Corpus christi 2011: Stow Minster.

The sculpted front garden. (Not my miserable laburnum in the background)

Home alone for a night! Midsummer! This can only mean one thing, and that's - clear the kitchen for dancing! Haven't flailed for ages, could I still do it? Best to have a go unobserved. So that meant trying 'On the Way to Bethlehem (Music of the Mediaeval Pilgrim)' http://www.amazon.com/Way-Bethlehem-Music-Medieval-Pilgrim/dp/B00000144X. Golly, those pilgrims, if they sang or danced to any of this, must have had a good time. Probably most of them slogged along in painful contemplative silence, but if you were lucky enough to be a member of a party with a band... this kind of music makes sense when you've been on a trudging pilgrimage over many miles, as some of the pieces last for about 15 minutes; but sadly now I have to make do with the kitchen floor and not the whole of N Spain from E to W. I'm the kind of person who can really get into repetitive music too, not always deliberately; I have to mow the grass for an hour and a half, and that sets off the Monty Python song 'Eric the half a bee' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_-vxAFcQIU in my head (click on this link at your peril) for the whole hour and a half. That's because I'm regretting with every step the fact that the bees on the clover... well.... I do try to avoid them, but I think that lawnmowers ought to have a kind of horn on them only audible to bees. But out in the sculpted front garden, I'm pleased to say that the ladyblackbird who formerly lived in a block of flats and came home to a bungalow seems to be doing fine, and I have apologised to her and promised to try to help her feed the babies when they start to appear.

But where was I? Ah yes, thinking it was Corpus Christi last night, and that a year ago I was sitting in a sunny garden in S France with my pilgrim feet in a bucket of warm water as we didn't have the energy to drive to Poitiers as planned. But last night we went off to Stow Minster to celebrate the festival with solemnity at the invitation of the Lincoln branch of the Society of Catholic Priests http://www.scp.org.uk/work/chapters.html. This is an Anglican organisation which tries to preserve and develop catholic spirituality and practices, while being wholly behind the ordination of women to the priesthood. I am a little concerned that loose-fitting clergy garments are not as loose-fitting as they used to be; it being the 'big society' (or am I thinking of the nanny state?) I see there are now public warnings out. Of course, I couldn't be expected not to wear a hat, and despite all the men in long black dresses, it was my funny headdress that provoked questions in the pub afterwards by curious onlookers, and so I had to explain its liturgical significance: a) I'm a clergywife who takes her duties in this respect seriously b) Rose petals are traditional for Corpus Christi, often scattered along the route of the procession (though most of mine stayed on my head; from a lovely climbing rose called 'Fairy'). I mean, what is it about church these days that brings out a rash of anoraks in people who certainly do have other clothes to wear? Why wear a navy blue anorak when you can carry a pink brolly? And anyway, t'owd man was wearing his lace alb, so I had competition. He wins on hair though, and ringlets really do suit him. He did all the catholic bodily things, and yet managed to come home with his alb still clean, which is an achievement for someone who aged 9 months always ended up in the coal bucket so I'm told. He didn't splosh through that puddle either. Nothing at all happened to remind me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7wc55oXWf8

But I must away to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to be learning how to do collagraph printing  http://www.artistterms.com/collagraph.htm  at the Ropewalk http://www.the-ropewalk.co.uk/
I might take the paper camino for inspiration for subject matter. My plans for the cloth camino are really coming on too, and as soon as I can afford the time and the money, I'll be off......

It's late, and really I need to be up early every day getting myself to a condition I call 'camino-ready', even if I can't go till 2013.