Goodhand in Banbury

 If you are in need of a good read then get yourself a copy of John Bell's excellent "And Then She Said True stories without morals" It is the kind of book you can read from start to finish or just dip in where ever you want to. They are all short stories of people John has met. He has the knack of telling the story and leaving you the reader to make of it what you will. My overwhelming take away is just how amazing people are, and how important is to meet people where they are, and try not to carry too much baggage of your own when you do so.  They are deceptively insightful stories that make you laugh, cry and in places you find your self angry with how people are treated.

Feeling very smug to be able to get our grey water into the water butt i.e. our bath water.  The garden is very dry and having had no real rainfall now, our previous two water butts are empty. So keeping our pots moist let alone our greenhouse and raised beds watered is a real challenge.   So what do you do?  Well you rig up a hose pipe to another water butt and get your bath water into it. Amazingly, though worryingly, the bath almost fills the water butt. It does mean not turning on the tap to water the flowers etc. This is more than wanting to save water or saving money on the water meter, though its helpful. It is because the reality with the ever changing climate we are all going to have to use water more wisely.   You would think that with a planet whose surface is 71% covered by water this should not be an issue. But we are talking about freshwater availability. Most freshwater 2.5% is locked up in ice and the ground so it means only 1% of freshwater water is ...

  I'm supposed to be retired, but due to a set of circumstances, I found myself attending the local mayor making to act as the new Mayors chaplain. I was leading worship at St Hugh's, which I do very occasionally, while we await a new vicar. It just so happened that Sunday there was someone I didn't recognise in the congregation. It turned  out to be someone I had spoken to on the phone when undertaking  research about our community, as we explore future uses for our building. It was Kieron our local town councillor, district councillor and county councillor. He has had a long association with the church. Chatting about various matters he said he was going to be made mayor in a  couple of weeks and had hoped the new vicar could act a s chaplain. "He wont be in place till end of summer I'm afraid" I said, and then almost as an after thought I said "I'll do it if that helps"  Be careful what you offer!! So I found myself sitting int the Town Hall a...