Back to Normal ... Almost

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a fair while - well done! - will be aware of the way my mind works and be asking, 'who and where is Normal ... Almost?'  Others might simply realise that, while true normality is rarely achievable, an acceptable approximation is a regularly possibility.

Last weekend, I won a prize in a raffle.  It was the sort of raffle where a table of prizes stands behind the compere and, after drawing the next ticket, the winner then proceeds to the table to select his or her own prize.  On this occasion, by the time my ticket was drawn, few choices remained and the least unsuitable was (as I saw it) a string puppet, for whom I thought it would be easy to find an ultimate recipient.  Closer examination, however, revealed that it was only a doll seated on a plank, suspended to be hung in a window or alcove - a 'puppet on a swing' <groan>.  After brief enquiries, it found another temporary lodging in a charity shop, awaiting the advent of a keen collector.

Following the completion of what I came to know as the 'Golden Trees Project' (see last week's post), I've been filling in a few more of the blank areas left behind it in my tight network of family history records.  If this network were a fishing net, it wouldn't get near the dock, let alone taken to sea!  Severe mending is the nature of its needs, and at one point I told myself that 'it might be done by Christmas!'  At least it's something that can now be attended to with a degree of leisure and in small chunks that will allow concentration to remain focused.

Alongside this, I did my first Welsh lesson of the new year last week, and this week saw a renewed assault on my reading book, 'Bugail Olaf y Cwm' (Last Shepherd of the Valley).  I'm pleased to report that this dimension of my self-imposed retirement study challenge is becoming easier; I've now almost finished the first page!

Buttress through the arch

The week's great excitement has been the annual Ringers' Weekend Away, from which I've just returned and which has delayed writing this blog-post. This year, we went once more to the Suffolk seaside resort of Felixstowe, which we used as a base from which to visit six more village churches in the area, before rounding the weekend off by ringing for this morning's service at the beautiful Victorian church of St John Baptist in the town.

During the course of the weekend, we visited Orford,
where we observed the product of that traditional architectural amusement of 'putting the buttress through the arch', and we also managed to find a few unusual places from which bells are rung.

Ringers hidden behind the organ

One of the favourite places to hide bell-ringers, if they can't be stowed halfway up the tower, is behind the organ, as we found on two occasions yesterday.  The pictured example is from Hollesley.  We also enjoyed some fine food, thanks to Premier Inns and a lovely seaside pub called the Sailor's Rest.


Now all I need to do is find the hedge over which I tossed my diet and get it back!