This was my journal during training for the ordained ministry, read that story in the archives

This is a poor picture, I only had my phone on me - sorry about that!!  I’ll have to return another day with a proper camera.

The impression I get of these trees is one of sentries standing guard over whatever is at their centre, knarled fingers reaching out to catch the curious who might just wander close by.  Rooted (literally of course) to the spot they cannot move from their position, nor can they turn to see what is in the centre, nor can they see the others around them.

They just stand bent outwards watching the world pass by daring it to try to break through their cordon.  On closer inspection there is nothing at the centre.

Careful management has ensured that no saplings have been allowed to grow up around them, so the crop of trees behind them is not replicated here.

Perhaps whatever they stood to protect has gotten bored and moved off…

I guess I hope I never get quite so ‘rooted’ to any one spot!!

I was sent a link to this place by a good friend, (who always comes up with inspiring and wonderful places actually) I’m not sure there are words to describe this place for me, it resonated with me on so many levels there was not room left to breathe.   I had found that experience at Amelia Farm in Barry, however here is another, there is a momentum beginning, and it is one of environmental, spiritual and healthy changes for a sustainable future.  I am planning to visit in person at some point soon, I suggest you do too, it will probably be good for the soul!!

Felin Uchaf

It is the little things that count!

And sometimes there are not many to count, however at the end of a manic morning, the final baptism was a quiet affair, only about 20 people - just how I like them!!

It wasn’t that that made it special.  The family were related to people I knew from a recent funeral, the granddaughter of the recently departed had just been born, I ‘met her’ as it were before her birth, and now with mum and dad as godparents to the baptise-ee.

I’ll be buying burying (thanks Dot!!) the ashes of said departed later this week.  The whole of life caught up in one small moment and for those families the connections and relatedness made the act of baptism even more special.

These small blessings make all the difference and certainly give me hope for community life!

We decided it was time to gather a few things from the autumn storehouse today, bag loads of haws which will (hopefully) turn into HawSin sauce (no jokes about getting our Haws out from between the Hips) We picked those as well, supposed to be a great soup flavour-er.  The HawSin taster that I made to try it out was good, I can see why it would go well with Duck or Game, we could have had a dozen brace of pheasant at the same time as the fields around Llanasa where we were walking were stocked well

The Mushroom gathering didn’t go as well, plenty of choice, only on closer identification they are either poisonous or inedible varieties!!  We did gather some strange jelly-like ones though which are oddly called ‘Jews ear’ they really don’t look like anyone’s ear really, and are only good for adding to soup - must try harder!!

Ok Church of England, it’s up to you - according to HFW that is, on River Cottage Autumn  all that land going spare, plenty of it could be used for growing vegetables and other culinary delights.  The Diocese of London seems to be in on the act.  I wonder if the church would consider going one step further and firstly managing the land it owns sustainably and secondly, securing land around its own buildings, perhaps even buying up vacant lots of land to slow development and give more potential for growing… …  See Hugh’s Landshare site.

I wonder what your bread habits are??

I have been writing about bread for a few days, but have come a little unstuck.  I like my bread home-made, with as few ingredients as possible, so whilst reflecting on a bread delivery man, I thought I had better gather some other ‘bread habits’ if you don’t mind sharing them!! email or comments as you like…

What do you buy regularly if you have the widest choice?

What do you go for if there are slim pickings at the last minute?

Any favorite bread items?

Well last year I was away, so this was the first halloween in the new house, always an interesting time with plenty of local children around…

Rather than the usual careful explanation at the door of all hallows eve, finally giving in and giving them sweets as usual, I decided a more pratical approach might bemore interesting, for me, and for the little darlings.

Cassock donned ready, largest Roman collar ready, black funeral cape ready, Crucifix and aspergillium full of Holywell’s finest, (well ok it was tap water, but that’s all that is in the Well too!) Well honed and practiced phrases going round in my head, (begone foul fiend etc)

Not a sausage.  Not one little beastie, not even a timid little ghoul with a mummy or daddy ghoul, NOT ONE, I ask you, all that preparation, HMPH!

I am becoming increasingly concerned, as we near the climax of the consumerist year, about relationships between all sorts of things.  Reading the latest Resurgence reminded me of our relationship to food which can be as much about how we deal with others as it is with fueling our bodies.  This is intrinsically linked to the relationship to the land on which the food is grown or reared.  Satish Kumar writes “We have to transform our relationship with food…”  Unless we can move from merely fueling, our bodies there will be no change in the relationship.  Fuel / Food is a requirement of our society, as much for our means of transports as for ourselves.  Food has become yet another commodity in which to deal, like the great oil debate, how good it is for us or what benefit it can bring us has moved to how cheap can we get it.  I cannot remember (not that I watch a great deal of adverts on television) the last time I saw an advert for food which did not mention how cheap it was, ignoring the possible nutritional value by focusing on price.
The whole slow food movement, (which is growing fast, if that is not an oxymoron) the farmers markets, market gardens, local, organic, sustainable and Fairtrade culture is to be applauded, but it won’t sustain the majority of people.  Some have taken up the mantle of growing, rearing and preparing better foods, but it is too expensive for many.  It is the relationship with food which must be healed, before those who produce the bulk of our nations food will begin to change their selling habits.
A friend said last night, ‘there isn’t much I do that doesn’t have food involved’.  What a wonderful sentiment.  To elevate the nourishment of our bodies and souls to the centre of everything;  it becomes, if you like, a peg to hang our life upon.  If we meet and share a meal, we feed not only our bodies, but each others minds.  If we eat in isolation, we are just visiting the fuel pumps for our bodies.

Again, in Resurgence, Thomas Moore writes about food for the soul, “Food makes community and at a profound spiritual level eating together is communion, a commingling of souls.”

It is no wonder, perhaps, that so many of the writings about Jesus are set around a meal table or where food is central to the discussion.  I wonder perhaps that sometimes in our Eucharist, we have focused in on the heart of the matter, but forgotten to take the time to prepare the meal with those around us thereby cutting them off from the source of the food.  It is true, (for me at least) that if you grow your own food, it tastes better.  If I involve my children in the growing of the food, in the process of planting, looking after and harvesting the food, preparing and cooking it, will it taste better for them?  I am ashamed to say I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.  I have a hunch, call it an incling, that this is the key to changing our relationship with food.  Getting involved in the whole process.  Of course, it not only provides food, but also conversation, a shared task, food for the mind and soul before a pea is podded or a potato uprooted!

And if I use that same process regarding the Eucharist…

Ha, no not me, but the reluctant wife!!

Well done on completing the course in 1:54:57,  under the target of 2 hours.

She has probably raised about £2000 with her sister so far…

More on her running blog

I’ve been a little bemused since Tuesday.  I could have done with two of them, one for what I did do and one for everything that was put on hold because of it.  Not that the content of the CME day with Nigel Biggar on Ethics particularly bad or uninteresting, it was the opposite of both of those.  It was partly my stubbornness in cycling to the event and getting it badly wrong, as the map indicates!!, and partly the atmosphere that I was greeted with. (if I had gone the right way it was only 9 miles away the extra hills and few more miles were rather annoying)

I really wasn’t prepared for a room full of clergy, well what do expect at these events other than that, so I really do have myself to blame, however, after lunch, chatting, I commented that ‘I’ve never been quite so optimistic about death’ It must have been the atmosphere of 80 or so clergy deadening the mood, They aren’t all boring by any stretch of the imagination, I guess it was the full effect of seeing the institution in full flow, one car per cleric in the car park and the realisation that anything imaginative would be judged by this peer group as to it’s church-related-ness rather than it’s soulfulness.