Again, quite a long time since my last post, never mind though I'm back now. Has been another quiet couple of weeks, hence the long gap between posts. Have had a longish week at work this week, as the other girl was off to Yorkshire, I had to cover her, so ended up doing 11 hour days most of this week, you have no idea how glad I am that I don't need to get up for work tomorrow. MLO has no work either, his mum is also off in Yorkshire, on a coach trip, so will be a lovely peaceful day at home.

Has been quite cold here, we have had the first proper Autumn mists and fogs, I love the smell of Autumn mornings, and the way the mist and fog muffle sounds, so everything seems all quiet and mysterious. This morning, as I didn't have to get to work till 9 , the sun was well up in the sky, and a mist was rising all through the trees and the fields, which looked so gorgeous, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

It turned out to be a lovely sunny day today, and not that cold once the sun got going. For a change, there wasn't any church this evening, instead people from the evening church could go to a service at the cathedral celebrating twenty five years of the St Michael Hospice. The reason we went there instead, was because Mr M one of the people who is part of the church was one of the original founders all those years ago. He is a doctor, and the reason he started it along with another woman called Freda Pearce, was because he was so frustrated with the lack of proper care provisions for people with terminal illnesses, and after visiting a hospice in Birmingham (I think that is what he said) St Barnabas, he was so moved and amazed by the warmth that he received from staff and patients alike, that he decided to try to start a hospice in Herefordshire. 

Roll on a few years, after finding a suitable site, they negotiated with the sisters from the local convent, who agreed to let them have the land at a rent of £5 per year (I am sure that's what was said), and building work was started. 

A few other people talked about their part in the hospice, a ward sister, a daughter of someone who stayed there, and a couple of the other trustees and founders. The cathedral was almost full, and along with readings, poetry and some great hymn singing, was a brass band playing as well as the wonderful organ.  It was a lovely service.

A few days ago,  Thursday, just as I was closing up the shop, I heard an odd noise, I  looked and caught something out of the corner of my eye, a small dark object traveling at great speed around the shop, coming to a halt when it rammed into the large glass of the window. I looked at it and it turned out to be a poor little sparrow that had flown in at some point and couldn't find its way back out. I managed to pick it up, the poor thing was terrified (obviously) and also quite stunned, so I held it in my hand for a minute or so till it had calmed down. It was so warm and small. I then  had a customer who needed serving so held the sparrow in my hand for a couple more minutes, so it couldn't fly round the shop anymore, it really didn't appear to mind it all that much, once the customer had left, I thought it had better go back out, but I first wanted to get a picture, so out came the phone. The little sparrow was utterly unfazed and appeared to haver made itself quite at home on my hand, as I held it open, it didn't want to go anywhere. I went outside and held my hand up for it to go, but it didn't budge, so I shook my hand a little, still no sparrow, no go. I held my hand downwards, and the sparrow shinnied up my arm. Daft creature. So I looked at it and told it it really couldn't hang about on my arm all day long. the funniest thing was when it looked right at me, it must have been concussed,  as it blinked at me as though it sat on peoples arms everyday, and I was the one who was a bit daft for attempting to remove it. Adorable. I then told it in no uncertain terms that it really did have to go, and with one last blink, it left. 

Thinking about it, looking at the little thing, it couldn't have been a sparrow, as it has the wrong bill, I am guessing that it was a dunnock now.

Anyway, up to date again. So I am off to bed where I plan to stay until at least eight o clock in the morning. TTFN

Just another quickie, as it is late, and I really ought to be in bed. Have had quite an enjoyable day today. It was a day off work you see, so that helped. Went to the library earlier on today, turns out the books hadn't even been issued to me, as they didn't show up against my account, I had wondered why they didn't appear on my online account page, but sort of assumed that there was a software glitch somewhere. The woman in the library couldn't thank us enough.
From there, we nipped across the road for a coffee at the cathedral, well, MLO had a coffee and I had a tea. Lovely pot of tea it was too, we treated ourselves at the same time, I had millionaires shortbread and MLO had a delicious toasted teacake. Both were lovely.
Only had an hour in town though so had to leave.
The weather today has been utterly lovely. Wall to wall sunshine and not too hot to enjoy it. Perfect. MLOs mum went to Powis castle today and apparently had a lovely time there. She also had a letter off the hospital saying everything was hunky dory. She had had anemia and got a bit depressed after she convinced herself she had cancer after reading a magazine article, but after the doctors reassuring her she had nothing of the sort and after several tests she finally got the idea out of her head. Now with the letter, they have officially finished with her, she is so relieved, and said seeing it in a letter was a more definitive "You are OK, we don't need to see you again, bye", than just hearing the doctors tell her while she was there.

