All Creatures Great and Small

I woke this morning to find it raining again.  Tom did his paper round first thing.  Sara had intended to walk to church and back but decided to drive instead.  She went to All Saints on her own this morning whilst Mary and I decided to drive "over the hill" to Whiteparish to attend a special pets' service at Brympton Riding School being conducted by Nils with Andrew in attendance.  Mary brought along Haley the Hamster to be blessed.  There were several dogs and horses present too - Haley being by far the smallest pet there.  The heavens opened as Nils stood out in the open to give his address and he was consequently soaked to the skin.  He carried on regardless without the use of an umbrella apparently enjoying the freshness of the rain.  The retiring collectino was for the Dogs Trust.  After the service we drove back to All Saints to join Sara for coffee at the back of the church (their service being much longer).  This afternoon I cut the grass on the bank after a light lunch of home-made spiced butternut squash soup.  This evening Richard and I went back "over the hill" to Whiteparish to attend the BCP Evensong at the church there.  This was being conducted by Zoe, a member of my own support group, as the first LWL practical training slot.  She did exceptionally well in leading the service and giving a talk in the form of a reading about the life of Socrates.  I think this also gave confidence to Richard to lead a BCP service.  We had old school-type hymns such as "He who would true valiant be" and I enjoyed the nostalgia of a 1960s church service like the ones I had attended at Old Clee.  It was also good to see so many for an Evensong.  After returning home and phoning Mum, Richard and I met up again in the Lion's Head for a pint or two.  I am very busy the rest of the week and he is off to Cornwall again so this will be the only opportunity to meet up this week.