Looking Forward to the Pantomime

Just ventured outside with Ruby this morning, and, thank goodness it doesn’t seem to have frozen over.

I suppose I will have to dig the snow and hard packed ice off the drive, so that I can get the car back up it at some stage!

We’re now looking forward to tomorrow when we make the trip to Harrogate Theatre for the Pantomime – Aladdin this year.

REMINDER TO FAMILY – it commences at 7.00 pm!

Wishee Washee & Aladdin

More Of The Same

Taking Ruby for her final walk tonight I noticed that the snow was already beginning to sparkle - a sure sign that the temperature is falling below freezing!

Trying to back the car up the drive earlier in the evening it refused to go very far, and commenced a somewhat waltz like motion, so I gave it up as a bad job and left it out on the pavement.

It looks very much like tomorrow (Thursday) is going to start off in the same way as today did. I’ve just been looking on the Met Office weather website for the Bradford Area, and there is a weather warning out for Thursday.

The weather warning for Thursday is a “be prepared” one, which is the same as the one for today (Wednesday). The most severe warning is the next one up which is “take action!” Tomorrow’s forecast is given in three hour segments, and they are as follows:

00.00 sleet -1 centigrade visibility poor
03.00 low level cloud -1 centigrade visibility poor
06.00 mist -1 centigrade visibility poor
09.00 low level cloud 0 centigrade good
12.00 sunny intervals 0 centigrade good
15.00 sunny intervals 0 centigrade moderate
18.00 fog 1 centigrade very poor
Night low level cloud 1 centigrade very poor

It sounds like a recipe for more accidents and broken bones……..

The Crafty Way to Balance Your Gritting Budget!

I opened the kitchen door this morning to let Ruby out, and was greeted by the antics of the original skating dog. Elegant was not the word I would have used to describe her first slide, however she did maintain her dignity by not collapsing in a heap, but remaining upright at all times.

This little preamble to today’s blog is just to put you in the picture concerning the prevailing weather conditions in our part of Siberia.

After returning from walking Ruby last night, I noticed that the temperature had risen slightly, but that there was a distinct wind blowing. There was a very slight fall of very sloppy sleet too. I remember thinking “It could be fun tomorrow if the temperature falls during the night.”

Well, fall, the temperature certainly did! The car was completely covered in a two/three millimetre layer of solid ice, but not only the car – the entire drive and the surrounding pavements too!

As I had to take the good lady to work for 8.00 am that meant clearing the windscreen and windows of ice, and that took about 15 minutes, because after I had scraped the ice off the glass, it then froze back on again. De Icer seemed to be the next best step, followed by windscreen wipers, but they just smeared the ice back on to the glass, so there had to be more drastic action taken – run the engine, and put the heater on "full" for the windscreen.

Going down the drive, which barely slopes, was something of a fun exercise as there was sheet ice completely covering it. Once on to the road I decided to go the opposite direction to usual, as there is nasty sloping corner in the usual direction which is often covered in ice. The five minute trip took about 20 minutes due to the fact that the vast majority of drivers were being sensible and driving slowly and with great care!

Apart from the bus route and the main road nothing had been treated. I know there is supposed to be a shortage of gritting materials, but surely on this occasion something could have been done. Then the cynical part of the brain kicked in!

It costs money to grit and the gritting budget is probably overspent, so why not grit less (and use the excuse that the gritting materials are in short supply) and let the brunt of the costs (caused by accidents/falls etc.) be borne by the hospitals.

Where Will It All End?

Towards the end of my blog on Saturday I posed the question:

What is the matter with our children today? Why are they rebelling against authority?

I have given those questions some thought over the weekend, and come up with the following reasons:

Drugs
Easy Money
Lack of motivation
Unemployment
Liberal mindedness by certain members of society
Over emphasis on the rights of children
Lack of suitable punishment
Broken Homes
Single Parents
Lack of parental skills
Lack of discipline in the home
Lack of moral fibre

Let’s examine these points in turn.

DRUGS

More and more of our young people turn to drugs. Why? Is it boredom? Is it lack of motivation to go out and work? Is it a cheap thrill? Is it an “easy” escape from the “boring” life they lead?

Whatever the reason it is a known fact that a huge percentage of drug taking is fuelled by crime – the necessity to get money to buy the illegal drug.

So where is the deterrent to taking drugs? Does the law and the criminal justice system actively discourage drug taking? Here the answer is often – No! Once a young offender enters the prison system it is a known fact that he/she will most likely become more involved with drugs.

