Soggy Sunday

and the whole of the rest of the week, if the weather forecast is accurate!!

but, in fact, today was not as bad as the forecast suggested.

HAPPY EASTER!

I spent today being very lazy - breakfast at the coffee shop followed by a snack at the pub: coffee shop busy, pub dead quiet (!). Decided to wait my slap up lunch (courtesy of M+S!) until tomorrow as I hadn't slept much and so wasn't lively enough to appreciate it fully. This was partly, but only partly, due to coming in from Easter Vigil Mass at midnight. It was good to be there, even if I wish I could attend a High Mass with a professional choir (or ours as it was when I first came to the parish). For that I would have to go to London, and that would mean a longer journey late at night - not a good option, and not with the community where I belong. I wish I could belong to somewhere that had good music, because I really appreciate it (even if my own singing sounds like a drunken orgy: that is probably why I prefer a Mass sung by a choir - they can do so much more and make it really special in a way that reflects better the tremendous event it is.)

It was also cold in church. We have the heating on a timer, and no one appears to think to change it when we have a Mass or event at a different time from usual .... I'll have to keep chipping away at that one. Fortunately it was not as cold as it can be: if it is really cold the chances of me giving any thoughtful attention to things spiritual for more than two seconds is nil!!

I am really glad I was able to 'do' Easter properly this year: last year I couldn't because the weather was so bad, and how important are the things I wish I could have when you think of what we are celebrating and how much people suffer in other places if they attempt to celebrate Easter .... and on Maundy Thursday I was very aware of how much we would have risked by any celebration right here had we been in the sixteenth century.

Rather a solemn post (but then it is the most solemn three days of the year ... ) and I have every intention of celebrating for a day or two yet!

To return to everyday things ... the neighbour whose cat had stayed a night or two came with chocolates and a plant for me and I asked her to have a quick sniff around to check if there was any other evidence of his presence, but none was found, so I will presume there will be no nasty surprises to find - thank goodness!

Summertime???

Well, I've kept away for a few days now, so time for an update. Mum and sister are away in France for Easter, so maybe my brother and family will come here for a visit.

The advent of BST came, as usual, with the weather anything but appropriate! Saturday was cold, wet and windy, but Sunday a little better, and I was able to get to early evening Mass AND BACK in the light, which makes me feel things are on the up (and the long-range weather forecast is promising reasonable weather over Easter, too!).

On Saturday, too, someone I know came and we observed the hour for the earth - switching the lights off for an hour - NOT something I was planning on doing, but she had come by on her way home from the demo in London (she is into every cause going of the pacifist/feminist/eco variety and probably more besides) because she hadn't anyone to observe the event with and thought I might be free. She is one of those people who somehow manages to cause disproportionate disruption in my house ... and this time I was left with a jumper that had candle wax all the way down the front, which wouldn't have happened otherwise because I wouldn't have been sitting by candlelight!!

That is just typical - she doesn't actually mean to disrupt, it just happens - every time!! In a sense I can't really blame her as I moved the candle, but if she hadn't been here I wouldn't have had the candles lit so it wouldn't have happened. She is also prone to bright ideas which she communicates to me with great enthusiasm and without seeing the practical consequences. Her most recent suggestion is that I could replace the fence (which apparently is in a state of disrepair) with a hedge, thus establishing a more ecologically sound barrier with a bonus for wildlife.

All very well BUT:

- next door is responsible for that fence

- it needs someone who knows how to set it up, and that is a lost art these days

- it is bound to need maintenance, expensively so.

This follows on her giving me a bush for my birthday, despite my reply to her suggestion of giving me a plant, which was that I did not want anything for the garden at the moment as I needed to get the garden organised (and weeded!!) properly before putting anything in it. (It has been neglected since I was ill two years ago.) To add insult to injury, she had chosen a bush which needs acid soil and ours is alkaline ... as she claims to know a bit about gardening, that is another thing not thought through ...