Camel music day ...

The celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, which was held today in our little church rather than on the day itself, is always one of my favourites, even though we no longer seem to have incense - perhaps that was only when it was kept on the day if it was a weekday evening (think people with allergies, other complaints ...) I love the symbolism of the story, the connection in my head with Eliot's poem, the sense of the lofty heights of heaven bearing the star over humanity. And in the last ten years or so, one of the things I look forward to, along with increasing numbers of the congregation, is Himself's outgoing voluntary. "The camel music!" is whispered in anticipation (really!) - and there it is, in all its camel-plodding magnificence, every year slightly different: an arrangement of "We Three Kings". Glorious. And somehow, the additional fact that this lovely service was conducted by our two Lay Readers pointed to the effectiveness of Epiphany (as well as underlying the riches we have in this relatively small congregation).

And that was the best of the day, really. The lunchtime sun once more gave way to clouds, drizzle and wind before we could go out, so that our exercise was a brisk duty walk round the West Bay area, and we were back doing different things like looking up good places to eat in Funchal and reading the local paper. That's where my extra today comes from - every week they look back at the archives and find a collection of items to share, and this week's was from the late 1800s. Miss Lorimer's song sounds ... interesting. (Heavens - I've found it: Throw out the Lifeline)

And does that provide a neat link to my little singers on the windowsill, which I haven't put away yet? They were a gift to our choir members from one of our singers and we got two because there are two of us - and I've given them a benign thingy to watch over them for now. I will put them away soon ...

And finally... I ended up fourth in the Diamond League in Duolingo this week! Now I'll need to take up the Challenge ... see what happens when I pay for it?