Sunday's spotlight - Easter Surprise

By guest blogger Pete.

It may very well never materialise.  I'm writing about "T.T.", which, by the way, stands for "Teenage Talk".  I still can't find the list that my grandson, Peter, made out for me and he is, as I write, on holiday with the family in French France.  If and when I get it then rest assured that you'll be the first I bore with its contents.

Easter has come and gone; well Easter Day has.  The weather forecaster (local variety) promised us a pretty dreadful weekend with plenty of rain.  Fortunately the rain missed the bus and so didn't arrive.  It was bitterly cold at times but, at least, the sun shone.  If there is reincarnation I'm going to put myself down as a weather forecaster for the next time round.  It's not that I have unfulfilled talents in this field but it strikes me that you just write what you fancy; i.e. "Chance of rain, could be snow, possibly strong wind maybe gale forces, might get a bit of sun and I've heard there could be some snow."  See!  That covers most eventualities and no one can expect you to be right every time.

Another more accurate thing the weather forecaster told us was that we have had more snowy Easter Days than we have had snowy Christmas Days.

That previously unrealised fact immediately reminded me of an event that took place when I was Chaplain/teacher at a boarding school in Warminster.  It was, probably,a couple of Sundays before Easter but we had had quite a bit of snow - in fact inches of the stuff.  Two of the pupils decided that it would be fun to throw  snowballs at Pam and me, which they did and then beat a hasty retreat into the near bye Parish Church.  About the time the service finished Pam began to keep an eye out for the two of them and when they came out she slipped - not literally -  out into the garden.  The garden was surrounded by a high wall and listening for footsteps she pushed all the snow on top of the wall onto the walkers outside.  Image he surprise when she went outside to gloat at  two snow covered pupils only to find that she was faced by two snow covered elderly nuns.  The two girl pupils were in danger of harming themselves with hysterics but, fortunately, the two nuns thought it quite funny as well.

Regular readers of this blog will remember that some time ago I recalled for you the adventures associated with my buying a Christmas tree.  Just to keep you up to day, you may be pleased to know (or perhaps you couldn't care less) but the Christmas tree remains a healthy specimen and has seen through the cold winter with no ill effects.

The new plum tree that we have is now showing buds.  There'll be some plums on it this year - even if we have to buy some and tie them on!

This week's photos are not of snow covered nuns but rather are kaleidoscopes of some of the photos of the Church - St Augustine, Kilburn - that I wrote about last week.

Watch out for the snow!  Scotland has quite a lot last week.

Sunday's spotlight - Lincoln Waterlogged

By guest blogger Pete.

Lincoln has existed in even more chaos that normal over the past few days. Being an ancient city our roads are mainly narrow, limited, and single carriageways. There are just three arterial roads into the below hill part of the city and three into the up hill part. Early Monday morning the High Street in the below hill part of the city was closed, causing the other two remaining arterial roads to exceed their normal overcrowding and rush hours became a matter of patience rather than progress. The cause of this disruption was a burst water main, which sent gallons of the wet stuff up into the air. Fortunately, all this happened in the early morning hours and Anglian Water were quick to turn that water off BUT not quick enough to save the surface of the road. Thus for the next five days the High Street was closed to all non pedestrian traffic. No notice was given about the new bus routes that were set up. One day you could spend the whole day waiting at a bus stop for your bus (only to learn that it was going on a different route) and the next day the bus would run normally and you could pick it up from the same stop.


It's a few weeks now since I last inflicted on you all a photo of my latest and ongoing painting. I am fairly pleased with it but have purposely left the most difficult section to the end. Can you guess what part that is? No prizes on offer but self congratulations are permitted.


I have also been experimenting with some photographs again. In sunny July Pam and I took a holiday in Suffolk and during that week we visited Bury St Edmunds. That city has a great cathedral, which possesses some really fine stained glass. Using kaleidoscopes, I have been trying to get some rather different shots of some of the windows' features.


Isn't it a pity that there are only twenty four hours in a day? I could manage a few more without an hassles. Mind you, I speak as a retired person . There were times when I was working when I thought a reduction in each day's hours might well have been an advantage. Do you think each day has sufficient hours? I never seem to complete everything I want to do.


My magnolia appears to have given up its attempt to become the first evergreen magnolia in history and is now shedding leaves in a fashion that would suggest there is no to-morrow coming along. Add to this the fact that my plum tree still hasn't borne any fruit and you can see some of my frustrations.
Keep on enjoying life and keep on finding things to do.