Monday 16 February 2015

Ashes to ashes.


Once again we have the perennial problem....how to accumulate enough ash for Ash Wednesday!
Traditionally of course it should be the old Palm crosses burnt off slowly.
I have done this in the past but the number of returned Palm crosses have dwindled sadly.
This year I have just two!
A rummage round the back of the church has revealed....nothing.
In an aging population this could have several explanations...best avoided I suspect.
Yesterday I collected some old Palm leaves from the Holy ground around the church. They have dried out over night so with the couple of old crosses they will form the best part of the ashes...when they have been burnt!
This brings us to the next problem...in a time when few of us have open fires it is hard to find the right way to burn small amounts without  setting fire to the house or at very least starting the fire alarms squeaking!
It is drizzling outside....too damp for a small fire anyway!
I know of course that church suppliers will sell us some ashes but that's too late for this year...Lent has crept up on me very quickly!
Plan A is that I should put all the dried stuff in a tray in the aga and leave!
It works fine for croissants. ....
There is no plan B as yet...
If any of you out there have any really good ideas please let me know!



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6 comments:

jante said...

I would think the aga might work. When at college I lit them in a biscuit tin but it was dry enough to do outside

PixieMum said...

Guilty! We never got round to returning our crosses so yesterday I put them in the sideboard drawer in the vain hope that next year I will not be surprised that Lent is imminent.

Ray Barnes said...

If you have a really large church or cathedral in your diocese they may have some ash to spare.
We have a lot of palm crosses over from last year and I'm sure we are not the only ones Jean.

Revjeanrolt said...

We do have a cathedral in Truro but it's a long way to drive...so I'm presently making some ash from various Palm fronds. The smell in my house is interesting....

UKViewer said...

This is a problem in lots of churches. But this year people have been proactive and we got about 40 palms back so far. We'll have enough to #Ash the whole district at this rate. I wonder if it's worth going onto the streets with our Ashes and offer them to all comers?

Could lead to some interesting conversations.

Revjeanrolt said...

Early morning up date!
I left my collection of crosses and Palm fronds in the cooker all day yesterday and all night on slightly reduced heat. A quick look this morning shows some brown and brittle objects...I'm hoping they will blacken up today!