Starlings in the Rigging; a random picture by Matt Care
If I may indulge myself for one post, I will relate how delighted my dear aul’ Mum (84) was with the Cambria Calendar ordered by me and posted to her by Cambria Shop Manager, Cathy Chapman. “What a lovely surprise!” she writes to me, “The Cambria Calendar – Thank You, and Cathy too, for something that is already a pleasure. Tom (my brother) put it up although it is 2 months early ‘so that we wouldn’t lose track of it’ and it distracts me every time I go by. I can see it raising a comment or two… especially as the Thames Watermen’s Homes are in the Parish”
The ‘lose track’ comment is a family in-joke – Mum and Dad were always very churchy and our place was always so busy with church stuff, boxes of 2nd hand books for sale in aid of charities, junk and the paraphernalia of bringing up three boys that things would always get lost. Dad is no longer with us, but Mum still has plenty of parish types dropping by. She was born and raised in Bromley by Bow and grew up when barges were still in trade; she was delighted that one of her boys moved to Faversham and got involved with barges and the Cambria. She ‘dines out’ on her barge stories with the old boys at “Watermens” where the church (St Helen’s, Ore) still does ‘away’ visits to hold Communion services for the residents. It will give her a massive buzz to have a visitor spot the calendar hanging up and ask about it.
So thanks again Cathy for organising this calendar and then subsequently getting them on sale and posting this one to Hastings for me. You have made a little old barge-fan lady very, very happy.
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