Sue Woodock: The stranger things you can find forgotten in churches...

In my back garden I have a hedge of bay trees and that does seem to have grown and I’ll have to trim it soon, before it cuts off light into my study, I shall prune it and then dry the bay leaves and take them into church in case anyone wants them. On Monday my friend picked me up and we went to the usual practice for the Pocklington Singers. We have moved, for several reasons, from the main body of the church up towards the ancient choir stalls near the high altar. It is warmer, lighter and almost everyone can easily see our musical director. The two the tenors we had this week meant I could not see, as both of them are much taller than me, so I asked to move into the old choir stalls, and we did so and found it was much better. We had decent seats and something to rest our music on and we could see the musical director with ease. I have spent many hours in such stalls throughout my life, in various churches I have been in, where I was in the choir. Quite often you can discover interesting things in the places under the stalls that have been forgotten. I found a very old prayer book in one such church, a wonderful Norman building in Winchester, when I was a teenager I handed it in, and I believe it went into the archives. It had dropped down a slit in the music storage area and was about 200 years old. I found some other interesting things there too. Sweet papers from many decades beforehand, not to mention notes scribbled on bits of paper and even some quite amusing, if rather amateurish cartoons on scraps of paper. I remember one was of a church mouse eagerly awaiting the deposit of some sweets from above and thanking God for manna from heaven, while the choir boy who had dropped the sweets was glowering at his neighbour! On Wednesday I needed to go down to Sutton on Hull. The drive down in beautiful weather was a true delight, and the views over the countryside made it a pleasant journey. I stopped off at a storre and purchased a few items and then on the way home I diverted to Cottingham, to visit a shop there. When I make cushions from old ties it is always the purple ones that go first, and I was needing some more purple ties to complete such a cushion. I visited several charity shops in Cottingham and was scurrying back to my car in the car park and felt the need to stop to catch my breath. A very king lady asked me if I was all right and if I needed assistance. Such kindness is one of the reasons I am so glad to have moved to Yorkshire. We got chatting and then I headed on to Willerby, to yet another charity shop there and then a store where I treated myself to a bottle of cucumber and mint drink. I drove home past Castle Hill Hospital and then to North Newbald. It is not an area I know well, and I was most impressed by the stunning views of the Wolds. Once home I decided to have major clear-out of the bits of ties had had kept over many years and can no longer use. I went out my garden shed and was horrified at just how much was crammed into it and began sorting through it. Nine bin bags full of waste material later I visited the local tip, where they are always so helpful, and I disposed of the bags. On Thursday we did not have rehearsal for the Celebration Singers as our leader had caught Covid. This gave me more time to sort out things. Meanwhile my friend came and walked the dog for me, and I managed to pickup some necessary worming and defleaing tablets from the vets.