14 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
Now I know that normal men like to retreat to their shed for a bit of peace and quiet out of the house. The Vicar, however, has filled his shed so that retreating to it to sit down or smoke a pipe or something manly like that would be totally impossible. Actually it’s strictly the garage, but it is the largest outbuilding we have. And our car wouldn’t fit in it. Or it would but we couldn’t open a door to get out of the vehicle. The garage is Austin Seven size I’d say.
The good news is that instead the shed is filled with logs for our beloved wood burning stoves. As you can see, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to watch the Vicar chopping wood outside my kitchen window. Not in the last couple of weeks, though – it’s been a bit busy here. Thankfully I think we probably have enough wood to last a few more days.
It's hard to see the scale, but you can just see the top of the garage door at the back
Posted in Vicarage | Tagged eco, fuel, garage, Heating, men, Shed, vicar, Vicarage, wood, wood burning stove | 1 Comment »
12 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
We have a cat. Or rather a cat has us. She is small, very pale tabby with a mutant tail and she mews loudly. A lot. Especially in the mornings. She joined us when we lived in Singapore and spent her very earliest days living in a Singapore drain before she adopted a friend of a friend and then landed up with us.
So she’s a well travelled beast, but these days she hunts vermin in the Vicarage garden (of which more at a later date) and hunts for the warmest place to recline in the Vicarage. As you know, the latter is a bit of a challenge. In summer you might find her scanning the children on their way to school from the vantage point of our gatepost. Or she might be lying on the carpet in my bedroom, soaking up the sunshine from the south facing windows.
In winter however she cuddles up to the fire, or sits upon the lap of the poor (rather cat allergic) Vicar’s Apprentice. Sometimes we find her lurking in the bathroom, but only when the underfloor heating is on. She is a good indicator of where the temperature is bearable. For that reason, to date I have never once seen her in the Vicar’s study.
Grumpy Grandpa has written a few poems on the subject of cats. This one is a good summary of VC’s attitude to life:
A hamster has his little wheel, a gerbil can be fun,
A guinea pig is cuddly, though you have to clean his run,
A dog’s a good companion, and will make you smile and laugh.
But a dog will have a master, a cat, she just has staff.
There’s a dead mouse in the corner, and lots of tiny hairs.
A hairball on the carpet, and some feathers on the stairs.
She won’t do what you tell her, she smells a little too,
A kitten makes you love her, then she takes charge of you.
Posted in Fun, Vicarage | Tagged cat, pet, poem, poetry, Singapore, tabby cat, Verse, Vicarage | 2 Comments »
9 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
On Thursday mornings, I organise a coffee morning in our church hall. I try to invite all the mums from the school gate, but in practice there are a regular group of about ten who come almost every week. They are a great bunch – friendly and chatty and fun to be with. I bake cakes every week and others either bake or bring something they’ve bought. We sit for a couple of hours, discussing whatever is on our minds.
This week it was banana choc chip muffins and cinnamon rolls
So far, so middle class and just like any other church hall coffee morning for school gate mums. But it’s a bit different where we are. For starters we often have a bloke or two join us – people work shifts here, or are single dads or don’t have any paid employment. And then there are some of the conversation topics…
I’ll just share with you some of the things we chatted about this week. Some regular bog standard school gate talk, but others special to our part of God’s world, with its unique challenges:
- How to get our kids to get on with their school work, and career paths we envisage for them
- The upcoming school Christmas fair
- A lunch club a few of us helped out with the other day
- The local drug dealers, and a ‘conversation’ one of the ladies had had with a youngster who seems to be getting involved with the trade
- The excellence of the local Chinese takeaway (apparently the lady will deliver on foot pushing her little one in the buggy if you are close to the shop)
- The possibility that the local lap dancing club may be closed down because of all the crime that is associated with its clientele and staff
- Foreign holidays we’d been on (or not)… and taking them in term time
- How many times we’d been arrested (three between us, I think, but no convictions as far as I gathered)
- Starting up your own business
- The local prostitution trade and the club with an upstairs room used for those purposes
- What had made us cry recently (for some a programme on Baby P, for me a report on primary schools that succeed in challenging areas)
That’s what I love so much about living here. You talk about unexpected things and all your preconceptions are challenged. I love my coffee, cake and chat friends and am so grateful for the fun we have together and for all that I learn from them.
