Bird's Eye view

I finished off the polishing of the eagle today, the brass lectern in Holy Trinity church being one of my obsessions when it comes to cleaning. As the rain battered down on the roof, I tried not to breathe on the newly-gleaming brass, grovelled on the floor to shine the feet, not of the eagle but of the entire edifice (see extra photo - they have toenails!)

The view is what I see when I stand at the lectern - short-arses like me don't exactly look the congregation in the collective eye when it comes to reading. But suggestions that it could be cut down to size leave me cold - almost as cold as the brass which freezes the hands if you hold on to steady yourself during a long passage. 

I think of the eagle as Clarence. Don't ask me why.