St John's in the Snow

Here's the church of St John the Evangelist at Hipswell looking suitably dignified with a snowy overcoat on Monday afternoon. Despite the snow you can still see the scaffolding from the ongoing building work. Every slate on the roof has been removed checked and then put back. About 15% in total needed to be replaced. There's also been work done on the guttering and the bell tower which is one of the most attractive features of the church. It was dismantled and rebuilt with a mixture of old and new stone. 

Sadly the budget no longer stretches to rehanging the bells as more new slates had to be bought than we expected. I'm hoping for a change in the weather next week so that the work can be finished and the scaffolding removed. St John's is one of the loveliest buildings in the Garrison area and I'm looking forward to seeing it looking its best again.

Snowy Weekend

View from the Chapel at the Briery Retreat House, Ilkley

This weekend saw a rare trip away from home for a meeting with fellow curates at Ilkley. The snow meant that I didn't dare drive - not so much for fear of not arriving as for worries about getting back again. So I took the train which made the whole experience quite disconcerting. At Leeds Station I found myself looking around for the children and not having anyone holding my hand or clinging to a leg didn't feel quite right. 

Despite the strangeness of it all, the time turned out to be very well spent. I actually read a book. A whole book! (just a short one admittedly but still) 

The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris

Perhaps as in the picture of the Chapel above, some things come into focus more clearly when we look at them from a different angle. Hard as it is to believe at the moment, the time will come when my life doesn't revolve around the routines of small children and I will have to remember what to do with all the time I have as a result! More than anything, the everyday mystery that Norris writes about is how boring repetitive tasks are transformed by love. And that's wisdom that I will always need to draw on - both now and in the future.