Ladies' Guild Meeting - September 2009
The
speaker for the Guild on a very wet Wednesday in September was the
Reverend Doctor Roger Wood. The
evening made more poignant as it was about a month before Roger’s last
services at Streatley as incumbent of the parish.
Roger’s previous talks, usually delivered in February, were based
on the latest holiday that Ros and he had taken.
Roger always emphasised the cultural and scenic nature of those
trips; not quite implying that they had been there exclusively for our
benefit. He claimed in the
past that he had the February slot because of the possibility of severe
weather so he was the nearest; even so last February’s talk was called
off because of the snow.
Lacking
his latest holiday slides, Roger decided to show slides of our area.
He grouped them into the four seasons as a ‘Thank You Card’ to
the area he now calls home. Starting
with winter he showed views of Streatley, which were delightful but the
claim that he had taken them from the back of an angel leads one to wish
that we all had the privilege of our own personal heavenly aviator.
The other slides of the local area were all delightful, even those
of Sundon tip, which was a different way of looking at it.
A slide of roots of a beech tree on the Clappers was so familiar
but exquisite in form and balance. Christmas
in a decorated church, with the Christmas Crib, led us towards spring
where the home range was extended to include snowdrops, primroses and
daffodils in the garden of 17 Sundon Road with tributes to Ros the flower
gardener. Spring took the
camera afield to places, which must be much beloved by all the local
residents, some held dear as unknown to all until the advent of the brown
road signs. We saw beautiful
shots of Ivinghoe Beacon, Ashridge, Aldbury with the stocks, the Grand
Union Canal, trains and sunken, secret lanes.
Summer showed us the heat settling over land, Streatley in its
glory, close up shots of a butterfly, a wasps’ nest of huge proportions,
oil seed rape and the vista of the Hexton Hills.
North Norfolk is now part of the place Roger calls home as he has
been enchanted by the Saxon style round towered churches, wide skies and
beaches of the area coupled with the vast feeling of space generated by
that landscape. Salt marsh
flowers and Sheringham cliffs featured, as did the Broads.
Autumn, the season of mellow fruitfulness, showed us Harvest
Festival in the church as well as hedgerow fruits.
Paradise, York Minster, is also home range for the cleric with the
camera, as are other parts of Yorkshire, such as the cliffs at Sutton
Bank, Scarborough, Robin Hood’s Bay, the North York Moors National Park,
heather and precious shots of steam trains.
On a rare personal note, very unusual for Roger, we were shown
Slingsby, the place where Ros was born and a historic picture of the pair
at the church door on their wedding day; a very pretty bride and a
youthful groom who had not yet dreamed of the joys of Streatley.
Winter approached with interesting slides of mist over the land.
We had come full circle.
We
all enjoyed seeing the places we know well through the eyes and lens of
our vicar. Februarys will
never be the same because Roger with his quietly spoken commentary and
more exuberant sense of humour will be living in another parish, hardly
out of sight but certainly not out of mind.