St George's Day 2

St George, the Dragon and the Mayor

The clog dancers

St George's Day

What did you do for St George's Day? Apparently the English are the least patriotic nation in England and one in three people didn't know it was St George's Day on April 23rd. On the other hand I noticed English flags flying this year that I'd not noticed before. So whereas some enjoy deriding our nations past achievements, and suspect it might be racist to be proud of Old Blighty, others are reacting against political correctness and flying the flag.

In the village the newly rescued Sun Inn held a weekend of St George's festivities complete with handsome young George on his charger and a rather less impressive bright red dragon.

A band and clog dancers completed the procession down to the pub where the sun shone on the revels.

Thwarted plans

It has been a time of thwarted plans. Keeping the calendar clear so that we could take a few days away in the caravan, postponing the sowing of seeds in the dry weather in case there was no rain whilst away, and then Bother in the shape of Pooter Probs. HoF has invested in a new one which involved two trips to Crewe; one to collect and one to return when the new machine proved faulty, and yet another delay waiting for a courier to collect the same beast, now busticated. Meanwhile the proposed caravan trip was subject to a continuous 'maybe tomorrow' syndrome.
So in the gloom engendered by this morass of non-events it was a treat to receive a painting from our eldest African grandson of their family home and a letter from the other granny telling of their doings on a recent visit.

Visitors

Guess who came to visit last week! We enjoyed showing them round our patch and as we all have NT tickets, had a great day out here.

At Powis Castle. If we were just that bit closer I'd come here frequently to see the changing borders. I was surprised how empty they were compared to last summer, but the wild flowers in the woodland were lovely, lots of primroses and anemones. And the views over the surrounding countryside gives you an idea of the setting.


Now I am busy on my garden, and am comforted about my winter losses - an arbutus unedo, helianthemum, and maybe an olearia, by seeing the Powis plants suffered too, and they have experts. So the veg garden is dug, but not yet sown. How do you time it when the ground is so dry and no rain forecast? The celandine are beaten back and now I need to makeover the rockery where the said helianthemum had pride of place and the loathed grape hyacinths are taking over again. Why is it the plants I don't like that do well and those I adore are the ones that struggle and give up after the first year? I suppose that's what makes them rare.
The person pictured above has a blog I discovered during our many chats which you might be interested to read. He has some thought-provoking ideas, especially on what church is really all about. And the talks for the conference I went to are also online; I recommend Friday pm and Saturday am2, for starters.

Conference

No photos because I didn't take a camera, but I got home on Saturday from a Christian conference an hour's drive away. It is a sister conference to one we used to go to in Devon, but much handier, and smaller too. Everyone did everything, none of these difficult choices like, which seminar shall I go to? There had been some suggestion from HoF that sitting still long enough might be hard after ten minute Anglican sermons, but it all turned out to be a real treat. Food for the malnourished, you might say. The wonder came to me afresh what lengths the saviour went to to not only forgive us but to give us the life to live now, thoroughly equipped with 'another comforter'. There was no condemnation in the preaching, but liberty and rest, grace and peace. God does not stand over us, like a horrid father at Christmas, ordering us to open our gifts, but holds his arms open wide and says 'this is all for you!'. Why would anyone refuse such a gift?

I'd booked late and had to share a room, so it was quite a surprise to find my room-mate lived only ten miles from our village, considering there were folks there from all over the country. Not too much sleep, so I've been catching up since. Now we have visitors, you may see them in the next blog.