Temple Cloud

  It is half-term – though admittedly, for many parents who have been home-schooling children for much of the past year, it probably doesn’t feel much different to any other week.   This time last year, I was following my normal holiday practice of inviting myself to stay with my parents while catching up on seeing as many friends as I could in a few days’ stay.   My appointments diary for 19 th February 2020 schedules a frantic whirl of activity: coffee with one friend in the morning, lunch and a sh ort walk with another friend, mah-jongg with family in the afternoon, and attending a student production of HMS Pinafore  on the university campus in the evening. My father, much as he enjoys Gilbert and Sullivan, decided to give HMS Pinafore a miss.   At the time, I assumed that this was just because he was feeling tired, or because theatre seats have insufficient legroom.   But perhaps he was also being cautious about the new virus which was spreading a...

This blog post was going to be a celebration of pilgrimage walks in Lent.   It was going to point out that, while church services might be cancelled due to the coronavirus, churches themselves are still open for prayer.   I was going to argue that not having to arrive at a set time could make for a good all-day walk themed around exploring churches in villages further afield than the one I normally go to – which can be a good excuse for exploring new parts of the countryside. I did actually do one of these walks, on 22 nd March, because I woke up and it was such a beautiful day from dawn onwards that I couldn’t wait to get out. I set off while the day was still cold and crisp, and every leaf of every plant in the fields was still decorated with frost. Some of the flowers were looking as if they wished they hadn’t got up yet. Early on in the walk, I spotted a sheep lying on its side in the corner of a corner of a field, who seemed to be just sleeping, but...

Since I last updated this blog with two Lenten resolutions, the coronavirus crisis has escalated.  On the one hand, this has made it much easier to stay off caffeine, as most of the gatherings that I would go to which would normally require caffeine to keep me as alert as possible have now been put on hold.  A friend I would usually have lunch with needs to minimise social contact while looking after his sick uncle.  The bookshop where I work   is closed for the duration.  Quiz nights, drama rehearsals, and even the small group of us who meet for Dungeons & Dragons, have all had to agree to stop meeting, as more and more people need to self-isolate. By the same token, however, this has meant that I’ve been walking much less, simply because most of the things I would normally walk to are no longer happening.   During this Lent, our church had been planning to run several mid-week prayer meetings, as well as coffee mornings and soup lunches to giv...