" As much fun

as a wet weekend in the Cotswolds" ,- runs a family saying (a derivative of a more standard less regional phrase whose meaning is surely obvious). But this is a wet weekend in the Cotswolds, and actually I'm having a lovely time. Not having to preach yesterday, apart from at one Baptism (when I definitely talk, rather than preach in any case) and with today clear, thanks to the Bank Holiday, life feels delightfully low-pressure. I should perhaps be trying to get ahead of myself (there's a raft of major projects coming up in the next two weeks) but I'm also very aware that a bit of re-creation will enable me to approach these more positively, so that's my justification for the absolutely inevitable procrastination this time round!
So, this morning LoudBoy and I dodged the hail storms and went out with dogs and pony. My camera is currently ailing (prayers that I can find the guarantee would be welcome, if it weren't so pathetic), so I only had my phone with which to capture the stunning rainbow that spread itself out across the valley, but I'm posting it anyway in the hopes that those kind people who did clever things to my inferior photos in the past might return and remind me of how I improve things! The countryside is staggeringly beautiful right now...the headrows frothy with cow-parsley, matched only by the bloom on the hawthorns, and interspersed with buttercups campion, and a few stray bluebells.
I love the countryside so much in May,- regardless of the weather. In early childhood, I was quite sure that the Whit of "Whitsun" referred not to such abstruse things as white baptismal robes but to the drifts of flowers that skirted every country lane. It never occurred to me that this wasn't actually the backdrop to the New Testament events,- though I did worry rather about how Jesus and his friends would manage the prevalent mud in those open sandals. Such a bright child....!