy place much loved by everyone and if anyone had told me as a young mum that I would end up as a priest in that place I would simply never have believed it.
It has a beautiful garden tumbling down to the sea with small streams a





nd ponds filled with wild life. The trees are full of colour right now but also there are fats buds on the camelias and they are often out around Christmas.
There is a legend that Joseph of Arimathea who was thought to be a trader brought the boy Jesus here. This is of course entirely unprovable but still thought to be the reason for its tangible holiness, its peace and tranquility which seeps into the hearts of all its visitors.
I love it, indeed I was married here but also I have the grave of my daughter , sitting right on the edge of the water..and if I disappear at any time the congregation know that I've gone for a little chat with her as she rests in the most beautiful place on earth.
The Celtic custom of honouring those men in their little coracles from either Brittany or Ireland who set up their small cells in order to worship, works well here and is a blessing for everyone who visits. Thank you God.

Location:Truro,United Kingdom

Small world

This social media lark makes some surprising connections. Today for instance someone on Twitter noticed a Geographical reference that I'd made and knew it was a place she knew well. She asked me a couple of questions and we found we had one good friend of mine and her cousin in common. This from someone I'd never met.
On another level the blog is now read by people the world over, not in huge numbers I hasten to add but enough.
Today on FaceBook I saw the news that a baby I'd christened this year had been quite poorly and was able to chat to the worried parents. We are advertising the All Age service tomorrow by the same medium.
Someone I play backgammon with is bringing his wife over next year for a renewal of their wedding vows. I play scrabble with a lady I knew 20 years ago and had almost lost touch with. It's a small world and getting smaller. The power of communication is immense now and I am very glad to have been born and lived in an age where all this has been made possible.
Unashamed as a user of Facebook and Twitter..long may it continue.

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Weather and snails

I have no wish to join in the global warming discussion but the weather here over the last few days has been quirky to say the last. Only a few miles away yesterday small similar villages were hit by appalling flooding. We had rain but no flooding. Today the sky goes black, the rain hammers down and then suddenly the suns out again and it is actually quite warm.
It's no wonder that everything here is still growing, the grass needs to be cut. There are flowers on things normally dormant by this time and the only good thing is that the snails have gone to bed for the winter so everything can grow in profusion and it does!
This morning in the middle of a particularly black spell I went out to find our gardener to tell him to go home. He pointed out to me that an ancient elder was in danger of coming down, a large crack had appeared half way down it. He wanted to cut down the whole tree but i insisted that at least half of it should remain...I love the scent of elderflower in the Spring and the red black berries later are always a joy so off he went in the rain which was then extremely violent, to do the honourable thing and put it out of its misery.
Job done he went home to avoid actually drowning!
This afternoon i went to look at what he'd done. Like all countrymen everywhere he had built the chopped branches into the hedge and what did I find? I now know where the snails go to in the winter. Tucked inside the hollowed trunk were hundreds of snails of all sizes..huge to minute!
I left them be I am a softie but it didn't feel quite kosher to winkle them out to kill them. Maybe the weather will do it for me.

Abortion

I approach this problem with some temerity. It is not an easy subject and I really wish that it had not become so black and white. Both the pro life and the pro choice groups have now become desperately alienated from each other by rhetoric and for me to wade into the interland between them is something I've been putting off.
My situation has always been that I could never do it..could never kill a baby growing inside me. This was tested when in my 40's the doctor told me I was pregnant and that having looked at my medical history his recommendation was termination. I refused the appointment in hospital and went home to think. If I was to go on with it the chances were that I would spend the next months in hospital as I had done with my other babies and apart from the risk to my health the chances were that I would be unable to care for a child as well as I would like to. The doctor's decision was right and yet I could not do it..For me it would have been an outright sin to put myself , my husband and my children before the rights of the child inside me.
I made up my mind, no matter what I had to go through with it.
Alas the decision was taken away from me and the baby miscarried. We cried, we mourned what was only a small collection of cells.
Nature did on that occasion know best.
Now I see the two groups biting lumps out of each other and well meaning people trying to legislate for every possible eventuality But for me its still not clear cut.
If there is a prenatal defect, if the woman has ben raped, if the mother is a teenage girl unable to care for her baby then there is a case to be made..and ultimately that choice is the womans to make even though it might well be hard on the man involved.
I would never condone the taking of life carelessly or with no counselling, but I deeply regret the anger between both sides of the argument. What happens in America with pro lifers intercepting girls on their way to the clinic is deeply disturbing. No one has the right to induce these women into feeling guilt. It may be well hidden but its there already believe me.
This for me is rooted in my belief in the goodness of God. But we are born with free will. And we can make mistakes...its part of the human condition. And I also believe with my whole heart that God loves us what ever we do. So surely we must try to see both sides of the argument and have the same tenderness and love for each other that He has for us.

