A MURKY DAY ON THE RIDGEWAY - BUT NO DERELICTION

We had a great Zoom Church service this morning for the Third Sunday in Advent with Stephen leading.  He had chosen some good songs that we could join in with - although we are all muted because trying to sing together and keep pace with one another is almost impossible on Zoom.  Actually, I don’t dislike the “cacophony of sound”, but the host/leader usually mutes everyone before he or she shares the song on screen.  I wonder if the “Angels from the Realms of Glory” had the same problem when they sang “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”?

After the service, we thought it had stopped raining, so decided to go out, but we were wrong and it was that horrible mizzley rain.  However, having made the sandwiches for our lunch, we decided we would still go, so off we went.  We decided to go out of Swindon towards Wroughton and then we turned off on the road from Broad Hinton to Marlborough, at the top of which is a car park to the right of the Hackpen White Horse.  I had intended getting out of the car and taking a shot from just above the White Horse, but when I opened the car door, it was so windy and rainy that I decided to forego that idea.  

We did watch a little family of four, all with their wellies on, walking towards the White Horse, so we chatted with them when they came back - I said it brought back memories of when we used to go out with our boys - because on an afternoon like this it was easier to go out than to stay in with them - and both Mum and Dad agreed.  Made me think of LBB as at one point we heard the Mum say, “Arthur, don’t do that!”  It appeared he had been pushing his little sister, which could have been nasty, given that there were very large puddles after so much rain, and it was very muddy.

I did get out of the car briefly to take this shot in the rain - if you look carefully midway up the signpost, you will see the road meandering back to the main road but you can see how murky it was and this was just before 1 o’clock.  The trees are looking very wintry and halfway down the hill, the horses and Shetland ponies were huddling together under a tree, which was giving precious little shelter.

I was glad to get back into the car, out of the wind, and at least we had somewhere warm to eat our sandwiches.  We sat there for about half an hour and then made our way back, going “over the downs” to Marlborough, although we didn’t need to actually go into the town, for which we were grateful because Mr. HCB said there was a long queue of cars waiting to go down the hill.

We meandered back through the little villages and are now having a welcome cup of coffee.

Things that brought me joy today:

Meeting up with our Church friends at Zoom Church - but looking forward to meeting “for real” sometime in 2021.

Being able to go out with Mr. HCB - this was a favourite spot for us to come to when we were courting, over 52 years ago, after Sunday evening service, when we used to come up here, sit and watch the sunset and listen to “Sunday Half Hour” - does anyone else remember this programme? 

Despite the weather enjoying a picnic together, albeit in the car - but at least it was a warm car and we were sheltered from the rain!

“You can’t make a cloudy (or foggy) day a sunny day,
     but you can embrace it and decide
          it’s going to be a good day after all.”
Jane Lynch