Tree hugging daughter and chalice quest accomplished

A quiet Monday, mostly spent looking after the wound, though I did get out and walk up as far as Veytaux gare late afternoon. While I was listening to the Archers I noticed the western sky was flooded with extraordinary deep red light, as the sun headed toward the horizon. I walked down to the port and got some amazing photos with my HX50. I posted three on Instagram and immediately began to get a series of 'likes', mostly from people I didn't know. You can see the photos here

Clare shared some good news of Rachel with me. Last week she posted a photo on Instagram of herself, high up in a tree. I thought she was just out having fun. She, Kath and both their daughters have always enjoyed tree climbing, being active and athletic types, but there was more to the photo, as Clare told me. Rachel has made friends with a tree surgeon, and has done paid work experience recently. He's going to train her up to work as his assistant, and with luck she'll get a qualification that'll enable her to earn a living, and this will subsidise her poorly paid making music making. She is a real tree hugger, and happiest in the great outdoors. I'm so glad  for her, and it reduces my worry level considerably. I'm quite confident she'll be safe climbing trees, properly kitted out. This is a real lifeline for her in every sense.

I had an email from Martin, telling me about a chalice he'd sourced for St George's Malaga, and at a reasonable price. He started hunting for something suitable back in March, and I'm amazed that he continued looking after a few setbacks. It's just ideal for weekday use or house group communions, and it has an Anglican history, having been made for the new Parish of All Saints in Leeds back in the 1850s. It was a period of prosperity driven over expansion of church buildings, and it has long since disappeared, with its redundant assets being traded on eventually. It's a beautiful simple piece of work in sterling silver, very durable. And, it'll arrive just as Fr Paul Wignall starts as Chaplain of Malaga. Have started the ball rolling on this, I am delighted, and satisfied to have closure on this, thanks to my dear good friend Martin. 

Like his late mother Jane, he has an eye for valuable antiques and has participated in the legitimate trading of church silverware for for many years, helping the newly ordained to acquire sick  visiting communion sets or chalices of their own, from the vast stock of items from closed churches. Earlier this year he acquired a full army chaplain's field communion set in its original case, and in good repair, dating from World War One, when it was used in action. Its owner was killed, and somehow the set didn't find its way back to the MoD, but ended up in an attic for a century, until retrieved ina house clearance. There were letters from that period in the case, plus the document of the military commission received by the priest. What a treasure!