Yawn Yawn, Wakey Wakey...!!!! MK8...

It's raining fairly heavily today (funeral to go to this afternoon). Ham House is a palace and gardens in Richmond and owned by the National Trust.

Too late, I've ordered the dancing girls for later

 

Aloha everyone,

It rained steadily all yesterday morning but nowhere near enough for the garden.

At 6.30 this morning we had a very brief appearance from a rainbow . As it appeared and then started fading very quickly there was no time to get dressed so I frightened all the wildlife that were out there having breakfast



I'm not quite sure what the pigeon thought but he gave a loud squawk and flew away!

 

The funeral that I said I was going to yesterday was actually a memorial service. It was a fascinating celebration of someones life and took two and a half hours. The big church in the village was completely full as was the village hall which had the service relayed by video screens.

Although I had known him for many years (been on the village hall management committee together for 35 years) and knew a fair amount of what he did, I only knew part of it. He was very self-effacing and got on with things with a smile on his face.

He was the main organiser for getting the village hall built, for instigating the village festival to raise money for a swimming pool at the village hall (for use by villagers at the weekends), got the village dramatic society started (together with Christopher Timothy who lived in the village at the time), helped set up a theatre group in the nearest town that is an 'inclusive' group for people with and without disabilities and did many other local things.

As an engineer and an electrician that specialised in lighting production for theatres he did all the handyman repairs to the village hall and the stage lighting for the dramatic society. Although he had these abilities he didn't run a big company or make a lot of money. He worked in education instead. He was a Dean of the county university as well as the Open University and specialised in mentoring people who wanted to do stage production/lighting. He was also made a 'Freeman of the City' for his services to London.

Apart from the religious part of the service the rest was narrated and introduced by two of the producers and actors of the village dramatic society (the society won the national society of the year competition where they had to perform a play throughout the country). There were superb performances by the society (songs from the shows) and dancing by the 'inclusive group'.

Lots of short, and generally humerous, speeches made in person or by recordings. Christopher Timothy (played James Herriot in All Creatures Great And Small) gave a funny and touching speech saying that he had been greatly influenced by him as a friend and critic.

Ian Botham and a number of sports commentators gave video tributes (he was a cricket fanatic but hated football) and there were some lovely videoed speeches by his grandchildren. Many of the people that he mentored also gave speeches. The principals of the universities were also mentored by him and were there and spoke about him and there were a number of videos from his students who are now famous lighting technicians or stage producers all over the world.

A very lively and touching tribute to a family and village man who took an interest in everyone and everything and got on with the job in a quiet and loving way.

 

Good morning all hope you are all OK,have a lovely weekend and please stay safe

 

Hi Moyra my friend thank you and you look after yourself

 

Hi Folks,

I'm well but suffering a little bit from insect bites. It's an annual problem for me at this time of year. The bites all come up in blisters and I have 22 of them at the moment. Some hurt, others are very itchy and some don't bother me at all. The silly thing is that I don't get the problem when I go off to all the out of the way places, jungles, rain forests, deserts etc. It only accurs in the UK!