The garden in winter

So much is going on in our garden right now I wanted to show some pics. This farm was a working one 20 years ago and the field outside was pasture and housed a lot of cows. I've planted trees and shrubs and it's slowly turning into a garden but to find all the Spring stuff blooming right now is extraordinary.


This mahonia had a bee on it.



The Rose is still in bud



The spindle is vibrant even though it's leaves have gone



And here is a sweet smelling viburnham. It's called winter sweet. Well named.

Memory almost full(apologies to P McCartney)

I never thought this day would come but I got a major shock today when a message from my lap top told me it was almost full. Almost full! This is weird I have never come anywhere near to filling any of my computers. But this one meant it. As I tried to download "Downton" it gave up the ghost!
Help came via Twitter where a couple of nice chaps helped me to try to sort it all out. I have now an app called Clean Up which I have left to do just that but the good news is that it's working because when last I checked the TV series was busy downloading again.
I seem to have taken my technology very much for granted. Who could have thought that you could get whole films and whole series on a small object like a phone because that's where some of them are..
The iPad is coming on our next trip in the new year with several new TV shows and films on it so I really have been a bit stupid just thinking that the sides were elastic!
It has been suggested that one good thing to come out of this dilemma would be. Shorter sermons!

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Only to be read with a sense of humour

I got to Gerrans nice and early this morning. Sorted everything out and put on my mike. It wasn't working so I got two of them to try to sort it out. They gave it me back saying "Dont switch it off again I think its the switch."

At the back of the church I reassured everyone, mostly the brownies that it was all going to be fine, even if one of them had thrown up last year. We waited then realised the bugler was missing with two minutes to go . Remaining calm I said "Ok we can manage without him. "

Then he ejected through the door. The church warden leaned into me to say sotto voce.

"Thank goodness for that. I was peeing myself Jean."

"The mikes on.!" Collapse of stout party. Started it all off well!

Now trying it from the laptop

Five years ago I married my church warden. It had to be quiet because the congregations of four parish might well have arrived and we really didn't want either a fuss or any presents. There were just nine people there on a beautiful November morning.
My friend Julia came over to marry us as the previous incumbent was off sick and I was given away by the ancient priest living in the village.
The organist played appropriate music, the verger rang the bells and I promised to obey which took me as much by surprise as it did everyone else.
St Just in Roseland was extremely beautiful and we were blessed in every way. We had a small luncheon party in a hotel looking out to sea and drank pink champagne on the terrace.
That night we went to a PCC meeting and had more chanppagne . Perfect in every way.  We are both praying for another five years now.  DV

Ok. I give up

Clearly someone somewhere does not want the account of our daft wedding to be published. I have now typed out four versions of it. Acted on suggestions by various people to whom many thanks but the ether is not kind. Even those accounts I've saved have gone. Somewhere in blogger heaven they lie unloved unread and unwanted. Boo hoo


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When we were married

Now pinching the title from the


one of the lovely play by Priestly. Experimenting to see what actually works having lost four posts now I have to face the fact that it might be my fault. Ahem. Unlikely but possible.

Now saved that bit and a pic so I will try again. Fingers crossed.

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The day we got married 2

Not sure what to do about the fact that several post have just disappeared without trace. Help if you can please.



