The Faster Pastor

It was the weekend of Jim's induction as pastor into his new church. As mentioned in my previous post, he has been a policeman for a number of years, responding to situations where life and property are at risk, hence his nickname of 'Faster Pastor' given to him by his colleagues in the force. It turned out to be a very large event indeed, with the church full to the brim with well wishers from his new church in Cornwall, and family and friends from his home in Wales. The people of Grace Community Church in Morval were incredibly welcoming, and after the service everyone enjoyed a very large buffet of the sort that it's become my experience that only churches can provide. And the cakes.....well.......you would have to go along to a church celebration to know what I mean on that score!

We had settled into 'The Watchers' in Polperro once again, as the church was only a few miles away. Patsy and John were, as usual, full of smiles and welcome when we arrived, and we made camp in our favourite room on the ground floor. The house is arrowed in the photo.

It was Friday, and as the induction celebration wasn't until the day after, we enjoyed reading for a while, before setting off to 'The Blue' for our usual evening of good ale, good malt whisky, and of course good music! Tonight it was 'Black Velvet', an Irish family folk band, and they were excellent.

The pub was packed, and being an 'L' shape and very, very small, we couldn't quite get a proper clip of them before the battery in the phone ran out.

It was a VERY late night back, and we woke still feeling very tired, but the sounds of John quietly singing as he prepared the breakfast table, while Patsy cooked, brought us around, and we opened the curtains to a gloriously sunny morning. Jim's induction wasn't until 2pm, and so we had a leisurely morning planned of a stroll around the village to take some photos from Chapel Rock which stands opposite our room as you can see. But first breakfast, and sumptuous it was, as always!

Patsy did her usual trick of bringing a circle of what must have been thirty or more seagulls to circle around her for food, one by one. The bay became full of them as they each worked their way towards her one by one to take morsals.

The induction and all of the celebrations that went with it, meant for a very long day indeed, and we returned to The Watchers, read a little, and promptly fell asleep. Amandas mum Celia had travelled with us, and was staying with her sister and brother-in-law Pete, who is also a pastor, in a hotel next to the church and manse, and as we were due to collect her to return home, were invited to Sunday lunch. Jim, as you can imagine, was extremely busy with it being his first proper Sunday service, and so Pete had volunteered to cook. Never small affairs, baptist pastors become skilled in the art of preparing Sundays dinners for large numbers of people, and with fourteen due, this was no exception.

Behind the camera is a very long table full of people, and in the picture is Pete doing final preps with his grandson Nathaniel settled into his own 'temporary' seat and table.

 Alas, all good things have to come to an end, and Monday did. Yes, it had been raining, and the week started with a trip to Eco, so that the trailer could be emptied. As the water table is now very high everywhere, they keep having a major flooding problem, which makes it very difficult indeed for us gardeners.

But the van made it through the flood and I found a dry enough area  to offload.

What will the rest of the week bring I wonder.

See you again.