Kate's visit

Our arrival in St Mawes coincided with my sister, Kate's visit from New Zealand so it was great to have her and Mum to stay soon after we arrived.

The pictures are of Kate and Mum on the St Mawes Ferry and Jane, Mum and Kate outside St Just Church.

Settling In

As you will see, I am playing 'catch up' as we have not posted a blog for some time. So here are some photos from our arrival in St Mawes.

Here is our house which is 'upside down' with the reception rooms etc and one bedroom upstairs and three bedrooms downstairs.

And here are the two churches in the Parish, St Mawes and St Just.

Farewell to Nailsea

We have just had a hectic couple of weeks saying farewell to all our friends in Nailsea and preparing to move to St Mawes.

It has been a very special time, with the 'last' this and that meeting or service, farewell 'do's and the Music and Arts Festival to round it all off.

Marcus prepared 'Paddington' for our journey to St Mawes, delivering the Caravan and the Morris. They came around with 'Dorcas' to see us off.

We met up with Esther at Trevegue Farm (www.treveaguefarm.co.uk/index.htm)

near Gorran Haven for at three day break before heading on to St Mawes.

We were delighted to find the house completely decorated in brilliant and refreshing white. We then set to vacuuming and shampooing the carpets.

It was lovely to meet the neighbours and wander down the footpath to the Quay where the Pilot Gig races were in full flow.

Now we are back in Nailsea for final packing up and cleaning here.

Cruising Instructor

After Easter I went on another RYA course with Cornish Cruising in Falmouth. http://www.cornishcruising.com/home

This time it was to train as an instructor. When we take groups as part of our new sailing ministry ('Serendipity Sailing' we call it), developed during my sabbatical last year, instructing is always part of my role. So I was keen to develop the right skills and have my progress assessed.

There were four of us Yachtmasters being coached in instructing skills by Nick, a Yachtmaster instructor with whom I had sailing from Falmouth to London last year.

We sailed in the Falmouth area going no further than Turnaware (by Trelissic), Helford, St Mawes and Portscatho. Most of the time we were honing teaching and coaching skills for boat handing, navigation, pilotage, sailing, safety proceedures and crew management.

We had some great sailing due to strong winds and sunshine although the cold wind was from the north but that meant calm seas.

It was very satisfying for us all to pass and I learnt new skills and felt stretched and challenged by it all.

I am looking forward to putting it all into practice!

Moving to Cornwall

In February we visited Cornwall where Ken was interviewed for a new job. On the way home the Archdeacon 'phoned us to let us know that the Bishop would offer him the post of Priest in Charge of St Just in Roseland with St Mawes and lead minister in the Roseland Cluster of Parishes.

Of course we are very excited about this, in fact we can hardly believe it is happening. We will be moving to St Mawes on the 29th May. Our last Sunday here at Holy Trinity in Nailsea will be the 18th May and the Licensing at St Just in Roseland will be the 16th June.

St Just is a very famous church, John Betjeman called it the prettiest churchyard in Britain. Thousands of people visit ther church every year. St Mawes is a lovely fishing village with a strong maritime flavour, a sailing paradise not unlike Mangonui in New Zealand.

The new Rectory is in St Mawes and has a view of the sea. We have to 'downsize' by about two thirds from the Rectory here in Nailsea so we are daunted by the task.

We have been here in Nailsea for nearly eleven years and it is now time to move on but it will be difficult to say goodbye to so many good friends.

You can read more about where we are going at:

http://www.stjustinroseland.org.uk/

and

http://www.stmawes.info/

Visiting Mary in Northern Ireland

In January we flew from Bristol to Derry to visit Mary who is working at Coleraine Hospital.

We stayed at Portrush in a friends' holiday house which was lovely and quiet. Mary had three days off so she enjoyed showing us her favourite places along the beautiful coast of Antrim and Derry.

The changing skies and seascapes along this coast are beautiful. The view from Mary's favourite cafe in Portstewart is stunning. It was amazing to look out on Donegal, in the Republic at the same time as being able to see Islay and Jura in the Scottish Inner Hebrides.

We all enjoyed a tour of Bushmills whiskey distillery, the oldest in the world. A ride on the Coleraine to Derry Train was fun, reckoned by Michael Palin to be one of the best train rides in the world. The scenery is amazing.

We need to return to sample even more of the deights of Ireland!

Family Christmas

Belatedly, here are a few photos of our family over Christmas and New Year.

Staring with Lois' annual ritual of the nativity scene in the Hall. She always chooses the best of the logs I have chopped for the wood stove and , with copious straw and fairy lights the effect is lovely for people entering the Rectory.

Rick and Zoe dress the tree!

Griffin visited us from New Zealand via NZpost, here he is with Zoe.

It was lovely to see Gran (Ken's Mum) and Polly (our niece) at my sister Jane and Philip's in Glastonbury on Boxing Day.










Lots of Ashe and Johnstone cousins enjoyed the gathering at Farnborough.













Esther shares a joke with Grandpa / Pat Ashe.