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Warring factions 2

They have lost the last post again. Don't know where it is but I have only time to post a shorter version. The gale yesterday threatened to bring down a very tall eucalyptus tree so we went out this morning to anchor it to the hedge . That was when it was still possible to walk upright. Since then the wind has increased dramatically and I have got to go out.
We have a rehearsal for remembrance Sunday in the next village.
This is often as stormy inside as out. They shout at each other and disagree on every point. The words "We have always done it like this" rend the air but unfortunately no one version agrees with another.
As I battle my way through the utterly dreadful weather I shall be praying for calm and for reasonable behavior all round. They will I am sure remember the year I threw one of them out with the words...Come back when you remember this is the house of God not a battlefield.
I have to protect the brownies from the very militant and embattled at all cost. Prayers wouldn't go amiss.
Update
Sadly the group that turned up tonight were mere shadows of their former selves. The brownies refused to play, some older veterans had died and the rest were very muted. I was able to move them around the set with no dissent of any kind. It's really very sad but it is reflection to us all that things move on. Time takes it's toll and we can only go along with it. No choice on that one.

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My marching days.

I marched several times in my younger days almost always in anti racist demos. I taught at a school with many Asian immigrants back in the 70's. We had several young children roughed up on their way to school and almost the entire staff joined a march leading through the town to a large
park where we had speakers laid on.
Walking in obvious pain was an old lady. She leant on my arm and explained why she was there. She had been in Auswitch she said. She had seen racists in action. These people had to be stopped before what happened to the Jews happened to anyone else. Her determination to finish the march and to stand and be counted filled my eyes with tears and my heart with admiration.
After that I went on several other marches..the local ones through towns were never a problem but the one through Manchester could have been. The organizers knew that some would join in order to start the violence. They had tried it before and had to be stopped. We walked sometimes singing, some times in silence but every so often rioters started to try to engage us. When that happened we just completely surrounded and isolated them though some of us got hurt in the process.
In any one crowd there are going to be people for whom conflict is a way of life. It's up to the rest of us to try to stop it when we can.


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£7 a term, my student grant.

I came from a very poor family. We were moved as part of slum clearance from the center of Rochdale to a new housing estate. This dream of having an inside toilet and a bath swiftly turned into a nightmare as just getting to school became a marathon every day.
Both parents worked but most of my fathers money was spent on booze...when I say we were poor this is not any sort of exaggeration.
I didn't get wonderful exam results but they were enough to get me to training college. My parents refused permission but I went anyway on a grant of £7 pounds a term. This had to buy me books, writing paper and soap etc as I lived in college.
If I had had to take out a loan I would never have done it. In those days, only those who had enough exam results could get there. We were a small group. No one else from my estate went to uni or college.
Our grants were very small so we worked..the list of my holiday jobs is endless. But I got my teaching certificate with head held high and owing no one a penny.
I am aware of how old and sad this sounds but I am desperately sorry for the kids today who have been offered this wonderful vision of uni but it's no longer free education. Those of us who got it whilst it was free should now be supporting today's youngster not condemning them.


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Priests who have left the C of E.

Following one or two comments from yesterday I felt it was time to tell of two of my acquaintance who were Catholic priests.
One was Joe who I have blogged about previously. He started off as a Mirfield father,an Anglican who then went to Rome not as a protest of any kind but because that was where he felt he should be. He was already married at that stage and the church could not break the union up so he was allowed to join but never ever worked as a parish priest again. He wrote his books and taught in seminaries. He never regretted his decision but always felt slightly short changed by his treatment. He was a friend who supported me on the pathway to ordination and regretted not managing to get to it.
Another acquaintance was a priest in a nearby parish who left the C of E on the ordination of women and went to Rome.
A few years later he came back, and regretted his actions having been sidelined and ignored.
That is one of the reasons why I am concerned for these men who have taken this difficult decision.
I would never fall out with anyone who acted with good grace and religious conviction. At my ordination I had a bishop, ten Anglican priests, a Methodist and a Congregationalist plus a Roman Catholic priest all of whom laid hands on me. I valued this more than anyone could ever imagine and I have only warm feelings towards all Christians who live their lives in grace.


