While saying the Divine Office in St Mary & St Giles this morning I realised that something was afoot. I was in the side chapel, but was aware of activity in the kitchen and cleaning starting in the Nave and Chancel. All being done very quietly so as not to disturb "Father."
But there was something else going on for it seemed that something was being prepared in the kitchen and so there was: tea and biscuits for our magnificent gardeners who maintain our church grounds. We are very fortunate to have a large number of volunteers from the Parish Family who have green fingers. Today's order of business was the removal of all the summer bedding plants and the digging of the borders. At the end of the day it all looked very bare and colourless compared to the riot of colour that we have had over the summer months, but in a few weeks the wallflowers and pansies will be planted to give a show of colour during the winter months.
I often remark that at St Mary & St Giles we have more colour outside the church than inside it, but just for the moment the reverse is true. The latest Archdeacon in Bucks remarked on the first visit to our parish that our gardens were "a very good witness" and so they are. But the other work that goes on outside at the moment is transforming the rest of the churchyard so as to realise part of our vision for the "Regeneration Project". As part of this project we have had major pruning works done to the trees and begun to clear the ground of debris. Later this year lighting will be placed along the path from the Lychgate to the Market Square and we hope, subsequently, to create and area for the burial of Cremated Remains with a beautiful Memorial for the names of those so buried to be inscribed upon. Seeding the south side of the churcyard to grass and the strategic placing of benches will finish the work and the transformed churcyard will, we hope, not only be safer to walk through at night, but also be a place of prayer and reflection.
This is a small, but important part of the "Regeneration Project" and I shall write about the other parts in due course.
But there was something else going on for it seemed that something was being prepared in the kitchen and so there was: tea and biscuits for our magnificent gardeners who maintain our church grounds. We are very fortunate to have a large number of volunteers from the Parish Family who have green fingers. Today's order of business was the removal of all the summer bedding plants and the digging of the borders. At the end of the day it all looked very bare and colourless compared to the riot of colour that we have had over the summer months, but in a few weeks the wallflowers and pansies will be planted to give a show of colour during the winter months.
I often remark that at St Mary & St Giles we have more colour outside the church than inside it, but just for the moment the reverse is true. The latest Archdeacon in Bucks remarked on the first visit to our parish that our gardens were "a very good witness" and so they are. But the other work that goes on outside at the moment is transforming the rest of the churchyard so as to realise part of our vision for the "Regeneration Project". As part of this project we have had major pruning works done to the trees and begun to clear the ground of debris. Later this year lighting will be placed along the path from the Lychgate to the Market Square and we hope, subsequently, to create and area for the burial of Cremated Remains with a beautiful Memorial for the names of those so buried to be inscribed upon. Seeding the south side of the churcyard to grass and the strategic placing of benches will finish the work and the transformed churcyard will, we hope, not only be safer to walk through at night, but also be a place of prayer and reflection.
This is a small, but important part of the "Regeneration Project" and I shall write about the other parts in due course.
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