Three Churches In Three Days

On Friday, Bob and I went to Dereham Parish Church for an organ recital. This is part of their fundraising campaign to be able to install much needed toilets and decent kitchen facilities on site.At 12.15 we enjoyed an excellent sandwich lunch [good choice of fillings, also quiches, sausage rolls, pork pies and cherry tomatoes, followed by selection of cakes, choice of hot or cold drinks] 

Then a gentleman started trying to erect a portable screen near to where we were sitting. Bob used to have one like that, and as it's easier to put up with a helper, he went off to assist. Here he is in his best navy blazer, kneeling on the carpet! Then he helped sort out the video camera too...his assistance was much appreciated.

I do not have any photographs of the recital itself, they were not allowed! The visiting organist was D'Arcy Trinkwon. That is not an anagram, D'Arcy's forebears were from the continent and his surname is French. He is remarkably gifted and played various pieces, including some by a Canadian Composer for the foot pedals only [we were able to watch his hands on the keyboard and feet on the pedals via the video camera and big screen] Here's a clip of him playing in Selby Abbey. He's quite the showman!

Saturday from 9.30-4.30 I was in Dereham Baptist Church, for a Safeguarding Training Day. It is very important to us in our chapel that we have the correct procedures and protocols in place, for the protection of any vulnerable person [child or adult] who may come to our premises - five from our chapel attended. People from all over Norfolk were there. I met up with old friends- and it was especially lovely when a woman called Christine came up and introduced herself. She met me at a Women's Day at DBC in 2015, and has been following Tracing Rainbows ever since. I hope we can meet up again sometime, for a proper chat over coffee.

Sunday I was back in my own little Chapel at Foulsham. I was Duty Deacon, so we got there really early. Duties include checking who is on the rotas for tea and coffee, welcoming, prayers etc.

 As it was communion, I had to fill the little glasses [they go in a tray like the one in the picture] I knew we had a number of absentees. So I filled 24 glasses. At the start of the service we had 22 adults [plus adults and children out in the hall at Sunday Club]. But one couple arrived late. Our practice is that a deacon takes the tray, serves the pastor, takes it round the congregation, and then returns it to the communion table. As I took it back to Nick, we realised there was just the one glass left, for me! We sung some good songs, and Nick preached a great sermon about Jairus' Daughter, and the sick woman, from Mark 5.

Three church buildings, one very big, one fairly big, and one small - but good friends and a lovely atmosphere in each one. Bob tells me that nowadays a person is considered to be a 'regular churchgoer' if they attend a service once in 3 weeks. I'm definitely a regular.

Have you come across D'Arcy Trinkwon?
He's a very flamboyant character, and a master of his music.

One Step At A Time..

 
Not sure they are appropriately dressed for climbing a snowcapped mountain, but I like the sentiment. It reminds me of the 'Serenity Prayer', which was written almost a century ago by the German-American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. 

This little token is one produced by Alcoholics Anonymous, who adopted the prayer as their own in the 1940s, to help those struggling to reach sobriety and restoration.

Hope, Courage, Serenity. and Wisdom - all good virtues to which we should aspire!

Here's A Hurdy Gurdy!

 A couple of weeks back, Kezzie posted about visiting Kentwell Hall, stepping back into Tudor times, with customs, costumes, and music. She particularly mentioned seeing [and hearing] a hurdy-gurdy played for the first time 'in real life' And she got to try it herself. Do read her lovely post, with all the illustrations if Tudor re-enacters, and Kezzie herself getting happily involved.
In the same week, Bob and I went to a talk at the Dereham Heritage Trust. 

The guests were Chanter's Jigge, Malcolm and Elizabeth, husband and wife,  who also play many many Tudor instruments. They gave us an Elizabethan Musical Experience, with their latest programme,
including a hurdy gurdy.
Clearly Tudor Music is the sound of the summer!

*If Henry VIII really did write Greensleeves, did all the royalties go to royalty?

*Is it true that if Tudor musicians got into debt, they had to pawn their doublets and sit around in their singlets?

Have you ever played a crumhorn, a shawm, or a hurdy-gurdy?

[* apologies for very, very old jokes]

Summer Is...

 ...Days Of Syrup Sliding Off A Silver Spoon

My first squares for our new "Double Knitting Collaboration" new. I did Block 195; Ridges from The Book. This was one of the patterns chosen my good friend Heather. So my first attempt was using a random yarn in heathery shades, with a white contrast. I tried white with heather ridges, and heather with white ridges. Neither worked! The weather was so hot and sticky – like days of syrup sliding off a silver spoon.
Then I found in the stash a soft cream yarn and also a golden yellow. Silver and Syrup. Milk and honey. These did contrast well, so I knitted up the square in both arrangements. I can’t decide which I like best.

I am fascinated by the way that a very simple 4-row pattern [3 plain 1 purl] makes this neat ridge pattern, and would work well even without the contrast. I am delighted by the fact that we both started with a ridge pattern!
These are Kirsten's squares Block 10; Horizontal Ridges. Her pattern has ridges which are twice as deep, and is done in a single colour. She posted me the bright blue, and kept the grey marl.

