Christmas Newsletter 2018
Doesn’t time fly! It seems no time at all since I was composing last year’s letter. What a gorgeous summer we had - the heatwave seemed to go on for ever and I spent many a happy hour sitting in the garden - as did Suki!
As expected, Mary (Mike’s mum) passed away on 13th December last year - nearly 5 weeks after she first took to her bed and stopped eating. Everyone at Tracey House was so good with her, caring for her and keeping her comfortable. They also took care of everything at the end which was very helpful. We were fortunate to be able to have the funeral before Christmas so it wasn’t hanging over until the new year. Mary had written down her wishes for hymns and readings and even a potted history for the eulogy! It was very easy to organise, even from a distance. She was well known at the church and there was a good attendance - I was particularly glad that her 90-year old friend, who had been her bridesmaid, was able to make it. Refreshments afterwards in the church hall were provided by the Mothers’ Union. https://jillwigney1.blogspot.com/2018/01/goodbye-mary.html
We weren’t alone at Christmas however as we took in a “lodger” for a few months - a ringing friend (Peter) from London, who had moved back to the Bovey area to work in Newton Abbot and needed somewhere to stay while he found somewhere to rent. It was fun to have him around - we rang some handbells and he even took a turn at cooking supper . He effortlessly carries Mike up church towers too.
Mike continues to sing in his two choirs - but we have had to give up singing Messiah with Goldsmiths at Christmastime as they no longer do it in the Albert Hall, but in the Festival Hall which has no room for Mike to sit with the other tenors. They also need fewer guest singers now because the venue is smaller. I really miss my annual singing of this, my favourite piece of choral music.
Mike was considering leaving Chiswick Choir, after 40+years, because the new conductor moved him to the bass section. He dutifully did so for a couple of concerts but he really did not enjoy them and found that he often had to stop singing altogether when the notes were too low, and there were really only a few notes in the whole concert where he was actually useful. However, she has allowed him back in to the tenor section so all is now well. They have just done Haydn Nelson Mass and Faure Requiem to a capacity audience - they were turning people away at the door which is unheard of! The choir made a very good sound, the soloists were really good, and it finished at 9.15 - I thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening and it finished with a nice meal of steak frites!
Cantanti Camerati also have a new (young) conductor - I have missed quite a few of their concerts this year because they seemed to clash with my trips to Devon, but Mike says he is very good and is enticing some (much needed) younger people in to the choir.
I have managed to get down to the house in Devon quite a lot this year, at least once a month and often for longer than a week. Jayne stayed there again during the summer, and we concentrated on getting the garden into shape this year. We have dug out all the flower beds in the back garden (with the help of some strong young men!) and put down a ground cover sheet covered with bark which should hopefully keep the weeds more under control. We have also built a rockery in place of the fish pond. We have also had a permanent ramp built to the front door which make access much easier for Mike. What I must do in the new year is to get the house put into our names! We have been granted probate, but I keep putting off the final bout of form-filling.
Mike still does a huge amount of tower bell ringing, as well as teaching and organising. He goes along to Barnes every Saturday morning to help with the teaching session, and is also teaching learners on a Monday night at Chiswick. There has been a big recruitment drive this year under the banner Ringing Remembers - which aims to recruit 1400 new ringers to replace the 1400 ringers who died in the First World War, with a view to them ringing on Remembrance Sunday. Our 2 learners were able to attempt a QP on cover that weekend, but sadly it came to grief. Mike also organises regular days out ringing QPs, as well as the Intrepid Canal Boat Trip, Barnes Summer Trip, and Roving Ringers summer tour. He has also recently been involved in arranging, and ringing in, QPs and a peal for a local ringer to celebrate his 100th birthday - probably the oldest person ever to ring a QP. Mike was seen ringing in the QP on the local BBC TV news that evening.
I have continued with my handbell ringing with bands in London and Exeter and have rung 11 peals (highlight - 41 surprise minor!) and 15 QPs (highlight - 14 spliced plain major!). I am planning a regular peal attempt on the third Wednesday of each month with the band in Exeter in 2019, and will plan my monthly Devon trips around it. I am also enjoying my tune ringing with the Moretonhampstead handbell ringers - I haven't made it to any rallies this year but have enjoyed ringing with them at the Thursday evening practices when I am in Devon.