Drastic crime requires drastic action, if we are not to be overwhelmed by the drug problem. It is obvious that the drug support systems are not working. Cease immediately the supply of Methadone to drug addicts. Lock the offender up and give them cold turkey. Confiscate every last penny from the convicted dealers and deport them at the end of their sentences.


EASY MONEY

Far too many children are indulged. They demand and get more or less anything they want. They don’t have to work for their wants. They are indulged by their parents. Hence they often don’t appreciate or value what they get. They live in an “I want – I deserve – I will get” kind of society.

Those children who can’t get what they want will often resort to stealing to get what they want.

The lack of parental guidelines here is an additional reason for the problem.

LACK OF MOTIVATION

In a society where you can get what you want without having to work for it there is no motivation to work, earn, save and achieve, and if you can get what you want by stealing (and not get caught) there is even less motivation to work! Even better, if society provides for all your wants with grants, benefits etc. then there is even less motivation to work. Why bother to respect others if they can be sponged off?

Respect for others needs to be inculcated in children from a very early age. Parents have a vital role to play in this.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The old saying “The Devil finds work for idle hands to do” is as true today as when it was first coined. Unemployed young persons can be found hanging around the streets, shopping centres etc. and it is not long before they are becoming a nuisance. Criminal damage and shoplifting can ensue.

We have bred a society of young people who lack the will to work. They are content to live off benefits and grants. It should be made a first prerequisite that all those unemployed people who are on benefits and grants should have to “earn” them. Nobody should be able to spend weeks lounging around living off the handouts of the state.

LIBERAL MINDEDNESS BY CERTAIN MEMBERS OF SOCIETY & THE OVER EMPHASIS ON THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

How often do the best intentioned people cause problems by their tunnel vision and liberal mindedness? How many problems are caused by children who if checked will turn round and in no uncertain terms trot out their “rights.” Isn’t it time that these little monsters were taught that with “rights” come responsibilities?

LACK OF SUITABLE PUNISHMENT

Raise a finger to a disobedient child and you are likely to find yourself carted off to the nearest police station and charged with some offence or other that has come on to the statute books because of some liberal minded individuals.

Try the same thing with a teenager and if you are lucky enough not to get stabbed, you can expect to be at least charged with assault. What has happened to the rights of the responsible adults in our society???

BROKEN HOMES/SINGLE PARENTS

At long last I am beginning to see the rumblings of people who genuinely believe (and will state publicly) that children brought up in one parent families or broken homes are far more likely to become problem children, and eventually problem parents.

I am an organist, and play for something like 30 – 40 weddings each year. Regularly 5 or 6 of these weddings do not take place because the couples have “fallen out” between fixing up their wedding date and the actual wedding itself. It is better for this to happen, than for children to be involved and then a marriage break up.

LACK OF PARENTAL SKILLS/DISCIPLINE IN THE HOME/MORAL FIBRE.

So many children today are brought up in a home where parental skills are sadly lacking. To give you just a simple example, I know of children arriving at school who have not been taught to use a knife and fork when eating. These self same children lack social skills – the ability to share with others is often lacking.

Discipline in the home is often a case of sit down! - shut up! No explanation of the whys and wherefores. No teaching of right and wrong.

Is there any wonder we are breeding such a race of ill mannered, violent and rebellious children and young persons?

Just as an example of how far the average law abiding citizen has been placed at a disadvantage when facing an intruder, you may wish to read the following, which I came across on the BBC Internet news this evening

TV presenter Myleene Klass has said she has "no regrets" after being warned by police for waving a knife at youths who entered her back garden.
The former pop star was in the kitchen when she spotted the teenagers and grabbed a knife and banged the windows in an effort to get them to leave.
She says Hertfordshire Police officers told her that brandishing an "offensive weapon" was illegal.

But a police spokeswoman said that "at no point" were any warnings given.

The 31-year-old was at her Potters Bar home on Friday with her daughter upstairs when she spotted the youths peering into the house.

Klass said: "It was a scary incident but I've got no regrets as to how I reacted. I think I did what any other mother would do.
"This is my house and that's my daughter up there and I will do anything to protect my daughter and my family. That's what I did."

The star was speaking at the launch of new ITV1 series Popstar To Operastar - which features former chart stars as they try to make it as classical singers.

Klass's spokesman, Jonathan Shalit, told the Sunday Telegraph the singer had been "utterly terrified" and was stepping up security at her home.
"Myleene was aghast when she was told that the law did not allow her to defend herself at home," he said.
"All she did was scream loudly and wave the knife to try and frighten them off.
"She is not looking to be a vigilante, and has the utmost respect for the law, but when the police explained to her that even if you're at home alone and you have an intruder, you are not allowed to protect yourself, she was bemused."

