Changing April weather?

The beautiful weather we had yesterday for the Wedding at church led many to comment on how unseasonal it was. This led me to wonder was it really unusual? I was sure I could think of warm sunny days at the beginning of April before.

I decided to do an unscientific trawl through photos on my computer to see what sort of weather we usually have at the start of April.



On 16th April 2004 the weather in Southwold was good enough for people to be sitting outside enjoying the sunshine in their shirt sleeves.



I couldn't find anything on my computer from early April 2005 but in April 2006 we had blue skies once again.



The shadow from these trees on 9th April 2007 imply reasonably strong sun.





The weather can change on a daily basis as these photos from 6th & 7th April 2008 show; heavy snow one day (it was a colour photo, not black and white) followed by an overnight thaw and sunshine.



11th April 2009 brought another bright day, this time at Maldon - there was very little wind so not ideal for our trip on a Thames barge.





Last April there were bright skies and good reflections in Ipswich on the 3rd and the lambs enjoyed the sun on the 10th.

It could be that almost every other day in April was grey and wet, hence no photos. Or perhaps the beginning of April is almost always bright and sunny! Perhaps it tells us more about the assumptions we make, our expectations and selective memories.

Ladybird

The ladybirds were out enjoying the warm spring sunshine.

Scallop Shell revisited

A walk along the beach at Aldeburgh found me revisiting the scallop shell. It always surprises me how we can go back to a familiar place and see something different from before. We become aware of different textures, of variations in colour etc. The time of day, the light, the mood we are in all seem to effect what we see. I supose by now I shouldn't be surprised any more.

 

It's a bit like when we read a familiar bible passage; how often we expect to know what it says but re-read it and find something new, something we hadn't noticed before.

No people

To the complaint, "There are no people in these photographs," I respond, "There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer."

 

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

blossom

Had fun playing in the sunshine this morning with my new camera lens - need more practice....

Pancake Race

To mark Shrove Tuesday it was decided by Forest YMCA to hold a pancake race. This was held in the grounds of Walthamstow town hall, running round the fountain, and funds raised went to the Mayor's charity. The winning team were catering students from Waltham Forest College and close runners up were Kenford builders currently working at Forest YMCA. It was a beautiful sunny day and everyone had great fun.

 

 

The Transfiguration

Tomorrow the Lectionary Gospel reading is Matthew 17.1-9; the transfiguration. The West window at St Michael's is a beautiful depiction of this. Usually when I preach about the transfiguration I encourage the congregation to turn round and look at the window; it makes a wonderful visual aid. Each time I have done this I have been surprised by the number of people who tell me they haven't really noticed it before.

 

No matter what time of day you go into church this window always seems to shine out. Even on a fairly dull day the window seems to pick up the best of the light. In the summer particularly you often get the light playing through the window creating patterns on the floor and pillars and at times we have a stained gass ceiling!

Things we remember

I always look for the daffodils to be in bloom towards the end of February. When Graeme was born we had come home from hospital and the next day there was a ring on the doorbell. Standing on the doorstep was a near neighbour with a bunch of daffodils in his hand. He explained he'd been at the kitchen sink and was looking out the window and saw all the daffodils in his garden and thought "Morag might like some." He'd gone out and picked some and come straight round to ours - the sap was dripping out the bottom...

 

 I had been given and sent loads of flowers to mark Graeme's arrival - from my work, Richard's work, various family and friends and all were much appreciated but the ones I think of every year and still remember clearly 21 years on are the daffodils that were brought round to me freshly picked. It just shows that it really can be true that it is often the thought that is more important than the cost.

 

The daffodils are much later this year, we don't have any fully out yet so instead of a photo of a daffodil I've posted a photo of a daffodil from one of the stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel in church.

Happy Birthday

Happy 21st birthday Graeme

Activity day

We held our holiday activity day at church on Monday. It was attended by 38 primary aged children and our theme was journey. All the children had "passports" and they collected country stamps as they travelled round the different activities. They made suitcases out of shoeboxes and were able to use them to carry home some of their work. We heard about different journeys in the bible, had drama workshops, made junk models, cookies, "stained glass" cross bookmarks, prayer feet, planted lettuce seeds and lots more besides. By the time the youngsters were collected from church after our closing worship they were tired, happy and had learnt a lot.

 

We couldn't have run the day without the help and support of so many different people - those who helped withe the planning and co-ordinating; the administration; helpers on the day; pliers of tea & coffee for the adults and squash for the children; collecters of junk; those who came to help clear up when the rest of us were beginning to flag and the many members of the congregation who held the day in prayer - Thank you to you all.

Wedding Show

I spent this afternoon helping on the Church of England stand at the Wedding Show at Olympia. As usual with these events I had some really valuable conversations with those wondering about the possibility of being able to marry in a church. It was good to be able to help couples understand the various options of which church you can marry in and try to help them make sense of qualifying connections.

 

We also offered to pray for couples in the time leading up to their wedding (whether or not they were planning to marry in church) if they filled in a card with their names and the date of their wedding and if they wished where they were planning to marry.

 

It was great to be able to help answer the vast variety of questions we were asked; many didn't have definitive answers but we were able to encourage them to talk to the clergy in the church they hoped to marry to find out.

 

Several people came over to us and said how pleased they were to see the church having a stand at such an event, that they appreciated our presence and valued the fact that we were there to give out information rather than to do a hard sell.