Roving Ringers Reunion this year was in Exeter which was handy for Bovey - we went down separately beforehand and stayed in the Bovey house. This meant we could get a good night's sleep and still get to the first tower on time - Crediton, only 40 mins away - which made a nice change. I rang some Grandsire Triples there but didn't do much more ringing after that because of my (arthritic) wrists, and made myself useful picking people up from the station and ferrying them around. There was a formal dinner at the hotel in the evening and more ringing on the Sunday. Mike went straight back to London from the last tower, and Peter gave me a lift back to Bovey where I stayed on for a few days. https://jillwigney1.blogspot.com/2018/03/roving-ringers-reunion-2018.html
Just before I was due to leave we were hit by the Beast from the East - and I thought at one point that I would be snowed in. Ordinarily this would be welcomed, but I needed to get back this time because Mike was going in to Stoke Mandeville hospital for a much-needed pressure sore operation. He was admitted on 28th Feb for the op the following day - but this was cancelled because there was deep snow by then and only a skeleton staff had managed to get in, so all ops were cancelled. However Mike was required to stay in the hospital to "block" his bed! He was allowed home at the weekend but had to be back in on Monday. Op day was Thursday - but was cancelled once again on the morning of the op because the previous surgeon had run over his theatre time. So the whole process was repeated again with Mike kicking his heels in hospital to keep the bed. Luckily the op did go ahead at the third attempt. It was very successful, and did not require as much recuperation as we had first thought. Instead of months lying on his stomach, Mike spent just three weeks lying on a special air bed in Stoke Mandeville, and when he was discharged the scar was completely healed and he went ringing that same evening!
In May it was the annual Intrepid Canal Boat trip (organised by Mike). The plan was that a small crew of 7 would spend the first week taking the boat from the marina at Heyford Fields in Northamptonshire to Northwich, ringing at a few towers on the way. The second week was the main leg, from Northwich to Halifax over the Pennines, with lots of ringing - and 11 people on board. Then a third team would bring the boat back. Suki and I just did the first week, but Mike stayed on for the second week and a couple of days of the third.
All Photos Itinerary
We were supposed to set off at noon on the Saturday, but we had to wait for the boat engine to be repaired. We sat around all weekend waiting for the go ahead from the boatyard, and eventually Mike decided we should drive to the marina anyway, and sleep on the boat if necessary, so that we would be ready to set off as soon as the repairs were finished. We eventually got away at 5 pm on the Monday almost a day and a half behind schedule. We had a deadline of getting to Northwich by noon on the following Saturday, and had already decided to cut out all the ringing to get there on time. Then the following day the engine died and we had to wait 5 hours for the boat repairers to come out and fix a hose which had split. The following day the engine died again - luckily we were able to pull the boat to a nearby boatyard and they identified a fuel line fault and got us on our way again. Then the next day Suki got off the boat without anyone noticing (she thought I had got off and had gone to look for me). I ran (well jogged) back along the towpath for nearly 2 miles before I found her with a kind man who had seen her running around on the road and had been trying to find her owner. She didn’t have her collar on because she had been on the boat! The boat turned round to collect us and that put us further back. We also had the maximum wait at the Harecastle tunnel, as some boats had started through just before we got there. However we did manage to get to the handover point on time - boating from 5 in the morning to 8 at night every day. Everyone was up for the challenge and it was tiring but fun. Suki and I walked for miles along the towpath each day, and we both slept better at night than usual because I was able to sleep on the sofa in the lounge (rather than on the top bunk above Mike) and Suki could sleep next to me. http://jillwigney1.blogspot.com/2018/05/intrepid-week-1-disaster-day.htmlI went down to Devon for a week while Mike was away for the second week, and then I drove up to Rochdale to pick him up. I stayed in a pub in Whitworth overnight, quite close to the Rochdale Canal at the summit of the pennine crossing, and my brother and his partner came over from Manchester to join me for a meal. Intrepid turned up at the summit at around 9 pm and moored there overnight. The pub did not provide breakfast, but JJ cooked me some on Intrepid, which was nice. I went down with the boat for a couple of miles and then walked back to my car with Suki and moved to another pub ahead of the boat where Mike was intending to disembark. I was going to walk down to meet the boat but it was the middle of the day and so hot I was worried about Suki and decided to sit in the shade instead!
In July the Barnes Summer Trip (organised by Mike) went back to Thornham Magna in Suffolk for a second year. I thoroughly enjoyed myself NOT ringing, but sitting in churchyards cross stitching, sightseeing and having a pub lunch every day. I particularly enjoyed visiting the textile exhibition in Bury St Edmunds cathedral while Mike was up the tower ringing a QP for the recent installation of Joe Hawes (previously vicar of Fulham) as the new Dean.