But a statement from Hertfordshire police said: "Officers spoke to reassure the home owner, talked through security and gave advice in relation to the importance of reporting suspicious activity immediately to allow officers to act appropriately."
It added: "For clarification, at no point were any official warnings or words of advice given to the home owner in relation to the use of a knife or offensive weapon in their home."

Mr Shalit could not immediately be reached for further comment.

Klass's fiance Graham Quinn was away on business at the time of the scare, but the couple's daughter was upstairs at the time the intruders were spotted.

Law and Disorder Where Our Younger Generation is Concerned

I’ve just been reading the Yorkshire Post and the headline splashed across the front page is “The Lawless Generation”.

In the Yorkshire/Humberside region alone 3,400 crimes were committed in 2008 by serial young offenders, including 1,581 crimes committed in Yorkshire alone. (A persistent young offender is defined by the Government as a young person aged 10 to 17 guilty of an offence on three or more separate occasions)

Just to give you a few stark figures, have a look at the tables below:



Number of persistent young offenders/Number of offences committed
Humberside 365 / 669
North Yorkshire 250 / 492
South Yorkshire 388 / 688
West Yorkshire 875 / 1,581

If in the region of Yorkshire/Humberside there are 1,800 repeat persistent young offenders surely this tells us that there is something drastically wrong with our penal system. It is simply not working for young offenders.


First Time Offenders 2008 - 2009

Leeds 1,186
Sheffield 860
North Yorkshire 785
Bradford 720
Kirklees 584
Doncaster 541
Wakefield 532
Hull 514
East Riding 492
Barnsley 471
Rotherham 394
York 292
North East Lincolnshire 266
Calderdale 262
North Lincolnshire 248



There were 8,147 first time offenders in our region according to the latest available figures (for 2008 – 2009). This begs the question why?


Some of the reasons cited for these shocking figures include broken homes, an over emphasis on children’s rights, a decline in moral standards, and a raft of Government initiatives which have completely failed to tackle the problems.


Pre Teen Crime 1997 – 2007

Number of defendants aged 10 – 17 convicted of each type of crime between 1997 & 2007


1997 / 2007 % change
Drug Offences 2 / 22 Up 1000%
Criminal Damage 101 / 226 Up 124%
Robbery 68 / 141 Up 107%
Violence against the person 73 / 142 Up 95%
Motoring Offences 39 / 66 Up 69%
Sexual Offences 16 / 26 Up 63%

Over a ten year period it is obvious that the number of crimes committed by 10 – 17 years olds has grown at a frightening rate. The two main areas for concern are crimes involving drugs which have grown by a horrifying 1000% and crimes involving violence – up by 95% - and remember these are crimes committed by young people between the ages of 10 – 17.


Assaults in Schools 2006 - 2009

Permanent Exclusion / Fixed Term Exclusion
Bradford 31 / 2,291
East Riding 17 / 2,096
Hull 72 / 1,551
Kirklees 58 / 2,438
Leeds 75 / 3,981
North Yorks 64 / 2,489
Rotherham 27 / 2,203
Sheffield 43 / 301
Wakefield 52 / 2,142
York 17 / 837


In the last three years it has been deemed necessary to permanently exclude 417 children from school, and to give fixed term exclusions to 23,329 children. What is the matter with our children today? Why are they rebelling against authority?

Sometime ago I was compiling a blog and I quoted from Keith Halliwell, known as Robocop for his no nonsense attitude to criminals and offenders, and he commented on the lines that this country was heading for a breakdown in law and order. I fear that as far as our younger generation (not all of them!) are concerned we have reached that stage already.

Winter Weather

The cold and snowy weather continues to assail us, but what else should we be expecting at this time of year, after all we are in the season of winter!

We ought to be grateful to all those people who have to struggle through the inclement weather. People like the gritter lorry drivers, who are probably the first people out on the snow and ice covered roads, the post man, who delivers the mail each day, the milkman, who always manages to get our milk on the doorstep before breakfast time, the paper girls/boys who push the papers through our letter boxes and the men and women who serve in the emergency services.

The ambulance drivers and crew must have a heavy demand on their services at this time of year, when there is ice and snow lying underfoot. It’s not only the drivers involved in accidents, but also the pedestrians who slip and fall who require their services.

