Building work is now underway next door.  And it is going well - currently about 2 weeks ahead of schedule so they tell me.  Footings are in for seven of the nine houses and drainage ready to connect on five of those.  Not sure how they'll go about the last two as the portacabins are mighty close to where they need to dig...  Anyway, daily Monday to Friday from 7:30 to 5:00, with about an hour off midday, they graft in the hot sun; except now it is too hot, so they've moved the start time forward to 7:00 and they knock off around 4:30.

All of which means that any hope this minister might have a of a lie in on her day off is scuppered.  The sound of heavy diesel engines, ladders being moved and morning banter make a mighty fine alarm clock.  All of which must mean I was a very wicked child I guess... ;-)

PS I just spotted that this blog is still operating on GMT not BST - I wasn't typing at 6:25 am!

So, this morning as I waited for the vicar, I was wandering around the graveyard of Our Lady of the Beehive in the Fields.  Among the stones whose should I spot but... Grace Poole (think Jane Eyre) and Thomas Hardy... this place is well weird!

Driving back I spotted a cortege coming the other way along the road, so pulled over to allow it to pass unobstructed, well trained minister person that I am.  The drive behind me saw this as their excuse to race past, squeezing between the hearse and parked vehicles.  No manners, no time to live... and I really don't need the work that much!

I hate word limits.  I understand and appreciate why universities use them but they drive me nuts.

I hate absolute word limits absolutely, to plagiarise a well known phrase or saying.

So, I am about to start the third radical edit of a paper with a 6k word absolute limit that is currently still 300 words over.  My mother's (non-serious) suggestion was to delete every 20th word.  As it is I will remove a few not absolutely essential sentences, adopt a different 'grammatical' voice in a few places (not sure what it's called though - the 'radical edit voice' sounds about right) and hope to goodness this does the trick.  And in these days of electronic submission you can't even fiddle the declared word count... not that I would of course!

Ah well, back to the swingeing electronic razor blade!

An insight into Dibley-ish-ness.  The vicar, whom I usually meet at her smallest church for morning prayer on a Wednesday left a message on my answerphone to say she couldn't get, but if I wanted to go up and pray anyway the key is under the beehive, or if I couldn't spot it to ask the farmer's wife.... Only in Dibley!

Last night was the last GB meeting of the year, and for the company I've worked with the last meeting as despite the fact that there are three other leaders, none of them felt able to take on overall responsibility for running the group.  We will close formally with a party and thanksgiving service in September, just before I move north.

Should I be sad?  Well, I am a bit, but not exactly surprised.  For whatever reason there few people able or willing to commit to the rigorous training that uniformed organisations demand of their leaders and some churches confuse 'uniformed' with military/old -fashioned and 'structured' with restrictive.  In an age when we speak of 'holism' it is sad that the GB 'four square' programme of spiritual, physical, educational and service is judged staid, boring or restrictive in some circles.  I need to be clear, this aren't the reasons given in Juxta Dibley, but I suspect they're lurking in the background.

But in closing the company lots of potential is released.  The other leaders will undoubtedly continue to be involved at some level in church-based children's work and the equipment we have amassed over half a century can be usefully distributed to other GB companies and/or used by the church.

Over the last five or so years I guess I've come into contact with the better part of fifty to sixty girls and young women through GB and it is a privilege and a joy to have contributed in some small way to their lives.

There is a time for everything, and now is the time for this GB company to close.  We can be glad for what has been achieved and alert for the 'new thing already springing up.'  I am glad we're going out with bang not a wimper and trust that the church will continue to work with children and young people in new ways for many years to come.