Christmas News 2023

Christmastime again - I can't believe where time goes these days.  It seems to fly by - is that old age or just that we are busy and enjoying life to the full in Devon?

I go up to the moor every morning for a walk with Bruce, unless the weather is ferociously inclement, and I am sometimes overwhelmed by how great it is to be living here.  I really love having such fabulous countryside to walk in so close to the house.  Bruce has been with us for two years now and he has really settled down. I let him walk off lead now up on the moor if it is quiet – although I keep an eye out for free range dogs and sheep as he is still not good with them!

I have moved to the tenor section of the Exeter Bach Choir, which means I get to sit next to Mike (which helps me get the notes!).  We did Faure Requiem in the Spring – the tenors certainly get the yummy bits in that – and we have just done Messiah which I just love.  I know the Alto part almost by heart from singing it every year with Goldsmiths in London, and it was a fun and enjoyable challenge to sing a different part. Mike has also joined a second choir which is smaller and does most things unaccompanied.  They did a concert at Buckfast Abbey to celebrate their tenth anniversary by singing pieces they had performed across the decade – an eclectic mix of old and modern! 

Mike is now playing the organ at our local parish church for service once a month, and has volunteered to play for Midnight Mass.  They have built a ramp and a platform for him to be able to get to the manuals in his wheelchair.  He is very pleased to be able to play again, and they are delighted to have gained an organist!  They also asked him to run a choir practice once a month – mainly to run through the music for the services.

Mike at the organ

I decided I needed to belong to my local church, rather than flit about trying to find a traditional service elsewhere, so gritted my teeth and started going to the 9.30 family service, which is the one we ring for.  It is noisy and haphazard with guitars etc and children running around, but I have thrown myself into the worship songs and children's songs with actions and now rather enjoy it.  It helps that other ringers go to it, and that I am getting to know some people. Lately I have started to go to the more traditional service at 11 once a month when Mike is playing the organ, and I sing in the choir then.  Mike sings with the church choir in Lustleigh for which they are very grateful, and I join them for special services such as the Carol Service or Harvest Festival.

I joined the newly formed church sewing group in April and this has also helped me to get to know some of the other ladies of the church.  We meet once a week and take our various projects along - there is knitting, crochet, weaving etc going on as well as sewing.  I was lucky that this coincided with me acquiring a huge partly finished patchwork quilt from the Convent in London.  They had been given it by someone to finish off and sell, but they didn't have anyone to do it so I agreed to give it a go.  I have not done anything like it before, but luckily my ringing friend Katie is also a keen crafter, so she offered to help.  We have made slow but steady progress but still have a way to go. I have also made my first bunting!

I finally finished the cross stitch of the Bayeux Tapestry which my brother had given me for Christmas many years ago.  It was very fine and fiddly and I kept putting it to one side, but I picked it up again in Lockdown and kept at it and really enjoyed doing it.  

Mike continues to organise lots of QP days and outings for local ringers, and also some QP weekends which include ringing friends from London and further afield.  A new venture this year was to book a week in a cottage in North Devon with 5 QPs a day (a bit much for some participants I hear!). Bruce and I stayed home!

The NB Intrepid trip in May was over three weeks this year, with the third week having no towers but lots of handbells combined with the boating.  Mike had expected to be retired by then but he has been persuaded to stay working for another year - he still did the full three weeks.  They boated to Hertford and then to Limehouse and then up the Thames under Tower Bridge and up past Chiswick church before getting back on to the Grand Union Canal.

My brother came at Easter and we had trips to Pennywell Farm and Crealy Park with Amanda and the kids.  We enjoyed Pennywell so much I bought annual passes and we went again that weekend - taking Mike with us this time.   

Anne and her dog Sam came to visit (twice) this year - and we finally succeeded in getting Bruce and Sam to tolerate each other so that she could stay with us rather than in a B&B up the road.  What a relief.  We went out to various National Trust places, where we could walk the dogs in the grounds, and even took them on a boat from Dartmouth to Greenway (Agatha Christie's holiday house) which was fascinating.  

Didn't think this would be possible when we first got Bruce!

The Barnes ringers trip went to Derbyshire this year, based in Buxton - and we will be going back next year despite the rather surly hotel proprietress!  I went along as a non-ringer and enjoyed some cross stitching while they rang, and some nice pub meals in the evenings.

The Roving Ringers tour was based in Suffolk - Bruce and I had a cottage in Boxford which was a lovely quiet little village near Sudbury.  There was nice countryside for walking, and the cottage had a lovely conservatory to sit in and cross stitch in the afternoons, with a dog friendly and secure garden.  

Top L: Barnes Top R: Rovers Bottom: Boxford

Amanda began working as a Teaching Assistant this year - firstly for an agency but is now almost full time at Bovey Primary, where Bethany and Harry go to school.  Bethany enjoys going to a sewing group in Bovey once a week and Harry goes to kick boxing, where he has now moved up to the more advanced class, and Beavers.  Lorraine is having her campervan refurbished (it was supposed to take a month but has been going on all year and is still not quite finished!) - new engine and bodywork by the garage, and fixtures and fittings by friends and family!  Amanda and I have been making the curtains and Mike refurbished the storage box/seat.  I haven't seen Leanne and her family this year, or my sister, but they all seem ok and I joined them by WhatsApp video to raise a glass in memory of Dad when John visited them in London.

Leanne did send this lovely photo of her family attending Ifty's sister's wedding.  

The children grow up so fast don't they. 

First day back at school September 2023

Our good friend Peter got married in October to fellow Roving Ringer Catherine - they had their first date in February!  This didn't leave a lot of time for a cross stitch to be done - but I managed to do this one and get it framed just in time! (I didn't want to take the bubble wrap off for the photo!)

Mike was in the band which rang a QP beforehand, organised the queue of ringers up the tower for ringing before and after, and did a reading, while I was in the handbell band who rang a course of Kent major while they were signing the register.  It was a lovely wedding and there was a hog roast and ceilidh afterwards. 

Well it is the usual busy run up to Christmas for us with concerts, bellringing and handbells - Mike has been training up a handbell band here for a couple of services and the Bovey Christmas Market, and we are also ringing with Peter and Catherine four in hand at the Widecombe Christmas market.  Amanda and the kids are going to Majorca for Christmas so it will just be the two of us this year - which will be nice and we shall enjoy the peace and quiet although we are also looking forward to a visit from friend Linda on 27th, and Mike has organised several days of ringing over the New Year!

We send our warmest good wishes for Christmas and the New Year