Wasn’t June busy? Could we be trying to show what a lively parish we are – even during an interregnum! Do we have one eye on the parish profile, that essential document that sells us to prospective incumbents? To a certain extent we were the victims of a bigger calendar – the Queen’s birthday was fixed, Open Garden Squares Weekend was fixed – and so on. And after that we all had good reasons for choosing the dates we did. But was the result a lovely busy June – or a thoroughly exhausting one? Diana has referred to the need for slowing down and reflection in her article and I know which it was for me and that she’s exactly right! And whilst I usually approach the summer reassuring people that there are still things happening in the parish in spite of it being the holiday period, this year I feel the need to reassure you that there aren’t. Or not so many anyway.
I can almost hear the Holiday in Hampstead people reminding me that they’re very much happening again and following the success of last year’s week expect to be fully booked so look out for their booking forms in church in the next week or so and make sure you get a place on your favourite event. It runs from 8th to 12th August and promises to be packed full of interesting items – and wonderful lunches. People are still talking about the lunches from last year!
And the Hampstead Players haven’t finished for the summer – The Alchemist runs from 7-9 July. Literary Hours and Concerts carry on through July and August too – so if it’s entertainment you want, we have it. But we have peace and quiet too. The churchyard and ABG are looking particularly lovely at the moment – the combination of warm, wet weather and extra work by the gardening team to get ready for Open Garden Squares Weekend paid off handsomely and we’ll be feeling the benefits for the rest of the summer – whatever the weather.
The choir will be on holiday for most of July and all of August so come and say goodbye to them at Choral Evensong on 10th July (and enjoy a glass of Pimm’s).
Services are very much business as usual of course and we look forward to welcoming any visitors to the area so do watch out for anyone who looks a bit lost, who can’t find their place or doesn’t know quite what to do or where to go. We all know how bewildering it can be visiting a strange church when on holiday.
Knit and Natter will meet in July (but not August because of Holiday in Hampstead). Have you thought about knitting a hot water bottle cover for AgeUK? I can provide a pattern. They’re quite small, to fit a bottle for warming the hands, not bed-size – and we need 40 for the Christmas Hampers. We’re quite a long way off that total at the moment. If you’re a basic knitter or short of time then 4 x 6″ squares can be sewn together to make a cover and I’m happy to do the sewing (or one piece 6″ x 24″ of course).
If you want something more advanced to knit have you heard of a Twiddlemuff for dementia sufferers? Pattern on request (or you can find them online). But please knit us a few squares for those hot water bottles first!
There’s been so much going on in the parish we haven’t had time to note Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary so I’m briefly mentioning the Hampstead Players proposal to do King Lear in the autumn (audition dates in the diary) and a ‘seasonal’ sonnet (bearing in mind that Tudor summers probably weren’t much different from the last few we’ve had we can relate to summer’s short lease – perhaps the rest of the summer will prove me wrong!)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
And finally, as this issue comes out we’re just getting to grips with the result of the Referendum and David Cameron’s resignation – too soon to say anything meaningful now but I’m sure these issues will be addressed in the pulpit and in Jan’s proposed new group (details will be in the pewsheet)
July and August
Judy East