This is a very dull post – don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Lent marches on. Today has been a day off, spent almost entirely with Rusk, due to Mr F’s continuing battle with the lurgy.

Rusk decided that we would play with tractors today. There is a large box in his bedroom with about half a dozen tractors of various sizes. Some make noises, some travel by themselves, one has a track to travel on and makes appropriate animal noises as it goes past the sty, duck pond etc. The one I find most bemusing is the tractor and trailer with a sheep attached. If you hold the sheep and the trailer firmly and pull apart, then set them down on the floor, the sheep retracts into the trailer, a hook between the sheep’s legs pulls up the gate at the back of the trailer and the whole shebang sets off across the floor, to market presumably. Rusk doesn’t quite have the strength to pull it so there was a lot of asking Mummy to help.

During his afternoon nap, I played a level of The Settlers:Rise of an Empire – the latest in my favourite series of computer games.

Late afternoon saw us headed for the beach, or rather the promenade at the local town. There is a long stretch of prom that has reasonable barriers on either side (i.e. no sheer drop to the beach) so Rusk was able to run about without reins or holding hands. This means he can run further than I have to walk = tired toddler and not so tired Mummy. We bought an ice cream and shared it. He doesn’t really like the coldness of the ice cream so only had a bit. Marvellous! There were only a few encounters with large dogs. I was under the impression that leads were to keep dogs away from danger, frightening small boys etc. Apparently not, although it is ok because “he (the dog) won’t hurt him”.

At teatime, he ate marmite on bread. This is a real breakthrough – he has refused spreads or toppings of any kind on bread or toast for the last two months. Looks bad when you give him dry crusts, but really that is all he will eat usually. Hurrah for marmite (bet he doesn’t eat it again for weeks).

After his bedtime, I finished the Settlers level (and another one) before a spot of catching up online before my bedtime (now a couple of hours ago – ah well).

So that, in case you were interested, is what the clergy do on their day off, at least this clergy on this particular day off. I cannot guarantee that the next day off will be the same. Nothing too exciting.

In other news, I am knitting another sock, having ripped a complete sock back to nothing. Oh, and the foghorn is going so I’m guessing the weather has reached us.

So we are all off out to one of my churches for a party.

I have many happy memories of village pancake parties in my youth so I hope I can pass that on to some of the people here. One particular memory is the vicar walking round waving a frying pan in a rather menacing manner, trying to get people to enter the pancake-tossing competition. I shall attempt the same!

Lent-wise, I’m intending to read Maggi Dawn’s new book – Giving it up. I’ll let you know how I find it. Interesting discussion with my incumbent today about how to burn palm crosses to make ash.

In knitting news, I’m working on a stole (of the shawl type, not the clergy type) as my contribution to the knitting olympics on Ravelry. Slow going, but enjoyable.

I took a cursory glance into my baking cupboard before sending Mr F out to the supermarket this morning, but discovered later there were some key ingredients missing for making Nigella’s Chocolate Guinness Cake (very easy cake – from Feast). No Guinness and very little cocoa powder. Not to worry, I have improvised. Half a bottle of Old Peculiar replaced the Guinness then I replaced the dry weight of cocoa powder that was missing with extra flour, then grated in some dark Divine chocolate to add extra chocolate flavour. The cake is now cooling and I am drinking the other half of the OP to avoid wastage. It seems to be OK. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve been tinkering with a post on the Roman Catholic announcement this week, but I think I’ve decided some things are better left unsaid. I will just have a quick link: Dave Walker (@davewalker) drew my attention to this article by Frank Skinner in the Times. Very interesting point of view. Go have a quick peruse.

The other thing going around the web today is the whole BNP – Question Time thing. I’m sure most things have been said but, having stayed up to watch it last night, I was left wondering at the use (overuse?) of one particular word: elite. The “politcal elite” was mentioned by the BNP leader more than a few times, meant in a derogatory way. What does it mean? Presumably those in the main political parties. Do you know what? I think I want the country to be run by the political elite – those who are best at it, those with the skill, experience and talent to sort things out. Inverse political snobbery perhaps on his part. There are of course many other reasons for not voting for them.

