The Blurb: May 2006

Celebrating 60 years of North Devon sun

Thursday 25 May 2006  9.26 pm

Lee Abbey is 60 years old this year, and its birthday is on 5 June.  My "Lee Abbey birthday" is also the 5th - on that day I will have been here for exactly two of LA's sixty years.  Happy birthday to us both.

However, the 5th wasn't a convenient day for a party, what with the nearby Bank Holiday being a simply irresistable occasion on which to hold such a bash.  So the celebration weekend is this weekend.  Hey, if the Queen can have two birthdays a year, why can't Lee Abbey?

There's a marquee on the North Lawn and everything.  It's very exciting.  There are 250 guests (yes, you read that right; they're staying at The Beacon and the Valley of Rocks Hotel in Lynton as well as the Main House), and six Bishops.  There is a cream tea on Sunday.  All we need now is weather like what we had today when I took the photo shown here.  Glorious.

Did anyone see the bluebells this year, by the way?  They're dying already, but they were groovy while they lasted.  There were loads on the coast path last Tuesday.
 
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New Cartoon Gallery

Friday 19 May 2006  9.36 pm

Back in September 2005, I (for some reason) suddenly got an urge to draw black squiggles on white paper depicting in not-too-artistic form certain humourous situations from Lee Abbey Community life.

Since Lee Abbey's aim is to renew and serve the Church, and it is in fact a Christian conference centre, some of the cartoons have wider relevance.

These widerly-relevant drawings have now (at last) made it onto the site.  One or two of those pictured here haven't even been revealed to Lee Abbey folks yet, so don't tell them, will you?  All right then.

Go to the new Cartoon Gallery...
 
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The same pen

Thursday 11 May 2006  11.41 am

This week I'm at the National Christian Resources Exhibition in Esher, London.  Excuse me - Surrey - though it is inside the M25...

Here too is Dave Walker of CartoonChurch.com fame.  He quite likes my cartoons, which is good because he inspired me to do them in the first place!  I haven't put any of mine on the site yet, but I will do so soon.  They are quite similar in style to Dave's.  In other words, neither of us can draw photorealistically, but believe firmly that that actually is not required.

For example, you can draw a circle, two lines, a smiley face and some hair, and label it a person with a lovely little arrow.  Wonderful things, arrows.  They do all the explaining necessary.

And the pen thing?  Paper Mate Nylon 1.0mm.  Neither of us knew that it was the other's implement of choice - until now.  The Paper Mate Nylon - Powering The World Of Cartoonists, Famous And Otherwise.
 
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Live and on the road

Tuesday 9 May 2006  11.46 am

After Easter I had to lead morning prayers at Lee Abbey.  I was on my way to Bath.  Actually, I wasn't.  But the punters who heard my voice over the phone in the Chapel didn't know that until I stood at the back grinning like a very silly looking hyena (and not in its natural habitat, either).  I think they enjoyed the surprise factor of that.

Following this I went to Bath (too many showers), and then to Iona.  Since a community lives on this little Scottish island, we thought we'd go and have a busman's holiday (except without the busman, or indeed, the bus).

It was very nice, and even sunny on a couple of days.  I hear Scotland is the hottest place to be this week.  So you see, miracles are possible when you believe.

Next, we went to the beautiful Lake District and climbed England's highest mountain.  We thought it might be good to get away from the crowds.  However, so did the crowds.  I think all the 3,000 other people (several of them Polish) enjoyed the sun up there too.  Almost a kilometre up from that deep blue ocean.  Incredible.

That was road trip number one.  Road trip number two began this week, as I and two esteemed colleagues from community are exhibiting on behalf of Lee Abbey at the National Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) near London.  It's exciting.  Wow, the big smoke.  (Not that I do, you understand.) More on this later...
 
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