2 April 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
We’ve had a couple of unadorned practise batches recently but it is time to go and put the dough on. Tomorrow is Good Friday, which means all sorts of things but one of our traditions is that it is the day of the year for baking buns and putting the crosses on them. All those new-fangled flavour combinations need not apply!
1 April 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
Most churches follow a liturgical calendar around Easter that has the Last Supper on “Maundy Thursday” (where we get our mandatum to love and serve each other), Jesus being arrested and tried overnight, crucified on “Good Friday”, put in a borrowed grave before the Sabbath and resurrected before dawn on “Easter Sunday”. It is a well worn route but some wonder how the time from before sundown on Friday to before sunrise on Sunday can qualify as three days and three nights in “the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Unsurprisingly, these questions rise to the fore online at this time of year – this morning, I’ve read a blog post on the chronology of Holy Week and watched a video arguing for supper on Tuesday, death on Wednesday and a three day gap incorporating both a regular Saturday Sabbath but also a special annual Sabbath on the Thursday:
Note that the video is provided by an organisation linked with a church group somewhat on the fringe of traditional Christianity and it doesn’t reference some of key assertions, such as the existence of a “high day” sabbath as well as a regular one. That makes me a little cautious about accepting it as “gospel”.
Speaking of which, I’ve taken time to re-read the relevant passages from all four canonical gospels: Matthew 27:51-28:8; Mark 15:42-16:8; Luke 23:50-24:12; John 19:38-20:10. That doesn’t magically make things clearer. For example, it is clear that Jesus was laid in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea on the evening of the day he was crucified and that the Pharisees go to see Pilate on the next day, “the one after the preparation”. Wouldn’t those both be Sabbath activities under either the traditional or the “two Sabbath” chronology?
I spent a bit of time to track down one further passage, John 9:1-41. In that one Jesus gives sight to man who was born blind. Unlike most of the healing miracles, we see a lot of follow up on this one, including an attempted investigation by the Pharisees. They claim they want to know how it was done but “he put mud on my eyes, I washed and now I can see” doesn’t satisfy them. It is almost comedic how they make a futile effort to discredit what has clearly happened while the healed man is resolute in his gratitude to the one who healed him. It makes me reflect that it doesn’t benefit me in the slightest if I put hours into studying the chronology of Holy Week if I’m not living in the light that Jesus has died for my sins, resurrected and now sits in heaven as King of kings, Lord and Saviour.
31 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
One of my favourite YouTubers was a gentleman called Tom Scott. For a number of years he put out frequent, high-quality videos on all sorts of interesting things – often quite niche topics but ones that often appealed to me. Then he declared that he needed to take a break and so he did. I’ve seen him online once or twice recently as a guest on videos by various friends and collaborators of his but this afternoon was his first proper release in a new series he is embarking on where he visits each county in the UK.
You can imagine my delight when he decided to kick off not just in Leicestershire but in Loughborough. Taylors of Loughborough is the UKs only remaining bell foundry and that was where he decided to begin. Watch the video below for an informative video on the casting of bells:
30 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
I probably don’t need to plaster my blog with too many footnotes. It should be fairly obvious that I’m mainly offering my own opinions and you can make your own judgement on what they are worth. However, I was having a bit of a fruitless hunt for footnotes elsewhere this afternoon which brought the topic to mind.
A friend posted his Palm Sunday sermon text (see Crater Life) and I was intrigued by the idea he mentioned that, at the same time Jesus was riding in on a donkey, the Roman governor was riding in on a warhorse on the opposite side of the city. I should note that is more of an opening gambit than the thrust of Pete’s message but it is a compelling idea. However, having mentioned it to some friends this afternoon and then having felt the need to dig into it a bit more, I’m not sure it is true.
His source was a book from 20 years ago by scholars Borg and Crossan called The Last Week. I don’t know if they came up with the idea but they seem to have been influential in propagating it and AI-supported searches (for what they are worth) suggested it is now the majority view among scholars. However, I couldn’t find any proper references to historical sources backing it up. What I did find was a detailed (and footnoted) blog post from The City Gate, published in 2016. That suggests it is a key idea opening the first chapter but makes the accusation that “…Borg and Crossan provide no reference to any source concerning an imperial procession the very day that Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey.” It also notes other points which make me inclined to treat their ideas cautiously – for example, they seem to hold to the idea that even Mark’s gospel (which they put as the first to be written) wasn’t authored until about 70 idea (which, if true, would devalue them as eyewitness accounts). Another scholar, Luke Timothy Johnson is quoted as suggesting: “The important thing for Borg is that ‘scholarship’ has disqualified the image of Jesus held by traditional faith.” (The Real Jesus. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996) which would set them as teachers I would put much stock in.
