...Palm Sunday...

...and we gathered on the London street for  the liturgy, much blessing of palms with  holy water, and a sudden sense of unity across the centuries with all those who have commemorated Christ's entry into Jerusalem this way...and then we set off, the crowd surging along the street and under the railway arch (great accoustics), incense wafting from the front, rain clouds gathering overhead...inevitably some were singing one verse of the hymn, and others another, but it was all a grand surge...and so into church and the solemn reading of the Passion....

I had spent the previous afternoon with young relatives, making Easter cards for great-grandparents, and enjoying a ramble through local woodland and plans for the Spring and summer. A local ice-cream van was being mended  and attracted much interest as sparks flew up from the welding and the workmen were amused to explain the technicalities of the door and wheels to two small boys. We explored along a local muddy stream, planned picnics and summer trips. Tangle brambles promised blackberry-picking much later in the year. Trees were climbed.  Clumps of daffodils splashed yellow on the landscape. Spring is here.