DERELICT SUNDAY AND A MYSTERY

We had a good service this morning when I led the service for the first time in our new Church - although as I may have said before, my association with this particular Church goes back over 70 years when I was “sent” to Sunday School when I was 3 years old!  It makes me sound very old - but then I guess at 76 I am - but I certainly don’t feel it.  One lady said to me afterwards that it was good to see a lady leading the actual service, another lady was leading worship and yet another lady was preaching!

After coffee and biscuits, we went out for our usual drive and as we went through Liddington, a small village near us, on our way to Eastridge, one of our favourite places, I remembered that there was a house with some artwork on the wall that I had often said I would like to photograph.

Mr. HCB kindly stopped just before the house and then I walked along to take the shot, which you can see at the bottom right of my collage.  Because I had to actually go onto the land belonging to the house to take the shot, albeit just outside the garden fence, I decided I would knock the door to try and find out the history of the wall art.  However, no-one was came, despite me ringing the large bell attached to the side of the front door, so I’m not able to tell you the history of this mystery!  Rest assured, I will go back and ring the bell again, to try and find out about it.

Fortunately, next door to the cottage was a derelict house/shed/barn, which was good so all was not wasted for today’s Blip!  I was very careful though because there were big signs up saying that there were security cameras on the property and there was a huge barn full of hay, so I made sure I didn’t get anywhere near them.

The bottom left shot is that man again, you know, the one who seems to get in lots of my photographs.  You can see by the state of the field how dry it all is - we do desperately need some rain, but as Mr. HCB says, if it’s going to rain this week, could it please come on any other day but Wednesday, as he is going to cricket on that day!

I’m sure that many of you know at least the first two lines of the poem entitled “Leisure” by William Henry Davies:
“What is this life if, full of care, 
We have no time to stand and stare.”

This quote by James Alfred Wight OBE FRCVS 1916-1995 better known by his pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and author, seems appropriate and could have been spoken by Mr. HCB:

“That quotation about not having time 
     to stand and stare has never applied to me. 
          I seem to have spent a good part of my life - 
probably too much - 
     in just standing and staring 
          and I was at it again this morning.”
James Herriot