Then there are the lorry drivers, bus drivers, the bin men and a host of other people, who we tend to take for granted.

It’s at times like this that we begin to appreciate the services of those we often take for granted.

Pity the poor old birds!

A Romp Up The Fields

Hi there all my good friends – It’s Ruby here again!

Me in the snow at the top of the field

Yesterday I went round into the fields with “him who feeds me” and you’ll never guess what I came across – nothing less than a six foot high snow cat! I really thought I was seeing things, and then I saw two men and a little boy and they had made the cat. They were taking pictures of the little boy sitting between the snow cats paws, and I managed to get on the odd shot too!

We had a phone call from Hannah, and she told us that I feature on a photo of the snow cat on Facebook! Wow! Fame at last!

This morning I’ve been out in the snow and we went right up the field and on our usual walk. I enjoyed romping and rolling in the snow and came back home with more snow on the end of my nose than the local snow plough. It was quite deep up the field and when I was sniffing in the snow my eyes disappeared into the snow!

The snow cat was still there this morning.




I'm now on the lookout for someone to take me sledging

Twelfth Night - Nothing To Do With Shakespeare!

I wonder how many people on your road have already taken their Christmas decorations down.

Many people seem to celebrate Christmas & Boxing Day, then any time after this the decorations are taken down, packed in boxes, put back into the loft and stowed away again until next year! This is rather sad, because they are missing a large part of the Christmas celebrations.

Twelfth Day is the last day of Christmas, so the season of Christmas doesn’t officially end until Twelfth Night, which is the sixth of January (Twelve days after Christmas).

Those of you who can remember the Christmas story will recall that the Wise Men set off from the east to follow a star, and as they didn’t have Sat Nav they had to make do with Star Nav, which is a bit less accurate! Due to this, and not knowing exactly where they were heading they had to stop off and make enquiries, and quite reasonably they thought the best place to look for a King would be in a palace, so they tried the one where King Herod lived.

King Herod had not had an heir born and had to ask his own astrologers, and they put their heads together and consulted their star tables (or scrolls) and came up with the answer that the most likely place to look for this new born King would be Bethlehem, so the Wise Men travelled on still following the star, until it came to rest over a stable at the back of an inn, and there they found the new born baby lying in a manger.

Twelfth Night is the end of the season of Christmas, and the start of the season of the Epiphany – when we remember the Wise Men arriving at the stable in Bethlehem.

The Twelve days of Christmas (sounds like a title of a song) used to all be a time of partying and celebration. There was feasting, singing, dancing, game playing and lots of other activities. There even used to be a Twelfth Night cake, but that has been superseded by Christmas cake nowadays

Twelfth Night Cake

Food and drink is the centre of the celebrations in modern times, and all of the most traditional ones go back many centuries. The punch called wassail is consumed especially on Twelfth Night, but throughout Christmas time, especially in the UK.

Around the world, special pastries, such as the tortell and king cake are baked on Twelfth Night, and eaten the following day for the Feast of the Epiphany celebrations.

In English and French custom, the Twelfth Night Cake was baked to contain a bean and a pea, so that those who received the slices containing them should be designated king and queen of the night's festivities.

In colonial America, a Christmas wreath was always left up on the front door of each home, and when taken down at the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, any edible portions would be consumed with the other foods of the feast. The same held true in the 1800s - 1900s with fruits adorning Christmas trees. Fresh fruits were hard to come by, and were therefore considered fine and proper gifts and decorations for the tree, wreaths, and home. Again, the tree would be taken down on Twelfth Night, and such fruits, along with nuts and other local produce used, would then be consumed.

In the eastern Alps, a tradition called Berchtenlaufen exists. Two to three hundred masked young men rush about the streets with whips and bells driving out evil spirits. In Nuremberg until 1616, children frightened spirits away by running through the streets and knocking loudly at doors.

In some countries, and in the Catholic religion worldwide, the Twelfth Night and Epiphany marks the start of the Carnival season, which lasts all the way through to Mardi Gras Day.

Snowy Scenes In And Around Cottingley

When I took Dot to work this morning I remembered to put my camera in my pocket. Some of the results are below. The trees are in the grounds of Cottingley Hall.

Cottingley Hall



The approach to Cottingley (B 6144)

The corner of Beckfield Road

In our garden - What a Hair Style!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - And It Did!

Yesterday the local weather forecast for the Bradford area was a heavy snowfall, due to commence about 06.00, and, amazingly, for once, they just about got it right!

