Posted in Garden, Vicarage, tagged felling, garden, surgeon, surgery, tree, Vicarage on 16 May, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Today the tree surgeons came and took down a tree at the end of our garden that had started to lean rather precariously.
Here it is before they did their stuff:
And here is a short video of the tree coming down ending with a lovely clip of the tree surgeon’s local accent.
We’re glad the tree’s now safe. And particularly pleased at the fuel it’s supplied for next winter…
Posted in Vicarage, tagged attic, building, kitchen, ministry trainees, pictures, renovations, shower room, Vicarage on 18 April, 2012| 4 Comments »
Upupstairs (as it’s called) is beginning to take proper shape now. Our recent days have been filled with carpet quoters and a succession of tradesmen hefting new firedoors in and about. It’s looking lovely. The kitchen has almost more work surface than mine. The Vicar and I have been talking about moving up there and leaving the MTs to it with the kids on the lower floors. Rocky mentioned that he’d then have the woodburning stoves on the ground floor, which I must admit is still a bit of a draw for living in our allocated space rather than heading skywards.
Posted in Church, Inner city, tagged garden, Holidays, home, Kids, return, trampoline, travel, vandalism, Vicarage on 16 April, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We came back from a week’s holiday in Scotland late yesterday afternoon. We couldn’t get the car on the drive to unload it as the drive is full of skip for debris from the attic renovations. So we parked near the back gate so we could take our stuff in through the back door. Tired and happy, we planned to unpack as fast as possible and get everyone into bed ready for school and the start of a busy term.
As soon as we’d emerged onto the pavement, just next to the churchyard, we realised things might take a while longer than we hoped. The half dozen or so kids playing there were very excited to see us and wanted to fill us in on all the things that had happened whilst we were away. The most prominent episode had been some naughty kids hopping into our garden over the wall and causing some damage to one of our (thankfully) cheap plastic tables. All the kids wanted to tell us the same thing at the same time and transmit their information in those squealy high pitched voices they save for important communications.
It took a while but we managed to convince them that we’d soon come to terms with our loss. After we’d unpacked. Our kind neighbour was also annoyed on our behalf about the vandalism and garden invasion and came to tell us the details. We were just relieved that the Vicar had packed the trampoline away before we left for our holiday, as we’d have been quite sad to lose that. When we go away in the summer we pack away the monkey swing too. Maybe that’s what attracted the cheeky table-destroying monkeys into the garden in the first place…
Posted in Vicarage, tagged alterations, ceiling, floorboards, renovations, Vicarage, Victorian on 4 April, 2012| 2 Comments »
It has been a crazy day in the Vicarage. The lads upstairs have made some impressive progress on the attic. The Queen had a friend come over. A lovely friend came over to help me with the Passover meal and we made a selection of eclectic purchases at Morrisons. (Matzohs, strawberries, creme fraiche, spring greens, plain yoghurt etc – all in bulk). Our old MT from Wolverhampton days, Gambit, was here on a visit. The Vicar had a wedding rehearsal. Oh, and the Vicar and I had a lovely evening out at a comedy club, The Laughing Sole, that has just launched at The Public. A local monthly laugh night – we’re very pleased.
Anyway, here’s some pics of the upstairs at the end of today. It’s looking quite neat and organised, I think.
Posted in Vicarage, tagged attic, before, Passover, pictures, renovations, Vicarage on 3 April, 2012| 3 Comments »
This morning work officially began on our attic. Rocky has moved all his stuff downstairs to the spare bedroom and the space is clear for renovations. Thanks to a local trust, we are able to convert the four rooms into a much more usable Ministry Trainee space – two bedrooms, a living room/dining room/kitchenette and a shower room.
So the house was rather full today – four workmen in the attic, four kids (mine plus a bonus one) and then the Vicar, Rocky and me. Thankfully we were able to spread out on three floors. And after taking a few snaps so we can remember how it looked ‘Before’, I escaped out to fetch the lamb for Thursday’s Passover meal. The workers will be back at 8am tomorrow. Hopefully they won’t be drilling immediately…
Posted in Food, tagged cheap, cooking, food processor, Fun, gadget, kitchen, making pastry, paint scraper, pastry, Vicarage on 27 March, 2012| 1 Comment »
I have a few favourite gadgets in the Vicarage kitchen. Today I’d like to introduce you to my best pastry-making tool: a paint scraper.
I used to make most of my pastry in my food processor, but I found that it was too easy to blitz it and end up with the fat chopped too small and the pastry too tough. Since I started using the paint scraper (NB I’ve never scraped paint with this one) I’ve been able to ensure that plenty of gravel-sized pieces of butter/lard/hard marg remain. This gives me a lovely flakey shortcrust pastry that seems to go down very well with consumers.
It’s therapeutic to chop the fat into the flour, too – sometimes I imagine that I am chopping junk mail into tiny pieces. And no fat in the fingernails either – my pet hate with pastry-making. So there you are – a cheap and useful gadget that can also be used to remove welded Weetabix from the kitchen table. Every kitchen should have one.
Posted in Faith, Family, tagged audio bible, Church, crafts, cross, crucifixion, Easter, Good Friday, Holiday club, John's gospel, Junior Church, lamb, Maundy Thursday, Passover, Resurrection Eggs, Seder, toddler group, Vicarage on 22 March, 2012| 2 Comments »
Tonight I’ll be preparing some crafts for this Sunday’s Junior Church, which will be on the crucifixion. I know it’s not Good Friday yet, but Palm Sunday is an All Age service and there’s no service suitable for kids on Good Friday. So this week it is. This is helping me get started on thinking how best to prepare for Easter in the Vicarage this year:
How are you preparing to celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord?
Posted in Church, tagged Church, CofE, ministry trainee, ordinands, renovation, Rowan Williams, training, Vicarage, Walter Stanley Trust, young people on 9 February, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Thinking about getting in touch about our Ministry Trainee scheme? The scheme is going to be even better next year, as we’ve just had the go-ahead to renovate the chilly attic where our Ministry Trainees are housed. The excellent local Walter Stanley Trust, which supports ministry in our deanery, has agreed to lend us the money for the renovations so we can go ahead and make the space more comfortable.
We will also be able to house two MTs, instead of just the one, in a comfortable apartment with two bedrooms, a shower room and a living/dining room with kitchenette. And it will have central heating! Rocky and Happy have bravely lodged here in more austere conditions, but we pray that these changes will enable us to train more folk for ministry for the benefit of the kingdom of God in this parish and beyond.
The local paper has recently featured an article about the renovation project – with a couple of good pics of the Vicarage and the Vicar.
Rocky has met all sorts of interesting people in his time as an MT with us
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