Good morning everyone

 

Very cloudy here, showers forecast for late afternoon.

 

Yogi, I'm glad you had a great day with PB

 

Summer, I hope you enjoy your special walk wherever that may be.

 

After church this morning I'm out for a meal with the couple from church who like their puddings so I may have difficulty in getting through my front door when I return

 

Have a great day whatever you are doing

Good morning everyone. It's a lovely day up here, the sun is shining.

Enjoy your lunch, El - pudding is the best part of a meal.

I hope you enjoy your special walk and the weather stays fine for you, Summer.

Moonie and Skylark, I hope you are able to join us again soon, we miss you.

Squiggle, I fell asleep during CBB HL show last night. Are you still watching or has Charlotte put you off?

Have a good day, everyone.

 

Good morning everyone, sounds like you're in for a treat at lunchtime EL   Glad you had a great day with the wee one Yogi, her smile sounds charming.  Those smiles have a way of slipping into your heart, I can still see clear as day the gummy smile of my eldest grandson, and he's 21 now.

 

I'm still watching, but oh my goodness aren't they a funny lot, can't say I really like any of 'em.  I see lots of people are liking Courtney, but she's so Barbie isn't she?  No harm in the poor lass, ah well time will tell.  I never have liked Carol and does she ever have a conversation where she doesn't mention the age of her boyfriend?  Haven't heard one yet.

Good morning we're on our way to the Lake District and the forecast is perfect. Keep your fingers crossed for a clear summit for ya bramble is about to take on her first Wainwright El, I hope you have a wonderful lunch, please come back with great detail about those puddings Have a lovely day squiggle & yogi Hugs & good wishes for skylark & moonie

Ooh I love the Lake District, have a great day Summer, hope Bramble enjoys her first Wainwright.

Have a wonderful time, Summer. I'm sure Bramble will love it.

They are an odd bunch, with nobody being particularly likeable.

I agree with you about Courtney, she really is like a Barbie doll, but no nastiness so far. I didn't think I would like Carol and I don't. It isn't so much her 'I'm on old slapper and proud of it' routine, it's her bitchy side I'm not keen on.

Speaking of the Lake District....... I haven't been this year however may I recommend Martindale? Rather than queue to go up the more popular fells you can head for Martindale. A lovely isolated church, with a stained glass window dedicated to HMS Glorious, which acts as a shrine for relatives. (I used to take my increasingly frail Dad there) Immediately above is a wainwright which provides ever changing views on the climb and concludes in an awe inspiring view right up Ullswater and it's all yours!

Sounds beautiful, Joe. I want to go back to the Lake District now!

I'm back from church this morning followed by lunch with the couple from church. I'm not as full as I have been sometimes when I've had lunch there probably because we started with melon rather than the thick soup I've had there. Main course was roast beef, roast potatoes (the potatoes were from their garden) and green beans (which had been given to them from a neighbour's garden).

 

And the pudding was a yellow plum (from their plum tree) crumble with strawberry and cream icecream.

 

Very nice

 

Summer, I hope Bramble enjoys her first Wainwright

Your lunch sounds delicious, El. Plum crumble with ice cream - yum!

ION my mum now takes communion at home, and we arrived there just after and had a chat. Apparently there is a huge shortage of Vicars in the York Diocese and the ArchBishop tried to persuade the previous incumbent to stay.

I believe there is a shortage of vicars in quite a few areas, Joe. In some places, retired vicars have been helping out. I know it took ages to find a new minister for our church.

GJ, there's a general shortage of priests in the Church of England across the country as fewer people decide to go into the ministry and it's not unusual for them to have changed careers later in their adult life. The vicar we now have at our church went into ministry after she was 55. The result is that there are fewer active priests now than there used to be.

 

Quite a lot of churches are dependent on priests who have reached retirement age but help out, and lay people such as what are called readers. Readers are people who have done some training from their bishop and are licenced to preach, teach and lead worship in churches. However they cannot take communion services as only priests and bishops can. They couldn't carry out weddings etc.

 

Lay people can also be licenced by their bishop to assist the clergy in the distibution of wine at communion services. In some dioceses they can be licenced in the distribution of the bread but generally that is done by a priest. 

