Thursday Oct 26th
Met Mother at Carshalton's old church by the ponds: I padlocked my bike to the church railings and enjoyed the view as I waited. The village looks so beautiful in this mellow sunshine. The church is mentioned in the Domesday book, and there was certainly one here long before that, too. The present one is a beautiful building, lots of Victorian restoration inside but still with a largely medieval feel. I have spoken at this church a couple of times - at the Women's World Day of Prayer and also at meetings of the friendly Women's Fellowship......back in the 19th century the church had a reputation for being very controversial and "high" and this lingered.....the nice rector, the Rev Leigh Edwards, who was there a few years ago sent his daughter to my old school, St Philomena's, the main local Catholic girls' school. Mother and I went for a walk through the churchyard, and there was Rev Leigh Edwards' grave....and also those of variouis other familiar names...such as Mary Bates, who was a Borough councillor with me back in the 1970s.....We had a pleasant lunch at the wine bar next door. It used to be a butcher's shop, called Woodmans, and now it is v. trendy and called "The Woodman" with a pub-sign. Still has the low ceilings and latticed windows that it has always had.

Walked around the Ponds and The Grove, where the river Wandle flows down towards Wandsworth and the Thames....."It was just further along the riverbank - along by Strawberry Lane - that your father asked me to marry him....we'd spent the evening with friends and were walking slowly back....." I'd heard the story before, but it was nice to be with Mother as she reminisced. "Odd, really....my parents moved here after they got bombed in London, and then of course they got friendly with these nice neighbours....and each talked about their children, away at the war....and then when we came back when the war ended, we met and got friendly....he took me to an Army dance......" They married at the little Catholic church down by the railway station: the pictures look like something out of a wartime film, with Daddy in uniform with his Sam Browne (a family heirloom: his uncle wore it in World War 1. Jamie has it now).

Cycled back to write feature articles for Catholic press about yesterday's Mass at the House of Commons: Americans readers will be able to read about it in the National Catholic Register in due course. Then Hilary, from the Catenians, came to collect various items for the Towards Advent Festival on Nov 4th : some word-games and a quiz for children, hymn-sheets with "God Bless our Pope", tickets for the workshops.....and pots of jam to be sold at the Refreshments table. He is very confident that the day will go well.....I plan to hand out more leaflets about it again this Sunday.....

I am now working on the 2007 Childen's RE project for the Association of Catholic Women. We thought that it might be a good idea for children to learn about angels - a topic often neglected in Religious Education. So we're going to set them some good essay topics and have them discover St Michael, and Guardian Angels, and all sorts of important things......

Note for Americans and any Brits under 40: a Sam Browne is an officer's crossbelt.