FLOWER FRIDAY AND FAREWELL TO JOYCE

Our garden is now desperate for some rain and apparently, it is due to come on Sunday not tomorrow.  Mr. HCB is very pleased because he has been setting out lots of plants in the garden, grown by his fair hand from seed, and if the rain doesn’t come, then he will have to keep watering them.  However, he would love it to rain on Sunday, as he is due to go to Bristol for 3 days of cricket from Monday!

This is a selection of the flowers in our garden at the moment - with the roses at the top, the wild flower bed in the middle and various other plants in the bottom part of the collage - from the left, sage, antirrinhum or snapdragon as it is commonly known, baptisia, nigella and penstemon.

They are all looking good, but a good shower would make them look even better!

This afternoon we were at the Thanksgiving Service for Joyce, the Mother of Joy, a friend of ours.  Joyce was a wonderful Christian lady, who celebrated her 100th birthday in March of this year.  She hadn’t seen her doctor for over 4 years - how wonderful to get to that age without constantly being in the care of a doctor - and thankfully was only poorly for about 10 days before she died.  It was certainly an uplifting service with some wonderful hymns and tributes to a wonderful Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Aunt and all round special lady.  

The service was led by Sue, another friend of ours, who is a Lay Reader in the Church of England, and she did very well especially as it was her first ever funeral service.  Normally at the end of a burial service, when earth is ceremonially thrown onto the coffin, these words would be said : “We commit her body to the ground; earth to earth; ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, but today these beautiful words were spoken, which are so appropriate for a Christian Thanksgiving Service:

Life to life,
     Love to Love,
          Time to Eternity.

We were pleased to be there to support Joy and Barry, Mr. HCB’s walking buddy on a Tuesday morning, and enjoyed time with them and their family and friends after the service - see extra.