I was awakened by Ruby barking at about 07.30 (I think it was probably the milkman delivering the milk!) so I had a peep out of the curtains. Sure enough we had had a fall of about 4 inches of snow. As it was more or less undisturbed I decided I would take a few photos (from the relative warmth of our bedroom!)

07.30 This Morning


07.30 This Morning

Snow on the telephone wires

The Back Garden

Front Garden

08.45 This Morning

08.45 This Morning

View up the Fields 08.45

It’s quite amazing how once the snow has fallen; everything seems to be shrouded in silence. It’s probably just that the snow absorbs a lot of the ambient sound, but the fall of the snow and the silence brings with it a wonderful soporific feeling.

I presume that the local school was closed this morning as I didn’t see (or hear) any schoolchildren, which I usually do from about 07.45 onwards.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Forecasters say there will be no let up in the wintry weather affecting the UK, with more snow and sub-zero temperatures likely in the coming week.

Met Office warnings are in place for widespread ice across many regions.

More snow is also set to spread across the UK and BBC forecaster Peter Gibbs said few, if any, areas would escape.

He also said he could see no end to the freezing conditions for at least a week.

"It's going to stay cold and perhaps get even colder in parts," he said. "There probably won't be many places that don't see some snow by the end of the week"

At the moment, the whole of northern Britain is really plastered in snow and temperatures fell to -12C overnight in the Highlands, -11C in parts of Wales.

"It's also going to be extremely icy on Tuesday morning for many of us, so really very difficult conditions for drivers and the authorities to cope with."

He added: "We can see no let up. By the weekend we're going to start seeing a very cold easterly wind feeding in direct from Siberia."

Met Office advisory warnings of possible heavy snow are in place for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in northern and eastern England and Scotland.

The Petty Squabbling Begins

We are only into day four of the New Year, and already the Conservative and Labour parties are starting to square up to each other. It just seems rather petty that, as usual, the slanging matches and innuendo will grow as we get nearer to the General Election.

According to a speech by Chancellor Alistair Darling the Tories have made over £45bn of promises, but can barely explain how they can pay for a quarter of this. This leaves them with a credibility gap of £34bn.




"These are not long forgotten promises from another time. All have been confirmed in the last two years. Most have been repeated in the last few months.

"You can't fight an election on a nod and a wink; sometimes claiming you are committed to these promises, and when challenged claiming you are not."

Mr Cameron said this was "junk", and that Mr Darling's comments were not based on actual promises made by his party.

Wouldn’t it just be wonderful if these people got around a table and tried to solve the many problems their parties have created?

The Secret Garden

Today Nana has taken Olivia, Mollie and Tom to see the stage version of The Secret Garden which is being performed in the Quarry Theatre at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (Leeds)

The Secret Garden was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett.



The story of the Secret Garden:

Mary Lennox is a sickly, sour-faced little girl born in India to wealthy British parents who have very little interest in her, leaving her in the care of an ayah from birth. Orphaned by an outbreak of cholera, she is sent back to England to the legal guardianship of her only remaining relative: her uncle, Archibald Craven, a reclusive widower.

Craven is still mourning his wife, Lilias, who died ten years earlier. To escape his sad memories, he constantly travels abroad, leaving Mary and the manor under the supervision of his housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock. The only person who has any time for the little girl is the chambermaid Martha Sowerby, who tells Mary about a walled garden that was the late Mrs. Craven's favorite place. No one has entered the garden since she died because Archibald locked its entrance and buried the key in an unknown location.

Mary finds the key to the secret garden and a robin shows her where the door is hidden beneath overgrown ivy. Once inside, she discovers that although the roses seem lifeless, some of the other flowers have survived. She resolves to tend the garden herself. Although she wants to keep it a secret, she recruits Martha's brother Dickon, who has a way with plants and wild animals. Mary gives him money to buy gardening implements and he shows her that the roses, though neglected, are not dead.

When Mary's uncle briefly meets with her for the first time since her arrival, Mary asks him for permission to claim her own garden from any abandoned part of the grounds, and he acquiesces. Thanks to her new-found interests and activities, Mary herself begins to blossom, losing her sickly look and unpleasant manner.

On several occasions, Mary hears someone weeping in another part of the house. When she asks questions, the servants become evasive. They tell her that she is hearing things, or they blame the sound on ordinary sources such as the wind, or a servant with a toothache.

Shortly after her uncle's visit, she goes exploring and discovers her uncle's son, Colin, a lonely, bedridden boy as petulant and disagreeable as Mary used to be. His father shuns him because the child closely resembles his mother. Mr. Craven is a mild hunchback, and both he and Colin are morbidly convinced that the boy will develop the same condition. The servants have been keeping Mary and Colin a secret from one another because Colin doesn't like strangers staring at him and is prone to terrible tantrums.

