St Mary's Church, Badwell Ash

 Happy Thanksgiving to all US readers celebrating - hope you have a good day.  

This is the sign that I like to see when hoping to visit a church.

This village church sits by the road right in the centre of the village.

The first thing I noticed were these cards for sale, standing on a lovely carved chest

View down the nave is very like many other small churches, there is a south aisle

Another church that still has its bier used to carry the coffin from the church to the churchyard.

(There was a funeral over the road from my bungalow last week and the coffin was carried down the hill from the church to the burial ground gate in a tractor trailer. The man who had died was a very elderly man, once a village farmer and his grandsons still have old tractors)

The font dates from the C14

Beautiful decoration on the organ pipes

It's always interesting to see these old notices, to remind parishioners of their duty to the poor

The choir pews in the chancel have angels at each end

The Victorian stained glass east window over the altar

At each side of the altar are the commandments

The window over the small altar in the south aisle

The altar in the south aisle on the Saturday after Remembrance Sunday

Back Soon

Sue

Thanks and Following a Tree

 Thank you everyone for comments on the re-post  all about Christmas moaners back in 2013. Perhaps after the covid years when Christmas was turned upside down  plus being older and wiser we are all more laid back and don't get so stressed - or that might be just me!

I tell the family that the worst thing that could happen has already happened to me and even being told a few years ago that "there wasn't room for me" for Christmas day didn't  bother me !  (It wasn't one of the children who said this - they were disgusted - a lot more than I was!).

Anyway..............................................

I'd unintentionally picked the coldest morning to walk up the lane for November photos of the Oaks so didn't hang around long. It was before Storm Bert which took all the remaining leaves off many trees in the village.

The leaves that were left were now shades of brown

Without the leaves you can see how gnarly the old trunk is

Still some rosehips for colour in the hedges

Sugar beet is still to be harvested

The view over the village is my header for a couple of weeks until I find something Christmassy.

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Sue

November Re-posting #3 - A Rant Post From November 2013

Back in 2013 there were more people blogging  and some used their blog posts to go on and on about how they hated the commercialisation of Christmas. Here's what I wrote when I got fed up with all the carping!

 

Every year some people seem to  get themselves into a tizzy about the approach of Christmas. They are worrying about the commercialism, the never ending ads on TV. The over eating. The debt. But I can't see the point of getting all "het up" about it ( as we say in Suffolk).

You can preach all you like but there will always be some people who go completely OTT. This is the time that shops take the most money, so of course they are going to advertise. You don't HAVE to buy what they are trying to persuade you to spend on. 

However much money you give some people they would still spend it on things others consider unnecessary. However little money some other people have they will still spend it all and borrow more. 

You can be annoyed at the shops playing Christmas songs in November, but there's no point in raising your blood pressure over it. Just do your shopping and leave.
 You can be an all-the-year-round Christian or at only-at -Christmas-church visitor but you will be made welcome whoever you are. And if you are not - then find another church next year because if a church doesn't make a stranger feel welcome then they are not doing what they should be doing. You can be Pagan or Atheist as long as no one is hurt by your beliefs or non beliefs.

You can stay at home, read a good book, watch TV  or go to huge family parties, in the whole great scheme of things as long as you are not hurting anyone then it doesn't matter.
You can spend a fortune on presents, make them or buy them second-hand. If the recipient doesn't like it then it's their problem not yours.
CHILL
It's just Christmas, it happens every year. Enjoy it or not.
BUT DON'T GO ON AND ON ABOUT IT!

Thank goodness the world of blogging seems a much calmer place in 2024!

Back Soon

Sue