Temple Cloud

November is carnival season in Somerset .      The Somerset County Guy Fawkes Carnival Association carnivals begin in Bridgwater on the first Saturday of the month, and yesterday evening my friend took her children to the Shepton Mallet carnival , with a flask of hot chocolate and some sandwiches, as her children aren’t keen on the burgers sold from the vans.   The carnival circuit starts in Devon in September , but these illuminated processions in Somerset in November take place to commemorate Guy Fawkes’ attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament .   On a completely unrelated note, at the start of December I’m going with my mother, PDB11 and Doom Metal Singer to listen to one of the Carnival Band’s Christmas concerts.   Their lively performances of well-loved carols like Angels from the Realms of Glory , less well-known carols like Dancing Day and the desperately sad Coventry Carol , (both of which I had seen mentioned in The Children of Green Know...

It was a conversation I couldn’t have imagined having a year ago, let alone two years. ‘What do you want to do for Lent?’ I asked PDB11 . Last year’s attempt at fasting one day a week had not gone well, to say the least.   I had written a list of goals in my diary, including the following: Lent Aspirations 2022 – joint Fast at least one day a week Make the community soup-and-roll lunch our lunch one day a week Read Embracing Justice   by Isabelle Hamley Have one prayer session together per day Lent Aspirations 2022 – me Go on at least one all-day walk per week (weather permitting) Practise playing hymns every day Practise meditating where possible Write at least one blog post per week Go on litter-picking walks Most importantly – try to stay sane In practice, I/we didn’t manage any of these – and particularly not staying sane.   We did eventually get back to reading Embracing Justice , and found it a very interesting book – but to be able to engage wi...

In January, my beloved partner and I (hereafter referred to as the Beloved) wondered whether to make any New Year’s Resolutions.   I planned to start driving lessons, as rural Somerset isn’t the ideal place to rely on public transport.   The Beloved needed to look for a job (he is an engineering consultant, but had been between contracts while completing a degree course, doing voluntary work, and supporting his elderly father).   He also still needed to empty and sell the house he used to live in, having been gradually moving house for several years, one car-load at a time. However, the only specific Resolution we made was to go for at least a short walk every day, and at least one long walk per week.   It seemed a good way to get fit, and to make the most of the wonder of being in Somerset.   We agreed that most of the walks ought to be local ones, to avoid wasting petrol – and after all, with the wonderful patchwork of woods, fields and limestone hills rig...

Before I got married, my mother asked me, ‘Are you sure you could stand being married to someone who doesn’t like mushrooms or sweetcorn?’ The answer is emphatically yes.   Being married to someone who is intelligent, funny, caring, utterly lovable, and apparently equally delighted to be married to me, and who shares my urge to sing ‘Ill Wind ’ by Michael Flanders when a Mozart horn concerto comes on the radio, is more than I had ever hoped for.   It is a small price to pay that I share my meals with someone who is deeply reluctant to eat any of the following: ·                      Most vegetables other than potatoes, roots (such as carrots and parsnips), onions, leafy green vegetables, beans, and occasionally peas.   (Fortunately, this rule doesn’t apply in Chinese restaurants, where most things are given the benefit of the doubt, except sweetcorn and mushrooms.) ...

I had assumed this story had died years ago, but apparently it’s back again. In a weekly newspaper, just above serious stories about the United Nations urging the Saudi coalition in Yemen to stop occupying ports, and about Amnesty International’s report on war crimes in Syria, was the latest instalment in a court case about a wedding cake.   As you may possibly recall, about six years ago, a couple in America who were getting married, asked a cake shop to bake a wedding cake for them.   The baker decided he didn’t want to.   The couple decided that this constituted an infringement of their civil right to have a wedding cake baked for them.   The baker decided that this constituted an infringement of his right to refuse to bake for people he disapproved of.   Six years later, the case has gone as far as the US Supreme Court, who have recently ruled in favour of the baker and against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Okay, possibly this story sounded ...