poppies and bbqs??

We had our Christmas fair fundraiser for our village church yesterday. The weather was so mild that a bbq was set up outside in the courtyard and did a roaring trade selling 120 burgers!
As I loaded up the car with my homebaking for the cake and candy stall I noticed this poppy had just bloomed. These poppies normally flower in May/June and have faded by August so it's a bit of a surprise to see it now. Climate change ? What's that? This time last year we were knee-deep in snow and the Christmas fair had to be cancelled as the roads were unsafe, we couldn't keep the carpark clear of snow and the paths were like ice-rinks!
I had a brilliant time at the fair, helping in the make and take craft area for the children. The kids were decorating porcelain trinket dishes and I was setting the ink with a hairdryer then gift-wrapping their pressies for their grannies and grandpas. It was tremendous fun. My cakes were sold as were the two scarves which I had put on the craft stall.
We raised £1,300 for the Wind and watertight repairs fund and are very close to our target of £70,000. (we have more than £65k I think).

No doubt the weather will change this week and I won't have any more plants being confused by the mild weather. A shame really, as after last winter I would be happy if we only had a light dusting of snow for one afternoon in January!

me & Yew

my Church held a special service inside/under a Yew Tree at Ormiston Hall to commemmorate the 450th anniversary of the Reformation in Scotland.

George Wishart, a friend and colleague of John Knox, is believed to have preached under this tree 454 years ago, on Jan 15th 1546, before he was arrested and executed at St Andrews.

The public outcry against this punishment for preaching the word of God led in part to the Reformation in Scotland. The Scots Parliament passed the Scots Confession on 17th Aug, 1560 and on 24th August Papal jurisdiction was repudiated in Scotland.

We held a wonderful communion service under the spreading branches of the Yew Tree.

Approx 200 people attended, Jenni took her electronic organ and a portable amp, and Alison, Anne and Willie played clarinet. It was ethereal, moving, and very special.

The offering was taken for the Barnabas fund for aid relief in Pakistan and to be given to those in need regardless of colour, class or creed.

Afterwards Meg had the teenagers serve cream teas at her cottage, for about 40 people. It was a great end to a wonderful morning.

Bread of Heaven

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon in 1969, took Communion on the moon when the lunar module landed, so the first food that was consumed on the moon's surface was the holy sacrament, provided by the Pastor at Aldrin's church.

This was the theme of the children's address by the sole nominee for our church vacancy this morning, the Rev D Torrance, illustrating that God is with you, wherever you are.

The Church of Scotland has an interesting process for appointing new ministers to vacancies. The congregation elects a vacancy committee which draws up the job advert, receives applications, interviews candidates, listens to them preach in other churches, then invites one candidate to come to the church for us all to hear. Then the congregation votes on whether to accept the sole nominee.

After today there is the legal process in which the Presbytery appoints the candidate and the induction service is arranged.

In addressing the congregation the candidate cannot mould his/herself to what he/she thinks the people want. He can only be himself.

This morning we met a very thoughtful man. The future looks bright, the future lies with Torrance.

And now off to the garden with a cup of tea, some sock wool and a book of patterns and time to decide the replacement for my monkeys (which, sadly, got felted, and are now toe cosies for my dog!)