 

In some churches where there is no priest, a priest from another church or the bishop may consecrate a batch of wafers and wine, then dip each wafer in the wine and put them on a plate or ciborium to dry. These can then be used at services at the church for later services where a reader would lead the service and these wafers used at the communion. That would be an option for giving communion to people at home where there is no priest in the parish. However that does depend on the bishop in that diocese as to if that would be permitted.

 

Apologies for the slightly long post but it may be of interest.

 

The church I attended and was married in, struggled to find a minister in recent years and had lay preachers take services for a while. Sadly, a decision was taken a couple of years ago to close it down.

Yogi, that's sad news. There's little chance of my church being closed down as it's a pretty active church and there's 12,000 people living in the parish it serves. Just to illustrate this, two families had their children baptised at the service on 21 July, there was another baptism service in the church in the afternoon, there was a baptism for 2 families at the service 2 weeks later, and today 2 families each with 2 children who were baptised, so that's 7 families with children being baptised in the space of 5 Sundays.

 

I must admit, it makes me very sad to think of think of my old church closed down.  

It's good news that your church is still well attended, as is our village church. However, I noticed in the local paper that three churches in a nearby town are taking turns to hold Sunday services, with the three congregations joining together. I shouldn't be surprised if one or more of those churches eventually closes too.

Even though I sang in the choir and rang the bells I rather lost touch with religion when I moved here. It's rather High Church. My Dad's funeral was the first service I had been to for years. I was surprised that people remarked on the fact that my Dad must gave been well thought of as the Vicar officiated! Apparently church goers get a Vicar, but lay readers do the rest. In further other news I enjoy hearing bits about Cheltenham FC. Many years ago my other team went down into the conference and I do remember the Cheltenham game in particular. I was late and rather than walk around the ground I went in the away end. I think we won 4-1 ? Of course we are now many divisions below!!

BiB I remember you mentioning that at the time, Joe. As far as I am aware, all of the funerals I have attended have been officiated by a minister or priest - except for one, where it was a humanist service. However, with the lack of clergy numbers, it is possible that lay preachers may be asked in the future to take funeral services up here too.

Summer, I hope you, Mr Summer and Bramble have had a fab day and the weather stayed nice for you.

Moonie, sending you a big hug, hope you are back with us soon. 

Goodnight, sweet dreams everyone. xxx

*night owls* Are you just going yogi?

Ah yes she is! Sweet dreams yogi hope you sleep well Sometimes my app doesn't show the last line of a post, until a new post is made

Good morning everyone

 

Cloudy here, forecast to become sunny later.

 

GJ, all funerals at my church are officiated by a priest whether or not the deceased has been a church goer.

 

A lay reader can officiate at a funeral but normally permission would be needed from the bishop and the family of the deceased would need to agree.

 

Good morning everyone. Another bright and sunny morning.

Summer, so sorry I missed you last night. I think you posted about a minute after I did. How did the walk go, did Bramble enjoy it and did the weather stay nice for you?

I have always had a problem wearing in new shoes and end up with skinned heels, so I decided I would wear my shoes for the wedding for half an hour each day to try to help things along. Thank goodness nobody could see me this morning as high heels and pyjamas is not my best look.

Got a few errands to run today but will be back later. Have a good day all.

I don't think they have a choice in my hometown. Oddly enough, and back in the seventies, I used to work with the lay reader concerned.

Morning btw, and it's sunny.

Good morning everyone, a nice pale blue sky this morning.

 

I can just picture you in jammies and high heels Yogi, you can get special heel plasters that wrap around your heel area if there is the slightest chance of you having heel pain (or risking a blister) on the big day.

 

Hope your day went well and Bramble enjoyed her extra special walkies Summer.

Good morning A very sunny start here today Joe- thanks for the recommendation, I will google that, it sounds like just our thing Here she is, my little mountain dog... She's having a rest and admiring the view from the top of Haystacks I have been wanting to hike Haystacks for some time now and it was beautiful- I didn't know there's a lot of heather up there. With all the tarns & plants around, it's like a garden on top of a mountain! It was very hot though, I've never ascended in such heat, and was quite concerned about Bramble. She was fine though, we carried her water bottle with us, and soaked her in every stream & tarn we found. She rejected her own drinking water in favour of the mountains own luckily for me, I decided to buy a sun hat for walking a few weeks ago, and popped it in my bag not expecting to need it... It was a god send! Poor mr summer got burned though, he sweated right through the suncream I gave him and worn it all off We added lake Buttermere to our walk, and at the end I threw my bare feet into the lake! It felt amazing some people were actually swimming in it, maybe I should pack a swim suit too next time lol The weather was highly unexpected, we usually get rained on and with the exception Hellvelyn, I've never seen anything other than fog on a mountain summit!