What are your coffee mornings like?
Posted in Church, Inner city | Tagged chat, Church, church hall, coffee morning, drug dealers, Inner city, Kids, middle class, mums, prostitutes, School, School gate | 1 Comment »
8 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
What with Pioneer Woman clearing out her pantry, Noel Piper twittering her way through the excuses we make not to declutter and my (lovely and kind but also tidy) mother-in-law coming to visit tomorrow, I wonder if God has been trying to get through to me about the state of my utility room.
I should stop writing blog posts and go do some subduing.
[HT Ros for the lovely connection between domestic chaos and the creation mandate.]
Posted in Fun | Tagged creation mandate, decluttering, domestic chaos, Fun, Genesis 1v28, humour, mess, Noel Piper, subduing the earth, The Pioneer Woman, utility room | 2 Comments »
8 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
I’ve just been digging through my blog drafts folder and realised I failed to post this a while back, but I thought you’d all still enjoy this shot of the Vicar, prepared by the Ringmaster at the CPAS Pathfinder summer holiday venture we were on way back in July. The theme was the Circus, and the Vicar’s dorm group were the Lily Livered Lion Tamers.
A lion or a teenager - which is harder to tame?
We had a wonderful week by the sea with 62 young people, aged 11-14, and a talented team of over 30 leaders. Me, I hung out with some other mums who were there with younger kids and were supporting their husbands who were leading. But it was great to be there, praying and having the chance to chat with leaders and youngsters.
The Queen blogged about camp too.
Posted in Teenagers | Tagged CPAS, holiday camp, lion tamers, Pathfinders, summer venture, Teenagers, vicar | Leave a Comment »
7 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
You’ve probably gathered from previous posts that I think the best way to keep warm in a Victorian vicarage is to install wood burning stoves. These were definitely the top investment that we made on moving into our arctic home. When we visited soon after the Vicar was appointed to the job, we realised just how cold the house was. We could see damp creeping up the fireplace walls, and parishioners talked about shivering their socks off when they visited.
The Vicar’s mum and my parents had both had stoves installed in the past few years, and we enjoyed their warmth very much. The eco-friendly nature also appealed. As did the prospect of possibly heating ourselves for free by scavenging the wood.
We don
God willing, we would like to stay here for a good few years, so we’ve spent a lump of savings on buying and installing two Neria Bohemia 60 stoves. The selection of the stoves was not that difficult. When we went to the shop, this was the only one of the right size that they had two of! We also like their rather modern looking design and so far they have been wonderful – practical and attractive.
Yesterday we had both of them fired up – the one in the red room, our tidy public room, because the Vicar had a bereaved lady who came over to plan her father’s funeral, and the green family room one cos that’s how we keep the family warm. The Vicar lays the fires at lunchtime so they are ready to go whenever we need them.
So far we’ve only had to pay for matches. We’ve been using packing paper from our move and shreddings from the study at the base of the fire, chopped up pallets and twigs from the garden and churchyard for kindling and then heavier logs once the heart of the fire is going. The logs have been sourced from all over: local people we know who have been chopping trees down (sometimes with the Vicar’s help), building sites (with permission of course) and the Vicar’s golf course. The Vicar tells me that this justifies the cost of his club membership.
A hidden benefit of using wood as a fuel is the view I get from my kitchen window when the Vicar is chopping the logs. Very hunter gatherer. Getting them installed was a bit of a palaver. I’ll blog on that another time, but for now I’ll show you what they look like in my two downstairs rooms (unlit, cos I took the photos this morning) and you can enjoy the toastiness.
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This room looks a lot cosier when the fire is lit
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Cool ash bucket, eh? Just got it from Ikea the other day
Posted in Vicarage | Tagged Bohemia 60, Cold, eco, Heating, log burning stove, Neria, Vicarage, Victorian vicarage, warmth, wood | 4 Comments »
5 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
The Urban Pastor has brilliantly explained why the world’s greatest hero is like the Joker’s favourite film character.
