Lighten our darkness ...

I'm sorry. You must be getting bored with all these apocalyptic cloudscapes and shots from my bedroom window - unless you can still raise a giggle by thinking of me hanging out - but I needed the juxtaposition of photo (from early morning) and title, which in itself isn't really totally appropriate because it's from an evening service rather than morning prayer ... 

Whatever. It kept raining with alarming solidity during the night - the sort of rain that just seems to come on, full welly, as if someone had turned on the celestial tap. The photo came from a dramatically gleaming moment between showers around 8am, and when we left for church at 10.10 it was dry while I locked the door and went up the garden and into the car - and then the heavens opened. But at least we didn't have to sit soggily in church.

And church today was the kind of occasion that does lighten the darkness. We had it pointed out to us before the service really got going that a "good rector" would probably admonish the congregation for the noise that was going on before the service, but instead we were thanked for it. And when you think of it, to have a joyous buzz of meetings and laughter and cheerful anticipation is rather a good indication of the life of a congregation, a corporate life of people who are happy to be there at that time with each other. There must have been close on fifty people there, counting the two small boys, and four dogs, two of whom are guide dogs, none of which made any untoward noises during the service. (One of the small dogs when his owner finally left the building demonstrated the extent of his bladder control - we were amazed.)

Eventually we got home for coffee, exhausted but cheerful, though as we then had a discussion with Di about the State of Israel it wasn't exactly relaxing.  We were still finishing lunch at 3pm ...

Later we went for a walk round West Bay and home via the steep climb round the side of Castle Hill. Before I made dinner I had to demonstrate my elbow plank technique to Himself - I've discovered I can now hold one for a minute, which is double what I'd been doing. Makes up for everything else going to the dogs. We had duck breast for dinner, and Scottish raspberries with yogurt, and stayed up stupidly late watching the end of The Full Monty because we'd recorded it the other night when it was going on too late.

Silly, huh?