After successfully finding my way back to my blog I have so far failed to do any blogging.  I found that I had committed myself to doing so many other things that the time and energy for self-indulgence (i.e. writing for my own amusement) was lacking.

We spent over a year sorting out my late mother’s belongings and then after the start of the new year we began helping Alice, our elder daughter move the rest of her possessions that were still in our house up to her new home in Sheffield.  This entailed quite a bit of hard decision-making on her part and a lot of trips to the tip and the charity shop for my husband, Richard.  When that was done I decided that I might as well carry on the good work and begin a clear out of my own extraneous belongings, also going through all the stored bedlinen etc., and I had just got going with that when Lent began – and what a busy Lent it was!  Note to self – get on with the clearing out!

I’m not sure whether I told you that three years ago I, with four other friends, was commissioned as a lay-elder (with licence to preach) in my church.  To be commissioned we have to prove that we have had a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check done (criminal records are checked to make sure we have behaved ourselves recently) and we have to take part in a safeguarding training course. Three years ago I took Level One and Level Two Safeguarding Training.

Every three years lay-elders have to be re-commissioned and therefore another DBS check has to be done and our safeguarding training has to be brought up-to-date.  This year we have struggled through Level Three of the training programme. We should also be doing a course on dealing with abuse in the home but there are no spare places at present on the on-line course.  Safeguarding is important work I know, but I think it highly unlikely that I will have to use this knowledge in a real-life situation very often, if at all.  It presupposes that we deal regularly with children, young people and vulnerable adults.  We don’t.  In all eleven churches which make up our benefice there are only four children who come to church fairly regularly, with their parents.  We have no youth groups, Sunday Schools or creches. We have a choir that meets just before Advent to practice singing carols.  They disband just after Christmas.  We have a hand-bell ringing group led by Gail the organist.  The only times that most of us meet are for church services, fund-raising events and PCC meetings etc. There may be some parishioners who have vulnerabilities they do not, will not, or cannot share with others but, as we all know each other quite well, we know where everyone lives, we know many of each others habits and hobbies and a lot about everyones’ families, I feel that we are in no real danger of being harmed by a thoughtless remark or by being given a hug when we’d rather not be touched.  If we got a visitor or even a new church-member (Glory Be!) that would be different and we would know to behave with care.  As for any of the other sins like coercion, bullying, grooming or sexual abuse, I really cannot see any of us indulging in those – or getting away with it either. However, as we all know, there are some very nasty and devious people about and it is better to be safe than sorry.  I finished writing up the final part of the Safeguarding course ten days ago and submitted the work.  I now have to wait a week or so to find out whether I have passed.  I committed myself to reading some of the approved and relevant books and documents and I am making my way through those at my leisure.  I also have to do some kind of project in the church during the next six months to do with promoting safeguarding.  Oh dear!

I attended a Lent course which met every Wednesday evening at the Rectory.  This was quite good fun as we were greeted by Bonnie the black labrador on arrival, learnt about the Desert Fathers (and Mothers), had a discussion and a cup of tea and then drove home again at 9.00pm.  The five minute video we watched at the start of the meeting sometimes speeded up and the narrator’s voice changed, to our childish amusement.  I quite enjoy witnessing the drawing out of the nights as I venture out in the evenings during Lent.  We begin in February, leaving the house at 7.10pm in the dark and cold, often with foggy, rainy and sleety weather.  By the end of Lent we leave home in the light with Spring weather to the fore, which is also sometimes foggy, rainy and sleety!

My friend Gail and I spent the afternoon of the day before Mothering Sunday (15th March) at her farm making posies to hand out the next day.  I took the posies home in water in a couple of her lambing buckets, kept them in water overnight in our cold garage and then in the morning prepared them for presenting to the mothers in the congregation or to people who would be seeing their mothers later that day or, wanted them to put on graves.

The spring flowers have been wonderful this year – so many snowdrops and aconites then daffodils, primroses, celandines and cowslips, lady’s smock, stitchwort, tulips and blossom everywhere.  Sadly I haven’t had much opportunity for admiring them up-close on a walk; I speed past them in my car on my way to the shops or to church.

We have had some work done on the outside of the house.  In February last year we had solar panels put up which involved scaffolding at the front of the house.  This spring, we had scaffolding at the back as well as the front of the house.  We have had almost all of our gutters and downpipes replaced and also the underfelt (under the roof tiles) of the bottom third of the roof at the front and back of the house and also on the lower roof over the porch, utility room and the front of the garage.  A big and expensive job but a necessary one.  Two weeks ago, work was begun to improve the driveway, the parking area, all the paths and the patio at the back of the house.  This is extremely messy work and I have found some of the damage done by the large digger to shrubs and plants quite upsetting but when it is done we hope the pleasure of smooth paths and better parking will outweigh the inconvenience.

I travelled up to Sheffield recently to visit Alice and Phil, her husband, for a couple of days.  Alice hasn’t been well and has also had a lot of trouble at work.  I needed to see her and make sure that she was coping okay.  She definitely looked very tired and is trying to managed chronic exhaustion but I think she will be alright eventually.  She, like my younger daughter Elinor, has been looking for a new job, but without success so far.

I have been on a hospital waiting list for months to have someone look at my hands to decide whether I can have surgery to remove some cysts on my finger joints.  They are extremely inconvenient and sometimes painful. I cannot easily get gloves on and find gripping anything very difficult.  At long last I was asked to attend the hospital a few weeks ago.  I had lots of X-rays and spoke to a clinician who agreed that I can have the worst ones removed.  He told me exactly what the procedure would be and all the side-effects and things that could go wrong.  A little daunting, but I am pleased that he will be able to help me.  I am now on his personal waiting list.  I was told in January that I would be called back in April to see if the laser surgery on my eyes has worked or not.  Well, April has come and gone and I have heard nothing from the hospital.  To be honest, I hadn’t thought that I would be called back so quickly.  It must have been wishful thinking by the hospital staff!

That’s it for the time being.  I have been planning a few trips out so I hope to write posts about them eventually and I feel I ought to finish writing up my account of our holiday in Brittany.  That will give me something to do!