Skip to main content

Happy in Henley

Dear Reader

Today I slept in. Properly slept in until after 9am. It was wonderful. I had not realised how tired I was after tour until my head hit the pillow last night.

But never let it be said that I lie around all day on holidays. Sal and I headed off with Zuki the dog for a walk along the path by the Thames, and then through some fields. It was beautiful and VERY muddy in parts. I was too busy trying to keep my balance to photograph the muddy tracks. We then had a light lunch in The Baskerville pub at Shiplake, which well deserves its awards and accolades. Home again on the train, just the one station. I do like trains.















This evening Sal and I are heading off to dinner with a friend of hers, Helen, who has also become a friend of Lavinia, with their shared love of cats. This will be in another pub, this time in Henley.

I will finish here saying how lovely it is to be with my cousin, her husband Mark and all three girls, Alex, Rachael and Amelia. We anticipate catching up a few times this year, which is unusual. The family is coming to SA for a Ross Family Reunion in Middleton at Easter, and Ali and I will head back here for our *significant* birthdays later in the year.

So now I will make a start on the Coventry Cathedral post, although in the end I may just let the pictures there do the talking too.

Cxx

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Big One, St Paul’s

  Dear Reader Today was the Big Event of tour. St Paul’s Cathedral, London. If you are observant, you will notice my absence from the photo above, along with several of my colleagues. Sadly, this happened.  After nearly four years and six vaccinations I finally succumbed to the dreaded Covid. At the worst possible time. My multiple vax status has meant I only feel a bit rotten, like a cold, but I do feel sad to have missed the day. And to miss Windsor tomorrow. I was grateful for the considered medical advice provided by Dr Ritesh, father of one of the trebles, who also updated my supply of paracetamol and ibuprofen.  So I am relying on others for the report about this special day.  The good bits started with four of the young Lay Clerks heading to St Paul’s for singing lessons with my friend Patrick Craig, who is an Alto Lay Vicar at St Paul. In have yet to hear from Nicholas, Marco, Charlie or James, but Patrick was very complimentary about their singing. This is w...

No phones in the Choir Stalls, but…

  Dear Reader Mobile phone use in the Choir Stalls is generally frowned upon. But in Salisbury they have landlines.  Thanks to Annabel Crompton for capturing this image. Cxx

The big day in York

  Dear Reader We are currently on the road to London via Windsor Castle. So I have time for an update about our big day yesterday. It was such a big day that I had my best night’s sleep last night, so was not awake to do my usual 5am blog post. This, Dear Reader, explains the concept of a Big Day for us. We are accustomed to singing two services on a Sunday, starting at 9:15am and finishing at 7:15pm. But we get a break for over 4 hours in between. Yesterday we started with a warm up and rehearsal at around 8:45am, then two services essentially back to back. We don’t sing Matins, apart from one attempt after a previous tour. Perhaps we could do a quarterly Matins, Ant?? Once a term? The choristers and Lay Clerks then get a two hour break before the next rehearsal at 2:30 for the 4pm Evensong. Matins has no sermon but both the Eucharists and Evensong in York had sermons, which were excellent. The observation for Epiphany that we, the Choir, were travellers from the East was notable....