A SUPER SUNDAY!

We had a great service at Church this morning, starting with breakfast - and I fully intended to take some shots there, but we were very busy, so I didn’t have time!  The worship time was good and the sermon was very interesting - I’m going to look up more about how the Jewish laws in the Old Testament had an effect on the Jews of Jesus’ day.  

My main collage shows two beautiful Cotswold properties in Eastleach, built in the distinctive Cotswold stone, and then a shot of Mr. HCB wandering along the road, near The Barringtons, which is north west of Lechlade - with a BIG sky in the background.  

We were delighted to see that in most of the fields nearby there were “field margins” where, according to Mr. Google, “these margins act as a buffer between the crop, with its chemical applications, and the adjacent unsprayed habitat;  however, these field margins are under threat from agricultural intensification, as they take an area of land out of maximum production.”  

We saw many wild flowers, including Scabious, Greater Knapweed, Deadly Nightshade, Meadow Salsify, Blackberries, St. John’s Wort, Chicory and many others and of course, in the sunshine, these all looked really beautiful - see second extra collage - including one of the cows in the middle. 

The roads are very narrow with passing places;  it’s difficult to go fast - so we just meandered along and enjoyed the views as we drove.  We did get out and had a little wander, when I sang to some cows along the way -  let me know if you want to see the video!!  You can imagine that Mr. HCB just walked off, shaking his head - but they obviously enjoyed my singing, because at one time they were all at one end of the field, but came towards me as I sang “The Moo-ing Song” to them!  I know I’m quite mad, but then, as I told the cows, we are “The Silly Iles” - or should that be “I AM”, rather than “we are”?

All in all a wonderful afternoon made even better by seeing the sunshine today after all the rain yesterday and it was really warm. 

The extra shot shows the new “Mixer desk” at the Church, with the microphones, the camera/video and various bits and pieces and of course, the steps, without which the person videoing wouldn’t be able to get high enough above the congregation to take the video, so that the service can go out online.  We take these things so much for granted, so a BIG THANK YOU to all those in the Visual Team involved in doing this week by week.  

Hope you all have a great week - and that the sun shines on you wherever you are.  M xx