Mono Monday - ‘Earth’

The first contribution by Linda and me as new members of the PCC (church committee) was to go along to St Luke’s this morning and see how we might help the Fabric Team. We’ve now found our very own ‘Forth Bridge’ project - perpetually tidying the graves in the churchyard. It’s sad how neglected the majority of them are, and today we removed the dried up remains of many Christmas baskets that had presumably been brought there last December, including desiccated mini Christmas trees complete with dusty baubles and faded plastic decorations. We need to be careful what we remove, so as not to upset relatives, but I think it’s reasonable to try and keep it relatively tidy and cared for. There is one war grave in the churchyard, and we’re going to try and find it and give it a good clean out of respect for the serviceman buried there. There’s plenty more for us to do, and we’ve also been asked by the Churchwarden (my friend Sheila) if we could help to mend some of the altar fronts, which are in need of some hand-stitched and machine-stitched repairs. There are two of each colour (white/gold, red, purple and green for the various days of the church calendar) which are hung on the main altar and on the smaller one in the side chapel.

After lunch, I walked up to the hairdresser’s for lovely Liz to wash, cut and dry my hair for the last time. I’m sad for me as she’s a talented hairdresser and great to chat with, but excited for her and Lee as they finalise the sale of the house they’ve worked so hard to renovate, and then set off travelling through Wales in their motor home searching for somewhere to settle permanently. I gave Liz a card wishing them fun and happiness on their journeys, and put in a little St Christopher token to keep them safe on their travels.

Many thanks to DonMac21 for hosting the Mono Monday challenge for May, with this week’s theme of ‘Earth, Wind or Fire’. My blip is slightly tenuously connected with the earth, in which all the occupants of those graves have been buried - my favourite headstone in our churchyard being the most elaborate one featuring a large angel carved in bas relief. The story it tells however is very sad, as the grave contains a 48-year-old mother and her daughter aged 8, who died within weeks of each other in 1927.