This is lovely. Also, how was the Grasmere gingerbread? I know about that and have often thought it would be fun to try. I love the picture of you rush bearing too. ❤️
Aw thanks Mairi! I wish you'd been here! The gingerbread was SO good, and I highly recommend ordering some as a special treat...it's really ginger-y and perfect.
Caring for our communal, sacred spaces. That sentence described it all - the past history of rush bearing and how we can bring it into our modern lives. I am going to take my thoughts away and really think on your final question. Seeing the enthusiasm and abandon with which the various participants threw themselves into your whole event made my eyes well up with tears! Those experiences will inform their future thoughts on community and their place in it. Thank you again for a timely, firm reminder to strengthen the liturgical and natural bonds within community. Love what you are doing!!!
As always, I'm so grateful for your generous spirit and your sweet words! Watching the children leaping over the hay bales to get to the rushes just filled my heart up completely, especially having done this as "just us" for several years.
"Those experiences will inform their future thoughts on community and their place in it." - What a beautiful thought, Catherine...I'm writing that down in my journal to hold onto. In a highly digital time when community connections can seem so threadbare, this has become a real passion of mine - and you summed it up so beautifully.
Kristin, I am so touched by this, what a beautiful expression of your faith and precious connection with your community, your God and the place you call home. Thank you for sharing, I feel the warmth and the quiet but deep joy of this precious celebration.
Oh my, thank you so much, dear one! I'm so glad you enjoyed the pictures and that the beauty of the evening was able to translate through the screen a bit...it's really been a joy to connect with kindred spirits like you in this space!
Lovely essay, heartening ... great pictures. We are past Lammas already now, but you might research and add old English / Scots first-harvest customs - bread baking blessing and sharing, sheaves woven, small loaves in shapes - to your liturgical year? (I live the other side of England but Ambleside and ginger cake have figured in our family life! )
I'm so glad you enjoyed the notes and pictures, Philip - and thank you so much for the wonderful suggestion! That is RIGHT up my alley, and, though Lammas is past, has me thinking of the Assumption! I'll have to poke around in my books a bit...
Bless you! Thank you so much...it's really made so special by all the folks being part of it. Your church photos sure make me want to hop across the pond and see rushbearing festivals in action!
This is lovely. Also, how was the Grasmere gingerbread? I know about that and have often thought it would be fun to try. I love the picture of you rush bearing too. ❤️
Aw thanks Mairi! I wish you'd been here! The gingerbread was SO good, and I highly recommend ordering some as a special treat...it's really ginger-y and perfect.
Caring for our communal, sacred spaces. That sentence described it all - the past history of rush bearing and how we can bring it into our modern lives. I am going to take my thoughts away and really think on your final question. Seeing the enthusiasm and abandon with which the various participants threw themselves into your whole event made my eyes well up with tears! Those experiences will inform their future thoughts on community and their place in it. Thank you again for a timely, firm reminder to strengthen the liturgical and natural bonds within community. Love what you are doing!!!
As always, I'm so grateful for your generous spirit and your sweet words! Watching the children leaping over the hay bales to get to the rushes just filled my heart up completely, especially having done this as "just us" for several years.
"Those experiences will inform their future thoughts on community and their place in it." - What a beautiful thought, Catherine...I'm writing that down in my journal to hold onto. In a highly digital time when community connections can seem so threadbare, this has become a real passion of mine - and you summed it up so beautifully.
Forgot to thank you for the shortbread: inSANEly good!
I probably ate the lion’s share of it.
It looked fab!
It's hard to go back to run-of-the-mill gingerbread after that stuff, right?! Thanks for bringing the vibrant flowers and your vibrant self.
That food looks so good! I love hearing about your monthly get togethers! 😊
One of these days, hopefully you'll be here for a gathering!
I'd love that!
This is such a beautiful way to bring an old tradition into the modern world! Gorgeous photos. Thank you for sharing this, Kristin!
I'm so glad you enjoyed, Erin! It's such a special tradition, and getting to celebrate with others was a real dream.
Kristin, I am so touched by this, what a beautiful expression of your faith and precious connection with your community, your God and the place you call home. Thank you for sharing, I feel the warmth and the quiet but deep joy of this precious celebration.
Oh my, thank you so much, dear one! I'm so glad you enjoyed the pictures and that the beauty of the evening was able to translate through the screen a bit...it's really been a joy to connect with kindred spirits like you in this space!
I feel the same. Thank you!
Lovely essay, heartening ... great pictures. We are past Lammas already now, but you might research and add old English / Scots first-harvest customs - bread baking blessing and sharing, sheaves woven, small loaves in shapes - to your liturgical year? (I live the other side of England but Ambleside and ginger cake have figured in our family life! )
I'm so glad you enjoyed the notes and pictures, Philip - and thank you so much for the wonderful suggestion! That is RIGHT up my alley, and, though Lammas is past, has me thinking of the Assumption! I'll have to poke around in my books a bit...
So impressed with your efforts!
Bless you! Thank you so much...it's really made so special by all the folks being part of it. Your church photos sure make me want to hop across the pond and see rushbearing festivals in action!
Aw thank you Jody! It was really lovely. :)