In spite of brain, cloud and mist we are off to the Shepton Mallet annual snowdrops Festival which is always conducted with great efficiency and enthusiasm by the dedicated team of volunteers. Sheptonsnowdrops.org.uk is where they can be found. There are various classes during the week but the main activities are on the Friday and Saturday and they ought to be found at the St Peter and St Paul church, St Paul’s school, and the Baptist Chapel.

You may wonder why this diary is headed by an image of a cake. I find that Baptists and Methodist church ladies have the baking of cakes down to a fine art. This tradition does not prevail in the Church of England nor the Catholic church for some reason but lost in the midst of times no doubt. This one I found in the Baptist Chapel. It was one of those ‘cooked with love’ coffee and walnut sponge. The lady has been kind enough to list her ingredients which are self-raising flour, margarine commerce sugar, baking powder, coffee granules and walnuts together with three eggs all for the princely sum of four pounds which is little more than I pay for one slice of cake in your average coffee shop.

So of course me being me couldn’t resist so we bought said cake and as I write at 5:15 on an increasingly rainy evening here in Midsomer Norton we have already sampled two generous pieces to the delight of both our pallets.

Anyway to return to the beginning of our day, we turned up this morning at about 11:30 and repaired straight away to the church mentioned above which has an exceptionally good community atmosphere and many splendid people who form the congregation and go along week after week to worship. When I attended at about midday there were no less than 60 people there and more coming in whilst we were in attendance.

There were a number of stalls selling snowdrop related works of art and indeed arts and crafts in general. A lady was offering free tea and coffee with biscuits. Everyone was chatting in an animated and familiar  fashion. Francoise met one or two old friends and had a chat and I did my usual inane chat with complete strangers. Pictures appear below.

Very friendly community minded church

a slide show of the most successful winners in a local photographic competition

detail of the image top above

Off to St Paul’s school there was a selection of stalls selling snow drops. We had a chat with someone who was running a plantsman’s garden and specialist nursery for choice and uncommon perennials. The place was called ellsworthy-Cottage.co.uk where further details can be found. It is set just within the Exmoor National Park We did not know that there were 3,200 species of snowdrops. There is nothing more pleasurable to me than talking with someone who really knows their stuff and has a wealth of historical information at their fingertips.

Off to Aldi to buy a few essentials. On the way we saw a car which had not been cleaned recently but I saw a windy coast line with a tree blown dry of leaves. Clouds are scudding across the sky on a windswept evening. Come on now, use your imagination. It’s a bit like the ink blot test I know, but why not.

With the threat of impeding rain we decided to make for home. I have approved the new front page of this diary as you will shortly see and I hope this gives the right look and feel to the proceedings.

This morning I wrote to the editor of The Conservative Woman (campaigning web site) in response to her splendid article about the need for keeping faith in the face of the continuing decline in Britain. She wrote back to me thanking me for my communication and asking me if she could publish it. The article might be of interest commerce certainly to those who still claim to have a face in Jesus in particular and Christianity in general.