I'm off!!

...on my sponsored cycle ride, tomorrow morning.

Parish Mass at St Joseph's, New Malden, at 9.30 am, and as it ends I depart in style, with Father Peter blessing me and my bike, and pictures of the Holy Father being distributed, and (I hope!) a general feeling of parish solidarity as I head off down the Kingston Road towards The Fountain and thence southward...heading for the coast, and Brighton!

It is rather nice that I am going from St Joseph's in New Malden to St Joseph's Brighton, via St Joseph's in Dorking - might also manage to drop in at St Joseph's in Epsom! And the Pope's name is Joseph. So it all fits nicely together, to raise funds for young people to go to World Youth Day.

First overnight stop will be with friends near Dorking (see above).

The Catholic Times has a nice mention of my Ride this week.

Weather is HOT. We spent today working in the garden, long overdue tidy-up. Everything is scented with rosemary as we have been trimming the big rosemary bushed that are overgrown both at the front and the back of the house, and carrying armfuls of the gloriously aromatic branches. We broke for a garden lucnh, with a big blackberry pie, berries just gathered an hour earlier from my favourite local spot. Nephew E. is staying to help us with a computer problem. I packed for tomorrow: a couple of changes of clothes, overnight things, water to drink, some money, my rosary.