Tuesday 6 April 2010

The Easter Weekend

It's very early on Tuesday morning. The sky is clear blue and the sun is just starting to rise. I can start work shortly with the prospect of a warm and sunny day ahead. I also received notification yesterday that my quote for regular garden maintenance at a new place had been accepted, and so not a bad start to the week. The only drawback that sometimes happens with a new contract is that the existing gardeners have to get the boot, something that I honestly feel for them about, but like me, they have others to hopefully cushion the blow.

Our church has several services over the Easter weekend, a meal together on Thursday evening followed by a service. Good Friday sees another service in the morning and on Sunday we meet up with a couple of other churches on the beach at sunrise to sing and welcome in the day before the full session at 10.30am in the church itself. On Sunday as an added bonus, there were three baptisms, one of which is in the picture above. A final communion service is held in the evening where only the stalwarts have the energy by then to attend, and we went as we were not able to attend the Friday service...I hope all that makes sense!

The reason for us not being able to attend on Friday was that our lively little package of a grandson was coming to stay with us..always a great adventure! Before dinner I took him to the local swing park where we both had great fun on the swings and slides.

After a good nights sleep, the day started with hot tea and hot cross buns with loads of butter on them. The three of us then set off for The New Forest. I always feel very lucky to live where we do as the beach is only ten minutes away, and the forest only 20 minutes. 'A' took the first picture, where we are playing pooh sticks in one of the streams that swell when weather has been as wet as it has. Grandson always wins no matter how much I cheat....now theres judgement on me!

We saw many horse riders during our lovely walk, and came across several large ant nests just starting to be worked on as the weather warms and the ants become more active. After walking into the woods for a couple of hours I mentioned to 'A' that the sky didn't look too good and so we headed back to the van and decided to grab a coffee and cake at the local garden centre. Unlike the commercial centres that I use through work, that are vast factories with hundreds of thousands of plants, retail garden cntres such as the one we chose now seem to be having less and less plants in favour of gifts and cafes. The cake was good though!

Grandson went back on Saturday night so that we could do the Sunday services the next day. However he, my daughter and her husband came over on Monday for a great big roast beef dinner before we all headed to the beach for a walk to try and wear off the food fill a bit.
It's at times like this one in the last photo when I really start to feel my age on seeing how much my offspring have aged and areteaching and telling theirs just the same things that I did with them....very odd!
A coffee at The Haven ended our time with them.............and Easter eggs and re-runs of The West Wing ended our time with the weekend.......all in all a good time!

Just in case you thought that the weekend was garden free......NEVER IS THE CASE!.............this is the latest picture of how part of our garden is starting to come to life now that the air is warming up.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Gary, Your Easter weekend appears to have been filled with all manner of goodly activities. I was, in fact, interested to read about the services at your church and thought that the joining together with people from other churches on the beach to have been a very joyful occasion. One is always heartened to hear of festivals, such as Easter, being celebrated in a traditional manner in a world that is, for the most part, totally consumed by or with consumerism. Whatever an individual may or may not believe, Easter is to do with the Crucifixion and Rising from the Dead of Christ, and not, in my view, a reason to frequent some ghastly, out of town superstore.

    The pictures of the New Forest and beach are lovely and I am so pleased that you have a new work contract.

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  2. Your garden looks splendid, as do the photos of your grandson and you enjoying your time together. How precious! Thank you, too, for sharing the photo of a baptism...what a joy! I'm glad you had a wonderful holiday!

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