Well, that’s the end of the Christmas Cake, mince pies, and other festive fayre. Menu back to normal next week. (Fri Jan 03 08:17:50) CBeebies HD. Really? (Fri Jan 03 09:05:24) Bit of liturgical confusion at church this morning. One person thought Epiphany was today, another thought twelve night was tomorrow! (Sun Jan 05 21:30:49) RT @cluedont: BBC: ‘Much of Scotland’s coastline still being battered.’ They will literally deep fry anything. (Tue Jan 07 06:54:07) RT @jcodfishpie: Obi-Wan: Use the force Ani. Anakin: If you must shorten my name can’t you call me Kin? Obi-Wan: Use the force Kin. (Fri […]

Well, 2014 was one heck of a year for us. I’m not too sad it’s over, to be honest. The two big hitters of the year were the death of my Mum back in April (and everything leading up to it, and following it), and being recommended for ordination training (again), but this time actually starting it. My younger son also started going to nursery school, and he now goes for 6 sessions (i.e. 1/2 days) a week. He’s also managed to get through 2 childminders this year. In both cases they announced they were giving up childminding, and gave […]

Well, just 4 days left of 2014 – seems like a reasonable point at which to have a look back over the year, and in particular how I did against my “hit list” which I posted way back in January. Pocket Money – YES. System worked well. Climbing – Not so good. Only 6 climbs, but I did lead a 6a clean in March. Photography – Better than I thought, as I posted 146 photos (and counting, I guess), and did at least one most weeks. It’s really tailed off since September, when I started training. Only 33 photos since […]

Just realised that I put the photos on my photo website, but never wrote the blog! This is my effort at the younger sons birthday cake this year. Pretty chuffed, to be honest. See bigger pictures at https://photo.eutony.net/Fire-Engine-Cake

Wow – life has got busy since I started my ordination training in September! The Yorkshire Ministry Course is really good – we’ve settled into a rhythm now, of Wednesdays and weekends, working our way through the New Testament and elements of Ministry and Mission. My fellow ordinands are awesome, and there are one or two in particular who are fantastic to be walking alongside, to help and be helped by. What is particularly noticeable is that an awful lot of “normal life” has got squeezed out. I’m hugely enjoying the reading, writing, thinking, reflecting… but I also used to […]

After being inspired by a request from Alex Cann (‘im off Stray FM) to suggest colourful songs for a playlist for the St Michael’s hospice Colour Rush on the 20th June, I’ve got all excited and decided to blog it! Off the top of my head, we have a collection of singles: “Fergus Sings the Blues” “Black or White” “Since You’ve been gone” (by Rainbow) “Green Door” “Red Red Wine” “Itsy Bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini” “The Race” (by Yello) “Blue Suede Shoes” “Summertime Blues” “Blue Velvet” “Black velvet” “Pink Sunshine” (by Fuzzbox. Maybe a little obscure, but […]

This morning I said goodbye to my Mum. After 2 years of fighting against a failing body, she has finally gone home. You have probably realised that my last post was about her, but it seemed right to keep that one anonymous. She didn’t have an easy ride in life, and more often than not was her own worst enemy. But being around her was always an adventure, and I have many many happy memories of my childhood. It’s fitting at one level that she passed away in Norfolk – so much happiness, misadventure, drama, and joy has taken place […]

I had my first visit to an intensive care ward over the Easter weekend, visiting someone who was in there. I was struck by how serene it is, and – obviously I guess – high tech. Each bed is surrounded by machinery – syringe drivers, drip stands, ventilators, and banks of monitors showing vital signs, etc. Despite this, it is all very quite and peaceful. The alarms on the machine are fairly subtle beeps, and the whole feel of the place was very open and calm. Nobody rushed around – the nurses going from around and about were walking. Even […]

My new phone does instagram really nicely, and I’m finding myself taking more and more photos from within instagram. In fact, most of this month’s “365” photos have been on my cameraphone. It’s actually quite nice to be removed from the technical quality constraints. My phone is never going to match the quality of my SLR, by any metric, so the attention is firmly forced onto subject and composition. My 365s still tend to be the aspect ratio out of the phone, where instagram is square, but if this starts bothering me enough I’ll start uploading the square/processed crops. One […]

Well, the exiting news from the household is that I have been recommended for ordination training in the Church of England! I have felt that God was calling me to ordained ministry for many years. It has been a long and, at times, quite difficult journey. The process of discernment is long and thorough, and deeply searching. Those who were with me 8 years ago will know that this is not the first time that I have been an ordinand (i.e. someone preparing for ordination), but for various reasons we had with withdraw from the process last time. If I’m […]