Nothing much to write about again today, but I thought I should at least make some sort of effort. When I looked at my blog earlier it had pretty blue pictures all over it telling me that I had exceeded my bandwidth. It wasn't me though but the person who was hosting the images for the template I use. I have now copied the images and saved them to a draft post so never need worry about bandwidth again.

Was a quiet day at work again, no surprises there. One exciting thing though we are going to have a complete makeover (the garage, not The Other Girl and I). After 10 years of putting up with dreadful magnolia walls and oil stained flooring, it's about time. We will have plumbed in heating too for the first time in years, which will be great. In winter, it is quite often warmer in the fridge than in the rest of the place. Had a chap in on Tuesday to measure the place up and decide on plans etc. Probably the least talkative man on earth.  So spent a slightly uncomfortable couple of hours wondering whether to say something and not get an answer, or just say nothing and have him think me ignorant. I hate it when things like that happen.

Yesterday as MLO had to collect some paperwork from one of his farms, and I had a day off I went with him for a ride. Rather brilliantly, the farm was over at Garway, MLO said as I had wanted to go there for so long, he would take me there after finally figuring out where in the village it is.  Nice old church it is, all angles where bits have been added, changed and joined together. We had a good look round the inside and took a few pictures, including one of a rather lovely green man. Inside it had some gorgeous old solid oak pews, but the poor place was very damp and dirty. Several of the steps had green algae on them. We decided to sit down for a few minutes when  a couple of people came in, shortly followed by another. The last lady turned out to be some sort of guide, and was about to open up the tower for the other two people to look at and said we could come along too if we wished.  As we went through she gave us all the history of the place and told us all sorts of stories about the church. Mainly about the Templars but that was to be expected I suppose. 

One fascinating thing was that in the 16th century when a passageway was built to connect the tower to the church, the resourceful builders reused  most of the templar tombstones as window lintels and steps, so when you look up above the windows there is quite often a carved sword or similar. The tower itself is 13th century, and has walls that are 4ft thick. It does feel incredibly old when you go in, and has two deeply recessed windows, that would look just as at home in a castle.

 On the floor in the tower were some lovely old tombstones beautifully carved. In the corner was the door up into the tower, but the lady said they wont allow anyone up there any more, as it is so dark and narrow, plus she said with the tower being open there is bird doo all over the stairs. She said the last time anyone was up there was five years ago when they took a group up, problem was, one lady got so scared she refused to come back down the narrow stairs, and it took almost two hours to coax her down. Also in the room along with a rather nice collection of lawnmowers and bellringing ropes was an old oak chest, almost 7 ft long and made from a single block of wood, and the gnarliest metal hinges which the lady told us  was thought to be an original templar chest, she mentioned that a dendrochronolgist had been and dated it, and he agreed with the dating. Apparently other tests had been done to determine how old it really was, and they too came to the conclusion that it was templar, but she wasn't sure what test it was that had been done.

After we had had another look round inside, and listened to a bit of the history of the place, we went for a wander round outside. A short distance across a bit of a run down orchard/paddock was the dovecote or columbarium, we didn't have much time to go and see it, besides which we hadn't asked the people who owned the land. All the time we were outside we could hear a bird of prey screeing, and looked if we could see it, from what we saw, and heard, it was probably a hen harrier, which is quite cool, thats twice I have seen one in Herefordshire now. He ended up sitting in a tree for several minutes and calling out almost the whole time, so no idea what was up with it. To finish, we strolled up to the top of the graveyard and took a couple of pictures looking down on the church to finish off. 

We came home via a lovely road , and ended up coming out at Pontrilas, a very lovely detour indeed.  We got home just after half past seven, and had shepherds pie for tea.

That just about all there is to tell now, so will say ttfn for now, and au revoir etc etc. 

Sunday is all but over now.

Started the day at work, as usual it was exceptionally quiet, actually more so than usual, have just realised that a couple of the Sunday regulars failed to turn up. Wonder what happened to them?