This was the flat gift I sent her - it seemed appropriate!
She gave me a pretty little notebook

Blocking notes
I cut two 6” squares from a brown card envelope, misted the squares [both sides] with lukewarm water, and pinned them neatly to the cards,
then left them overnight to dry. We need to keep our pieces straight and true!

Read more about these first squares on Kirsten's post today

Forty Eight Years And Counting...

Thomas Hardy's perpetual calendar on his desk was always set at March 7th, because that was the day he met Emma, his first wife. 

I was very taken with this idea, so when I saw Hardy's Calendar in Dorset, eight years ago, I came home and altered my calendar to the date when I first met Bob [this late Victorian calendar was inherited from Great Aunt Amy, Grandad's sister]

For the record, like Thomas and Emma, we met in church. Bob's first words [on seeing my student sweatshirt] "Oh no! not another teacher!". We went on to an after church youth group, and spent the evening sitting on the sofa discussing the sermon, and sharing a 'Youth Praise' songbook. And today marks 48 years together - friend, fiancé, husband, soulmate - my 'better half'

The last week has been pretty significant for us too. After a lot of waiting [three years since the doctor declared him an 'urgent' case] Bob has finally had the denervation procedure on his back, to relieve him of the constant and acute pain he has been suffering for so long.

That was last Friday [hence my absence from the church holiday club] Things are looking good. It's wonderful to see him standing straight and tall and free of pain. 

Last weekend we went to the coast, Bob walked down to the water and swam in the sea with Rosie.

Thanking God for all His goodness to us and to our family 

You Gotta Pita Pocket Or Two!

I sometimes buy packs of pita bread from the supermarket. 50p for 6. Not an expensive product. But a few years ago Liz took me to Shuk, a street food stall in Borough Market. Shuk  is the Hebrew word for Street Market. Among other things, they sell stuffed pitas. Fabulous fluffy, light pockets full of tasty fresh food. I'd never tasted "proper" fresh pita before, the supermarket stuff seems like cardboard in comparison. 

Then I had pita in Gem, a Turkish restaurant near Norwich Station. I asked the waiter if they were made in the kitchens or bought in. He said they came from London, arriving fresh every morning on the early train. "you can't buy them like this in Norfolk!" he said.

We had roast lamb for lunch on Sunday with the family [it was in the freezer, I'd got it half price in Morrisons a while back] Bob suggested the leftovers would be lovely in pita pockets.

So I decided to make my own.

I used Delia's recipe for pita dough in the breadmaker. It was really easy. (here) The recipe makes 12. I cooked four on each baking sheet. We had two each, and put 8 in the freezer.  They were soft and fluffy like the ones in Shuk and Gem. I made some raita with my homemade yogurt, and the free cucumber I got in Lidl at the weekend. Bob added spicy sriracha sauce too. 

And the cost? 50p for twelve - half the price of cardboard ones in the supermarket. I shall definitely make these puffy pita pockets again. If you have a Breadmaker with a dough facility, give it a go. 

We Are Not 'Posh Grandparents'

According to the fashion writers, the style for this season is 'Posh Grandpa'.  I kid you not. Style points; vintage jackets or blazers, check or cord trousers [not jeans], loafers or laced brogues [not trainers], waistcoats or woollen sleeveless slipovers. Well, I checked, and I can produce all of those items from my wardrobe. And Bob has most of them in his size too. 

But it's flaming June out there!!
Personally I would prefer to be in a diaphanous dress like Lord Leighton's beauty* today rather than wrapped up like an aged Oxford Professor in December.
I checked out Jane and Beryl [aka The Ministry of Style.] Have you come across these two friends in their sixties, who suddenly found their jokey fashion posts going viral during Covid

Their comment on dressing like Posh Grandpas is here. I found B&J amusing in the early days, when their videos were not quite so polished, but now they have upped their game and become a teensy bit too smug for me. In their mid 60s, it was initially a bit of a game in retirement, but now they are making a living as 'influencers'. So they are sponsored by various clothing and cosmetic companies. I suspect they were not short of a bob or two to start with. Jane, the tall one, was an accomplished artist and milliner, [her hat company supplied Harrods]

Many of the videos are shot in her house [which could belong to the NT] When I started watching them I discovered some fun portmanteau words [wearing a Breton top makes me striped-boobed or "stroobed"] and the Acorn Antiques clips are a scream.

But I wondered about tall Jane's coloured pointy stick, used to indicate fashion points on Beryl's shorter, dumpier body  What is it?
Well done if you correctly identified it as a Croquet Stake! I mean, doesn't everyone have one of them lying around? The Ministry Of Style Ladies are a lot posher than me! Btw I'm a Compact Beryl rather than a Statuesque Jane. 
Do you dress like a Posh Grandpa?
Have you watched any Ministry of Style clips?

*but wearing more underwear than she is, obviously