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It’s turned out that June has been a busy month! On Friday night we had the youth group quiz night, which turned out to be incredibly popular. The idea was to get some of the parents of our youth group members involved, so we had a quiz night with all invited. It was incredibly popular (about 11 tables of participants) and in general a great success, so I think we will be doing another one sometime in the not too distant future! (Distant enough for us to be at college by that time but still.)

Anyway. On Saturday we spent the day doing various bits and pieces including going shopping and mowing the lawn (while dodging rain showers). I also picked up our new car, which is exciting! – although I will write more about the new car in a separate post so I won’t say any more now.

In the evening we headed round to Tim and Katie’s for our second meal there in the space of a week! AJ and Jen came too, and the six of us had a really good evening together.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then came back for lunch. Then just chilled in the afternoon, and went to Sunday@6, then came back again and did some ironing! OK, so this weekend wasn’t massively busy, but next weekend will be: it’s the 21 weekend away! We’re going to deepest, darkest Essex for the weekend, and I’m slightly dreading it. I’ve booked the Monday off afterwards to recover, but even so it’s not a prospect which I relish. Still, I’m sure it will be good fun when we get there!

Phil and I have been watching through “The Office” again, for the first time in a few years. One thing I’ve noticed this time round which I don’t think really struck me so much at the time was just how bleak and depressing they make it: the people who work there really do seem to have very little in their lives, and to be a pretty joyless bunch. I think I’m also slightly more sympathetic to David Brent: although he does do some pretty terrible things, I think a lot of it is because he’s playing up to the cameras. He has a narcissistic streak which probably wouldn’t come across so much if it wasn’t for the cameras being on him.

Anyway, just random thoughts!

Day 299: The Creed

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment today: "As you’re out and about today, find a list and make a photo."

Well this was taken at home but the idea comes from being out at church this morning: every Sunday we say the creed together. This is the old language version of the Nicene Creed.

I thought, basically a creed is a list of things that the Christian Church has believed through the centuries, even if it’s not exactly a bullet point list!

Day 298: Pulmonaria

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Make a close-up photograph of something". Well this is pretty close-up! Taken in a bit of a hurry again today but I don’t think it came out too badly.

I apologise for every other shot recently being one taken in our garden, but I do think this time of year is good for garden type photos!

Day 297: Tipp-Ex Shadow

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Make a photograph that features a shadow as your subject today."

I took this photo in a bit of a rush but I actually think it came out quite well. I just like the mundaneness of the object and its shadow, it’s emphasised for no apparent reason.

Day 296: Tomato

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

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Daily Shoot assignment: "The color of the day is orange. Make a photograph that is full of orange today."

Well I must admit, the fence in this photo looks a lot more orange in real life than it does in this photo… I’m afraid it’s come out sort of a browny-red! But rest assured that if you came to see it it would, in fact, look orange 😉

Day 295: Crops

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

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A close-up of some crops growing in a nearby field.

I’ve been lax with updating once again! But just for the record, here’s a brief precis of the past few days: Friday – 21 in the evening. I was doing the talk, and to be honest it didn’t go well. The kids were being very loud and generally noisy the whole time, this was one of the few times I’ve really had to raise my voice. It’s just because all the year sixes have come up, which does affect the maturity of the group. Sadly, at that kind of age the maturity between the oldest and the youngest members is very visible. Afterwards we popped round to AJ and Jen’s for a quick drink.

Anyway. On Saturday we had a fairly quiet day doing various things that needed to be done i.e. shopping, mowing the lawn etc. We did have a nice lunch at Tim and Katie’s though – they are friends from church and had a few members of our home group round for lunch. When we got back from that we did some gardening, and then realised it was so late we just about had time for dinner and not much else! But that was a nice day.

On Sunday we had church in the morning, and then went to the Shoulder of Mutton (Aldham) for lunch with AJ and Jen. We all had the carvery except for Phil who had the fish and chips – all very nice! Afterwards we headed straight back to the church for a baptism service. Four members of the youth group were being baptised, all of them members (or former members) of 21, the group we help out with. It was lovely to see! I was playing piano, and it struck me after the service that it was probably the biggest number of people I’ve ever led / played for (there were apparently over 100 people there). But that all seemed to go well. After that we headed back home and watched “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, which is a very good (Swedish) thriller. I was pleasantly surprised actually – although it was an 18 rating the film wasn’t gory, it was more intelligent and thought-provoking than I had imagined.

So that pretty much sums up our weekend really. The only other thing to mention is that things have stalled a little bit with our move next year – in terms of waiting to hear back from people. Hopefully that will pick up again soon but it’s a bit worrying. Still, c’est la vie. I’m sure God will help us get it all sorted soon! The other thing is, we are semi-officially looking for a car. I say “semi-officially” because by that I mean, we’re not devoting lots of effort to it but if one was to come our way we might go for it. I think we need something which is a bit more efficient and less costly to run next year (the Saab is a lovely car but is a bit expensively, sadly).

Right, that’s all for now.

Day 294: Fencepost

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Make a photograph from a high point of view."

Well this isn’t high exactly but it’s a top view of a fence post. I think it turned out well, even if it’s not exactly a mountaintop!

Day 293: Pink Flower

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Make another beautiful shot today, but pick a subject that’s completely different than yesterday’s"

Well this is a different subject! I don’t know what kind of flower it is but I happened to see it at lunchtime.

Day 292: Pool

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Today’s Daily Shoot is just to "make a beautiful photograph" and not to over-think it. Well I tried to do that but just taking a photo of what was to hand, and I think it came out well.

At church today we had a baptism by immersion, and because we don’t have a baptistry we got a collapsible pool in to do the job. It seemed to work pretty well although it was unfortunately quite cold for those being baptised!