Ta daaaaaa

At last, some time & the computer working OK.
Here are some snaps of the Chasuble being made...

Here it is being tried on....Christmas eve.

Anne & I are slowly unfolding the altar cloth. Careful.....careful.Here is the Rev. Nigel showing us his get-up.And here with the proud maker.....
And here with lovely Sue, who helped pay for the new vestments, and little Patrick, the small boy who will see it in use for many years to come. (Standing in his best & most pious pose).
He's the little boy who said my singing made him feel tired. It was so amazing walking in to church that evening & seeing it all lit by candles. There were even special candle holders for the choir so we could see properly. All of us dressed in red.

Clarissa, Joe & baby Zebedee came & made our Christmas complete. They snuck in at the last minute. I had worded Nigel up just in case they came. I gave him this article to read from the Norfolk paper.
He did the most brilliant job. Got all the facts right & made them both cry for a good 15 minutes or so. I could hardly walk down the aisle for tears. I'd spent a long time praying for this very event to happen & for it to happen on Christmas was just the icing on the cake.

I don't have any pictures of them at the Church but I do have these from Christmas evening when they came over to our house for a game of "Settlers of Catan" and a bloody good laugh.

Catch up post

A few bits & pieces just to try & catch up on all that's been happening here in our neck of the woods.
The altar cloth & chasuble are DONE. Here are some pics.
More coming soon when it takes me less time to upload them. At the moment it's taken me an hour or so to get these few up here.I felt so nervous sliding it over the altar. It was like being on stage. Luckily it all went well & now we're just waiting to see it this evening at the Midnight Mass. Finished & lit by hundreds of candles.

It's so exciting at this time of year. Every time the postman knocks I hope it might be a parcel . Sure enough last week THE parcels came from Australia. Our lovely families remembered us, all the way over here.

The trinity!!!!

Our inspiring friend William Fairbank sent us this as a Christmas card with the words "Seen & unseen..." on it. Precious words from the ancient Nicene creed.
He took the picture outside his house at Bridgeham just down the road from us.
I think a submission to the cloud appreciation society is in order.

It's getting mighty Christmassy 'round here.
I'm still trying to get the definitive shot of the tree. It just looks so lovely.
In the mean time here is a shot of the panforte being made in the kitchen & the festive slippers that Richard bought me in the charity shop last year. ( I think I may have spilled a tiny bit of panforte on one...uh oh.)

Sparkly things...

Sparkly things for Christmas....hmmmm what could they be?

They are the beginnings of the Altar cloth & vestments for East Harling Church.
Wowee kazowee, I'm finally done with all the boring jobs & can get on with something truly gorgeous.
I have started another blog to keep the more conservative amongst us away from this blog where there is occasional nudity. Go & have a look ..... http://www.altarcloth.blogspot.com

Post for the Southern hemisphere...

Just to make you all feel a lot cooler......here are some pictures of our boating experiences at the moment.....no bush fires either. Ahhhh luxury.
Lucky we've got a boat for all this fabulous weather we've been having.
More chance of getting scurvy than sunburn really.Mmmmmm a pelican clip. Our newest boaty bit. Goes from the pulpit down through the staunchions to an eye bolt on the deck.(There's a whole new vocabulary for you all).

Zebedee's mum & dad

Clarissa & Joe have moved.....to our village. Yay.
It was Clarissa's birthday yesterday & they had a birthday party/housewarming party. Time to let their hair down. You can see Rob here doing a very nice "Dad" dance!
P.S. Zebedee now weighs an incredible 5lb 11ozs.....& should be home for Christmas.

For years & years I've loved & wanted to sing a gorgeous Aretha Franklin song called "Nobody like you". I've tried to get other people interested to try & get someone to play it for me while I sang it
At last....Richard listened properly to my ancient tape of it (must be 20 years old now) and fell in love as I had....if you click on this link there is a snippet from the Amazon site.
We are doing it tonight for the Christmas show at the Church. Fingers crossed I can convey the goose bump factor!!!!!

Rupert bear house

At last I've discovered where Rupert bear lives....... Just up the road from us.
Now I also happen to know that Noddy lives not far away either....in Trumpington.