Have been adding a few things here and there to my blog, including a forum of all things. Whether anyone visits it remains to be seen, but hey it didn't cost anything so will be fun seeing what happens there. 

Have been feeling a bit strange the last few days, almost like I know I should be doing something, but am buggered if I can remember or figure out what it is. I get the feeling that I need to talk to the vicar, but why I think that I don't quite know, will be in church on Sunday though so will try to talk then, if the service is quite quiet anyway, wont get a chance otherwise.

Work again in the morning, so now am off to bed. 

Hello world.
It has been a lovely Thursday here. Amazingly warm, and glorious uninterrupted sunshine. Cant believe it was so warm this afternoon, it must have been at least 22 degrees C. As expected, due to the half term holiday, it was very quiet indeed. Very few people came in today. Had the usual suspects, Paddy up for his daily whinge and moan, one in for his usual cigarettes and a couple others. It is rather funny when a regular comes in and instead of asking for what they want, just stand there until you put it in front of them. Mr M also came up for a bit of a natter. Also rather surprisingly a gypsy lady has decided to frequent the shop recently and stopped for quite a long chat today.

H who lives next door to the shop, and who works on the yard, was out mowing today, when he came across the most gorgeous little baby song thrush on the grass, and thought it was injured, it was almost full size and a beautiful honey gold with brown speckles all over. Only thing was, it didn't have any tail feathers. H being H decided to adopt it, after deciding the cat must have had it at some point. (I didn't like to say that was probably just sunning itself). He found a holey box and popped it in with a few seeds etc. Well, around two hours later, when Mr M was at the shop, he said to come and look out the window. The mother had managed to find her little baby and was frantically trying to get into the box with it. I sent Mr M out to open the box up, which he did then came back inside. We watched and a few seconds later the mother jumped into the box with the baby and fed it. So lovely to see. For the next half hour she was on a feeding frenzy, backwards and forwards with more worms than you could count. Well a few hours later and H went to see the little bird, and it had gone. Obviously returned home with its mother. So a happy ending there..

Yesterday, I decided to sign up to the game Secondlife, to see what all the fuss was about. It is certainly an eyeopener. I decided to pay a visit to the Anglican Cathedral that has been set up there, and arrived just as a service was about to start. Wonderful timing I thought. In trooped about 10 others and sat down in the pews for the service to begin. What amazed me most of all, was the fact that it was really a real service, preached by a lady from Yorkshire, if I made the accent out correctly. It was really rather lovely with all the responses typed into the chat pane as appropriate. There was the two readings, and most stood for the Gospel reading. Psalms. Intercessions, the Lords Prayer the collect for the day, and also if anyone wished they could go up to the front to receive a blessing. And again it was lovely to see people kneeling at the rail, and getting private blessings. I really enjoyed it and will probably go again. The only thing that was less than normal, was the grey flying hippo in attendance, not something you expect to see in a cathedral everyday. There was a "real-life Rev in attendance there, and judging by the way the Yorkshire lady took the service, I presume that she has done it before, she certainly had a voice for it.
Oh well at least I had something interesting to blog about today instead of the usual humdrum stuff that is the norm for me.
Must go to bed now though, work again in the morning, so night night.