And just in case you’ve not seen it, I posted the Joker’s impression of the big fat panda a few months back.
Posted in Fun | Tagged Jesus, Kung Fu Panda, panda, Urban Pastor | Leave a Comment »
5 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
Our local paper has just published a piece about the arrival of Happy, our new ministry trainee. I love the line where the Vicar is described as ‘unlike anyone I’ve ever met’.
As the Express and Star have commented, the diocese is struggling to find clergy for vacant posts. We are praying that God would guide Happy as he explores full time ministry. And we are praying that more folk would come and join us in reaching the lovely people of the Black Country with the good news of Jesus.
Posted in Church | Tagged apprentice, Black Country, Church, CofE, Express and Star, Lichfield diocese, ministry trainee, vacancies, vicar | 7 Comments »
1 October, 2009 by thevicarswife
Happy is our new lodger. He’s also the Vicar’s new apprentice (aka the ministry trainee). Yesterday he went to a training event about our area. It was laid on by diocesan missioners with input from speakers from the local council and other taxpayer funded bodies.
We live in Sandwell, one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. Happy came back with lots of bumf and today I thought I’d just share a few choice statistics on our area:
- 8% of people in our borough are on Jobseekers Allowance – twice the national average.
- House prices round here are below the national average by 35%.
- There is not a single bookshop in the borough (though this does not include the W H Smith in our high street – I guess they mean independent booksellers or Waterstones and the like).
- There is no cinema in the borough.
- Most of the famous people from the area appear to be comedians (although the folk at the session kept on talking about Bishop Asbury, who neither Happy nor we had heard of before, but Wikipedia has enlightened me).
Where we are
Happy came back with a lovely poster with photos of all the local councillors, including the three who represent the ward we live in. Sadly, when I contacted them by email more than a fortnight ago to ask about an issue that has been bugging me for a while, I received no acknowledgement and no reply. And not a single councillor showed up to a controversial meeting about a new local housing development last night. So I don’t think I’ll be putting the poster up any time soon.
But if you would like to start a business with an eager workforce, or commute to Birmingham City Centre in 15 minutes, you like to laugh a lot, you’re happy to use a library or The Book Depository for reading matter, you don’t mind watching your films on dvd a little after release, you want to buy a cheap house and get involved a local church which wants to make a difference, this is the place to be.
Posted in Black Country, Inner city, Sandwell | Tagged Bishop Asbury, Black Country, Church, Inner city, local government, Politics, Sandwell Council, Statistics | 11 Comments »
29 September, 2009 by thevicarswife
I've not yet worn my hat indoors...
Cold vicarages seem to be a hot topic for discussion. Since I posted last week I’ve also remembered a couple of other techniques that we use to keep the frostbite at bay.
- Our electric blanket. Not yet on the bed but absolutely essential for later in the season. With cold feet I cannot get to sleep at all. The poor man’s alternative is the good old hot water bottle. My mother has bought a large selection to be set aside for visitors. The children like them too, especially when they have covers in the shape of racoons.
- My teasmade. I have a hot cup of tea every morning (Roiboos, without milk, so much less hassle than having to fetch semi skimmed). This is also a great encouragement to prayer and bible reading. What else to do whilst tea-drinking first thing? It’s sometimes a battle to switch off the Today programme, though.
Quite a few commentators have mentioned the ‘sell the vicarage and buy something warm and modern’ option. This is appealing in many ways but also has its downsides. The expectation is that a warm modern vicarage is a pleasure to live and work in and doesn’t cost a bomb to heat or to maintain. However, not all modern vicarages are chosen well – it seems that some are poorly located away from the church or community, and houses that are not specifically designed as vicarages can lack rooms of the right size or configuration.
In our diocese cold vicarages have been identified as a source of clergy stress and there are plans afoot for double glazing. In the meantime, please continue to share your warmth tips.
Posted in Church, Vicarage | Tagged Church, Cold, electric blanket, Heating, teasmade, Vicarage | 13 Comments »
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The Vicar's Wife 