Rosary on Sunday ...

As I was saying, May begins tomorrow so that means this Sunday we'll be having Rosary in the afternoon followed by Benediction.

It's always a bit of a rush and does mean that we can't go very far for a walk or a drive in the afternoon because we need to be back by 4pm (well a bit earlier really as I like to be there in good time to 'get in the mood' as it were) but it's worth it. There's something very special about this Sunday afternoon devotion. It's quite a different atmosphere to Sunday Mass which can be quite noisy with so many young families around us.

As soon as you enter the church, you can feel the prayerful atmosphere. On a sunny day, if you get there a bit early you often find one or two people enjoying the last few minutes of sunshine outside the church door, chatting quietly before entering the cooler interior of the church. Of course, if it's pouring with rain, it's a mad dash to get inside before you end up a dripping mess!

After Benediction I enjoy staying for a few moments absorbing the peace and prayerfulness which is almost tangible in the church with the smell of the incense still very much in the air.

Whatever the weather and however much of a rush it is to get there, it's just a really lovely thing to do.

May Day . . .

Tomorrow is May Day as we all know. There are all sorts of customs associated with the 1st May in England. I remember at primary school practising maypole dancing ready for the school May fayre and our own parish school still takes part in the maypole dancing in the local May Fayre with crowning of a May Queen, stalls, games, food and other fundraising activities.

They may not have particularly Christian associations but I think it's good to continue our local customs and we Catholics have the whole month dedicated to Our Lady so I don't think we can begrudge others one day to celebrate in a more secular way.

I was browsing for some good pictures of maypole dancing and came across this superstition associated with 1st May.

"First thing in the morning on May 1st, young girls used to rush out into the garden to wash their faces in the May dew.

Why? There is an old tale that says that May dew has magic properties and that anyone who has washed their face in it will have a beautiful complexion all through the year. This dew was supposed to be able to remove freckles and also spots and pimples."

I must remember to set my alarm clock a lot earlier tomorrow morning - I don't want to miss out on that. Mind you, I gave up worrying about my freckles a long time ago!

Surrey and cricket - they just go together . . .

When I saw this on a friend's Facebook I just had to post it here. Being both a Surrey girl and quite keen on cricket, especially the TMS brand with Aggers and co., it's an obvious choice. I hope you enjoy it too.

Update . . .

I realise I haven't written anything for a few days so thought I'd let you know how our weekend went. Grand Designs Live was good fun; plenty to see and also plenty of time to sit and chat too.

I hadn't been to the ExCel exhibition centre before and we were lucky that despite the earlier weather forecast, we had good weather for the drive up and back on the coach. It was interesting to see the 'regeneration' of London's Docklands first hand. Traffic wasn't too bad either although we were slowed a bit at one point by workers putting out barricades in anticipation of the London Marathon the following day.

We saw the great Kevin holding forth in front of an audience but decided not to stop but to try and see as much as possible. I had to nudge my friend a few times as she was getting stopped by salespeople keen to 'make a killing'. I had to repeat the Mantra, 'don't make eye contact, just walk purposefully by' several times!

And I managed to leave without buying anything except a few delicious home-made sweets, how about that for self-restraint?

Sunday's family visit also went well. We made such good time on the M1 (yes, no traffic problems on the M1, can you believe it?) that we had to stop and have a coffee (oh, I really suffered!) as we would have arrived too early otherwise.

It's a long time since I've been on the M1 as we don't usually have reason to go directly Northwards and my memories of the past times I've travelled this way are constant roadworks and continuous convoys of HGVs. Not this time. We couldn't believe how few goods vehicles we actually saw. The paterfamilias put it down to the recession - how sad if this is the case.

A busy weekend ...

It's going to be a busy weekend but hopefully good fun.

Tomorrow I'm going on another 'Works Outing' with a girlfriend to see the Grand Designs (of Kevin McCloud fame) exhibition in London.

It should be very entertaining seeing how 'the other half' live and drooling over all the super new products and maybe laughing at some of the ideas over coffee and chat - at least I hope there'll be plenty of time and places for that very important ingredient in a Girls' Day Out. I expect the Paterfamilias is already bracing himself for my return full of 'great ideas' of things to do to our own humble abode.

I hope the coach is more or less on schedule. We need to go to the Vigil Mass so that we can get away early on Sunday morning as we're off to Nottingham at the crack of dawn - well about 8 O'clock at least - to drive northwards to see some of our family who have other relatives visiting from overseas so there'll be quite a few of us, adults and children. Then back again the same day so we'll probably be worn out by the time we get home.

St George's Day

For anyone who isn't living in England or who might have been asleep for the last few days, today is St George's Day.

I don't want to say much about St George as I'm sure you all know the story of the dragon etc. If you'd like to read up on it, here's an interesting link.

What I did want to comment on is the English flag or St George's flag. In recent years there has been a concerted effort on the part of some people (and not just card manufacturers) to raise the profile of our national patron saint and his feast day.

Today, whilst shopping in our local shopping centre after work I noticed they had a display of St George's flags hanging from the balconies. I don't remember them being there last year. In the card shop nearby, I think the 'merchandise' on sale has been increasing steadily over the last few years.

On the way in to work, I passed a lorry festooned with flags and on the way home this evening passed a motorist with a flag proudly fluttering from his rear window.

Now, this is all well and good and I'm happy to see St George getting his rightful recognition but I also feel slightly uncomfortable when I see an overt display of nationalism. I wonder if I'm alone in this. Unlike other national flags, I'm always aware that the English flag is also used very prominently by extreme right wing groups like the BNP.

I always feel like saying, 'I'm proud to be English and happy to wave a flag but please don't confuse me with 'that lot'.'

Time for another gardening post ...

I've always wanted a dwarf rhododendron (to go with our dwarf garden!) and last year I treated myself to one. Now that it's had time to settle into its new pot, it's put on a splendid show this year.

Regular readers of this little blog may remember one day last October I mentioned that I'd planted about 100 bulbs in beds and pots in the garden and would be interested to see how they turned out. Well, now I'm beginning to see the 'fruits of my labours'. Mostly I planted them in groups of two varieties which were meant to bloom more or less at the same time and provide a pleasing contrast in colour, height and sometimes flower shape as well.

Some have worked better than others. This pot looks good at the moment but I'm wondering whether or not the shorter red tulips will last long enough to see the contrast with the taller purple ones just coming into bloom now.