Peter, Mike and I got up early every day to have an early breakfast and then ring handbells before heading off to the first tower - the beautiful weather meant we could sit outside and ring.
In August Mike went on the annual Roving Ringers Tour (organised by him) which was based at the (self catering) Youth Hostel in Leominster. They cycled between 30 and 40 miles each day and rang at 4 or 5 towers a day.
I rented a lovely cottage just outside Leominster on a quiet farm - it had a particularly nice conservatory with stunning views across the fields to the Malverns, where I sat and did my cross stitching in the afternoons.
Suki and I did a lot of walking, particularly round the estates of the many National Trust properties in the area. I got very frustrated by the fact that nearly every one of them barred dogs from the till area of the cafe, which makes it impossible for someone on their own with a dog to purchase anything to eat or drink.
I was near enough to the Youth Hostel to be able to transport the wheelchair to some of the towers if they were a long distance away, to save Mike from towing it. Mike and I also took on the catering for the tour at the last minute - the menus, shopping list and rotas had been devised and I just did a huge order online which was delivered by Sainsbury on the first night. Much better than pushing two trolleys round a supermarket and then loading and unloading it all to and from the car. http://jillwigney1.blogspot.com/2018/09/roving-ringerscottage-holiday-leominster.html
Mike and I spent a week in Devon during August where we went to the Sidmouth Folk Festival - where the weather turned from warm sunshine to cold drenching rain during the day - and also a Bellringing Festival at Buckfast Abbey where it just rained all day! Must have been the only two rainy days in the whole summer - although I think we were lucky in London in that it was dry and hot relentlessly whereas the South West kept getting heavy rain.
The family Butlins holiday was at the end of August - this will probably be the last one (although I said that last year!). It is becoming very expensive and also more difficult to get everyone together. Leanne and Amanda now have families of their own, Lorraine has been living in Majorca too this year and both she and Amanda find it difficult to get time off at the height of the holiday season. However it is lovely to get together and watch the children enjoying themselves so much. John took some of them out to a wetlands centre in Arundel for the day and we also went to Chichester for a visit. John took us all out to dinner to celebrate what would have been Dad’s 91st birthday. http://jillwigney1.blogspot.com/2018/09/butlins-2018.html
I went to Majorca for a week in November to visit Amanda and Lorraine. Amanda opened her own salon in Magaluf this summer, but it was a very poor season for everyone and she reluctantly had to close it. She has just started a job with EasyJet at Palma airport in their customer service team which is a permanent all-year job. Lorraine gave up her UK jobs, and her room at the convent, and went out in March to work in a bar for the summer, but decided to stay and has jobs in a couple of restaurants/cafes lined up for the winter and has rented an apartment in Magaluf. Amanda had just started her training when I arrived, so I spent the days cross stitching in the morning and then meeting Lorraine for a coffee. We would spend the afternoon together and then go over to Amanda's apartment in the evening.
I have completed a couple of cross stitch projects this year (as you might imagine with all the cross stitching I’ve been doing on the ringing trips!). I did a baby afghan for Aidan (even though he is now 18 months old and has started walking) with his name and date of birth . The other project was a kit I had picked up in a charity shop of 4 sheltie dogs. I made it up into a laptray - I wasn’t sure how it would work but it turned out really well.I still enjoy lots of walking with Suki - in Devon we are spoilt for choice and we go up on to the moor whenever we can, but have lots of other lovely places to walk within easy distance. Back home I have to drive a bit further to get the nice scenery. We go out regularly to the Chilterns - I have a friend who lives in Amersham (Maryanne) who leads walks for Ramblers, and she organises our walks on a regular basis with a view to adding them to her portfolio. I have also been out to the Surrey Hills and the South Downs with Diane, a friend from school days who lives in Steyning, and to the Petersfield area with friend Gill.
So we carry on much the same from one year to the next - we have the usual frantic run up to Christmas with handbell carols, Carol Service, Cantanti concert etc and are only able to get away to Devon on Christmas Eve - once there we can breathe a sigh of relief and have a quiet week to ourselves (it really will be just the two of us this year). Mike is ringing all day on Boxing Day and we have some handbell sessions planned, but otherwise it will be jigsaws and cross stitch for us. With our very best wishes for a peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year.
