DERELICT SUNDAY - A BURNT OUT CARAVAN

We didn’t have our usual Sunday morning service today, but the next session in The Bible Course, consisting of eight interactive sessions with a video, discussion time, personal reflection and daily Bible readings.  We also celebrated and sang "Happy Birthday" to Derek, one of our members, who said he was 86 in his body but 68 in his mind!  His wife, Shirley, had made cakes for the occasion and when they were served with coffee part way through our discussions, each one had a candle - but there weren’t 86 nor even 68 - I think that would have been overload for the Community Centre’s smoke alarms!

Afterwards we went out looking for dereliction and having found some, which I duly photographed, we then came across this burnt out caravan in a gateway near Minety.  I looked online and saw that this abandoned and derelict caravan was discovered and reported last Thursday - it certainly wasn’t there last week when we passed by.  Whilst I was taking photographs, there was still a very strong smell of burnt wood and I noticed some children’s books that were partly burnt - I wonder who this belonged to originally?

According to the online newspaper report, the fire was extinguished by fire crews from the Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, using breathing apparatus and two hose reel jets.  There was no mention of an owner, so perhaps  it was vandals who set it alight - but what a waste of precious and valuable resources and more to the point, it must have put the fire fighters at risk.  I can’t be the only one who doesn’t understand mindless vandalism!

We continued on our way and found the farm where I had bought the free range eggs last week, so we bought some more for us and also some duck eggs for our neighbour, Mike.  It was very windy, so I made sure that the £5 note was under two stones in the honesty box at the side.

The weather has been quite sunny but when getting in and out of the car to take photographs, I got quite cold because the wind made it feel very much colder.  From where I am sitting, I can see the bird feeders being blown about but haven’t seen any birds brave enough to land on them, but we mustn’t grumble, because at least it is dry.

A couple of weeks ago, you might remember that my friend, Nathan, interviewed me in the library, which is next door to the Swindon 105.5 studio - so I am attaching a copy of that interview, and hope that you can access it - if not, do please let me know.  It sounds rather echoey at the beginning and Nathan had to edit the interview, because someone came into the library and was shouting and making rather a lot of noise but he has done an excellent job, so hope you enjoy it.

“Managers light a fire
     under people;
leaders light a fire
     IN people.”
Kathy Austin

P.S.  Thank you for your kind comments, stars and heart for yesterday’s Silly Saturday Blip - we had a wonderful time with the three girls last night and their Mum text me today to say they were up and doing more décopatching this morning - seems as if it was a real success.