Coffee morning

The trouble with springtime, even one so chilly and delayed as this year's, is that I see so many beautiful landscapes and signs of growth that I'm always taking photos of new leaves, blue skies (yes!) and hillsides - and indeed I had a crop of such from this afternoon. But in the interests of variety and because the subject is quite different, I took this photo at 10am today outside the Parish Church Hall in Dunoon, where my own church, Holy Trinity, was holding a coffee morning.

Now I cannot deny that I loathe coffee mornings. The coffee tends not to be strong enough for a start (though I have to admit this morning's was a pretty good second) and I don't eat between meals (I know - goody twoshoes me). And I don't always feel like random pleasantries - not in the morning. So I make a habit of signing up, along with Mr PB, to do the washing up. And so it was that on this brilliantly sunny morning (just look at it!) the pair of us were tied to a sink - he washed, in his Marigolds, and I dried. We got through a good half-dozen tea-towels and some hilarious and not entirely excellent-women-standard conversation with the other scullions and coffee-makers and we did a pretty good job and left the kitchen sparkling. As far as I can tell, the event was a roaring success, there were many customers, people fought over what cakes and fruit loaves were worth ... all that's necessary to make such occasions authentic.

The photo shows one of our banners - the sail-type one - fluttering outside the hall, the same hall I took my weans to when they attended first toddler group and then playgroup over 40 years ago. (It's much improved in amenity since then.) It was also our local polling station for many years, though that has now moved to a less convenient venue and we have postal votes. I've even stood where that banner stands, as a CND presence when the Holy Loch base was an issue, and been invited in to supervise the sealing of the boxes when the polls closed. I like the banner - it's cheerful and unchurchy.

I feel that the vapour trail above is somehow significant - perhaps just as a metaphor for a church that is going somewhere ...?