Camels

A Christmassy photo for you.

Quidenham

Thanks Kelly, the concert was just the ticket.

We sang with the East Harling choir at the Quidenham Carmelite Monastery last night for Advent. Some really tricky Latin choral pieces & some other gorgeous songs.
It's always an absolute privilege to go there. It's a closed order & the nuns don't get to see many visitors. They sing in a seperate part that's away from the congregation, so the audience can only hear this ethereal music coming from around a corner of the chapel. The choir however does get to see them. This is where they sing from....
Afterwards we get to meet up with them in another smaller room and sing Christmas carols with them. There is a low bench that still divides them from us. Richard says when he used to sing there with East Harling choir in the 70's there was a metal grill that divided you, just in case you wanted to kidnap one away.

This is looking from their choir stalls back toward the High altar...
It was an amazing scene to be a part of, with us all robed up in our red outfits and the nuns all in their unassuming brown with sandals & socks. To be surrounded by such music is a healing experience & quite a few times looking around at us all singing so earnestly I had to just mouth the words or they would have come out as sobs.

(I've put in a few pics from their website as it's too hard to take photos at the time. They're not great quality)
http://www.carmelite.org.uk/Quidenham.html

Lost in a world of curtains

Dear committed blog readers.
I know I haven't posted for ages. I have been having a shit (forgive the swearing, an indication of how frustrated I am) of a time really.
Making curtains (or trying to make curtains).
I thought I was a good sewer, I thought curtains were easy. Both thoughts were wrong, naive (the dictionary definition is correct "having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information").
Here are some photos of Richard putting the eyelets into a set of huge cutains for some clients. I managed to take the picture even though my fingers are down to the bone from all the work I've been doing.I've been getting up at 6am to try & get everything done. I keep making mistakes. I had to remake a curtain completely because of a large "wee like" stain from the "Crease away" ironing spray product that I sprayed on with too much enthusiasm.
Still I haven't even looked at the one job I really want to get onto which is the altar cloth for the church which is meant to be done for Christmas.
At this stage I'll be hiding under the Duvet when Christmas rolls around.

Just when you'd think I had enough work, I foolishly took on another giant loose couch cover too. Stupid stupid.
The only consolation being that the house I went to to measure up at was absolutely, amazingly gorgeous.17th century half timbered 3 story Tudor MANSION. Here are a few shots of the interior. Complete with grand piano. Beats working in a factory I suppose.

Now where did I put that thimble........

Just hanging around

We've just been hanging round the house lately. Hibernating inside.We did however have some friends over for lunch (Goats cheese croquettes, tomato & olive salad and baked apples with gingercake custard) on the weekend.
We went for a walk after lunch past the beautiful church in West Harling. It stands in a field all by itself. No electricity or anything. It's great when they have a Christmas carol service & the whole place is lit by candles & smells like mince tarts & mulled wine.

More autum colours

I just finished the last post & looked out the back door & what do you know, suddenly the leaves have changed & everywhere there is glorious colour......

even inside...

Autumnal colours

We went to a gorgeous English Pub on the UK Suffolk coast at Orford on Sunday for lunch with my brother & sister-in-law. The Crown & Castle is well worth a visit. Quiet & tasteful.
Afterwards at about 4pm!!!!! Yes it's getting dark mighty early these days. We went down to the quay & watched these beautiful colours as the sun set

I've just come home from a coffee out with my friend & old boss Caroline & this is what greeted me at our front door. I've been going in & out without noticing that the highlighter pen has been out.

The dinner

Yet another fabulous dinner has to be recorded.
Tonight's meal was "Beer-can chicken" from Waitrose.com...."Never was there more amusement to be had from roasting a chicken. The bird is 'stuffed' with a can of beer, which bastes it from the inside out. Result: extra moist chicken. Two things to remember: don't drink too much of the beer or your chicken will fall over (possibly you will too); and make sure that the chicken is at room temperature before cooking."

Here we see Richard doing a fine impersonation..it was amazing & delicious.
(Do be careful if you cook this, the beer gets mighty hot.)