As my ideas for St M’s have grown, so have the properties AND with another church, a village shop and a manse in varying stages of the embryonic design process, I have been happily dreaming up so many new festivals, feast days, fundraising ideas and fun for this 12th scale parish that unless I can find a way to live for another 250 years – most are likely to be sadly unrealised!
Fortunately, the vision for St M’s Parish Hall HAS been realised and this old and quaint parish hall has been created as a place for celebration and busy social interaction including a Christmas Coffee Morning to raise funds for Shelter- a UK charity offering assistance for those threatened with the loss of the very roof over their head and a ‘Big Brekkie’ during Christian Aid Week.
We’ve also made ‘Pancake Promises’ for Lent…
And we’ve offered a plate (or several!) of delicious cake during the ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ for Macmillan Cancer Support…
St M’s Parish Hall has also thrown open the doors to host a week of campaigning in which to raise awareness about domestic abuse.
And among the notices jostling for space on the busy parish noticeboard, space will ALWAYS be found for the poster of ‘Missing’ Claudia Lawrence who vanished inexplicably from her home in York in March 2009.
Although St M’s Church and Parish Hall have both took a bit of a battering during the transit to my new studio in York over a year ago and once the bubble wrap was removed and the minor repairs attended to – I decided to give them each a make-over including the creation of a dedicated bell-ringers enclave, a purpose built kitchen, some kinder-on-the-eye flooring.
I also designed some attractive new landscaping for the Memorial Garden which compliments St Margaret’s Church and although the appeal of this scruffy, evergreen and restful place still endures – it remains THE best place in which to enjoy a well-earned cuppa.
And on that note, I shall bid you farewell!
That's SO Tee Bylo! 