Ministry Area tea at Llys Esgob

Another cloudy start to the day, but it was warm and the sun shone now and then. I drove to St German's again to celebrate the Eucharist in Fr Jarel's absence. In a congregation of over forty were three babes in arms, and half a dozen other children, two of them at the altar, a noticeable change in a congregation that's mainly middle aged or elderly. It was a pleasure to sing the service completely as well as preach, feeling I was among friends. Many were tired after yesterday's fund-raising summer fayre. The weather was poor and getting to church hindered by city centre road closures and congestion, but a fair amount of money was raised. Today, no coffee and cake after Mass, so I got home before one o'clock, a rarity for me if I go to St German's.

We had an invitation from Fr Andrew to a strawberry tea for Ministry Area co-workers this afternoon at Llys Esgob. There were about twenty of us, including three retired clergy and two newly ordained curates, served tea by Bishop Mary. I decided we should go by bus, as one was due to go to Llandaff at three. We were just around the corner from the Half Way bus stop in good time to catch the bus, when the bus drove past us three minutes early. Most annoying. I returned home in haste collected the car and drove us there, and was relieved to find a parking place on Cathedral Green. It was a good opportunity to catch up with a variety of people I've got to know in the churches over the past five years. 

After we got home just after five, I walked for an hour in Llandaff Fields before supper. I went out again after we'd eaten to check on the moorhen chicks. Two were swimming around in the pond, two more were on the floating nest with mum. I'm not sure if the fifth chick has survived, as it's a couple of weeks since I saw the brood of five. When I arrived at the front door I saw five parakeets flying in formation overhead, one more than yesterday. No idea how many more family groups there are in the area, but I've a lot more parakeets calls locally this year.

We watched another episode of 'The Repair Shop' this evening, another featuring the renovation of a large format bellows camera dating back at least 65 years. Its beautifully engineered lens mechanism needed only a few drops of watchmakers lubricating oil to resume working accurately. 

In the late news report of a flash flood hitting a summer camp on the rio Guadaloupe in Texas killing sixty people, a third of them children. A devastating eight metre surge of water rising in only 45 minutes left insufficient time for urgent flood evacuation warnings to be issued. It reminded me of the flash flood disaster which took over 200 lives in the Valencia region at the end of October last year, and there have been others, as climate instability afflicts countries around the world - Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, Germany. The world is still not prepared for the frequency and scale of extreme weather events, wars continue regardless when people should be working together to face up to immense challenges threatening all our futures.