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Bishops take their bats home

I decided some time ago that I would not blog on this and yet here I am after another two bishops have left the C of E and Rowan Williams has commented on it in gentle sadness.
It is very sad.. I was ordained into this church when I was already too old really but answering a call which started when I was a teenager. It is much to the credit of this church that women's calls by God were finally recognized and admitted.
But all along there have been people who have agonized about this , taking all sorts of theological arguments to absurd lengths to try to justify themselves..
This church is best likened to a family, hopefully a family that loves each member whilst seeing their faults clearly. This family has done it's best to accommodate those priests and bishops who feel let down and say that the church now is not the one they joined years ago...but that applies to every body and everything in life. We change. It is part of the human condition. New circumstances mean we adapt, this is how we survive as a species.
These bishops have failed to adapt and are now looking like nothing less than children who having failed to get their own way in a game decide to leave and to take the bat and ball with them.
Christianity? Not entirely.


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New use for kneelers

Lovely morning in church. The baptism of a small child is always special but on this occasion it was even more special because I knew the family fairly well having sung in the same choir as his grandmother and walked my dog with his grandfather most mornings for years..
The baby's mum was a local girl who rowed in one of the gigs here and we had the entire club standing as a guard of honour with raised oars at the church door when I married her two years ago.
The baby was already walking and came in with his dad, a local farmer and their dog a black ,glossy coated Labrador. They sat together in the front pew and I told them I didn't mind the toddler moving up and down the aisle if that's what he wanted to do so naturally after a few trips up and down he started to collect things instead, mostly kneelers which he used like giant bricks, at one stage trying to climb a tower made of them. The dog sat patiently watching all this and gave the boy a friendly lick and nudge occasionally.
The child allowed me to anoint him with oil and to wet his head with great good humor and came for a walk with me around the church to meet his new family.
It was quiet and peaceful and full of joy and even the one man left for miles around who is anti woman priest gave me very nice compliments at the end.
I do know how lucky I am.


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Sky. Bah. Humbug

A couple of years ago I gave my house in the next to my children. It has taken all this time to transfer the utility bills and everything else into their names. This summer I thought we had cracked it. Job done, apart from Sky. They wanted to set up their own account which they duly did and I rang up to cancel my account as they were still taking payment. This was in August.
By September I realized that they were still taking the money so I rang them up to explain that the account has been cancelled.
They simply refused to accept this, said there was no record of it being cancelled but that they would cancel it there and then but only after I paid another months rental.
This made me cross. I was not impressed at all especially as it took up far more of my time than I could afford..
The young man eventually said he would look into the matter and get back to me with an apology in due course..
I waited in vain for an apology but this morning when my kids brought my post over for me there were two very nasty letters from Sky threatening to cut me off and then telling me that I had been cut off but that I still owed them £24.
Now this would normally not have bothered me except that at the end of the letter it said that owing this amount would detract from my credit rating!
My efficient daughter in law took the letters with her , determined to get it sorted out. Sheer common sense should tell them that they were taking money for a different account in that house...a very small house at that. No room for several accounts.
She is fuming and saying she's going to pay for it herself to save me from a bad credit rating. I don't care. I don't buy anything on credit anyway.
But that's not the point. The way Sky have behaved over this is despicable. They are attempting to bully money out of me by threatening. I've told my daughter not to pay it herself but she is an honorable woman and I suspect she will pay it.
Take heed anyone wishing to get Sky! They are a nasty company with no apparent ethics of any kind.


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Ecumenical grass roots

The afore mentioned funeral went so well that I am staggered by the whole thing. The Roman Catholic priest was someone I'd never met before though we had exchanged a few words on the phone. He was waiting for me all kitted up when I arrived at church having been given a lift in by the funeral director.
I got dressed...we sorted out who was doing what and then had time to chat before the arrival of the hearse.. We stood in the doorway telling each other how we had arrived at his particular moment in time, beaming at each other. His sermon was thoughtful and brief as he'd never met the deceased but was much appreciated by the small congregation. The widow did seem to understand what was happening and I will see her again very soon.
It was raining as we went out for the burial and I was touched to be helped into my cloak by him as we led the funeral party through our tropical pathways wonderful in colour at this time of the year.
After the burial we chatted again. Grass roots events bringing us together on these occasions do more for the cause of Christian unity than anything else. We agreed that sometimes our betters got it wrong and took leave of each other with real warmth and hopes that we should repeat the experiment sometime soon. DV


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Whistle stop tour of the Bible