Rusk is having a few troubles with the next tooth. Our normal sunny little boy is replaced by a grumpy, moany person. So sweet. I’m hoping the worst will be over before his baptism on Sunday. It’s going to be quite a party. Lots of lovely people visiting, much cake and generally a lovely weekend I hope.

On a related note, there are more vegetables in the kitchen than there have ever been. It is going to be quite some stew on Sunday.

There is some irony in having spent an afternoon this week in a ‘caring for self’ session and then having a preliminary to-do list of 10 items that absolutely must be done today before it turns into the study day it is meant to be. This is of course because the time I would normally do a good many of these things was the afternoon I spent in that session. Ah well. It was a good session and I was reminded of much interesting and useful information (such as the benefits of setting aside time to study). Still a little frustrating.

In case you were wondering, blogging is not on the list of 10 things. I am doing that as a nice extra, since 5 of the 10 things are done or delegated.

Today would also be the day that my copy of the new Diana Gabaldon book, An Echo in the Bone, arrived. Despite not being published here until January, there was a deal with the UK publishers that if you pre-ordered a copy from Amazon or similar  and sent them your receipt, they would send an export copy at the same time that it was published in the US. There is absolutely no chance of getting to read it today (well maybe if I write 500 words of dissertation this afternoon I might read a chapter or two… or three).

So knitting – Daisy asked for a picture of the hat. This will be forthcoming in due course, as will a work in progress picture of my Strictly socks. Not socks to be worn while watching Strictly Come Dancing, but socks to be knit in the bits where you don’t actually need to watch it. With half an hour of Strictly It Takes Two to watch every weekday, as well as the weekend shows, these are growing nicely and the Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock is doing something very pretty and spirally with the colour variations.

While on the subject of Strictly, my favourite Strictly results site has moved to here: http://bit.ly/VhoCR. Why not go and have a look?

Update on No-Cake Month. One cake of pastoral necessity eaten and three biscuits (including one malted milk that I was tricked into eating). I think I might make it – only 4 days to go.

OK back to sorting out things for Church tomorrow. I have just ordered a book of intercessions that has emergency intercessions written for each Sunday, all tying into the lectionary Gospel reading. This will make last minute changes of plan and personnel easier to cope with, but will not help with the intercessions for Sunday evening since a) there are no more postal deliveries before then and b) I am not using the lectionary reading. Lord, in your mercy…

This afternoon I took a visiting friend on a bit of a tour of the parishes. The coast here is so beautiful. We wandered down to the cliff path from one of the churches and sat looking out over the sea. The weather is beautiful today – so sunny and calm. Even on sunny days usually there is what we call a ‘breeze’, if only to distinguish it from the gales that are the customary fare. While we were sitting there watching the fields rolling down to the cliff, while some paragliders floated serenely overhead, I could feel a story starting to bubble up. As if I have time for that now – I have an MA to write you know. I will sit on it until after the end of November and then wander back amid the winter weather and see if the urge is still there. It is such a privilege to minister to people with such a rootedness in the landscape. I feel a real sense that the people here do see themselves as custodians for the future.

The hat went much quicker than expected, and is now finished, pending blocking. I *think* there will be enough wool left (yes, Daisy, it is Rowan Tapestry) for another one. I had about 3 yards of the first ball of purple left at the end of the hat and I have weighed what is left of the variegated ball and have 26g of a 50g ball. Might be cutting it a bit fine, but we’ll see. In the pause between starting the decreases and the 4mm dpns arriving, I started a sock. I have never knitted a toe-up sock before. It looks most peculiar with just the toe done.

The sloes have been pricked, jarred and covered in gin and sugar. It looks quite revolting at the moment, but the caterpillars all floated to the surface when the gin was added and I have fished them out so it could be worse. Not sure I would be able to describe it as suitable for vegetarians now.

Back to pondering the Sunday readings. We follow the related series of readings in the lectionary and it has not yet clicked as to how they are related. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. I sometimes wish there were footnotes where the compilers could say what they had in mind.

Off to a consultation on stipends and pensions this evening. Pray for us, please.

Here they are on the tree:

And here they are in the kitchen. Note there are now jars there too.

