Wild church

 Today we had our Wild Church meeting, thinking about the spring equinox, about (as our group leader put it) "facing what is new in our lives".

I was interested in that, because often what is new is regarded as exciting and refreshing. Having it worded as "facing what is new" brought out the other aspect of newness, that it can be daunting. Anything unfamiliar presents a challenge.

We had some new people in the group too, including a young baby — so everything in the whole world was new to her!

And the sun shone. We thought it would be cold, and wore our hats and took blankets to wrap round us, but no — it was actually warm.

This was our circle, the photo taken during the bit of the meeting where we all wander off for a contemplative peregrination to absorb the beauty of the natural world.

We were by the ruins of the old 12th century St Helens Church (there's a newer Victorian version not far away from it). Some parts of it even go back to the 11th century.

If you stand further back from where our chairs were, it looks like this.

There's also a spring nearby it. I know about the spring, but I have never looked for it to see it myself. Here it is — pictures from someone who has been there.

Now I know how to get to the site of the old church (before, I knew only roughly where it is), I'll go back one day when I'm feeling sprightly, and look for the spring. It has all the hallmarks of a holy well, don't you think? Anyway, all springs are holy.

So that was a good day.

My new story is very nearly ready. We've had the proofs and read them, and sent back the corrections to Jonathan. As soon as he's amended the formatted text, Tony will upload it to Amazon and — voilà! — it'll be good to go. If Jonathan's not busy on other things, tat should be in a week or so. I'll let you know.

Meanwhile I'm about halfway through writing what will be the very last one of the Hawk and Dove books. What a long and happy journey that's been.