And so we reach Ash Wednesday, at least this year it feels like there has been a proper gap between Christmas and Lent! We blessed a new set of Lenten vestments this evening at the Ash Wednesday Eucharist (the things the priests & servers wear). We've had a very mismatched set for a long time and these match both each other and the altar frontal ( Read more... )

Got pancakes twice today because we decided to have our team meeting at The Pudding Stop (a local and very wonderful cafe entirely dedicated to puddings <3) If Shrove Tuesday was this good does that mean I have to be extra penitent for the rest of Lent ( Read more... )

One of the things I'm doing this Lent is taking part in the #40acts challenge (40 days of giving back, doing good and living generously) and yesterday was fine but day 2 and I'm already slightly stuck because it's all about making friends with your neighbours and I'm already friends with ours :-P ( Read more... )

So my Lenten discipline this year is going to involve all sorts of little bits and pieces hopefully coming together to help me grow in faith and love (which is a phrase straight out of the book I'm reading this Lent which is based on sermons by St Augustine) and one of the things I'm going to try and do is find one beautiful thing to post ever day ( Read more... )

So far this year I have read a LOT more than last year, though possibly that's because I've just been on holiday and last year I didn't go till March *g* I've also finally finished the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell which I've wanted to read for a long time. I'm not sure it has entirely changed the way I see the modern novel (As one review ( Read more... )

I'm having a quiet Good Friday. The Three Hour Vigil this afternoon was beautiful. We have Revd Dr Leslie Griffiths preaching for us this Holy Week and he's been very good. One of the sermons today he spent talking about his work in a cancer unit for teenagers and about a boy who had been told he was dying and had told him to look after his mother ( Read more... )

Today has been EXHAUSTING. Full, completely crazy, day at work then 10 minutes at home for tea & a hot cross bun before rushing out to a Rainbow planning meeting (if we survive next term still standing it'll be a miracle- who puts the Rainbow 25th Birthday, the Diamond Jubilee AND the Olympics all in one term! Bad planning universe. And THEN I ( Read more... )

It's so gorgeous and sunny outside and I want to be out there and not stuck in here! Ages ago I'd planned to take this afternoon off so I could get to Kingston in plenty of time and wander around the shops & near the river and in this weather it would have been perfect. Sadly it's E's last day in the office before she takes 3 weeks off so I have to ( Read more... )

*collapses in small exhausted heap ( Read more... )

Right. I am attempting to tick things off my to-do list because it had reached ridiculous proportions and now I've done most of the more serious/pressing bits (note: most....) I'm allowing myself an easier one. The 3 reviews of performance type things I need to write.

Starting with an Organ recital (no really) but one narrated by Timothy West!

( Improvisations on the Fourteen Stations of the Cross @ St Albans Cathedral )