Leviticus 257/84: Mother/ Grandmother/ Great Grandmother's Birthday!

Mother Lilian Audrey Park-Wills. She was always delighted to announce her birthdate as 02.02.02. So today we're celebrating her 119th birthday … so she was just 29 when Joan in Beckenham was born whose 90th we were celebrating just a week ago. Not sure what she'd make of where we are today; but she knew the Blitz and evacuation and I always remember 1946 at Beaconsfield on Manor Road in Worthing. It had DC rather than AC electricity which somehow disrupted our Christmas tree lights. I don't know the answer there but, ectyping wildly, I find that DC's remaining advantage is lower energy loss over long transmission distances at very high voltages. But when it comes to transformers to get the voltages down to useable domestic/ industrial levels, AC is the only efficient way to go; so everywhere we look today it's AC and I recall we had to change at Beaconsfield.
McGonagall lunchtime celebration? Mother often prepared Bread and Butter Pudding and Custard, and I know Bryan and Anne and Joan still often do the same, last time with Bryan as Chef … so it was Avril's turn for her Surprise Dessert Lunch today that such was delivered. She had a gluten free version and I had hot cross bun that had been set aside for the birds! WWII again .. and it followed through with the custard as well because that was making use of a LongLife Milk that had passed its Drink By Date ….Excess custard now in refrigerator waiting opportunity to join banana shortly no doubt! Must remember to ask Avril to add nutmeg next time ….
Capt. Sir Tom Moore died today. The man who became a symbol for looking on the bright side of the pandemic dies of pneumonia having also tested positive for Covid 19. He captured the nation's imagination earning a knighthood from HM The Queen by simply doing his modest bit to raise funds for the NHS Charity. He aspired to £1,000 and ended up with £32,000,000 + and 180,000 cards for his 100th birthday. He thanked all his donors for giving him a spring in his step as he gathered countless accolades. He was a role model for how to handle fame! The flags flew at half mast at 10 Downing Street. [see Blogs 23-39-59/84]
Two ZOOMs in an afternoon! A record for me …. It was busy after lunch because firstly at 3.30pm it was catch-up with Beth at BarkerLangham as she prepares an updated version of our picturebook timeline since 2006 for the Battle Trust. All good; lots of intriguing notions. Then at 4.30pm we ZOOMed in with East Lothian's Caitlin and Janet to seek to make progress on the putative 5 year Lease of Prestonpans Town Hall. It all really now depends on getting a peppercorn rental since we have no ability to take it on with anything other than paying our way for activities we can create. It's back now to ELC for their internal procedures and decisions. Nothing more we can say ….

It's St Laurence of Canterbury's Feast Day tomorrow. Laurence was a key player in the mission dispatched from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Christianity landing at Thanet in Kent with Augustine in 597. The Venerable Bede chronicled that Augustine sent him back a year later to report to Pope Gregory I the conversion of King Æthelberht of Kent, the first English King to do so he's pictured right. Laurence returned in 601 and carried praise for Queen Bertha's role in the conversion of her husband. She was subsequently recognised as Saint Bertha or Saint Aldeberge in recognition of the role she had played [centre]. But for her Canterbury would not have become the centre it did and has remained to this day. Laurence [pictured left] succeeded Augustine to the See of Canterbury from 604 to 619 solely on Augustine's say so - which was in breach of Canon Law but eminently sensible to avoid damage to the nascent missionary efforts in Britain. Reassuringly by 610 Laurence received letters from successor Pope Boniface IV recognising him as Archbishop and Augustine's successor. In 613 Laurence consecrated the monastery church built by Augustine in Canterbury and dedicated it to Saints Peter and Paul; it was later re-consecrated as St Augustine's Abbey. Æthelberht died in 616 and his son Eadbald abandoned Christianity in favour of Anglo-Saxon paganism forcing many of the Gregorian missionaries to flee the backlash but Laurence remained and succeeded in reconverting Eadbald. All efforts to extend the church beyond Kent encountered difficulties due to the attitude of King Rædwald of East Anglia, who had become the leading King in the south after Æthelberht's death. Laurence died on 2 February 619 and was buried in the Abbey of St Peter and Paul in Canterbury and came to be regarded as a Saint.