The Swing

My third entry for the #IWD challenge is the women working in The Swing cafe. The Swing is the church cafe at Colinton Parish Church. I have a lifelong association with this church though I no longer attend it or indeed any other place of worship. In the past I’ve observed many rites of passage in or connected to Colinton Parish Church and today I was at The Swing to have coffee with the minister and thank him for his help over the past few months. I have fond memories of The Swing. For many years my mum was a volunteer in the kitchen and latterly a very regular visitor for coffee and to put the world to rights with her good friend M.

I have to say that the coffee and almond biscuits were really good. As I left the kitchen was getting into gear for the lunchtime rush. Thank you to the women of The Swing for agreeing to be blipped. I realise I’ve made it look as if women’s role is in the kitchen. Today it was definitely #WomenatWork in The Swing. But, although I don’t really have any right to comment on this, my observation of women in the Church of Scotland is that they do not play only domestic roles having served as elders and ministers for many decades. In any case, voluntary work; it makes the world go round.

The Swing is called after the R L Stevenson poem of the same name:

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Srevenson’s Grandfather was the minister at Colinton and Robert Louis stayed at the manse for holidays as a child.

Happy #IWD everyone.