The Way of the Wombat

I forgot to post this link here yesterday.

Those who know my LJ will know that over the pandemic period I helped our minister to put together church services on video. It was a bit like the partially sighted leading the blind; Dawn didn't even realise a laptop had a video camera, and that you would need to put the video on Youtube to be able to share it with others. I had never tried to actually do either of those things - but at least knew I could figure it out!

Over time I learnt how to trim the video, how to cut bits out - and then how to actually add music!

I ended up as a participant as she felt a second voice was needed.

And we did the last one a year ago. So I had forgotten how to do most of that!

Then, due to a series of road closures for cycle racing it was decided that there would be no service in church yesterday but, instead, Revd. Dawn and I recorded our first one for a year. It is interesting - the reading is from Hosea and is one that is often avoided as there is definitely implications of an abusive relationship.

I was dashing around on Thursday before I went down to record it, and didn't think to change my top - something else might have looked better! Also I managed to misjudge a cut point and the first hymn cuts Dawn off mid-word - and then I managed to have the end music over the blessing :( But I couldn't face redoing it as I needed to get it uploaded by Friday evening as the lady who sends the link out to everyone was about to leave the island to go to Poland for a wedding.

You can find the video here.

 Eating a sausage on Ash Wednesday 2022 marks the 500th anniversary of a very important event, and sausage is far more appropriate than an act of piety at home or in church! 

The Reformation began in Zurich on Ash Wednesday 1522 – 500 years ago this year – and it all started with a sausage, or rather several sausages. 

If you would like to read a little more, here is a short explanation from the Daily Devotions team of our church, which is, of course, a Reformed Church i.e. a church with roots in the Reformation -  mailchi.mp/urc/500-years-of-lenten-sausages .

Easter Sunday is a day of joy! I started the day with coffee in bed, because I have a good husband - then I got up, put a large chicken ready to go in the oven so that said husband could put it on to cook whilst I was out, and gathered up all my bits for Sunday School.


We have been considering 'Christ the superhero' and had a prayer, and colouring, related to that theme, and then we thought of small kindnesses and small braveries... as epitomised by Saint Veronica who was brave enough to step out of a jeering crowd to carry out her small act of kindness in mopping blood and sweat from Jesus' face. This is a level of bravery and kindness an eight or nine year old can cope with in real life.

Then we went on to think about the way in which we incorporate the pagan symbols of new life into our celebration of the resurrection. And to put that theme together with the small kindnesses by making something for ourselves and something to go and give to someone else at the end of the service.

I have put pictures of the, very colourful, outcome of this ( under this cut... )

The chicken dinner, followed by the Very Chocolate Trifle (a layer of chocolate chip muffins soaked with a little chocolate Bailey's, a layer of cherries, a layer of vanilla custard and a layer of chocolate custard, topped with whipped cream and served in small bowls) was good.

We visited Mum in the afternoon to take her her Easter Egg and a couple of large fairy cakes from Saturday's baking, and then D-d had another complete dinner before going home as it was so good!

I have a Lindt Egg, and a Thornton's one. I have eaten just a few of the chocolates D-d chose to go with the Thornton's one.

Today has been a beautiful day, the temperature actually reached 20C. And I have finally (don't laugh) tried taking pictures with my phone and downloading them onto the computer - I was finally told by D-d that I still needed a cable to do this - they didn't actually 'do it wirelessly if only I knew how' :) I know, I can be very tech unsavvy sometimes!

To celebrate this moment of enlightenment I've taken a few pictures in the yard, using the phone, which are ( under this cut.... )

I have been deeply entrenched in social history over the past few days - primarily involving the periods of the two World Wars.
Since my last entry I have actually read the book of 'letters, diaries and memories of the Great War', that I wrote about, and I found it fascinating - and not just because one of my great uncles is in there!

( Read more... )

But as well as reading This Terrible Ordeal, I have been doing a task for Church for which I happily volunteered.

Historically we have kept a Cradle Roll of the babies christened in church. Some time ago we decided to frame all the old ones, which are historic documents, separately, rather than them all being piled on top of each other in one frame. And I offered to copy over some of the faded names on the first one. But there were big problems - which I wrote about, with a couple of examples, here.

We then had more problems - not only did we have a lot of names that couldn't be read, and names stuck on top of other names, but it was actually very difficult to source new Cradle Rolls now, too! Then our Baptism Record book had been taken to Ramsey by our 'interim minister' and he kept forgetting to give it back - and so on.

But this week I got the new rolls, and the baptism book, where two other members of the congregation had spent an afternoon marking all the 'missing' children. And I filled in the last empty spaces on that old roll, and began to write new ones for those whose names had been obliterated on it.

