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March 2021 March 2021

roasted on a gridiron. There is a memorial in the chancel to Edward Laurence, CRICKET AND VACCINATIONS
who died aged seventeen in 1751, a descendant of Sir Oliver. One of the family
became through marriage an ancestor of George Washington, and the claim is Its 4.30 in the morning and we are watching cricket from India. England are losing
made that the bars and stars in the Laurence family arms became the stars and this test match. I get quite confused by watching cricket this time of day. It is still
stripes of the American flag. The same family and claim are associated with the dark at lunch. I have to go for my morning walk during the tea interval. She
church at Steeple. communicates with her cricket friends on Whats App commenting on the game
as it unfolds. It’s live on TV channel four but there is no live BBC commentary.
There are two fonts, both Norman, one square, one round, at either end of the
north aisle. The round one, with tapering sides, is from Turnerspuddle, moved when Well at the time of writing Valentines Day has come and gone. It has been very
the church became redundant. Bits of the original rood screen are included in the cold. We have not had any snow apart from a bit of a dusting one morning.
screen which divides the so-called Lady Chapel, at the aisle’s east end, from the Yesterday the Ice in the bucket outside melted. We have more daylight. My
nave. The rood screen is also starkly recalled by the functionless gap in the wall Owner thinks we have more winter to come. We are still in Lockdown. Life is very
beside the pulpit which once led to it from the stairs below. The tower arch is dull and the weeks and days drag by.
panelled on the inner, or soffit, side, as is the local way. The colourful reredos was
made – as was the Crucifixion sculpture in the churchyard – by Loughnan At the end of January my owner got together on zoom for a Burns night
Pendred. These and other ornaments were the gifts of Sir Ernest Debenham, celebration. There they were in front of their respective screens hacking into
founder of the great London drapery store. A very practical tycoon, he bought haggis, reciting poetry, doing Scottish quizzes laughing and drinking whisky. She
the Briantspuddle estate in 1914, and created the Arts-and-Crafts village of the had a bit of a hangover next morning. I had haggis for breakfast. Very nice!
same name, complete with milk factory, a mile downstream from Affpuddle. After Following the success of that evening they are venturing to do a William Barnes
his death in 1952 the estate was sold off in small lots. Night on 22 February (his birthday). There will be Dorset songs and Music, Barnes
nd
Poetry, and a Dorset Quiz. There will be a toast to the Blue Vinny Cheese and they
will eat watercress Soup, Venison casserole and Dorset Apple Cake. This event is
being planned on zoom and my owner was told she had NO AUTHORITY to
allocate tasks! It was all a laugh as the media has been so obsessed with a Parish
Council meeting and a lady called Jackie Weaver who just banished Council
members to the Waiting room when they were rude and abusive. My owner
wonders who would get banished from Bere Regis Council meetings. Maybe she
should attend.
Whilst Valentines Day did not
produce any cards for either me
or my owner, but I have received
some fan mail from a Cat called
‘Honey’. It just proves that cats
can read and write. She spends
all her time lying around on
ironing or visiting the neighbours.
I wrote back and told her that we
do not have ironing in our house.
Honey went on to tell me that
she gate crashed a zoom church
service by sitting on her owners
lap. She even met a bishop. I
was impressed. Cats seem to be
getting in on everything. One
even impersonated a Lawyer in America and got to appear in court. My owner

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