Wolds Diary: Waiting rooms and church choirs during week on the road

They say ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ but the rarer clematis I purchased from a garden centre that cost twice the price promptly died.

I have a large, mature hedge round most of my garden. It comprises of various trees and bushes and entwined round the many trunks and branches is the ever-present bind weed. Its white flowers are most spectacular and at the moment my hedge is adorned with these huge trumpet like blossoms. I know it is a pernicious weed but it is a weed I like.

The Pocklington Singers choir master was away this week so a gentleman came and took our practice. Every conductor is different and we learned a lot and it was most enjoyable.

We are singing the Messiah at Christmas and I’m really enjoying learning it all over again. It is years since I sang it last, and on that occasion I had been tasked with singing a completely different section. We break for the summer holidays now and I’ll miss the weekly evening with like-minded and musical folk.

On the Tuesday I popped down to Market Weighton, to give a talk at the community centre to a pleasant group of folk - it was an enjoyable afternoon.

I took the dogs out when I got back and they came home covered in grass seeds and other vegetation.

I had to brush them down and my collie, Fair, doesn’t appreciate this at all and was grumpy for days afterwards.

I had a hectic day on the Wednesday. I had to go to Leeds General Infirmary for some tests at the Nuclear Medicine department to try and identify a heart problem. I seldom venture into Leeds, but do appreciate it when I do.

The day comprised of being injected and scanned. I’d previously visited the roof garden which is lovely and a lot of the time that I spent waiting around was spent up there. You can look down on the magnificence of the city from this point and see the countryside in the distance.

At lunchtime ,between the two main tests, I had an hour-and-a-half to kill so I ventured into the city centre and admired the fine architecture. I found a Methodist church called the Oxford Road Centre and looked round that too.

I had taken some knitting with me to the hospital as I hate sitting around doing nothing. I managed half a sock during the day!

At the end of the afternoon I was able to escape and up next I was due to give a talk to the Women’s Institute in Gomersal, near Dewsbury. I’d never been there before and had arrived much too early.

The community hall was next to the Red Museum which I will visit at a future time. I parked up and took myself off for an exploratory walk, ending up at a peasant little pub where I was given a warm welcome by the landlord and ordered a fruit juice.

I was astonished to find that in the entrance to the Ladies was a very fine Wurlitzer Organ. I was most impressed and asked the landlord about it. He said it had come with the pub and he would love to find someone to play it.

I walked back to the centre and was made welcome by the caretaker and my lady hostess and soon the group was assembling. They were a very good audience and great fun.

The next evening I was picked up by a friend to go to a church in York where a choir was rehearsing for the York Prom. I had been asked to go and support the tenors although I can’t actually go to the performance on the October 3 as I am already committed elsewhere.

Some of the music we sang was good, some was not to my taste, but it takes all sorts to please everyone and it made a real treat not to have to drive after another week of travelling around our fine county.