The weather this morning was positively dreadful, the wettest kind of rain imaginable, horrible mizzly stuff. Yuk. But as the day wore on , the weather improved until this afternoon and it was doing a passable impression of a summers day.  Couldn't go to the town church's morning service due to work, but we did go to the evening service at the country church, got there a little earlier than we usually do, but oddly enough, so it seemed had everyone else. Must have been something in the air I think. Anyway the service started at the usual time, we were all stood up at the beginning, singing our hearts out to the first hymn, then  the door started rattling, thought at first it may have been the wind, but it did it again. Where we sit in church is right by the entrance, so that when anyone walks in they are literally greeted by us (MLO and I) smiling at them. A moment later and the door opens a few inches, then stops,   intriguing. A few more moments later and a head appears, shortly followed by the rest of a body. K who hands out the hymn books leapt to his feet to hand one out, along with the service booklet. The lady looked around and sat opposite us. Most people turned to see who had interrupted, then got on with singing and K went back to his seat. A minute or so later, and the door started rattling again. This time it opened up and revealed another person wanting to come in. Up K leapt again, to hand out the required bits. The gentleman looked a bit perplexed then went and sat down next to the woman who had previously come in late.

As the service went on, they appeared to be a little uncomfortable, and spent a lot of time discussing something between themselves. When ever we needed to stand, either for hymns or the reading,  this entailed a huge amount of face pulling and discussion. When we got to the peace, they did what we used to do and stayed put in their seats. Roll on towards the end of the service and just as we got to the last hymn, they abruptly stood up, but their books on the table and walked out. Smiled at them as they left, but just got frowned at. Not sure what we had done wrong, or what they had a problem with. Wonder if they will be back next week? Just cant work out why they felt it necessary to leave when it would have all been over  in ten minutes anyway. Never mind. Nowt so queer as folk. 

An enjoyable sermon this week, considerably more light hearted than last Sundays, which was pretty deep. All about us becoming reconciled in Christ, that by fully giving ourselves to Him.  By recognising all our faults and admitting them , and being fully aware of ourselves helps us on our way to achieving that. Quite interesting as I had previously done the little exercise the vicar had given me to do with that, but had also just started to read "The interior Castle" by St Teresa of Avila, and had read a fair bit at work this morning. The main gist of the book, from what I have so far gathered, is that in order to know God and Jesus fully, we must fully know and understand ourselves, to look right inside ourselves, and when we have done that, and in the process of doing so , we can know Him more fully, as she believed that God resides in our souls, and only through a thorough understanding of our soul can we ever hope to have a true knowledge of God. Obviously she went into a lot more detail than that, wrote a whole book on the subject, but I think that is the main gist of it. I thoroughly recommend reading it, as what I have read of it so far, is an engrossing and very enjoyable read indeed. The version I am reading was translated by Mirabai Starr, but as this is the only version I have read, I have no idea whether it is better or worse than any other.  

Quite a while ago, I joined facebook, just for the heck of it, and joined a Phil Rickman group on there, really just expecting it to be the kind of group where an occasional member pops up and posts a message, asking whether there are any other members out there. I was pleasantly surprised when I started to get occasional messages from the group. The most recent I was quite excited about. He is bringing out a new book, "Merrily's Border"  containing photographs of various locations that he writes about in his books, along with a bit of information about the places, he will be launching the book in August at Kinnersley Castle in Herefordshire, a place I have always wanted to visit as it looks so spooky from the road going by. There will be music, performed by Hazey Jane II perhaps even with Lol Robinson making an appearance, and a great excuse to eat drink and be merry. I will be going with MLO as it is only about 15 miles away from here. What amazed me was the number of fans he has from all around the world, although to be fair, I shouldn't be that surprised, as he does write ruddy good books. I still think of him as very much a local writer, being able to picture each place he mentions and knowing some of them extremely well. 

Heck, it is late again, I really must get to bed, have been listening to Aled Jones again, and his voice always makes me sleepy. So off to bed it is for me. So nighty night.

