a sense of belonging

The Bowls Club meet on Friday for a celebratory lunch in our newly refurbished Church Hall. Over fifty members attend.

There are many things to celebrate - birthdays, special wedding anniversaries and fifty years service in ministry.  Advancing years are no barrier to fun and their laughter soon fills the room. I go round taking photographs and hear story after story. It is such a privilege to help document this lunch in pictures.

I meet the most senior member of the club, the two friends whose paths first crossed as four year olds in primary school, a couple at the back still obviously deeply in love after fifty years of marriage.  The one thing everyone has in common is the desire to create and be part of a community.

Don't we all feel that need just to belong ...

sew in love

Dear Sheddists,

I know many of you reading this blog will either have received or been a member of a family that has received one of my dear wife's amazing quilts.

Quilting has been part of her life for so many years.  Indeed, when a significant birthday milestone was reached a few years ago, we celebrated by visiting the Amish community in Pennsylvania, famed the world over for their fantastic quilting skills.

Click on this link for a short piece I wrote at the time.  It describes an enthralling Amish Quilt Auction held annually in Strasburg, Pennsylvania to raise funds for their local fire-station.  Needless to say, my wife contributed one of the quilts for sale.

Her charitable activity on the quilting front doesn't stop there. She's a volunteer with Project Linus UK a charity that provides home-made quilts and knitted blankets to comfort sick and traumatised babies, children and teenagers.

So what do we find here, hanging on our familial washing line. No, it's not a collection of exotic lingerie, perish the thought, it's my Christmas present to my dear wife.  A patchwork quilt kit she will be putting together over the next few months.  

I hope to bring you up-dates as the quilt progresses but in the meantime I would like to dedicate this post to my wife, a fantastic lady with whom I very much remain 'sew in love'!

Yours as ever,

electrofried(mr)