Beneath Blue Suburban Skies: Some More Pictures ....

Glasgow: A civilised city! : )

Nero's Coffee, Glasgow... Not bad at all!

Glasgow signalled support for the campaign to free Mandela in 1986 by renaming St George's Place in the city centre Nelson Mandela Place, much to the annoyance of the South African consulate there.

Caity shopping at a Scottish hamburger joint.

Pick the Dr Who nerds!

Glasgow: The Buchanan St Mall makes Bourke St look like a small alley!

Grasmere town Square- Lakes District

Grasmere River Rothray- Lakes District

The poet William Wordsworth, who lived in Grasmere for fourteen years, described it as the loveliest spot ever found.

... 'matter of fact, he's still there, pushing up daffodils.

St Oswald has been there since 642AD - bit older than our churches. The Venerable Bede recounts King Oswald's generosity to the poor and to strangers, and tells a story highlighting this characteristic: on one occasion, at Easter, Oswald was sitting at dinner with Aidan, and had "a silver dish full of dainties before him", when a servant, whom Oswald "had appointed to relieve the poor", came in and told Oswald that a crowd of the poor were in the streets begging alms from the king. Oswald, according to Bede, then immediately had his food given to the poor and even had the dish broken up and distributed. Aidan was greatly impressed and seized Oswald's right hand, stating: "May this hand never perish." Accordingly, Bede reports that the hand and arm remained uncorrupted after Oswald's death... There you go!

Reading all the plaques, memorials, artefacts that go back for several centuries and styles; it makes me think how quick we are to banish a pulpit or pew because it is more than a couple of decades old. We market to transient demographics rather than orient or align a community to it's identity.

The 'parish' had a sense of identity. Members of the community were part of a narrative; a set of values embodied in stories, personalities and symbols - actors in an ongoing play. In our network world, we cannot directly imitate this, but we do need a deeper understanding of formation and belonging that includes personal and corporate 'mythos'. If we are to redeem the loneliness and independence of post-modern society, we need to give little thought to our theology of space and of civics. This probably makes little sense to most of you - just rambling.

The princess of the Red Lion Hotel, Grasmere, Cumbria

Sawrey Cumbria, little village near where Beatrix Potter lived. The girls went and did the Potter thing, whilst I wandered off and found a place for a coffee.