For the last couple of seasons, I have attempted to grow tomatoes. I’ve been bought three plants from the Spring Church plant sale – carefully chosen by people who know what to look for in a healthy plant. We’ve bought the correct peat-free grow bag, selected an appropriately sunny location, cut the pack and planted…

When Julien Alfred won a gold medal in the 100m at this summer’s Olympic games it was an Olympic first. Many other athletes won gold medals, but she had not. Three other countries achieved their first gold this year, namely, Botswana, Dominica and Guatemala, and three other countries won their first medal of any colour,…

We’ve lost Jonah!  Has anyone seen him? Such was the plea from Seaton Road as we checked our Godly Play resources for a presentation. Oh well, we’ll have to improvise.  So, with a small wooden boat from a holiday in Norway, a plastic whale (with big mouth) from the children’s haul of animals, a shoe…

While many churches are blessed with talented musicians, there are a lot of smaller churches where a sole musician “does his or her best” especially when trying to cope with a vast array of modern hymns and songs. By contrast, our family was on holiday and visited a church for the Sunday morning service. As…

I must start this TFTD with an apology. I was recently attending a meeting that involved Methodists from outside the Ipswich Circuit on Zoom. A gentleman asked me how Bill the dog was – which surprised me somewhat as I had never met the guy before. It transpired that he had read the TFTD form…

Do you remember the days when certain colour combinations were outlawed by the guardians of dress sense? Men never wore pink. Black was never worn with brown. And there was a little rhyme that told us ‘Blue and Green should never be seen except with something in between’. An alternative ended with ‘… except when…

I recently saw this saying and I really like it. “A person’s most beautiful asset is not a head full of knowledge, but a heart full of love, an ear ready to listen and a hand willing to help others.” Each little part has a simple but worthwhile message. You don’t have to be very…

In the final episode of Freddie Flintoff’s ‘Field of Dreams’ series two, we watched as his young team played and lost to a more experienced team on a world class pitch in India before they travelled home. It has become apparent, as the programmes progressed that cricket itself became the medium by which these young…

You do not need me to tell you that green plants move in the direction of sunlight because they need the light to photosynthesise; the process that is they key to their life. After a week away in Scotland recently, where the weather was less than ideal, my return to my usual walking routes soon…

In 2002 I moved to Littleport in the Fens when my late husband was stationed there as minister for 4 churches. Employment in the Fens is largely centred on agriculture with many farmers and farm workers in the churches and others working in businesses and industry linked to farming. So, life in the churches and…