Monday already. My day off :-)

Saturday, was my mums turn to come down to Hereford, and rather than wander round the shops in town and spending money, we yet again went on a wander of some of the local churches. Today we visited Much Marcle, Little Marcle and Putley churches. We also went to Woolhope church, but couldn't look around as it was closed.

 The first we visited was Little Marcle, which is a sweet little church on the side of the main Gloucester road. From the side there is a wonderful view across to the Malvern hills in the distance past Ledbury. It is very plain inside, but with a lovely air. I don't think that it is used very often though. Although from what I saw, parking would be something of a problem on the side of the main road. Not the best of places to stop.

Next we went on to go to Putley church. Years ago when I first came to Herefordshire, this was the local church, and was where we all went to the main services for the year, like Easter and Christmas etc. It was so long since I had been here, I had forgotten just how lovely and beautiful it really is inside. Outside is the village pond where witches were supposedly dunked, so I was told anyway. It is surrounded by orchards on 3 sides, and an old farm, and the pond on the other. Inside it is a riot of colour and beauty. It is so long since I had been there. When we arrived there we were sure that we heard someone else inside,  but when we went in there was no-one to be seen, but the floor was still wet on the tiles from being cleaned, and there were dust sheets on the floor. Whoever was doing the cleaning didn't show their face, and we had to creep around the edges trying not to leave footprints on the floor, as it refused to dry. Inside it was clean and spotless, usually when we visit churches the cleaner they seem to be usually reflects the fact that they are used more frequently, although not always. Putley church is used weekly, each Sunday, plus extra services and events too. One that we decided would be extremely interesting to go and see, in a couple of Sundays time, was a choral evensong "Culminating in the beheading of John the Baptist", put quite an interesting image in our heads as to who would be playing John the Baptist, and how realistic the beheading would be! Another service there soon is a blessing of animals, which is a lovely idea, and reminded me of the Vicar of Dibley and an episode where she held a service for animals.. 

The second and third parts are here and here. Very funny.

Back to our day out, the windows at Putley church are also very lovely, and as the interior of the church is quite dark, they seemed to glow. 

My mum spent absolutely ages taking pictures both inside and out, she must have taken at least 200 or more, thank goodness for digital cameras is all I can say, how did we ever manage without them?  I myself took a pile on my mobile phone, some of which I have put up on here, you will have to excuse the quality, but being from a mobile, the quality isn't all that great.

From Putley we travelled the few miles to Much Marcle, infamous as being the birthplace of a certain Mr West. The village however is lovely, with two large houses Hellens and  Homme House, almost opposite each other, with the church inbetween. The other thing that the village of Much Marcle is famous for, locally if not nationally, is its ancient yew tree which sits in the churchyard just outside the porch. (I have put an image of it with my mum sat inside, so you can guage just how big it is from her). An utterly enormous specimen that is believed to be over 1,500 years old. This magnificient tree predates the current church which dates from the 13th C, although there was a church here prior to that, a norman church dating from the 12th C. The only thing remaining is the font which itself dates from the 12th C, and is thought to be a stone copy of an earlier wooden font that was used at that time.

The church itself is certainly imposing, and is one heck of a size for a village church. Outside is also, a large graveyard, and a weather eaten 15thC preaching cross. Inside, the space is enormous, and is filled with all sorts of interesting memorials and monuments. One for a Walter de Helyon dating from the 14th C is carved from oak, and quite rare. Another which is very lovely is for Blanche, the daughter of Roger Mortimer, the 1st Earl of March. The glass in this church is also very lovely with a very interesting window at the top end in a side chapel. I didn't take so many pictures here as at Putley, but to see some more pictures of the church, exterior and exterior click here. (Not ones I took)

Finally, we went to visit Woolhope church but unfortunately it was closed, so we couldn't go in. Mum went for a wander outside while MLO and I watched the cricketers on the green for a while. From there we went for a quick stop at a local pub which had just been renovated, and had a drink and a loo break.  I took a picture of MLO enjoying a pint, and doing a spot of shameless advertising for the local brewery, who make delicious beers. 