I did do a bit of independent research but the nearest I could come to Imperial processions was Josephus (a 1st century Jewish-Roman historian widely regarded as a good source for the period) mentioning that Roman soldiers put on a strong display of strength around the temple area at the time of festivals (“.. they always were armed, and kept guard at the festivals, to prevent any innovation which the multitude thus gathered together might make” – Jewish Wars 2.224). Nobody was saying there wasn’t a strong Roman military presence in Jerusalem – the gospels all make this clear themselves – but this is no evidence at all for an annual parade.
The average sermon is not an academic exercise but sadly it isn’t uncommon for them to have lots of claims with little foundation, not just as attention-grabbing openers but sprinkled throughout. If nothing else, that is a message I need to keep to heart myself!
29 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
I had thought I might have a fairly relaxed Sunday afternoon but I ended up spending most of it putting up a picture rail on a couple of walls in the living room. We got the wood a few weeks ago and I used my router to cut a 45° cleat at the top and a rounded profile on the bottom but today was the more challenging task of fixing the pieces to the wall. All done now and, once the filler over the screw holes has dried and been sanded down, it will just take a little bit of painting and all will be ready to start putting artwork back on the walls in a way that is more flexible than just relying on a couple of hooks that were formerly in place.
Of course, the fact that the clocks sprang forward this morning and we are now in British Summer Time means the evening is still light… but I’m going to resist the temptation to go out and potter around in the garden.
28 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
The only downside of bass instruments is that they tend to be on the large size. For tonight’s Training Band gig, I had both my tuba and double bass to tote around! All went pretty well though. I managed to get a nice resonance for most of my tuba playing and although one riff didn’t quite drop from my fingers in the first duet song I did, we took off pretty well in I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free.
27 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
There was some noise last year about a Bible Society report which suggested a “quiet revival” was underway, with church attendance increasing particularly among young men with no previous church connection. It caused a fair ripple of excitement across Christian churches but that report has now been withdrawn. It turns out the YouGov organisation which provided the base data hadn’t been as scrupulous as it should have been about the integrity of its information. As the Trojans found out, you should always look a gift horse in the mouth!
I wonder if the attention given to the report will have prompted some young people to visit a church or explore Christian faith? Perhaps so and maybe some of them will stick. Meanwhile, the life of the Christian church will continue as it has done from the beginning not with attention grabbing headlines but with the love of God poured out into human hearts and all that flows from the actual truth rather than just stories we want to hear.
26 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
An advantage of fountain pens is that, when the ink runs out, you replace just that component of the system rather than throwing out the whole implement. However, because I have been using ink cartridges, I haven’t been realising the full benefits of that. The plastic package is still a disposable item and you actually get less than 1.5ml of ink per cartridge. There is a measure of convenience – I have had situations where I’ve changed cartridges while away from home – but now that I’m mainly working from home that is a slim argument.
I’ve recently picked up some converters (refillable cartridges) that fit the Lamy pens I’ve settled on and some other bits and pieces: syringes to help filling with out too much mess, some brown ink and another pen! Given I already had half a bottle of black ink, I could have tried the experiment more cheaply but it will pay back for itself over time. Ink for one year in cartridge form costs about £10 and I’d be using about 15ml of ink as well as throwing away 12 plastic cartridges.
I did my first top ups (black for my main pen and the brown ink in the new pen) and it is all working neatly so far. I did take the precaution of doing the ink top ups in the bathroom sink but, with that facility, I don’t think I’ll end up in too much of a mess. I’m also looking forward to doing some sketching with the brown ink.
25 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
Many of the acronyms dreamt up as bulletin boards turned into email lists then forums and social media sites have drifted out of use. It is quite a while since I saw someone note that IANAL (I am not a lawyer), which used to be a caveat for giving legal sounding advice off the top of your head. However, it is certainly true that I am not a vintner.
We tried the first bottle of the rosé wine bottled earlier this year. It was very still, which is a good thing. The previous batch got increasingly fizzy – not regarded as a desirable attribute for red wine – and ended at the point when you would get more of a fountain than a drink! However, while it has lost the overtone of pear drops, it remains quite sour. I tried the idea of back-sweetening with icing sugar… and it produced a cloudy result that tasted like a sour drink with icing sugar in.
I think it will want another couple of months at least before we take another sample and see if time is mellowing it at all. If not, maybe we need to try it with fatty food that needs something to cut through or even just put it straight to cooking purposes? However, I wouldn’t say that the sourness tastes like vinegar so there is a reasonable chance that it will improve.
24 March 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
This Saturday evening Jane and I are playing with the Charnwood Training Band at Sileby Methodist Church (King Street, Sileby, LE12 7NA). The performance starts at 7pm (expect doors open from about 6:30pm) and we are raising money for The Alzheimer’s Society.
We had our final pre-gig rehearsal tonight so, although we won’t be perfect, I’m confident we’ll put on a decent show. I’m also doing a double bass and flute duet with a flautist friend and there will be a few other party pieces to look forward to as well.