Candlemas...

...and, it being the First Saturday of the month, we had our regular Mass and spiritual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. At the door of the church, before Mass began,  we each took up a candle and Father Chris blessed them all, and us, with holy water, and we processed, singing, around the church...

It was all rather dramatic because the church looks extraordinary at the moment - bleak wooden planking on the floor covering the fine new marble, scaffolding along the walls, notices proclaiming "DANGER - keep out" at strategic points...

After Mass, we enjoyed pancakes, produced by Auntie Joanna following a French tradition...to eat large round pancakes is customary on this day because it marks the slow ending of winter and the re-arrival of the sun...

Today at Mass, more blessing of candles...this time the great boxes of them, stacked in the sanctuary. These are the candles to be used in church through the year ahead.

I love Candlemas...but am not enthusiastic about the slow disappearance of winter. I love cold, bright days like today. The Thames is magnificent in wintry grey with sparkles of sunlight, the pub windows glow and there is good cheer within, buses look splendid trundling through the dusk. I am in no hurry for the heat and glare of summer.