http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/A bird's eye view of day-to-day life an a rural Anglican rectory. Meet the villagers. Hear the gossip. Share in the complaints.Be the fly on the wall. Glossary................................................... Benefice - a group of churches, ususally in rural areas, working together. .... Churchwarden - person with main responsibility for running of church. .... ... ... PCC - Parochial Church Council - ruling body of elected members working with the Churchwarden to ensure the upkeep of the building and decide on the worship........... Mardle - a Norfolk word for chat or conversation. hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/698255Yes, my time at Blogit has come to an end. I'm bowing out - sadly, because I feel I've made so many friends here over the past few years - but I now find myself so busy online that something has to give. I want to say a big THANK YOU to all my Blogit friends for making Blogit such a good site and...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/697823We've had an exciting time. Ed and I motored down to Cranfield University at the Defence Academy, Watchfield (just outside Swindon), to share in our youngest daughter's PhD graduation ceremony. That was exciting, but even more so, the Princess Royal was awarded an honorary degree at the same...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/697558Is it only after you've retired that you spend so much time waiting around? I find myself waiting for tradesmen - plumbers and electricians and the like - waiting for phone calls - people who promise to call at a specific time but never do - and for the last three days, waiting for the rector to...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/697232It's been a chequered week of alternate days of pouring rain and bright sunshine. Unfortunately one of the pouring rain days was yesterday so I didn't get my weekly golf, but today is glorious sunshine so I've already made the most of it and while Ed was watching The Open (golf) on television,...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/696871Actually, we've been back a week, but visitors descended as we arrived home and stayed for this past week. It was lovely seeing them again and we had a good time together. These visitors were very interesting. They have a caravan, and this last winter they took it to the south of Spain where they...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/695932Not for me, you understand. I might play a few games of golf, but I won't be out there every day hacking at a ball - any ball! However, you could be forgiven for thinking that the UK is sports mad, especially in summer. At the moment we're thick into Wimbledon, and at the time of writing, we...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/695698Yes, Don died on Sunday morning, but again, I'm so glad I got to see him one last time. I'm sure we shall miss his funeral as we're off to Wales on Saturday and it's almost sure to be next week, but Joan's funeral isn't until July 8th, when we shall be back. On a brighter note, we had some old...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/695174There are many sadnesses involved in the life of a priest, but when I retired I thought that would be the end of them. Yes, OK, definitely wishful thinking, and perhaps I knew that deep down inside. On Saturday I was invited back to one of my previous parishes to baptise the great grandson of the...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/694898Just back from a great week with our youngest daughter in Belgium. She works at the university in Leuven, so Ed and I hopped over via Eurostar, which was such a good experience. We took a bus from home to Norwich train station (free), a train from Norwich to Liverpool Street in London (vastly...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/rockingrector/694202Ed played golf today while I stayed at home and minded the house (aaahhh) so he was under strict instructions to find out about the swan. Apparently all the eggs have hatched, although I'm not sure how they know that since no one has seen the cygnets. The cob is still hugely aggressive, and the...