First workday of the year!

The first main workday of the year in the new Community Memorial Garden at St. Peter's Aldborough Hatch. The team were joined by a new volunteer who is very welcome, but we could do with more!

We have created a quiet haven of peace in what was for many years a rubbish dump at the far end of the churchyard. How about joining us on 19th May when we will be planting up for the summer. One raised bed is ready for Tomato plants which are doing well in my greenhouse - and will stay there till the last frosts have been!

Stephen - a murder that changed a nation

This evening I have watched the third and final episode of the BBC ONE Documentary - 'Stephen - the murder that changed a nation'. I watch the first two live on Tuesday and Wednesday. I tried to watch the third programme live - but I could not do so. Therefore I have watched it this evening.

I was a magistrate when all this happened. As elected Bench Chairman I had the opportunity to work with colleagues to implement many of the findings of the Macpherson Report.

The 25 years since Stephen's cruel death have left a mark on us all. I have no words to write more. I feel so sad that these things took place in this country that I love and I fear continue to this day.

A few photographs in St. Peter's Churchyard ing Aldborough Hatch and the Community Memorial Garden in this morning's sunshine.

Thin or fat!

When I was a boy you were either thin or fat. In fact, I was not just thin, but skinny, so skinny that my nickname at school was Belson Bill. It was 1945 and the Nazi concentration camps were being liberated with photographs in the newspapers and on the cinema newsreels showing painfully thin men whose ribs showed through their skin - just like mine. My Dad said that you could play a tune on my ribs. In case you are wondering, we did not have TV in those days and there were no pictures on the wireless and radio had not been invented.

We did not have satchels to take our homework to school as it was wartime, so my Dad made me a suitcase. He used timber from the base of tobacco barrels - he worked in a cigarette factory in the East End and used to bring home this timber to make all sort of things for the home. The suitcase was heavy when empty, but when full it was lethal if swung at someone who called me Belson Bill! Many a shin suffered at my hands.

There were not many fat boys about in the 1940s, so that the one boy I did know who was fat stands out in my memory for we called him - you've guessed! - Fatty! Thinness was the rule for food was on ration and sweets did not come off ration till the early 1950s.

Why, you may well ask, am I telling you this Cedric? And you, too, Doris?. Yesterday I journeyed to Romford. I like markets and whilst Romford's market is not what it used to be, it is still fun. The Lady on the nut stall is always pleasant, asking after my grandsons, who went there with Yvonne. Her fresh salted peanuts are the best in town and I buy her chocolate almonds for my daughter.

As I wandered aimlessly about the market, I could not help but notice how many folk did not just walk but waddled for they were very clearly badly overweight. In my day we would have said that they were fat, but today the word is obese.

It upset me to see both adults and children who were fat - sorry, obese - waddling around the market, eating fast food and dropping the wrappers as they waddled. At the fruit stall stood thin men and women - and that says something.

I will refrain from writing more on this subject, except to say that it made me feel right unwell at the thought of how they will cope when they are eighty-five and have to do the shopping?

Green collection!

Last week George came to help me in the garden. The trellis fence behind the greenhouse - which is all of 40 years old - collapsed in the winter winds into the next door garden. George filled four large green bags and five small ones - and here they are in the front garden for today is Green Waste Collection Day in Aldborough Hatch.

Well done Redbridge Council - for listening to we gardeners and dropping the small plastic bags scheme for which I paid £50 last year. This is a great service - I just hope that the collection does take place today for the bags are making access to my front door a problem!

The second shot is a shrub in my front garden which is now in flower. It was a gift last year on my birthday from Ruth - but I have mislaid the tag and do not know what it is called. I would like to know - can you help? The Fritillaria Imperialis is in full flower as you will note.

Monday morning

Two photographs taken this Monday morning. The first shows the boiled handkerchiefs with Wilko stain remover and Fairy. Meantime five non-iron shirts and other clothing are in the washing machine. When that lot is done the handkerchiefs will go in for their main wash.

The second shows four large green bags and five small ones filled with green stuff for collection on Wednesday by the Council who have now reinstated the free collection (HOORAY!). George filled these with green from the collapsed trellis and fence at the end of the garden. I will need some help carrying these through to the front garden for Wednesday but my lovely daughter is calling this evening . . .

I don't like rain on Sunday!

Rain! Wet clingy rain. The sort that gets inside whatever you are wearing and makes you feel miserable. But I decided to go none-the-less, having risen at 5.45am in the hope that the rain would ease come daylight.

Leaving home on this Sunday morning at 7.45am (for the Flower Market opens here on Sundays only) to Columbia Road Flower Market - or Columbia Flower Market as the sign states.

The 396 to Ilford Station, TFL to Liverpool Street, the 26 bus and then a short walk to the street filled with flower and plant stalls. The aroma hits you when you are many yards away.

And if I felt a bit down in the mouth and damp, my spirits were soon lifted high. How could it be otherwise?

The colours are just magnificent - especially the tulips. The small artisan shops tend to be expensive so I kept away this time. Some amusing signs caught my eye - you may spot them.

The bulb and corm stall did not have the summer flowering bulbs I wanted - they were selling off the spring bulbs left over. But the herb stall I have frequented in the past had some Thyme that will replace those lost in the winter frosts and snow.

Whilst the space between the stalls was crowded, there were not as many people about as usual. I have never seen the pub so deserted at the entrance to the market!

Back on the 26 bus to St. Paul's Cathedral to dry out in the warm Crypt with a cup of coffee and a Mars Bar.

Then to the 11.30am Sung Eucharist. The Cathedral Choir being on Easter holiday, the service was sung by the all ladies choir Aurora Nova with the setting appropriately enough by Cecilia McDowall and the sermon by The Revd Rosemary Morton, Minor Canon and Succentor. The Processional Hymn - 'Come, ye faithful, raise the anthem, Cleave the skies with shouts of praise'- blew away the cobwebs and the damp as the sound rose magnificently into the mighty Dome high above.

Doubting Thomas and faith were the theme of the sermon, but in that massive place where I find such peace, faith seems close at hand and not so hard to comprehend. And whilst some Stewards in their Morning Dress smile a greeting, others seem far too dour (although two, who were not on duty today, not only smile, but go out of their way to shake my hand and make me welcome - as does the Dean but the two Canons and the Chaplain who do so were on holiday).

Home by train - for this was no day to dawdle nor onto enjoy a bus ride in the front seat on the top of a double decker. Home, a warm shower and hot food - and Socks was pleased to see me.