...this Sunday, when an initiative of King Richard II is renewed, at a particularly strange and difficult time in England....
Read here....
and join in...
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
In the classic WWII film....
...Mrs Miniver, which we watched again the other day, a child asks, as the "all clear" sounds following that first air-raid alarm: "Is the war over now?"
"No, dear" his mother answers "This is only the first day".
"No, dear" his mother answers "This is only the first day".
Sunday, March 22, 2020
SUNDAY in lockdown...
...begins with MASS, live-streamed from Walsingham. Recommended. 9.30am daily.
Then prayers with next-door neighbours - all keeping the right distance from one another. A lovely Evangelical family. We each chose a psalm - mine was "The Lord is my shepherd".
This afternoon a walk - meeting some friends but again keeping distance. Hot coffee and delicious cakes from a German takeaway coffee-shop, eaten on a breezy corner - no eating inside allowed, and everything done at a distance, but very, very much enjoyed.
Bright spring sunshine, and daffodils everywhere. Yesterday, on a walk along the river at Kingston with a friend, we dropped in to the ancient parish church, where people have worshipped for over a thousand years. It's where our Saxon kings were crowned...and where my father's Regimental colours hang in the regimental chapel. A plaque on the wall recalls the ceremony. I remember it v. well...
For future walks, all all cafes etc have to close, even takeaways, I'll use the excellent backpack picnic set given us by friends for our Silver Wedding some years ago - huge thanks to Alenka and John! - packed with a thermos of coffee and some sandwiches and buns...
Back home for our 6pm rendezvous with neighbours, all greeting one another out in the road. Mood so far is cheery, and everyone is being wonderful...and people boost each other, breaking the sense of isolation. But, as I returned to the house, I thought of long weeks ahead with a sense of the weird unreality to everything.
Then prayers with next-door neighbours - all keeping the right distance from one another. A lovely Evangelical family. We each chose a psalm - mine was "The Lord is my shepherd".
This afternoon a walk - meeting some friends but again keeping distance. Hot coffee and delicious cakes from a German takeaway coffee-shop, eaten on a breezy corner - no eating inside allowed, and everything done at a distance, but very, very much enjoyed.
Bright spring sunshine, and daffodils everywhere. Yesterday, on a walk along the river at Kingston with a friend, we dropped in to the ancient parish church, where people have worshipped for over a thousand years. It's where our Saxon kings were crowned...and where my father's Regimental colours hang in the regimental chapel. A plaque on the wall recalls the ceremony. I remember it v. well...
For future walks, all all cafes etc have to close, even takeaways, I'll use the excellent backpack picnic set given us by friends for our Silver Wedding some years ago - huge thanks to Alenka and John! - packed with a thermos of coffee and some sandwiches and buns...
Back home for our 6pm rendezvous with neighbours, all greeting one another out in the road. Mood so far is cheery, and everyone is being wonderful...and people boost each other, breaking the sense of isolation. But, as I returned to the house, I thought of long weeks ahead with a sense of the weird unreality to everything.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
ONE IDEA....
....organised with a neighbour. We're putting a note through everyone's door suggesting that at 6pm every day, we go to the front of our homes and call out and wave to each other. At least that way we can keep in touch and in addition to greetings people can call out for help etc...or even break into song, or call out jokes, if that would help!
We are small houses, all terraced, so at least there could be a neighbourly feeling, even if we can't go into one another's homes or hang around chatting properly.
These are neighbours to whom I give jars of home-made jam each summer, and with whom I've celebrated street parties for the Queen's jubilees, and who greet each other and linger to talk on summer evenings coming to and from the shops or the bus....perhaps in this enforced stay-at-home period, we can at least cheer and boost each other....
We are small houses, all terraced, so at least there could be a neighbourly feeling, even if we can't go into one another's homes or hang around chatting properly.
These are neighbours to whom I give jars of home-made jam each summer, and with whom I've celebrated street parties for the Queen's jubilees, and who greet each other and linger to talk on summer evenings coming to and from the shops or the bus....perhaps in this enforced stay-at-home period, we can at least cheer and boost each other....
....and so into grim coronavirus-time...
...on Monday evening I gave a talk at Holy Ghost parish in Balham, about St John Paul. We all obeyed the rules and sat some distance apart. It is a church with which I have many links: I wrote the parish history at the start of this century, a project I very much enjoyed. The parish priest, Fr Richard Whinder, is a good friend, the church looks very beautiful at present, and the parish is thriving. It felt bittersweet to walk home at the end of a lovely evening, and to know that all such pleasant gatherings will shortly be banned.
And so it has come to pass: I spent today answering email after email announcing the cancellation of various talks, events, and conferences. A Women's Institute in Surrey, a St John Paul conference in Scotland, a lecture about St John Henry Newman...and all sorts of get-togethers connected with different projects. The Schools Bible Project will be affected: few schools will be thinking about such things at present but simply dealing with special arrangements for exams etc as closures are planned. The LOGS project for primary schools will also fade away...and with it our planned cheery afternoons of reading the entries and packing and posting the prizes. And of course the launch of my book on the history of St Mary's University has been postponed. We must hope things return to something approaching normality in the Autumn....but....
But the worst thing about this crisis is not being able to do anything useful. Cancelling everything wouldn't be so bad if we were all busy out scrubbing down bus shelters or collecting litter from the streets, or something. The really horrible thing is being told to go home and do nothing. Of course we have contacted elderly neighbours to ensure help with shopping etc...but we can't offer to sit with them or have a big neighbourly gathering to cheer us all up...it all horrible.
And so it has come to pass: I spent today answering email after email announcing the cancellation of various talks, events, and conferences. A Women's Institute in Surrey, a St John Paul conference in Scotland, a lecture about St John Henry Newman...and all sorts of get-togethers connected with different projects. The Schools Bible Project will be affected: few schools will be thinking about such things at present but simply dealing with special arrangements for exams etc as closures are planned. The LOGS project for primary schools will also fade away...and with it our planned cheery afternoons of reading the entries and packing and posting the prizes. And of course the launch of my book on the history of St Mary's University has been postponed. We must hope things return to something approaching normality in the Autumn....but....
But the worst thing about this crisis is not being able to do anything useful. Cancelling everything wouldn't be so bad if we were all busy out scrubbing down bus shelters or collecting litter from the streets, or something. The really horrible thing is being told to go home and do nothing. Of course we have contacted elderly neighbours to ensure help with shopping etc...but we can't offer to sit with them or have a big neighbourly gathering to cheer us all up...it all horrible.
Monday, March 02, 2020
The bogus propaganda about so-called...
..."International women's day" is simply horrible. It was invented in the Soviet Union in the 1930s - to tell lies about Soviet life when women and their children were being starved to death in Soviet-dominated Ukraine, when labour camps were established for women to be in forced-labour in mines and factories - and today is being imposed on us here in Britain by unelected lobbyists using public funds. Read here...
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