And now it's all over

So that's it ! That was summer! Next week I am back at work and autumn is well and truly heading our way. It has been the wettest summer for a hundred years but the Curate and I have had a great time. What has made it so fantastic? The public celebrations set the tone, from the Royal Jubilee to the Olympics and now the Paralympics.  On a personal level, perhaps it is because The Curate knows he is at the end of his training and we can begin to look forward. Perhaps it is because I have made decisions regarding my work. Perhaps it is because both sons are back in the UK.  Perhaps it is because we have managed some stress free time away, we have caught up with family and managed to take two very well behaved dogs with us. Perhaps it is because I have taken full advantage of living near the moor and have been able to ride regularly. All in all - an excellent summer!

So now what? Job adverts and applications become The Curate's focal points while he carries on serving in his present parish. After a summer of officiating at weddings, he is fully wedding trained and he has become quite an expert on the practicalities of various wedding dress designs. He has managed to not drop the rings or step on the wedding dress. He has lost his sermon and had to go looking for it during the hymn singing and managed to conceal his panic. He has calmed excited bridesmaids and handed hankies to bridegrooms.

Perhaps the secret to the success of this summer has been to ignore the weather and totally immerse ourselves in all that has been going on. After all, skin is waterproof!

Autumn walk to Little and Great Mis Tor

Setting out with an easy objective of  reaching Little and Great Mis Tor

The weather was perfect although the light was a little hazy.

The Curate feels the need to hold up Little Mis Tor.

At fourteen years old, our Lakeland still manages to keep up. She blends into the autumn coloured moor perfectly.

The light is fading as we head down again so we quicken our step.

Time to head home.

Sunday morning

What a difference a week makes! Last weekend I didn't venture out because I had succumbed to a very heavy cold. I lay in bed reading Annie's blog about her moment of peace on a Sunday morning and remembering similar mornings when we lived in Gibraltar and not on a damp, foggy moor and under the cloud. But this Sunday - after yesterday spent by the sea, I was up and ready for the early dog walk.

 
This was a three service Sunday for the Curate (four -if you count attending the evening service) so he went off to the church early on his motor bike. He has to get to two more churches so the bike proves an efficient and enjoyable mode of transport. I am still finding my feet in all these churches - and it can be a bit of an ordeal to walk through those doors on my own, so this morning I enjoyed the space and the quiet outside the church.

I walked through the church yard in the early morning sunshine, listening to the single church bell ringing and  passing a few folk making their way to the early service. Seeing the lights on in the church, I thought of The Curate getting ready to lead the service. Sentimentalism, romanticism ..call it what you will, but I found myself enjoying a moment of very English peace - and so it continued for  the rest of my walk. There is something very special about England in the Autumn (when it is not raining) and my walk called to mind John Betjeman's Poem Autumn. (I know it's not November!)

Red apples hang like globes of light

Against this pale November haze,

And now, although the mist is white,

In half-an-hour a day of days 

Will climb into its golden height

and Sunday bells will ring its praise.

The sparkling flint , the darkling yew,

The red brick, less intensely red

Than  hawthorn berries bright with dew

Or leaves of creeper still unshed

The watery sky washed clean and new,

Are all rejoicing with the dead.

The yellowing elm shows yet some green.

The mellowing bells exultant sound:

Never have light and colour been

So prodigally thrown around;

And in the bells the promise tells

Of greater light where Love is found.

 

October 2011

An Autumn Treat on Dartmoor

  The Curate has been on a training day all day and was able to re energize with a spectacular motorbike  ride  back across the Moor. As the dogs had been in all day. we decided to take advantage of the warm evening sun and we went up to the moor for a picnic supper. The colours are suddenly changing on Dartmoor as the bracken is dying back. The evening light accentuated the changes.

  

A couple of weeks ago we had seen three buzzards in this spot.  This time there were five birds hopping around on the ground. They were fairly unconcerned by us being there - as long as we kept our distance

The Arrival of  Autumn