I am not confident about these jars. I would rather have jars which seal properly. They will have to do until the end of the week when Mr F is heading for the big city where there is a Lakeland. I really, really hope they don’t explode all over the under the stairs cupboard. The instructions do say to shake the jar(s) every day for the first month, so I don’t suppose they will mind being decanted.

In other news, I am making a hat:

The knitters among you will see that I am using magic loop because I had neither the correct dpns nor a short enough circular for normal circular knitting. I am enjoying it. Slightly disappointing that the colours in the pattern aren’t showing up very well. I would blame the camera, but it isn’t much better in real life. Still the challenge of two-handed fair isle is keeping me busy.

I have in my kitchen 2 and a half pounds of sloes and a litre of very cheap gin. As soon as I can find a receptacle big enough to hold all that and some sugar, I will have the makings of a very ‘merry’ Christmas. My enquiries among the church choir this evening did not bring forth the loan of a 2 litre jar I was hoping for, but they did know where the local homebrew shop is so there is still hope.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of our sloe-gathering expedition. Next year I will take a ladder and a stick with a curved end. The best sloes were well out of reach.

In other news, the most original welcome gift to the parish so far… a ball of wool, a bag of plums and an invitation to knit jumpers to sell in a local shop.

Rather a melodramatic title, but I think this deserves it. I have finally, after months of itchiness, boredom and eye-strain, finished the beast that is the clapotis. Never again will I knit in black. Never again will I knit with horrible yarn just because it was a present. I was absolutely determined to finish it off yesterday and was spurred on by catching up with some of the Radio 4 comedy slots that we recorded over the summer – Just a Minute etc. The ends are all sown in and everything, just a quick blocking and then it will wend its way to the lovely person who gave me the black yarn in the first place. Thanks Mum. I am grateful really. Only a week or so late for the birthday as well.

On another note – today marks the start of No Cake Month. No cakes, biscuits or other desserts in September unless through pastoral necessity (sometimes in this line of work you have to eat cake!). I only have 5 cakes of pastoral necessity allocated for the month, so this will require some delicacy. The plan was that college puddings would be offset by the austerity of life as a curate. The plan did not work due to the abundance of cake in the parish. There is a reward planned if No Cake Month is a success. I will keep you posted.

I’m not really sure what to post, but Mr F is still bugging me about not posting anything, so here you go.

I’ve been ordained deacon nearly 2 weeks now. It is a funny thing, but it feels like a lot longer. I’ve slipped into the new life quite easily, mostly thanks to my incumbent being superb.

Saturday is meant to be my light day, a bridge between my day off and Sunday. The main aim of today is to finish writing a sermon for tomorrow. Morning prayer was at 9 today, a welcome change from the usual 8am. After wandering home through the drizzle, I went upstairs to work. A quick check of emails, a quick look at some of the bits of paper that have appeared and I was onto the internet. Sermon writing seems to work best when I am ruminating on something at the back of my mind, with other things (blogs for example) at the forefront. I’m now almost at the point of writing it – got most of the ideas, some clue about the structure and themes. Just writing a blog post to get the typing going. In true vicar-style, I am listening to Test Match Special in the background.

Lunch today was very funny. Rusk, now 13 months old, is very serious about the business of finger food. Each item must be selected with care, checked in case it is a new foodstuff, passed hand to hand several times and then sometimes placed carefully in his mouth. He makes a little pile of food to his right of things he will only eat if he is still hungry when he has finished the nice stuff. Top foods today were cucumber and Gruyère cheese, followed by pear. Chicken was rejected and hummous with bread sticks looked promising, but he offered it to us instead of eating it himself. Apparently, my giggling at his antics is NOT HELPING.

Well, back to the sermon I guess. I’m rather looking forward to it. I’m preaching (and leading) at one of the small churches, with a congregation of about 10. How many people tomorrow will be preaching on sheep and shepherds with a soundtrack outside the church of the sheep belonging to the churchwarden?

In case I miss it, I will just mention that tomorrow will be the third anniversary of this blog. It has been brilliant being a part of the wibsite and will hopefully continue that way for years to come.