Another day for rain. Sara Clare and I got wet walking to St Catherine's for the Parish Eucharist. We were thirty adults and four children. Not bad for a wet half term Sunday. I don't know if I have a hearing deficit, but I had difficulty following Mother Frances when she preached this morning. She naturally speaks fast, so decoding what she says in the pulpit requires full attention, and I still fail to grasp the point. I find this a bit distressing, as I can't work out whether I agree with what she says or not.
For Sara, it was a rare chance to worship in English again, which she says she prefers to her mother tongue Swedish. Sara is fluently bi-lingual and so is her daughter Ebba, remarkably so for a fifteen year old, whose default pronunciation style is American, but can with concentration speak English decently with an English accent also. Now and then she needs to check a word she doesn't understand or ask for an English equivalent to something in Swedish. I guess they converse in English as well as Swedish at home.
After lunch, I drove them to the airport in the pouring rain. We hugged a farewell in the car park and they made the hundred metre dash to the departures entrance, then I headed home, listening again to Choral Vespers for the Dead from Leeds Cathedral on Radio Four. Lovely. The rain stopped, and after a cup of tea Clare and I went out for a walk in the park. By the time we were on the return leg it started to rain again. Twice wet in a day.
I worked on the video slideshow for next Thursday's Morning Prayer before and after supper, taking a break to watch this week's episode of 'SAS Rogue Heroes' before uploading the finished product. It's very well conceived, though I can't help but think that much of the dialogue is anachronistic in phraseology.
I had a text message from Sara at ten to say they'd just landed in Gothenburg. The outbound flight from Cardiff was fifteen minutes late departing, but there was enough of a wait at Schiphol not to endanger their homebound connection. All's well that ends well. A good time was had by all, despite the weather.
As the rain stopped and sky cleared after dark, I went out for a moonlit walk in the park before turning in for the night. Although not yet full moon, it shone brightly enough to cast moving shadows of trees on the path. Enchanting!
