Storm Ashley is battering its way towards us

Storm Ashley is battering its way towards us no doubt wreaking havoc as it progresses. As a precautionary measure Gunby Hall is closed for the day. Was there yesterday, in the car park at least, picking up some walkers. The woman in the hi viz jacket whose role was to take the money informed me. 

At the moment all is calm in Skendleby. From our cottage we have views over the remains of the mediaeval village, now just outlines in the ground. Ripe for an archaeological dig I’d say. The mists have cleared but no sign of the wind to come.

Had a strange dream just before I woke up this morning. Wrote it down immediately so as not to forget. It was the opening night of a show in which I was performing and I got to the theatre very early to get in the zone. As I arrived I realised that I hadn’t learnt my lines. Hmm, there was still time, maybs. Then it struck me. We hadn’t even had any rehearsals! I think that’s the point at which I woke up.

No idea what happened after that. Can only imagine they cancelled the show. Lots of disappointed ticket holders. Always assuming they had actually sold any 🙂

Dream interpreters feel free to comment.

Gonna be a simple bacon roll for brekkie this morning as we have a big lunch planned at The Blacksmiths Arms. Table for eighteen? Have you booked? Tomato soup followed by roast boeuf. They talk like that around ere. Actually the accents of the locals yesterday sounded more as if they had all retired here from Essex.  Wouldn’t surprise me. Though no idea why people want to retire to the Skeggy area. Cheap. Here we are in the wolds where it is v pictureskew but on the whole it is v deprived and v cold and windswept in winter.

Was amazed to discover how much history there is to the area. The remains of Bolingbroke Castle are not too distant. Parts of Lincolnshire were settled by religious orders because of its remoteness. A string of monastic establishments. And of course there were the Vikings…

So we have a bit of time to kill this morning. Most of last night’s revellers will still be in the land of nod although Ashley, which is starting to make itself felt will serve as an effective wake up call. As usual we were in bed by ten thirty. Lightweights. The last whatsapp message in our camping group was sent sometime after one o’clock in the morning. We are particularly grateful to @Chris who had stayed off the pop and gave us a lift back to the cottage.

One good thing about being away partying for the weekend is not having to see or hear the news. Ok it is difficult to completely avoid online but I tend to filter it out/not click on links.

The real issue now is that there is bugger all to do on a wet Sunday morning in Skendleby. We’ve already looked around the church and would avoid that in any case on a Sunday as I wouldn’t want to accidentally get caught up in a service. The church clock just tolled ten but when I looked there was no sign of any of the flock. 

Checked online but strangely found no definitive source of service times. However I then remembered I’d taken a pic of the notice board yesterday. Holy communion 11.15 every second Sunday of the month and evening prayer at 3pm every fourth Sunday of the month. Slightly disappointed as I wanted to see how many turned up. Ah well.

I quite like the idea of doing a tour of all the churches in the county. It’s the sort of thing people would have done in Victorian times when there was no world wide web to suck up all their time. Obvs this tour would note which hymns were up on the board of each church and provide a definitive list of past vicars. Feels like a worthwhile use of time. A definitive record of stained glass windows would also be a good thing to have.

Only an hour and forty mins until the pub opens 🙂

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