I think I now understand what had been going on - the children whose names had been stuck on top of other names, three and four deep in places, were actually all baptised between 1939 and 1952. I think the person responsible may have either just been saving money or, even more likely, couldn't actually get a new blank roll...

The baptism record is, however, a fascinating piece of social history in itself... ( Read more... )

All in all, I really have been steeped in social history over the past few days.

And I have promised D-d, who flies home for the weekend coming, that I will hang onto the Baptism Record until after she goes back as she, too, wants to spend time studying it.

I spent all yesterday evening doing something completely new to me - I took part in the recording of a major BBC TV programme.

UK friends will realise, from the heading, which one. Songs of Praise is exactly what it's name would imply - a 40 minute long, weekly, programme focussing mainly on Christian song, shown on BBC1 on Sunday evenings for the past 52 years. It is recorded in churches, and sometimes other places, around the British Isles. And this week they were recording two episodes in our cathedral.

(And yes - we may only be a small island, but we have our own Anglican bishop and, therefore, a cathedral. It is small, not as big as some UK parish churches, and very simple, but it is a cathedral!)

Many of the congregation gathered from all corners of the island were gathered as 'choir' and had rehearsed for two or three hours earlier in the week - they filled all the middle of the cathedral. Those of us with 'congregation' tickets for just one of the two recordings were sat at the sides and in the transept (the 'short arm' of the cross shape.)

I was in the south transept, mainly behind one of the camera booms and near the machine that produces water vapour throughout - so I don't expect to figure largely when the programme is shown on December 1st, but it was fascinating.

( Read more... )

Traditionally the church children have a special service in July to celebrate the end of term as we do not have children's lessons over the summer, so many of them are off-island, and it gives the teachers a chance to charge our own batteries.

This service was on Sunday - and our theme was sheep! We looked at a number of the times sheep occur in the Bible a few weeks ago - and then we made sheep! Lots of sheep. And rehearsed a story, and made more sheep...

I took some pictures -

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In other news - it is definitely summer today - S2C has taken his jumper off. And even his sweatshirt for an hour or two!

Actually the temperature was about 25C today - and I met one of my patients who has a small son, about 18 months old. She said he was a bit fretful in the heat - but then it occurred to us that it has never been as warm as this at any time in his life - no wonder he was making strange!

I haven't posted for a few days - here's a quick résumé of the week!

Hmm - shoulder still a bit painful if I forget and either try to reach around behind me, pick anything heavy up, or type much; so the next chapter of The Valinor Trail is mainly handwritten on bits of paper.

D-d and I have been deep in discussion about having a few days together in London in August - S2C would as soon not bother. So - I am meeting her in London after I've been to Coventry for the writerconuk get-together on the 9th - 11th August - I'll go down by train and she'll fly over to meet me. Much trawling of hotel websites, which is part of the fun of the whole thing, and we have a good deal at a hotel in south Kensington, in the museum quarter, with a few nice extras thrown in, like free tickets to Kensington Palace, which neither of us have visited before.

Yesterday our new minister at church had her induction service - it was lovely - but I was too busy helping with the catering to take pictures. Also yesterday was The Parish Walk - which is not, as the name might suggest, a pleasant ramble around a country village - but a gruelling long-distance walk the route of which takes the participant to every parish church on the island - a total of 85+miles. Most people set themselves a personal goal of which church they will reach - only a few actually aim for the full distance.

Now whilst, as a non-Anglican church, we are not one of the parish churches on the route, it did affect our service as some of the congregation were walking, or supporting a family member - so my sister took part in the service, but couldn't stay for refreshments as she then had to get to Peel (the 32 mile mark) which is the point Slightly Goth Niece was hoping to reach. Which she did, in a time of 8 hours 56 minutes. (Mind you, the mother of three of the church children got there over an hour ahead of her, and one of the other mums made it to Jurby - the 45 mile mark!)

D-d? She took part in the long-boat races last week** - and helped run a feeding station with workmates for the Parish! Mind you she is organising a team for the Isle of Man Relay for Life so she is certainly not joining me in a sedentary lifestyle - good lass.

**Her team is not in that bit on YouTube - but it gives you the idea.

And here are a couple of pictures, just because I have to cross a wee bridge over this little river and waterfall to get to the house of one of my patients - and it makes me smile.

Friday was our 27th wedding anniversary - how time flies when you are having fun.

