Writing

Before I came into the church I enjoyed writing and had some success with it. Sermon writing is a creative expression and I have always enjoyed it but as a non part of the Roseland Cluster now I am probably going to do less of it so my mind as always has been turning back to writing. Writing drama is something you don't do alone. If it ever gets to the stage where its going to be acted then the dramatist has to be around to sort out small hitches of the "My character would not say this" variety. Living near London meant that I could be involved and was. Living in Cornwall puts me too far away so not drama then. A novel? Possibly. Poetry certainly. Of course there is the blog but there's so much materiel I can't use in here. I always wrote under a pseudonym anyway so watch this space. I am about to go into creative over drive.

Bank holiday

Typical weather for a Bank holiday. Wind, rain chilly! This is the last big weekend of the year and slowly slowly the exodus starts. My friends and family have already quit the field with promises to come back soon. Ahem! I feel I really should get out and take the dog for a walk but I keep turning it over in my mind and so far its not happening! Well Crispin is very old now 11 next month, I wouldn't want him to get a chill!

I want to send a pic to the blog.
Trying to remember how to do it. Ah.


Here is what took so long!

Done

Well its taken all week in dribs and drabs but we are now done! The weather has been dire for most of the week and today its still blowing and sunny with sharp showers in between but the paving is done and I have been organising the plants to arrange around it.....the courtyard will be very good when I am done so I sent the builders off with thanks and hope their next job doesn't take then quite so long!

Dreckly!

The paving of the area by the summer house has now been delayed several times. This morning we were promised an eight o clock start and we were all up including the geriatric dog, watered bathed and ready and of course we are alone. I have the mid week communion at St Just and then if there is still no movement apparent I shall do something. It may be no more than a scream but I shall do something!

Builders!

We should by this time have got all the new stuff in the garden finished. However we are now in extra extra time with the new date promised for tomorrow. I am not holding my breath since we have already had about 8 missed dates! In the meanwhile it continues wet and damp and not really summer at all. It is however good growing weather and everything is blossoming as though it is still Spring. The grass is lush and long , too wet to cut most of the time! In Essex by August my grass had turned orange with no cutting required! The good thing is that we have a long hedge full of blackberries, all turning black as we speak. Apple and blackberry pie coming up!

Visitors

We have been having a good many friends and family turning up and this week it was a contingent from Essex. Jane has been a good friend for many years now but is unused to boats so yesterday she was particularly brave. She came over on the ferry from Falmouth. It was blowing a hooley so I told her to shut her eyes and hold on to her seat on the way over. I met her off the ferry and she had chatted to all the crew and was sitting on the top deck smiling and waving! I did offer to take her back by road but she was having none of that! Off she went back to the family on Falmouth beaming all the way! Here is very different from Chelmsford!

Audio books

Someone I play backgammon with sent me some audio books a while back. I was slightly puzzled as to why anyone with eyesight should want to listen to a book when they could perfectly well read it. However I am now hooked! Reading in sunlight was a problem, now I just shut my eyes and go....its a whole new world and I am finding every day new authors to explore and to listen to. This mornings joy is finding the best dog book in the world. "Buster" written by Roy Hattersley and now spoken by him too! Let joy be unconfined! Listening to the jowly man, a much better writer than politician, describing why his dog was caught chasing the queens swans in Regents Park is quite simply sheer pleasure!

Friends and relations

We are inundated right now by people some of whom turn up out of the blue and some who try to book up weeks ahead to make sure they catch us. All are welcome, from the two families, mine and Davids we have already entertained about 20 groups and more to come! My son and grand daughter went home yesterday. David's grandson and his family arrive today. None of them are actually sleeping here thank goodness but they arn't far away! Next week arrives a very old friend from Chelmsford and all her family. We have a lot of catching up to do! My friends vary in the way they first see me in a dog collar. Roars of laughter are not uncommon but mostly they go a bit tongue tied and wary until the old Jean asserts itself and makes them laugh! Priests are people too!

Visitors

Having been overwhelmed by visitors in the last week this week seems easier! My grand daughter goes home tomorrow and then we are quiet until another friend arrives at the end of the week. Unfortunately the weather is also going home! Rain again this morning! However we have more than enough to do on Nan's last day. The annual shell competition will take up most of the morning and this afternoon we have laid aside for sorting out new apps for her ipod. She has now had this since last Christmas and I was staggered to find that she had no games or information apps on it all! The problem is that she has no account with Apple and her mother was not letting her set one up and I honestly don't blame her for being wary so up to me. My account has already taken a bit of a bashing with more on its way. The apps are only few pounds each with many of them free....she might as well have them to go home with now!

Sunday

After a very busy week I was looking forward to a fairly quiet Sunday. I had two services which were both early in the morning so I arranged to take my kids out for lunch! It was a good lunch but the world and his wife or significant other were all there too! August is always like this so why am I surprised?

Going digital

We thought we had already gone digital well ahead of the switch over! We were wrong. Channels started to go missing and finally last week we got down to BBC1 and 2! Missing Neighbours we rang for help! Our digi box....only three years old was out of date, defunct in fact! We have now had to pay for a new one which does all sorts of magic tricks and is supposed to be freeview ± I just wonder what everyone else is doing to cope or are we the only people around here without Sky?

Sun and funerals

It seems all wrong to be doing a funeral when the sun is out and glorious. Dressed in black, it is incongruous in the extreme but this afternoon we take another one to the crem. She, like almost all the ones who have gone before her was very old, 90 and no one wants to talk about her much. I shall do my best to say goodbye to her with respect and all my blessings but it still feels somehow wrong.... I really don't know why. She lived here all her life. Someone must remember her.

Family relationships

I never fail to be amazed how easily people get upset by small things that are actually not important but which have grown huge. In these next weeks of visitors the people living here are under some pressure. We welcome people into our homes and treat them as part of our families and oddly expect them to do the same for others. When they don't problems arise which are hard to sort out. People get territorial and fight to preserve their bit of the beach or park against all comers. It is our Christian thing to be hospitable to all our visitors and that should include those we dislike even thought that makes it a bit harder. A touch of sun would help! Oh for an ideal world!

Roughs seas

Yesterday we arranged to meet my sister in law Betty and her sister off the ferry from Falmouth. They are backpacking around Cornwall following the deaths of both their husbands. The sea was rough , the rain was cold wet and driving. They got off the ferry looking pale and very wobegone. We took them for a drink and some lunch whilst they regained their composure. They had done the boat trip....that was it, they would get a bus to the next destination! We took them up to our house and then at their request on to see the church. They loved it. Eventually we took them over to Falmouth to collect their luggage and they were ready for the next adventure...St Austell this morning! Hats off to them both! We laughed and we cried together remembering other times and places...it did us all good to talk about our lost loved ones.

Paw prints

We got back from the wedding on Saturday to find the concreting done. Unfortunately not in time to stop the dog exploring! The prints look quite decorative! Yesterdays christening was a very busy occasion. The entire Ringrose family were in church. The babies parents were married by me exactly one year ago in the same church and there were about 16 other babies there, all members of the same family. We had lunch with them all afterwards and it was a very happy day for everybody!