That sounds absolutely glorious, and well done Bramble for knowing a good thing, clear mountain water, when she tastes it.  My hubby and I have drunk from a mountain stream in the Lake District. 

 

I am for all of you who are lucky enough to live within a short drive of the Lake District and pop up there for the day, or weekend.  Although I mustn't grumble as I do have beautiful Exmoor on my doorstep, just not the get up and go to enjoy it without my other half.

Summer, that was a fantastic walk

This weird world gets weirder by the day, in my paper today there is a nursery selling buttercups, dandelions and nettles.  You can buy dandelion plants for £3.99, buttercups for £5.99 and stinging nettles for £7.99.  They say they don't call them weeds as it might hurt their feelings .  They have even sold out of some.  Is it April Fools Day?

What a fantastic view!

I don't blame Bramble for favouring the mountain stream water to tap water.

I hope Mr Summer isn't too badly sunburnt.

Dangling your feet in the lake after your long hike must have been bliss! Your posts and Joe's about the Lake District have made me determined to persuade hubby that we need to visit the area again.

Yogi, we met a golden retriever during our walk I think its a sign- mr yogi should take you there Squiggle, I think that way about you being close to Somerset/Cornwall, I'd love to explore there but it's such a long drive from here Snowdon is on my bucket list, I just need a few days off work to make the trip!

I like to think of North Devon as a little bit of a secret.  Loads of people flock to South Devon, they know all about it, Torquay, Paignton, Salcombe etc, full of very posh people.  We're more rugged up here but it is very very beautiful.  I love Cornwall, loads of fascinating places, not quite the same as it was when I was a child.  My dad used to take us to Mevagissey every year, he loved mackerel fishing.  Mevagissey in those days was a real community, I remember taking our Sunday joint to the bakers to go in their oven, everyone did, but now it's full of art galleries and tourist shops and fancy gourmet restaurants.  I love Scotland, so beautiful and parts of North Devon reminded us strongly of Scotland, the trees covered with lichen, the scenery of Exmoor is reminiscent of some of the Scottish glens.  Snowdonia I loved the feeling of the mountains all around so breathtaking.  We live in a very beautiful island don't you think?

I must say that I do prefer the Lakes out of season and particularly the area around Ullswater. Some of the other areas can be packed with tourists, all dressed right out of Fishers front window! Whilst the majority of 'em wouldn't be able to find Skiddaw if you dropped 'em off in Keswick! To find Martindale you need to go to the commercial Pooley Bridge area and go due south on the East side of Ullswater. A windy hilly road eventually brings you to the church. You can park quite easily. Then have a look at the church or head up the hill. You won't be disappointed.

We used to walk from st Austell to mevagissy in the eighties. That's how I stopped smoking! Pensioners were overtaking me at the rate of knots! Meanwhile a friend of mine is cycling from Germany through Austria and over the alps and sending regular photos. If I get on a PC I'll try to post!

 I shall tell him - it's definitely a sign.

We do indeed, Squiggle. I love the countryside in Britain, there are so many beautiful places to visit.

 I always think of you as one of our fitter FMs - unlike me!

oh joe, thank goodness you got some perspective and quit, look at all the great adventures you've had since! I had a similar experience a few years ago; mr summer took me to Durham cathedral and the tower was open so we decided to climb to the top. I was huffing & puffing on the way up and was thinking about how tough the climb was- only to reach the top, walk out the door with my eyes watering and see a lady in her 70's who hadn't even broken a sweat I realised that it wasn't the stairs that were tough, I was really unfit and considering my age & good health, should have flown up those steps! Pics would be great if you could Squiggle, I love areas considered to be hidden treasures, north Devon sounds beautiful. No wonder you like living there. I don't blame you for not wanting to go exploring without your hubby though, you two must have had some wonderful days out together