Bee team

Caroline's handling of her bees this morning was described by Mike, the expert, as "fearless". Roll on the honeycombs!

As for England last night, well, I reckon - having seen a few of the other sides in action - they're nothing more than a B Team: destined to be so near - but so far. I am not holding my breath following the defeat by Italy. Optimism has its limits.

Bridge over the River Gray

For once, no photography yesterday on our Wednesday walk! Only two of us, walking from home, and back via the bus: we were deep in conversation, so the camera stayed in its bag. But the bag returned home full also of field mushrooms, which was a bonus.

Our friend Marius Gray's grave will never have a tombstone, so a new bridge is being built, destined to serve as his memorial. It replaces the rickety structure at present in place over the River Monnow near to his Herefordshire home, which he loved. His widow, Clare, and I drove to Cirencester this morning, to see it in course of construction - a massive operation! Blue is the chosen colour.

Meanwhile World Cup fever is gripping the household. So posts to this blog will be short and sweet for a bit.

Dame of the rose

Roses used to peak at the end of June, or am I imagining that? Anyway here we are a week away from the end of May, and with 19 different roses in flower. With my mac on over my dressing-gown, I went out into the rain and picked one of each this morning for Caroline's birthday. This afternoon and evening, it was celebrated with Leo and Mini, scones, cakes, a Jakobsweg slideshow and a pulsating Champions League final.

Happy New Year!

...from a rainy Cheltenham: we are supposed to be on our way to watch Bristol Rovers v. Cheltenham Town at the ground which overlooks Agnes' house in Bristol; but for the second year running, it's been rained off. So, a lazy time at home is in prospect, with the grandchildren slow to get out of their pyjamas, and the youngest, Laurie (6) much enjoying his new camera.

Ravenna

The Severn Forum runs a programme of lectures on theological subjects, so tonight's "The mosaics of Ravenna" may have seemed a bit of a let off. It turned out to be nothing of the sort. Christopher Herbert, now the retired Bishop of St Albans, had the good fortune to visit Ravenna when his diocese was twinned with dioceses local to that city. Making full use of his red carpet reception, he has now put together a splendid talk, explaining what caused Ravenna to become the focus of so many "glittering prizes", and how they illustrate the development of doctrine in the early church.

So, through a sequence of excellent slides, we came to consider the absence of representations of Christ crucified; to observe that Jesus - shown naked in the Jordan in the late 5th Century - was not baptized by total immersion; and why the Good Shepherd was portrayed wearing a toga.

My photograph shows Dr. Herbert in front of a photograph of the figure of Archbishop Maximiamus - "drawn" in mosaic more than 1,500 years ago, he could be at home amongst our National Portrait Gallery's Contemporary Displays.

And the lecturer is clearly himself at home in the world of art - not just church/biblical - history: parallels with David Hockney's swimming pool pictures and an Anish Kapoor sculpture round out his talk, though he wears his learning lightly.

Great stuff, and deserving of a larger audience than the 50 or so who turned out. Surely it wasn't the football? I didn't even notice that it was being sacrificed: anyway, the talk ended early enough to let me watch the final 20 minutes - a satisfactory result!

On Sunday evening, we were in the (virtual) presence of another master of his art, Woody Allen - his Blue Jasmine, brilliantly over ripe, and redolent of the world of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A garden toast

Old friends from East Anglia were on a Wales and West tour, and spent last night with us. It was their wedding anniversary, for which they very decently supplied their own champagne. The air was warm enough to drink it in the garden, but the wind too gusty for supper outside. Anyway, we would have missed the heroics of Mario Balotelli.

Johnny and I looked at my album which included the week we were both together in Lourdes 39 years ago: he, always immaculately turned out, was there wearing the very same jacket as in this photograph, and even now hardly looks more than a year older.

Penalty shoot out

Well, we lost again: not that we deserved to win. And Italy have spared us a greater humiliation - as it would have been if we had had to meet Germany this coming Thursday. We've been enjoying the other matches, without the habitual edge-of-the-seat stuff that goes with an England game. And they have all been played in what seems like a good spirit, give or take a few theatrical dives. Of course, the logistics of a tournament straddled between two countries as vast as Poland and the Ukraine makes the mind boggle. Our local paper reports one fan to be flying out for more or less every match (and back afterwards - presumably for a very bleary-eyed next day in the office). He'll now be spared any further need to guzzle carbon - this time round at least.

Meanwhile, on our back lawn this afternoon, William and Laurie were pre-enacting that Alessandro Diamanti/Joe Hart moment.

Holy Saturday at The Hawthorns

Perhaps five is a little young for your introduction to Premier League footie, but I think our eldest grandchild will remember his trip up the M5 nevertheless. William and I saw West Bromwich Albion win this afternoon - or at least saw the first of their three goals. (It's being well celebrated here, notwithstanding it was in fact a Blackburn own goal.) 45 minutes was enough - it was a longish walk back to the car, and good to avoid the crush at the end.

The Hawthorns clearly welcomes families in its spacious, modern East stand. There were plenty of helpful marshals, and no sign of any trouble or abuse - a happy outing! And we paid a visit to Tewkesbury Abbey's Easter tableau on the way.

Football matters

Last night's match between Austria and Germany was slow and not very pretty. Certainly not as exciting as Holland v France last week. We were supporting Austria, a country where I spent three very happy and formative months after leaving school. But though they had more speed and some youthful enthusiasm, they lacked all finishing power. And this was a match they needed to win to stay in the competition they are jointly hosting. Germany for their part were unconvincing, an unattractive bunch, not playing to their potential. Having said this, they will probably go on to win the Championship - but I hope not.

It makes it much easier to watch, with England out of the equation. And on such an unseasonably chilly night, we didn't mind sitting with supper on our knees, rather than being outside at the round table in the garden, which is where one would expect to find us on 16th June.

This alternative football photograph was taken when I was walking near St Agnes in Cornwall last July.