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  • 2021
    • March
      • Friday 26th to Monday 29th March, 2021
        03/29/21


        This entry covers this last weekend. I have been hard at work from first thing in the morning until last thing at night trying to get ready for Holy Week and Easter. Tonight we had our first Holy Week Service and the picture above shows Tom getting the South Aisle ready for the service.

      • Thursday 25th. March, 2021
        03/25/21


        This was a busy day which didn't quite work out as expected. We walked the dogs and at this point I expected to get down to preparing online Holy Week services but the phone rang and rang. John brought back the Church accounts, all suitably inspected and in order, and then I shared

      • Wednesday 24th. March, 2021
        03/24/21


        This morning Sandy and Rachel began work on setting up the weaving loom in the Stables so that they can weave a number of Bruce tartan travelling rugs. I popped in from time to time to see how they were getting on and to take the occasional picture! Up above you can see the wool as it ar

      • Tuesday 23rd. March, 2021
        03/23/21


        Today I filmed the online service for Palm Sunday, recording in the morning and editing in the afternoon. Rachel collected together several art pictures of the events of Palm Sunday and I used these in the completed edit. I am aware, of course, that there will be fewer people sharing onl

      • 22nd. March, 2021
        03/22/21


        I expect that you will hear quite a bit from time to time about the four churches which occupy most of my time. Molly has prepared this picture so that you, dear reader, can see them all. Fogo is my Church. I am the congregation's non stipendiary minister and I have worked with them

      • Sunday 21st. March, 2021
        03/21/21


        Yesterday I told you that my Master had introduced me to that famous photographer, Molly. Today Molly sent some new pictures of the church to my Master. I could see that he was very pleased with them and I have got him to put one at the head of my blog for today. This is Snowball, '

      • Saturday 20th. March, 2021
        03/21/21


        Come on then! Let me in, it's good to be home. I don't know why it takes him so long to get out of a car. It's not as though he locks it up. Yet here I am ready to get into the house and he is no where to be seen.

        It's been a long day. We got up and my sist

      • Friday 19th. March, 2021
        03/19/21


        I told you so! Snowball reporting, again. I told you I would get to go with my Master when he had to set up the church for what he calls 'live-stream' worship.

        We set off soon after ten and didn't get home until after five. I didn't mind. The gallery where

      • Thursday 18th. March, 2021
        03/19/21


        Busy day today! Up and walked the dogs before getting out the jump leads and starting Rachel's car. Tom arrived and we sorted out a small church problem relating to central church bureaucracy. Then we took Rachel's car to have a new battery fitted by Keith at Crunklaw Garage an

      • Wednesday 17th. March, 2021
        03/17/21


        My name is Snowball and I was happily dozing on the sofa in front of the stove and happily minding my own business when my Master came and took my picture (I tried to pretend I was still asleep) and then he pushed me off the sofa and said that he was too tired to write his blog tonight,

      • Tuesday 16th. March, 2021
        03/16/21


        It's Tuesday, so today I take the script I prepared yesterday, film it and then edit it before putting it online ready for next Sunday. The picture above was taken this afternoon when I had got to the stage of editing. The two pictures below show the set-up for filming.

        <

      • Monday 15th. March, 2021
        03/15/21


        Unless I have a funeral or other special event -- and, at present, funerals are almost the only thing which disrupts my routine -- I spend Monday preparing the online service for the following Sunday. It takes me all day. I start with a blank piece of paper and end up first with a typed

      • Sunday 14th. March, 2021
        03/14/21


        When I was very young I used to lie in bed with my little transistor radio under the covers and listen to cricket -- Test Matches from Australia -- or later in the day, from South Africa or the West Indies. I used to wonder at the technology. How was it that my heroes, Peter May and Coli

      • Saturday 13th. March, 2021
        03/13/21


        Today was my birthday -- seventy-five today -- and Rachel had arranged a wonderful day for me. We had a picnic lunch in her summer house with the dogs all around us. It was lovely.



        Lunch was just what I most enjoy: prawn cocktail followed by Parma Ham, salami, and

      • Friday 12th. March, 2021
        03/12/21


        Tom came around today with this cheque which you can see him presenting to Olive (both are being careful to observe social distancing(. It is a cheque for £50,000 which was left to our Church to take forward our mission plan. It was left by Clare, one of our elders, who was so involved

      • Thursday 11th. March, 2021
        03/11/21


        This is Rachel sitting in the Bongo. It failed its MOT a couple of years ago and we hung on to it with the thought that one day we might get around to doing something with it, However, there has been some interest expressed in it and we are going to let it go -- so Rachel had a last sit

      • Wednesday 10th. March, 2021
        03/10/21


        Today is St. Kessog's Day. Saint Kessog brought Christianity to Luss and Loch Lomondside in the year 510 when he was fifty years old and I had the pleasure of celebrating the fifteen hundredth anniversary of that event when I was minister at Luss in 2010. It was a great celebration

      • Tuesday 9th. March, 2021
        03/09/21


        Our First Minister announced this afternoon that we can return to Church for worship on Palm Sunday -- a week earlier than I had anticipated. She also announced that our Church may have as many as fifty in the congregation (always supposing that there is enough room in church to enable s

      • Monday 8th. March, 2021
        03/08/21


        We dined in the Granary tonight. We had been sent some Molasses covered in chocolate all the way from our cousins in California. The picture above was taken to email to them to show that we had received them and that we were enjoying them!

        Earlier in the day I conducted the fu

      • Sunday 7th. March, 2021
        03/07/21


        It's Sunday so I should be in church. But we are still under Covid restrictions so that's not possible. Our church continues to look beautiful both inside and out and, although you can't really see from the photograph, the whole area is covered with snowdrops. It is a very

      • Saturday 6th. March, 2021
        03/06/21


        Early this afternoon I drove down to Fogo Church. I had some equipment which had to be taken there, including a wheelchair and a zimmer and several other items. While I was there I found my camera. I have been searching for it for several weeks -- and all the time it was in the church! S

      • Friday 5th. March, 2021
        03/05/21


        Today is the World Day of Prayer which this year comes from the South Pacific Island of Vanuatu. Normally we come together in one church in our area and move around, year by year, but, of course, this year that wasn't possible so instead there was a Zoom Service with readers from si

      • Thursday 4th. March
        03/04/21


        Now that working with people is impossible because of the virus restrictions Rachel has returned to producing kilts and tartan herself. There have been two kilts on the go in the last few days and today Rachel has arranged to produce ten tartan rugs in the Bruce tartan for a special cust

      • Wednesday 3rd. March
        03/03/21


        Above are three of the dogs we walked this morning. You'll see that they are quite at home! I wanted to bring you up-to-date with our dog family as the last time I blogged I was nursing my old Dog's Trust faithful mongrel, Mix. I really loved him and he was devoted to me and it

      • Tuesday 2nd. March, 2021
        03/02/21


        Up early and walked the dogs so that I could get back home and record the service for next Sunday. I have to set up the camera and the other equipment in the Granary because moving equipment from one level of temperature to another causes the lenses to fog. Soon I'll be able to set

      • Monday 1st. March, 2021
        03/01/21


        We were up at 8 and walked the dogs by 9. It was a lovely sunny day. At nine Tom and Tom arrived to take the TVs from the Bothy to Greenlaw and Gordon Parish Churches. The picture above shows one of the TVs after it has been erected. The picture is off a flash drive and one of the ideas

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