Harvest Two

Taking advantage of yesterday's warm sunny weather, we drove to the Gower, and ate a picnic lunch on Oxwich Bay beach, before walking the low tide shoreline to Three Cliffs Bay. There were double the number of people out sunning themselves compared to our last visit on August Bank Holiday - possibly because at that time many were still holiday-making abroad. With the tide being as far out as it could be, we had time to explore rock pools, and found two kinds of starfish, whelks and winkles about their business

Walking back to the Oxwich Bay Hotel for tea, facing the sun, I found more tiring than expected. But then, I've had more than my usual amount of exercise this past couple of days. I need to work hard at staying fit, obviously! We returned home for a vegetarian curry supper, and watched the second of the two pilot 'Inspector Montalbano' detective movies. It engaging, quite nicely done, but a bit lightweight against competition from 'Wallander' and 'The Killing', both less 'entertaining' and more compelling to watch. Although I've hardly used the Italian I acquired since I put effort into learning it thirty years ago, I was pleased at how much dialogue I was able to make sense of apart from the subtitles. Funny how memory works, and sometimes doesn't.

Before bed I spent an hour revising my Sunday sermon. I don't know why, but it was the first time I had to prepare something on the parable of the Vineyard in Matthew 21 after five cycles of preaching with the three year lectionary. There are gaps in the sermon records I keep. Possibly this is due to the coincidence of this Sunday with Michaelmas, Harvest or Dedication Festivals, so it gets less regularly  used. 

Anyway, I was taken aback when I arrived for the Eucharist at St Mary Church in Cowbridge Benefice this morning to realise it was Harvest Festival not Trinity 15. I had overlooked this in the published preaching rota notes, and in any case had preached Harvest at St German's two Sundays ago - they'd advanced their celebration to accommodate their dedication festival this weekend. I placed my sermon notes in the pulpit, and only then noticed the small sheaves of wheat and freshly baked loaf, placed in front of the altar. Although I could recall what I had preached about two weeks ago, it was an altogether different affair to preach Harvest in two wheat growing rural parishes, where to judge from the fields along the A48 from Cardiff, All had been Safely Gathered In. 

So, I had to improvise, at both St Mary Church and St Hilary, without going on too long. I explained what had happened, to their amusement, and then enjoyed reflecting on the value and significance of local food production in this time of recession and environmental threats. I think it went down all right, although I am conscious that when stimulated to talk freely, I can talk too fast, say too much, and not give time for the message to sink in. Let's hope the 'plough the fields and scatter' techinque worked on this occasion.

I arrived home punctually in order that we could drive to Penarth for lunch at the 'Mediterraneo' on the sea front. With no evening service this week, it meant that I didn't have to dash off somewhere else, so we lingered on the prom and on the pier, basking in the unseasonal October warmth. We've been out in the sun a lot over the past few days, and not had the slightest trouble with sunburn. What a difference a few months can make.

It was late when we sat down to supper so we missed the first half of Sunday spy melodrama 'Spooks', so we lingered until it was over and then watched it on my big Sony laptop with BBC iPlayer. For once, streaming was flawless, without the delays due to crowded bandwith we often get at peak periods. It's usually quite entertaining, although suspension of disbelief required to accept the fictional power of technologies used in the series makes it almost as daft as Dr Who on times. I stopped watching that thirty years ago. Thankfully this is the last series of 'Spooks' - unless there's a Christmas Special. I wonder if Rhod Gilbert would be interested in a headline role?