Slapton with Gran

It is lovely to have Gran with us this week; Gran Durham, not Gran USA. My mum is with us and will be here this weekend when Lydia and Julia show their faith and love for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in believers baptism. However, today we went for a walk at Slapton Sands, looking at the birds on Slapton Ley and visiting the American Sherman tank at Torcross.

Dartmouth Orchestra

Rehearsals with the Dartmouth Orchestra are proceeding with vigour under the direction of our maestro Sid. We looked through A Moorside Suite by Gustav Holst this morning and I tried to come to terms with a borrowed cor anglais! Actually it wasn't too bad - the instrument is fine, so blame the driver!!!

Volunteer Band

Lydia and I have just got home from another rehearsal of the Britannia Royal Naval College Volunteer Band. We are working towards a couple of Christmas concerts on 1st and 2nd december and I have chosen a fairly ambitious programme - but the band is up to it. No one has complained about the 'brutal' rehearsals, but they are capable of playing well and just need the right direction to make a big difference.

A week of meetings!

It has been one of those weeks! We had a meeting of CTID (Christians Together in Dartmouth) yesterday where we enjoyed a presentation from the Torbay Street Pastors team. Whether we need to start a team in sleepy Dartmouth is debatable, but the team are certainly making a big difference in Torbay, by God's grace and strength. Today we had a church Deacon's meeting and got through a lot of business towards our work of bringing glory to the Lord our God of all creation. Saturday will see three of us trundling off to Bristol for a day of teaching of the subject of 'Doing Theology'.

RM Band Service Memorial Service

Lynn and I travelled to Portsmouth to attend the annual Royal Marines Band Service Memorial Service. The new Princial Director of Music, Nick Grace has invited all serving and ex Directors of Music so it was a delight to catch up with all our old former colleagues. We then briefly visited Hannah and Dan to take a few items of furniture to them.

'Rock Solid' Sailing

A long promised sail for one of our kids from the church club was realised today. It was not the best day for it with strong winds forecast, but anyway, Stephen, together with Ciaran and his dad Chris, one of our helpers at the church clubs enjoyed a couple of hours of sailing, motoring and fishing (unsuccessfully) on the river.