This morning I was supposed to be going to Stoneleigh for a meeting of the Country Way editorial group. The latest issue has been published online http://www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications-and-resources/country-way and my printed copy arrived in today's post.
But a quick look at the lane outside the Rectory suggested it would not be a good idea. Shanks Ponies are the order of the day. But it's an ill wind... Sally, who was going to take the midweek communion at Eastham was unexpectedly unavailable, so I walked down the lanes to Eastham. The midweek service is a recent innovation, yet to build up numbers.
This morning there were two of us and we celebrated the feast of St John the Alsmgiver - a saint from Egypt in the 7th century who it seems gave away not just this own money but diocesan money as well on frivolous things like maternity hospitals, caring for refugees, supporting beggars.... What would it be like, we wondered, if the diocese today was to give away all its money on food-banks and the like????
Walking back up from Eastham I was noticing that the lanes were much clearer having been ploughed and gritted and wondering whether I should have gone to Stoneleigh, when I came across a large gritting lorry with snow plough stuck in the lane. Going up the hill it had lost traction and slid onto the verge where the weight of the load and the soft ground had caused it to tip over. Two tractors were there but decided that it would need something bigger to pull it out.
On up the hill a local business man and his son were taking the post to the inaccessible houses that the post van couldn't reach.
On up the hill and more conversations about weather, life, faith...
Not the morning I'd expected, but good.
