Much of the Broad Marston Manor land has been sold off for building, but there are still a couple of fields out the back, with hedgerows. Hedgerows of course mean blackberries, and also elderberries and damsons. Stretching for damsons in the midst of brambles proved to be a hazardous experience; as ever, I was a magnet for prickles.
I'm not sure how we got onto the subject of the date of the feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, as we sat outside the back of the house drinking small beer. My understanding is that it is deliberately set at the other end of the year from Christmas. Jesus's birth was the light coming into the world, so Christmas was set just after midwinter, as the days start to get longer. John is given 24 June, just after midsummer, as the days start to get shorter, to symbolise his saying: "He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30; NRSV). So the seasons appear in the liturgy in sometimes small, unnoticed ways.
Philip, Thomas and Ian went into Evesham to buy a video camera, so the training in using the renewable technology at Mucknell can be recorded, and referred to in our hours of need!
Between September 2010 and September 2011, I lived alongside an Anglican Benedictine community of monks and nuns. In November 2010, we moved from Broad Marston Manor near Evesham to Mucknell Abbey, a new eco-monastery near Worcester. This blog was about things that I observed and things that interested me. I have now stopped writing it. Thank you to all who were also interested.
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