As S2C was off work we went out for a meal to his favourite local Indian restaurant - I had Mannoor Kozhi Masala - which is a South Indian thick chicken curry with cashews. There is a picture of it ( under here... )

After that embarrassingly empty fridge on Saturday morning, I went to Tescos - and we finally have blossom on the trees and new leaves beginning to unfurl. ( here is a picture taken in the supermarket carpark... )


For our wedding anniversary D-d bought us a milk jug to match our teapot, and the cups, saucers, plates etc. that we treated ourselves to on our Silver Wedding - as both she and her dad agreed that if you have a nice tea-pot you really need the matching milk jug.

So this afternoon I made us all a proper Sunday Tea - with sandwiches, fruit loaf, freshly baked scones and a Victoria sandwich. ( There's a picture under this cut... )

At Sunday School we have been considering what an imperfect family Abraham's was - and how God loved them anyway; today we were looking at the story of Jacob's Ladder. Which is something that really does lend itself to a re-creation ( with gingerbread men.... )

As I stood in Sunday School looking out the window something caught my eye - the primroses are in bloom, and some of them are growing in a rather odd place ( Look.... )

I mentioned last week that I was baking fruit loaves and gingerbread as we had the Mariners' Choir coming to church and we needed to lay on a supper.

I meant to post you the pictures either Sunday night or Monday - but Sunday evening I was just too tired - and I wasn't a lot better on Monday.

Last night I went out for a meal with a couple of women that I was at school with - we had a lovely evening with a nice meal and a good gossip. We have decided to do it more often. It would be difficult to do it less often, as we hadn't got together like this since we all got married, despite all living back on the island for the past few years!

Today it has rained, and rained, and rained. Except on the mountain road where it, apparently, snowed. So the mountain road to the north was closed, and the coast road north was flooded in places. Guess where I had to go to see a patient? Yep - up north. Still, it isn't often a Corsa travels far with a bow-wave...

Anyway, back to the Mariners' Choir. Under the cut is a picture of the choir, and another of the food...

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This evening there is an unmissable programme on TV, for me. The Brain Doctors. It is a documentary series about the work of the neurosurgery unit at the John Radcliffe (a very famous hospital in Oxford) and I find it fascinating. But I have to admit that last week's episode gave me the giggles! One of the neurosurgeons has almost exactly the same Christian name as I do - just that hers is Scots Gaelic, mine the Manx version - sounds almost the same, spelt differently. And her attitude to parenthood was so like mine that I e-mailed D-d and told her to watch it on the iPlayer.

The doctor's son is 10 - she commented that he had reminded her last week that some 'shop-talk' over dinner is probably not suitable with 'Mum! I'm only 10!' And that she tends to send him to school unless he is so ill he probably needs to be hospitalised... 'Doctors and nurses are not sympathetic parents - we hold little truck with minor ailments!' And her final comment, to prove this point, as her son sat eating his dinner was 'He looked as if he had broken a finger last week. So we've just strapped it to the next one for a month.'

Oh yes - it was like listening to me when D-d was that age! Except that she tended to break toes regularly - and after the second lot of X-rays we just gave up bothering to go to A&E.

Still, she seems to have turned out well enough - and I'm sure Mhairi Speirs' son will do just as well.

So - must go and make coffee, go to the loo, and get myself settled to watch. Good job S2C has gone to bed (work last night but not tonight) as he absolutely hates anything like this.

The news from America is very sad, and there is little point in saying more than is patently obvious to most people - fewer automatic and semi-automatic weapons so easily at hand would make it harder for this sort of thing to happen.

But how sad I feel for all the families involved, who will never be able to celebrate Christmas (or similar December festival) in pure joy again.

However; today I ran a cake stall at the Church Coffee Morning, with some of the Sunday Schoolers, for Christian Aid - we think we will be able to give 4 goats and 4 hens from the baking takings!

I have been baking and making for both that and to give as gifts. I really should take some pictures - there have been mini fruit loaves, rum truffles, those white chocolate and cranberry cookies I made the dough for the other week - as well as a tray of cupcakes. I do enjoy doing it.

I have a few decorations up now, and spent time this afternoon wrapping three 'pass the parcel' parcels for our service in church tomorrow - each layer will reveal a request for the recipient to come and take a particular role in the Nativity tableau. The service (traditionally led by the Sunday School) is written, all the Bible readers have their parts, my narrator has hers, and I have pep-talked the lads who are saying the prayers... I actually like leading this service - but am always so pleased when it is over!

So - cards to write this evening but all the prep for tomorrow done.

The themes for the Decememe for yesterday and today were Christmas Tree and favourite Christmas song (Actually it said 'Holiday song' - but "Whoa! We're going to Barbados", or similar seems a bit out of season!).

The tree is ( under here )

And now for my favourite Christmas song; actually it is more an Advent song, but I only feel Christmas has started once we have sung this at church, and Aled Jones sings exactly the version we sing;