St. David's Day at St. Clement's

Last Saturday was our first Saturday at our pet church! The goal is to open it every Saturday from 11a-2p. The daffodil is the Welsh national flower, and good Welsh people wear one on St. David's Day (just in case some readers may have missed last year's explanation).

And it is also my goal to move some of the dust and cobwebs to the outside of the building :)


There is a LOT of dust and a LOT of cobwebs. There is a LOT of dust IN the cobwebs.

Cobwebs are particularly black on the monuments, and there are lots of little crevices, and drunken-looking cherubs with fiddly wings, for them to stick to. On the monuments are also some interesting shields -- I think it might be interesting to see what some of these people did, as this shield makes one think that perhaps this person was someone Colonial.

So far, in two Saturdays, I have lightly brushed away the cobwebs within my reach on the white stucco around about 2/3 of the walls. It feels a bit naughty to be standing on the pews, but one must clean. I think I need my Oma here to supervise :)


Have barely made a dent in the dust, although quite a significant amount has been exported. This week, I collected the sweeping dust into a bucket rather than flitting out after each sweep.

There is a lot of carved wood on the Victorian furnishings within. This is a detail of the front of the pulpit. On the ends of pews are carved Christian symbols.


This photo shows some of the fire damage to the organ. The guy who set it on fire, David Pitts, 52, was sentenced 2 weeks ago. He is to serve 9 months and then be supervised when he is released. It seems a bit un-punative to send him to prison since he lit the fire so as to go back to prison.

Although the pews look lovely in the sunlight, they need some conditioning. The Churches Trust man was alarmed by my mention of lemon oil -- it is non-existent in this country, which Paul and I think is really silly since they have so much old crap :) Paul kindly located something British online, which is named much less frighteningly 'Wood Reviver'. If can get permission, 5 litres at £50 seems worth it, as it will make me quite thrilled to see healthy wood and hopefully it will also have a lovely clean smell. I am pretty easy to please (in an obsessive compulsive sort of way) :)


My (well, our) pet church makes me quite happy!


*******
[Last week, there were about 10 people who came in while the sign was out, and this week (I was actually by myself since I left Eamonn at the auction to do my nefarious bidding -- mwah, hah, hah -- this is another story for another time) there were close to 20 people! Admittedly, the last person was a madman from Uruguay who randomly (and repeatedly) told me about some German battleship sunk off the coast of Montevideo by three British ships. What this had to do with the church was a little beyond my comprehension, but he did keep pointing to under the tombstones. Then he told me he had never had a woman in his life, just on his way out the door.]