War

Young church; shopping; dropping stuff off at aunt’s; then down to my mother’s. She’s been a bit under the weather since her flu jab so wanted to spend some time with her.

Took a slightly different route which gave me this view of the Bass Rock along with some of the new housing which is springing up over North Berwick and some of the flower planting that seems to adorn roundabouts and various sites in East Lothian.

Back to clear out more of late mother-in-law’s flat now we’ve moved out. Then off to the first Bill McDonald lecture at our church. Bill was Minister there for 33years. He married us, officiated at my father’s funeral and baptised our children. A lovely man and a great Minister.

He passed away some months back and to mark him time at the church the Session decided, in addition to other things, to instigate a series of lectures in his name.

The inaugural one tonight was by Alan Little, Bill’s son-in-law married to Sheena = see extra. His topic was war and, in particular, young men’s attitude to war. It was a powerful, thoughtful, erudite, humorous and emotional event drawing on not just his wealth of experiences but also those of Bill and the wartime recollections he had recorded. Alan has a wonderful use of language (as one would expect) and the personal recollections, including of stories he did not write, were profound.

ANd to top it all when I got back the new Doctor Who.