Bright Morning Star

A bright and sunny day today - blue skies.  I woke up early, in fact Sara woke me to say that there was something big and bright in the sky in the east and I got up to confirm to her that it was the planet Venus which is now a very bright "morning star".  Through high powered binoculars I was able to discern its gibbous shape and conclude that it was extremely close to Earth - hence its incredible brightness.  It will be with us for some weeks now getting higher and higher in the sky as it pulls away from the Sun.  This brightness and clarity of the sky produced an extreme frost and the cars were covered in ice. This morning Sara and I attended St. Paul's Church where we met up with our old friend Anthony in the foyer.  The church was packed with a baptism performed by Brian Meardon.  The service was an All Age Service (no Holy Communion at all at St. Paul's today) with the children staying in to see the baptism and enjoy a wonderful sermon from a lay person who talked about God being "a rock".  The talk included the throwing out of  seaside rock pieces to the children.  Anthony really liked the service and although a non-Christian, seemed to find it very stimulating, not too evangelical, and I think was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing.  St. Paul's certainly seem to have got it right - large numbers of congregation from all walks of life and ages and attractive to the non-churched too.  Anthony came back with us for lunch, after a brief stop off for some paint for the kitchen,  and spent most of the afternoon with us.  Sara cooked Toad-in-the-Hole which we enjoyed although Mary seemed to be spending most of the day with her friend Izzy!   After Anthony was taken home by Sara, we watched a little bit of a Poirot episode before the BAFTA Awards came on.  I decided to go upstairs and read for a while before going to bed early.  I find it much better to go to bed early and wake up early.  Half term has now begun and we have the children with us all week. I must try and get the study sorted this week - both the room and the academic work. I have a firend and his wife from Liverpool days arriving for the weekend.