Colin accepts Mary and insists on her visiting him often, but as spring approaches, Colin becomes jealous that Mary is spending more time out in the garden with Dickon. One day, Colin threatens to ban Dickon from the grounds, but Mary matches his bad temper and storms out without an apology. That evening, Colin escalates into a hysterical tantrum, convinced that he is becoming hunchbacked and is going to die; Mary shocks him out of his hysteria by screaming back at him. She also demands to see his back, and points out that the lumps behind his neck are simply the outlines of normal vertebrae like her own. Reassured, Colin agrees to let her bring Dickon to visit him inside his room, and they become friends.

They bring Colin outside in a wheelchair so he can see his mother's garden. Delighted, he visits it with Mary and Dickon whenever the weather allows, ordering everyone else to stay away on those occasions. Despite these orders, the children are discovered by the old gardener Ben Weatherstaff, who tried to maintain the roses after Lilias' death by surreptitiously scaling the wall once or twice a year. Ben is angry with them at first, but agrees to share and keep their secret.

As the garden revives and flourishes, so does Colin. He resolves to walk and run like a normal boy by the next time his father returns home; to accomplish these aims, he carries out a program of simple physical exercises and positive thinking. He makes great progress, but they conceal it from the rest of the household with the pretense that he is still an invalid.

Mr. Craven is traveling through Europe, but is inspired to rush home after hearing the voice of his dead wife in a dream and receiving a letter from Mrs. Sowerby (Martha's and Dickon's mother, who also knows the secret) telling him, "I think your lady would ask you to come if she was here."

He arrives while the children are outdoors and finds himself drawn toward the secret garden. As he approaches nearer, he is astonished to hear their voices inside the walls; Colin bursts out of the garden door toward him, actually winning a footrace against Mary and Dickon. They take Mr. Craven into the secret garden to tell him everything. When they return to the house, the servants are astonished to see two miracles: Colin walking and his father looking happy again.




A real "feelgood" story for Christmastime!

Welcome 2010

Well here we all are in 2010.

I wonder how many of you have made New Year Resolutions, and more to the point how many of you have already broken them!

I haven't made any New Year Resolutions myself - so there is little chance of me breaking any! I have, however, decided to be a bit more organised right from the word "go!" and spent most of this morning sorting out all the dates to go in the 2010 diary and desk diary and also put them on the computer calendar.

It's amazing how much needs to go into the diaries and on to the computer. I've already entered 32 wedding details which have been booked for 2010, into the two diaries and on to the computer. The details include date and time of the wedding. Names of the couple who are to be married. Telephone contact numbers. The vicar officiating (important, as I can have any one of six different vicars to take a wedding due to the fact that All Saints is the head of the Bingley cluster and they are

The Revd Gary Hodgson
The Revd Helen Hodgson based at St Michael & All Angels, Cottingley

The Revd Derek Jackson
The Revd Joan Jackson based at All Saints Bingley and also attached to St Lawrence Eldwick

The Revd Andrew Clark based at Holy Trinity Bingley and also attached to St Wilfrid's Gilstead and St Aidan's Crossflats, and

The Revd Chris Low (living in Eldwick) with responsibility for mission and outreach within the cluster.

More weddings will doubtless appear during the course of 2010, and there will be the regular addition of funerals too.

Plus talks on "My Kind of Music", booked for April, July and December, as well as all the regular events:

Eldwick & Gilstead Male Voice Choir Practices (concert already booked for December!)
Piano playing at Crossflatts Primary School
Day Voluntary at Skipton Tourist Information Centre
Church Choir Practices


I've printed off four copies of the years wedding bookings, so there is a copy in my office, a copy in my music briefcase, a copy on the organ and a copy in the back of the kitchen desk diary!

I've also removed all the old diaries and calendars, printed off a list of all the hymns copied for weddings during 2009 - a list of these has to be submitted to the CCL (Church Copyright Licencing Authorities) each year, cleared our home noticeboards of last years debris, and emptied out all the Christmas present wrapping paper etc. into the bins for recycling. I've just about finished cataloguing all the DVD's and CD's and books I've got over the Christmas period, and by tomorrow everything should be shipshape and "Bristol Fashion"

I can now find the computer keybord without having to move piles of correspondence!

Who knows? By tomorrow I may be able to swing the proverbial cat around the office!