Changing habits

Tuesday became Monday this week. It wasn't because the hot weather is meant to be finishing tomorrow - just because we'd arranged to meet my eldest brother and sister-in-law for lunch at The Bull in Fairford. They were having a break nearby and we extended our staycation to join them. It was good to be out of the heat! That sounds really ungrateful. It was a very pleasant occasion - no canned music, good company (including their dog) and conversation, and good food. Three of us had their 'Credit Crunch Lunch' which at under £5 was excellent value.

Talking of bulls we enjoyed our lunch on Thursday in the neighbourhood of a rather fine real bull keeping guard over his nuclear family, cow and two calves. We'd been to visit one of the saints of the Cotswold Hills, Judy, who lives near the Roman villa at Chedworth. She is an old friend from my vicar days. We had coffee with her and then headed south to have a picnic lunch. We thought we'd have it at a National Trust property, Sherborne Park's The Lodge. We ended up at Ewe Pen Barn, the old assembly point for the estate's sheep on the way to market. Where there are two conveniently placed picnic tables and the start of numerous walks. Over the wall as we drew up was a mare and its foal and the bull and family. I tried to persuade Jane to climb over and take a close-up of the bovine family, but she wouldn't....

While we were eating, we watched a couple of swallows flying in and out of the outhouse next to us. We couldn't hear any cheeping from inside - so guessed there weren't any chicks yet. On the other hand it wasn't very obvious they were bringing mud for nest-building.
I'm told dandelions are particularly prolific this year. In fact I think lilac is too, and hawthorn.... Perhaps it's going to be a hard winter. Or perhaps it's because it was.

Sunday was Pentecost - or Whitsunday, as some of my old parishioners used to insist. And the BBC excelled itself. I have to admit it and congratulate Mr Nagra. At 10 am on BBC1 there was the morning service from All Saints', Peckham. Some years ago Frog and Amy Orr-Ewing led a parish weekend for us at Windmill Farm in Clanfield. He was then curate at St Aldate's in Oxford. Now he's vicar in Peckham leading a thriving multi-racial church, full of life, while she is in worldwide demand as a speaker about why Christianity makes sense. Anyway we saw on our screens what contemporary Christian worship can really look like. Frog was leading and preaching. It was a tonic, as, after a dodgy start, was Songs of Praise in the evening from the King's Church in Newport. It linked the Holy Spirit's first coming with the Welsh Revival of 1904. Again we saw a church full of people utterly enjoying worshipping. I particularly appreciated X Factor finalist Beverley Trotman singing 'Voice of Hope', but there was also the 'Love song of the Revival', Dim ond Jesu. And coincidentally both programmes ended with 'Happy Day'. Interestingly, our morning service at church ended with the same. It is a very celebratory song, entirely appropriate for the birthday of the Church.