We didn't do very much after that, we went into Hereford for a bit of a mooch, but nothing in particular, and mum caught the eight o clock train back to Birmingham.
Onto Sunday, and MLO and I decided to brave it and go to the 10 am service at the town church. We had no idea what it would be like, well actually we thought we did, but our idea turned out quite wide of the mark. We thought it was going to be all arm waving and happy clappy, instead there was a great mix of old and young there, with two modern hymn and two older ones. There were two baptisms during the service, which was lovely. All the while there were children running everywhere, plus a few adults constantly on the wander, manic at times. but as we were sat right by the main entrance and exit that probably had something to do with it. We decided we would be going again in two weeks time when it is my next weekend off, but this time will be sat on the opposite side of the church, where it should be a little less manic. We also went to the evening service, simply because we enjoy going to that one at the country church. He asked us what we thought of the morning service, we said we thought it was a bit manic, and he thought that amusing. Had similar sermons at each service, but the evening one was a lot deeper -if thats the right word for it, and certainly made me think a lot more about what was said than did the morning one. Anyway, must go have a bed that needs to be slept in. So night night.

My second attempt at a post here. Last night the one Had written managed to vanish itself somewhere. Hadn't even saved it, very odd, but never mind, I will try again.
Yesterday in the morning I went with MLO around a few of his farms, all in the Orcop and Garway area of Herefordshire. An extremely beautiful area of the country. Mind you, having said that , all of Herefordshire is beautiful. Driving round with him yesterday made me realise how lucky we are to live in such a lovely place. Fertile green fields, rolling hills, woodland, a salmon river, beautiful orchards, even moorland in parts of the county. We even have a mountain. Herefordshire is one of the largest counties in England, but also one of the least populated, which means there is plenty of peace and quiet.
Anyway back to the farms, MLO works for National Milk Records, a farmer owned company whose job it is to record all the dairy animals details onto a database, and to sample the milk from each animal once a month whilst in milk. Then test it for all sorts of things, such as fat content, protein content, as well as testing for the first signs of certain notifiable diseases. It is essential for farmers to know exactly what fat and protein percentage each animal is giving, as for each liter of milk that is produced, the farmer has to buy, or lease a quota from the government, to entitle him to produce and sell the milk.
Each quota bought or leased comes with a specific fat and protein percentage. If the farmer under or over produces protein, or fat and even liters he can then be fined quite severely by the government. So the recording enables him to alter feeding programmes accordingly to reduce or increase protein, fat or liters. Also, when it comes to selling, the farmer has a contract with whoever buys it from him, to produce a certain fat and protein content, they will reject an entire load of milk if it doesn't conform, which can mean a loss of hundreds of pounds per load (before costs, not profit)! So MLO is the chap who turns up at 4:30 am (or even earlier), and takes milk samples from every animal. He then puts the information onto computer, along with all other details such as when the animal is served (mated) who did the deed, calvings, deaths, when an animal is dried off (withdrawn from milking to rest) and a 1001 other bits of information that make that dairy animals in this country the most traceable, and with the most information held per head anywhere in the world.
One of the places we had to go to was just on the edge of Garway village. A village that has an incredibly interesting history, very wellknown now thanks to the Da Vinci Code, Bonekickers, and hundreds more conspiracy theories. Phil Rickman a local author also writes about the place, but not so many conspiracies there thankfully.
Today. Tuesday, I am not feeling great, an egg salad disagreed with me last night, so had to take the day off work, as I feel pretty rotten. The other girl who works there, on my day off wasn't too impressed being woken up at seven this morning, I apologised, but she didn't seem to accept it. So I spent most of the morning in bed, as I was awake most of the night until about four-ish.

At least the sun has come out now, and is actually really warm now. MLO said I had missed an enormous thunderstorm this morning, so for me to have slept through that I must have been utterly pooped.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Will maybe post again later if the mood takes me, or if anything so incredible happens that I cant keep it to myself. TTFN.