A BONUS FIND!

We had a great service at Church this morning, with some great songs, including "Onward, Christian Soldiers" the old hymn written by Sabine Baring-Gould, a curate in Yorkshire and then later set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert & Sullivan fame.  We also had an interesting sermon about "Fasting" something which has been done for spiritual reasons for thousands of years.

I found this snippet of information concerning the hymn : when President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Sir Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941 to sign the Atlantic Charter, both leaders chose a hymn to be sung at a special service. Churchill selected, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and both American and British servicemen sang the song together.

After we had chatted to several friends after the service, off we went looking for dereliction - I may have lost my Blip Mojo, but I won’t give up without a fight!  Mr. HCB decided that there was plenty of dereliction out towards Minety, so that was the route he took.

As we drove, through the Wiltshire countryside, we were delighted to see the beautiful blue sky and some sunshine.  We duly found some dereliction, but in the field next to it were three horses - well, two horses and one little Shetland pony, so today they won out over the derelict scene.  Both Mr. HCB and I agreed that we felt completely different seeing the sun after several grey and dismal days and finding the horses was a bonus.

I rather liked this shot of the Shetland pony’s nose and I have put a shot of the three of them in as an extra.  When they saw us they quickly came over to the fence, but sadly we didn’t have anything to give them to eat.  I was quite concerned, because they kept putting their heads through the barbed wire fence, but thankfully, no damage was done - not that I could see anyway and they are obviously used to doing it. 

On the way back, we came across a farm that had eggs for sale, with an honesty box;  we bought two boxes for us and one for our next door neighbour so when Mr. HCB had finished watching his team, Tottenham Hotspurs, win their football game against Fulham by two goals to one, we had boiled eggs with “soldiers” for our tea to celebrate - what a treat. 

“People are like stained-glass windows. 
They sparkle and shine 
     when the sun is out, 
          but when the darkness sets in, 
their true beauty is revealed 
     only if there is a light from within.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

P.S.  I finished my jigsaw puzzle last night and have now parcelled it up to send to a friend.  Onwards and upwards now I am a JP - Jigsaw Puzzler!