Short weekend in Kenilworth

No public book burning took place on Saturday 9/11 day in the USA. There were protests of one kind or another around the solemn commemoration of that stupendous act of violence nine years ago, in NYC and Washington, although there were reports of violent protests elsewhere in a few muslim countries and attacks on churches. It could have been so much worse.

I attended my first meeting of the St John's Jerusalem Eye Hospital committee in the morning, at the new conference centre on the Treforest hillside campus of Glamorgan University. This site has come such a long way since the days when it was just a Mining and Technical College in my youth, welcoming lots of third world students to do engineering and mining courses. People forget that Ponty had a streak of the global village about it as far back as the fifties and sixties. The meeting was located here as the annual St John's national conference for volunteers was taking place on campus, with 180 participants of all ages from all over the Principality. Very impressive.

From there I drove to Kenilworth to spent the rest of the weekend with Clare, babysitting Rhiannon, while Kath and Anto played gigs at Leamington and Ludlow food festivals. I attended the eight o'clock Eucharist in St Nicholas Parish Church on Sunday morning - another pleasant experience, as the air was clear and the sun was shining brightly, illuminating the stillness of a lovely 13th century church interior. Worshippers here are warm and friendly, evidently appreciating their early quiet time with God before whatever the day presented them with. 

The brisk walk there and back is a real pleasure. The setting of the church on the brow of a hill with a poplar tree lined avenue leading up to it and a huge expanse of greensward falling away below it down to a small stream is classically English picturesque, yet this piece of public parkland is as busy day by day as Bute Park is in Cardiff, as it is well used by locals, and very well managed by Kenilworth district Council. Such amenities need to be appreciated fully as they are so important to the community, and yet always vulnerable when it comes to public spending cuts.

After seeing Rhiannon off to schoool this morning, we streight off home. We needed  to be back by lunchtime, as we had workmen coming in the afternoon to remedy problems caused by rising damp which had been incorrectly fixed before we moved in. Another case of one work team ignoring the expert advice given by another, sad to say.