Combermere Abbey is a special place for us. We've been four times now and we gave our best friends a voucher for their 30th birthdays. We've stayed at Stone Lodge, the old gatekeepers cottage at the bottom of the drive, three times now, and each time has been significant. It's the cottage in the picture [...]
I didn't manage to blog last year in the end. Our full schedules and little whirlwind kind of slowed my writing and eventually, the draft blog got put in the junk folder, it being just too late to post. So here are some reflections on Greenbelt 2023, with a touch of 2022 as well. These [...]
There's a big difference between the newlywed carefree curate and the sleep deprived vicar with a toddler in tow! This was my thinking when deciding whether or not to go to Germany with some other local clergy. Yes, we had a great time when we visited Germany in 2017 just after we were married, and [...]
Wind back nearly three years, and I was away with Clergy Chapter (group of local vicars) at Whalley Abbey just as the PM announced that lockdown was coming. It was useful to be together as we thought through the implications of this, but the next day, the retreat centre pretty much locked the doors behind [...]
Rev Poppy 