Lovely new lights in Chapel which light the place up and show all the cobwebs. And a whopping great 'ole where the old switches were. Thanks to all concerned.

Another set of shelves clear. Another box full. Wey-hey. Thank you Julie! Fish cobbler as opposed to fish pie is DELICIOUS. An Invention on the part of Christine. Nearly went back and got seconds. (Just call me Olivetta)

The fantasia "Komm Heiliger Geist" (Bach, of course, wot did you think?) was on R.3 this morning. Recorded in 1944 on an organ built by Silbermann in Bach's time (Bach would have played the original, though it had a few facelifts) A beautiful instrument, and you can hear why the tone of his instruments has been described sometimes as "silvery". So good that that recording was made. It (organ) was destroyed in the Dresden raids the following year. Very cold this morning. It still is. Sun, O Sun, where hast thou gorn?

At Evensong yesterday I thought "Ah Holy Jesu???" (the hymn for the evening) "bit early? and we haven't sung it for ages.... - but it breathed a fresh life and meaning into the Romans 5 reading. There weren't many to sing it; certainly no harmony. It went along at tempo di Eliot Gardner, and was actually none the worse for that. Precented a Kyrie at the Eucharist, then checked the music list to check it was the same one. It was. And now, having had some glorious early spring weather, we have mildness, mist and rain. Robins, robins, robins, with - now - the blackbirds joining in and occasionally a thrush, not to mention owls.

"Drop, drop, slow tears..." in our case it is not tears but a drip a second from a leaking pipe in a WC above the disabled one on the ground floor corridor at SMHouse. One of those occasions when one is glad we didn't chuck out all the old worn-out towels. You can't put a bucket there because of the awkward size and shape of the space. A carpet of snowdrops here, as you can imagine, nodding their heads sagely in the breeze. Julie is having a go at the alexander and nettles by the Calvary. They are in their innocent infant state at the moment; best time to yank them out, and very satisfying.

It looks like being June 12 for the Translation To Bungay. "PLENTY of time" one thinks. We thought that at Christmas, and......anyway, .we'll get there. Meanwhile, the snowdrops are lovely and two of us produced lentil and vegetable porridge for dinner. Well, that was the consistency. Meant to be a broth. You could stand your spoon up in it. NO TORCH REQUIRED! for the early morning prayer trot. Robins. A distant thrush. A solitary duck quacking overhead. (Prayer walks are lovely when it's like that.....)

Great wodges of envelopes containing literature waiting to go out to unsuspecting bishops, diocesan secretaries, etc., etc., etc.....extolling the virtues of this place and saying "Go on.....give it some thought!" Well, not quite, but you get the drift. We drafted in two extra staff to deal with the work - or rather, Beccy did. Charming young ladies by the name of Asta and Barley. Seemed quite efficient, too. The Dreaded 'Lurgy (sp?) - Rachel is getting over it, one of the oblates has gone down with it.....and so we go on. A gorgeous day today even as yesterday was rainy and windy. That's the beauty of the English Weather!

Everything Bright and Beautiful this morning. Frost glinting on the grass. Slippery puddles. Smell of tomorrow's lunch being pre-prepared (short of time in the morning).....and, yes, we are eating today as well. Not sure what!

The wind it doth blow and the rain it doth rain and the sleet it doth sleet and......still got flowers picked for incoming guests. When the sun is out - between clouds and showers - it is beautiful. We are never going to be able to sing "Morning has broken" (tune; "Bunessan") without thinking of you, Sister P.! and quite right too, since thought will beget prayer. It's a gift of a tune. The bit about "praise for the sweetness/of the wet garden/sprung in completeness/where his feet pass" gave me the giggles today 'cos I thought of a certain sister who is allergic to rain and wet of any kind....

Feast of St.Scholastica. Nothing to do with Sr.Sh's bedroom at St.Michael's, much to do with Benedict, whose sister she was. Praying for all Benedictines, more especially for the women's communities..... Stillness, silence and stars first thing; and then robins, and Schubert on the radio (Moments Musicaux, played by Brendel) Waiting for the bread to rise. It is very sticky, probably because it contains just plain ordinary plain flour. Anyway, we managed to roll the wallpaper paste into eight rolls which will probably end up gargantuan because they always do. Better put them in the oven before they hit the ceiling. We (Julie and I, not the royal "we") had a satisfying clean-up of chapel this morning. We'd left it about a fortnight so you could see where you'd been. Heat is restored (don't ask) and the boiler is peeping away happily and displaying a "high pressure" display which presumably it is meant to be doing. AND the oil arrived this morning for St.Michael's, in the nick of time. Otherwise we were going to light all the candles we could find.

Cold and wet .... par for the course, in other words. Yesterday, when the stars were frozen into the sky and all was solid with ice, we had an arrangement (for guitar since you ask) of Gershwin's "Summer time" on Radio 3 just before the Bach slot. It has been an oddly empty week - hardly any guests, and one of us away. That will all change come Monday. Hardly a room free by the time we get to Ash Wednesday.

Down the lane it is a case of Fortress Gosling and Fortress Townsend. They've erected great steel barriers in front of their houses and all round them so that you can't possibly get in. Oh....and there are piles of tiles to the side. Meanwhile in Convent Chapel.............."Fiat Lux" ("Lux" in Latin is "light". Nothing to do with soap.)

#outonamooch #countrylife