A Sunday Snifter

What luxury to wake up to a warm house and to have a hot shower on tap! Outside, a blackbird was singing loud and strong, and I could hear a Great Tit too. I walked up the road to St Luke’s in glorious sunshine.

There were some suppressed giggles from myself and the other acolyte at the end of this morning’s communion in church. Our priest had been rather over-enthusiastic when pouring wine into the two chalices ready for consecration. At the end of the distribution there was still a lot left, particularly in the larger one. For those who don’t know, every last trace of the consecrated wafers and wine must be consumed at communion, and most certainly cannot just be poured down the sink or thrown in the bin after the service! The priest finished off what was left in my chalice, but firmly handed the other one back to my fellow acolyte. She then took the water jug from me for what is known as the ablutions (ceremonial rinsing of the chalices and pattens/plates), leaned towards me and whispered “I think A might need some help”. I crossed over to A and, with our backs to the congregation, she and and I one after the other glugged down the equivalent of a glass of wine in double-quick time, pulling faces and trying not to laugh out loud. It’s very sweet fortified wine, so good job I wasn’t driving anywhere straight after. I can assure you that church is definitely nowhere near as dull as people think.

My iPhone identifies this blossom as some kind of Prunus, which I’m not too sure about, but anyway it was in amongst a hedge on my walk home and was too pretty not to take a photo to blip.