Today has been one of those "everything is wonderful"  kind of days for me, I can't put my finger on why it should be so, but am genuinely enjoying it while it lasts. I know from experience, that For every brilliant day, there will be a day that is a bit of a struggle.
The one thing I cannot understand is why exactly I should feel like it. Today, for me, the future is filled with possibilities, and joy at the prospect of them, but when I feel low, I am terrified that no-one will take me seriously, or tell me I am not good enough to ever dream of becoming a vicar, or even worse tell me that I am imagining it all, and that I am in fact ever so slightly deluded. What worries me even more about that last thought is that perhaps they are right, and that I am in fact deluded, and that everything I have felt, and what I believe God has planned for me, are nothing more than an elaborate and deceiving product of my own imagination, embellished with each passing year, until I really believe it myself. I know in my heart of hearts that that isn't the case, but it doesn't stop me from worrying.
I really need to talk to someone, the vicar would be ideal, just have no idea how to go about bringing the subject up.
Today has also been one of those days when things seem to want to take a further step. Something is pulling me along, but for the last few weeks has been constant and steady, a carry on as you were kind of thing. But today during Church, it was like something hit me in my heart, not in a bad way mind, just a big jolt. I was sure that what the vicar was saying in his sermon was just for me that the words were aimed directly at me, now while I know that wasn't the case it still felt like it. And when he said certain things in his sermon, I would swear he looked straight at me when he said them, almost like he knew how I felt, it felt like he was looking straight through my soul, bizarre and slightly unsettling really, but not in a bad way. At that point what it is that is in me, pulling me along, suddenly went up a gear, right get a move on, you have to do something now. Get involved at the church helping out, anything in fact just get off your complacent a#*e and get moving. It's like butterflies in my stomach but a thousand times stronger, the anticipation of what the future may hold is roaring round my heart. The strangest feeling imaginable, again, not bad though, a pretty amazing and wonderful feeling in fact. Its like I am being expected to do something, I am just not certain what.
I am both perplexed by it all and reassured at the same time, perplexed because it is still all a bit "no way" for me, but reassured that wherever I get led, it will be the right place to be.
Yesterday, as I previously said, I went up to Birmingham to see mum for the day.We had decided (MLO and I that is) whilst on the train that we would pay a visit to Lichfield from Birmingham as it is a lovely little city. Before we went there though we went on a wander of Birmingham once we had met up with my mum. We ended up at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Chad. This is a fairly modern (so far as Cathedrals go) building, but inside is so immensely beautiful. When we got there the place was half full of people praying, so we decided it wouldn't be the best idea to go round it taking pictures and doing touristy stuff. So, we stood at the back and just looked from there. The place had a lovely welcoming air about it though which was lovely, as I sometimes find Roman Catholic cathedrals and churches cold and impersonal, but then I suppose it's just me. We went into the bookshop then. Wow tonnes of books in there.
We walked back into town and went to catch the train to Lichfield from there. We took a nice slow leisurely stroll up to the cathedral and had lunch in the cathedral cafe. The food there is always nice, and fairly cheap too. It is in a lovely building across the road from the cathedral, and is full of little rooms here and there, plus a lovely conservatory to sit in and a big garden at the back with lots of tables.
Once we had finished lunch we went into the cathedral itself. There was a choir practising for a concert that night, so on our wander round we were accompanied by heavenly music. MLO and I parted company,
so I continued round with mum. Once we had finished wandering we went in search of MLO so I could show him the pictures I had taken on my phone. Once we found each other we sat down in the pews to listen to the choir and look at the pics. Next thing we knew, an old lady came wandering along the side. In front she was pushing a trolley that was full of icons and crosses. As she went she was talking away, and seemed a happy old soul. The she saw the choir, and the director, and stood up front just to the side of them, and waved her arms about as if she were conducting them, and then started to give them advice on how to sing. At that, several people who were sat in the pews listening like us, started to laugh, which was hardly surprising as it was pretty funny. She then sidled over to the director, and I think she was giving him directions. Anyway the choir started up again, and at that point the old lady gave an enormously big flourishy bow. The choir were trying so hard not to burst out laughing at the eccentric old lady, and everyone in the pews was in hysterics. Brilliant. She then wandered off on her own somewhere.
From the cathedral we went across the road to the cathedral gift shop, inside there was a pretty well stocked bookshop, as well as the other usual gifts. MLO found a little pin badge that he said he was going to get me as it was so sweet. in the middle was a bright yellow smiley face, and round the edge it said "Smile Jesus loves you", which tickled MLO no end, and indeed made us smile. So I put it on my jacket when we left. Back in Brum, MLO made an executive decision, he wanted to catc the 19:20 train back rather than the 21:00. So we went to the loo etc went ant bought a sandwich and water for our tea, and caught the train home. Was a beautiful day weatherwise, and enjoyment wise.
After church this morning we went into Hereford for a stroll along the river. As we got there the bells were ringing out for the end of the 08:00 service, and as we got back from our walk they were ringing for the start of the 10:00 am service. On our walk we saw the new river defence, which was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined it to be. Three very friendly ducks that literally walked right up to me, although the little lady duck was rather henpecked (duckpecked?) with all the feathers missing of the top of her head. Poor thing. Next we were heading up to the castle green, and we saw a squirrel. I made a kiss kiss noise at it and it came running straight up towards us, then leapt into the tree above us, and proceeded to pose for pictures. Cheeky little rodent.
This evening we had a barbecue, the first one this year. It was lovely. Very very enjoyable.
It is now after one o clock in the morning, and I really should be in bed. But MLO had just brought me in a cup of coffee, which I will drink before I go. Up early again tomorrow. I have asked MLO if we can go for another walk as neither of us have work to go to, but I think he has his heart set on going to the Hay Festival, we could do both though if we set off early enough. We could go over Hay Bluff, and by Llanthony Priory for a walk or round there. As the nights are drawing out now the days last longer and we can do a lot more than a couple of months ago , which is great.
Anyhoo. It really is bedtime now, so I will sign off with a wave and a God Bless. Night night.