This morning I went to school. We have a tiny school under threat of closure here so being a school governor keeps me on my toes at every meeting. I had been asked to talk to the top class about the Bible. The exact words were, " We really need your passion on this one."
Erm, passion? Bible? The two words do not sit comfortably together for me but I said I would do my best.
I asked how many were in the class. Eighteen was all. They were at tables so I sat down with them where I could see them all and talked. The larger picture of the Old Testament I treated as a story about Abram and Moses. Kings and Prophets were thrown into the mix. And then we moved on to the New Testament, the four gospels, the Acts and the Epistles.
Then I stopped to ask if they wanted to ask me questions. They did and they were very good questions too..they had actually been listening..
Their teacher then moved us all on to the differences between the various Christian denominations and again I was surprised by they way they understood about conflict between people for the sake of their religion.
At the end I was thanked profusely by the children and the teacher and was startled to hear her description of what I'd said
"Thank you so much for giving us a whistle stop tour of the Bible."
Not quite sure that that was quite what I'd been aiming at but the kids were so full of earnest enquiry and had taken on board everything I'd said that I came home happily aware of time well spent. Even if they don't come to Church very often.


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Thanks for all the comments

Well. I came into  the blog by a different route today and found all these comments waiting for me which I had never seen before.   Many of them before or whilst I was on holiday...thank you all so much...you all know who you are and I really appreciate them all   even Charlie who hoped it was going to rain all the time I was away!
I have had a day on the phone today trying to sort out all the complicated arrangements needed for the weekends  events. Just trying to find organists is difficult just now with our most experienced one enjoying a new relationship and not wanting to get up on a Sunday morning and the other one trying hard not to let us overwork him.
It took around ten phone calls to nobble two different organist, one for a funeral and one for a christening as well as the usual Sunday service. Managed  it in the end with only one small complication. The parents want to sing "Shine Jesus Shine" at the christening but the organist is rather a traditionalist to I need to tread with great care here.
Then I had to sort out the diary for the rest of the week....getting my flu jabs to fit in with everything else was almost as complicated.
Its either feast or famine in this job.....fallow periods of quiet are interspersed with massive activity but there is never any danger of getting bored...thank you God

Tax rant

I fancy a good rant today. So there are several things exercising me this morning. Mostly my tax returns. Damm it I pay a lot of tax and have just been informed that I have been underpaying for two years! They intend to take all of this back in the next year. But is it my fault?
I have no tax forms to fill in.. I have no stipend to consider. I have one pension plus the state pension which pretends it's tax free but it all then goes onto the other one.
So I rang the tax office which is for me, in Bootle...no idea why and I talked with a lovely Liverpuddlian lass who was very apologetic. Why, I asked her am I being penalized for your mistake and in any case where it says reason for this statement is set out in the separate sheet it's not, It's blank.
She struggled and finally informed me that my age related allowance had been over estimated and they had to get it back.
For two years? Why could they not have found out at the end of the year in question then my back tax liability would not have been so huge.
Now the first David used to talk to Bootle regularly and always got money back from them. I clearly lack his gifts in this department. I failed.
I took the wind out of the young ladies sails though by reassuring her that I was not trying to get out of paying my tax. That indeed it was the way a civilized society was able to support those who were unable to earn money. And I really do mean it. It's just that they shouldn't have let it run for two years before spotting it! Rant over. Feel a little bit better now.


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Test mutterings

It wont let me edit the last post so it's half finished. I am not at all sure what's happening here but I am pretty sure that it will turn out to be all my fault. It usually is.
I have a fairly busy week and weekend coming up. Schools back today and so is my cleaner. This means I don't have to try to keep one step ahead of the annual moult.
The welcome sound of vacuuming is echoing through the house so my husband has taken refuge in the summer house.
Never understood that. Why can't he just turn his hearing aid off?
Trying to post this now. Fingers crossed.


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Hmmmm Coincidence?

Is it do you think just a coincidence that the blog about  coincidence got lost in the ether?  I was talking about the people who came to bury their mothers ashes at the weekend.  When I told her my name she looked bemused and told me that there had been another Rev Rolt in her life. I asked her where that had been and it turned out to be my brother in law Eric who had worked in East Dulwich through her years of growing up. He had been a great influence on her life so I showed her some photgraps

Testing

I have lost the last two posts completely    no idea why   so I am now testing the process .