Busy weekend in the parishes

The early May Bank Holiday weekend was filled with action in both Upton-upon-Severn and Hanley Swan, and both benefited from the lovely weather - so much better than last year! The Upton Folk Festival, as always, included the Festival Service at St Peter and St Paul's Church which is always a joyous occasion led by various participants in the festival, as well as our own organist and choir. We were led in and out of church by the Milltown Cloggies, pictured here dancing and singing outside the West Door.

The service was followed by the traditional procession through the town.

Many generous residents of Hanley Swan opened their gardens in aid of the Hanley Churches for the three days of the long weekend, and a huge number of visitors really enjoyed looking round. They also ate so many cream teas, there had to be a supermarket dash for more scones on Bank Holiday Monday morning! As well as all the gardens, a new piece of public art was opened, providing some very attractive seating by the pond. The project involved pupils from both Hanley Swan Church of England Primary School and Hanley Castle High School, and resulted in some stepping stones created by pupils from the Primary School, and seats carved from ideas offered by young people from the High School.

Keeping a New Year Resolution - in May!

Having not posted anything in the whole of 2012, my New Year Resolution for 2013 was to start blogging again - also to spend more time with my lovely online friends on Twitter and Facebook. So far, I have managed to get on the social networks a few of times (although by no means enough!), but the intended blog posts have never made it from my brain to cyberspace.

My main excuse is that we moved house just before Christmas - not the ideal time for a Vicar - and I've been trying to get sorted out ever since. Having finally managed to get more or less all the boxes unpacked (between celebrating Easter and few other church activities!!) I'm taking a bit of a break, so am finally making good on my resolution.

The move was necessitated by the fact that Worcester Diocese had finally managed to buy a house as the new Rectory. We had been living in "temporary" accommodation for 18 months, 10 miles away from the parishes in which I work; this had a significant influence on my virtual absence from the virtual world, as I was spending so much time travelling I had little time for anything else. I've always thought that the Church of England was a by-word for compromise, but apparently this does not apply to their view of the ideal clergy house. Finding the right four-bedroomed house with study proved to be a far more difficult task for them than anyone would have thought possible!

Thea, our black Labrador, is now 3 years old in body, but her brain has yet to catch up - she is still just a giant puppy. Unfortunately, despite considerable quantities of additional fencing, she has found her way out of the new garden several times; on one occasion she was caught snacking from our neighbour's bird table, but the most worrying was when she managed to get onto the main road although very fortunately had the sense to stay on the pavement.

I'll be posting photos of some things that happened a couple of weeks ago in Upton and Hanley - and hopefully there will be more to follow over the summer. To paraphrase a well-known broadcaster from some years ago "If you have been, thank you for reading".