Morning Prayer – Thursday, 7th April 2022

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When Canterbury Cathedral was closed because of the Covid pandemic in March 2020 the then Dean, Robert Willis, and his partner Fletcher took to filming daily services in their garden through to May 2022. Usually joined each day by at least one of their cats (Monkey, Lilly, Tiger or Leo) and a whole host of their menagerie from pigs and chickens to hedgehogs and newts and whilst sitting in the gardens through all seasons, this is a wonderful way to switch off and meditate whilst listening to a mix of poetry, recitals, current affairs, music – and of course the daily psalms and readings from the bible which are then explored and unpicked by Dean Robert.

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For Morning Prayer Dean Robert uses the Church of England book, “Common Worship Daily Prayer 2005” (Church House publishing). The bible is the English Standard Version (Collins), and occasionally - though always stated - Dean Robert uses the New Revised Standard Version or the King James.

Read the transcript (provided by YouTube)
good morning and welcome to the dinner garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of thursday the 7th of april as we come to say our morning prayers be welcome wherever you are across the world and bring your own concerns and intentions to a spring day in england but in the summer in the southern hemisphere an autumn day and we are sitting here at the end of the garden but let's remember first our first point of prayer for the ukrainian people both those still in ukraine and the ruination of their cities and the uh almost slaughter of of their civilian population but at the same time we remember those who have fled that land and are seeking shelter and hospitality safely elsewhere so at the same time we remember world leaders and all the decisions that they are having to make at this tense time for our world we undergird that with our prayers across the world as we always say each morning we must never forget to pray in this way for the graces and qualities of the kingdom of heaven to be realized on earth my kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven we've come here to the orchard uh the very far end of the orchard the sun hasn't reached here yet this morning it's beginning to touch the lower end of the orchard but we've come here for a last throw with the daffodils behind me there is a a hazel tree a hazelnut tree in early leaf flesh has plenty planted many of them in the garden and kentish cob nuts but it's true to say that at the end of the fruiting period when we're just about to get the nuts we've never had the taste of one because the squirrels are much much cleverer and they get them and so there's a running battle between fletcher and the squirrels with regard to the nut harvest but uh it's a bit like leo and the robin uh that there's an affectionate relationship and they make us laugh the squirrels but they are always much cleverer than we are in in their harvesting at the right time of year but we've come here amongst the daffodils and the first flowering of the orchard trees a last throw for the daffodils and no better day this is the 7th of april the birthday of william wordsworth in 1770 and we shall be thinking of him and his sister dorothy in our reflection later on but for the moment we're turning back to our prayers and also to our reading from john's gospel so let's begin our prayers on this blowy but really lovely morning and the sun will break through in the end i'm quite sheltered from the wind by the tall trees here oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among the nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind does we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our psalm this morning on the seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouths are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think out mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way nor do they abhor that which is evil your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy oh god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand notice how the psalmist uses all the way through natural images of the creation your love reaches to the heavens your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness is like the strong mountains your justice is like the great deep all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings but at the same time oh good morning robin hello how you found us i thought you would how are you this morning i think he's saying he's very well are you yes you're taking food back to your nest i think that might mean you've got some young ones does it i think that's a yes and that verse you lord shall save both humankind and creatures man and beast in the old translation well it's a beautiful psalm and particularly the verses which talk about drinking from the river of god's delights for with you is the well of life takes us straight back to jesus sitting by the well and offering that wonderful gift of living water to the woman of samaria at the well whose eyes are open so that she becomes a conveyor of the good news herself and goes off to find others to bring them to jesus all of that in that psalm 36 as the creatures of creation and the beauty of the trees open things out for us as signs as jesus always pointed them out to be well let's uh go to our reading from st john's gospel and we'll pick up from where we left off yesterday we're in chapter 12 you remember and we've had the great supper at bethany and now we begin the journey towards the cross this is the summation of the vocation that jesus knows to be his and has found it so hard in explaining and causing even the twelve to embrace it and know exactly what he means we shall come across many more explanations in the two or three chapters to follow as the twelve sit around the supper table with him but for the moment they're going to enter the city and this is a really nervous moment for the twelve verse 12 of chapter 12 the next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that jesus was coming to jerusalem so they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him crying out hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord even the king of israel and jesus found a young donkey and sat on it just as it is written fear not daughter of zion behold your king is coming sitting on a donkey's coat jesus disciples did not understand these things at first but when jesus was glorified then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him the crowd that had been with him when he called lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness the reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they had heard he had done this sign so the pharisees said to one another you see you are gaining nothing look the world has gone after him there are crowds coming with jesus from bethany because this is the day after the feast and they're coming to celebrate the feast of passover at jerusalem together with so many people who've traveled to be there the city is bursting with people for the feast of the passover and jesus takes the road over the mount of olives and comes to jerusalem already surrounded by those who had been with him in bethany and the people cutting pound branches signs of victory and of the sense of them feeling that he is their king their leader and waving the palm branches and shouting hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord even the king of israel and then likewise in the city itself rumors get around in a crowded place and rumors are saying that jesus is coming to jerusalem so the crowds there from the city go out to meet him and then there will be a complete meeting and swirling of all the crowds around him as the two crowds meet the ones from bethany who have perceived that the sign which has been done for that their friend lazarus who lives in the same village and at the same time all those from the city who are coming out to join in this procession now we're used to this procession being described in really all the gospels and as saint matthew and saint mark and luke tell the story then when we read it in saint john and we know that the evangelist in st john assumes that we know parts of those other gospels remember how he referred back to mary and martha so that story from which is only properly told in luke's gospel of mary and marcel serving jesus and martha's saying why don't you tell my sister who's kneeling at your feet to uh and listening to you to come and help me get things ready um that this evangelist as soon as we know and the voice of the evangelist keeps breaking in to help us to understand what's being said as the gospel of saint john is put together and here we see in uh chapter 12 first of all the prophecy is mentioned fear not daughter of zion behold your king is coming sitting on a donkey's coat well that's from the prophet zechariah and it's from chapter nine verse nine you can look that up in the old testament so the evangelist is saying by doing this this prophecy is fulfilled jesus is coming on a donkey into the holy city fear not daughter of zion behold your king is coming sitting on a donkey's cult and then the evangelist tells us and we're used to this the 12 did not understand this i feel so sorry for them because the magnitude of what they're being called upon to understand before they have experienced any of it other than the human ministry of jesus and so often they feel rather um nervous that they've got things wrong again that's very apparent in the synoptic gospels and in mark's gospel they they're quite silent in the boat with him do you remember because they get all the things about the the signs wrong but here we're told by the evangelists his disciples did not understand these things at first but the evangelist is writing back from a long time forward and saying but when jesus was glorified then the disciples remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him they remembered then it's not the first time we've seen that right from the beginning of the gospel we get influences that the disciples remember remember that in the cleansing of the temperance in john's gospel which happens quite early in the gospel and when he does it they remember all these things later so much is being stored up in their experience their experience of fear as well as of joy and of puzzlement as well as glorious realization from time to time all of this is there as the evangelist keeps speaking to us because the evangelist is expecting that we will be in the same boat quite literally uh and uh at that time not understanding until something in heaven and on earth in our life gives us that moment of perception which opens the gates of heaven it happens at a glimpse from time to time and takes us bit by bit along the way of holiness if not only our physical nature and our mental thinking but also that dimension of the spirit is open and ready to receive it one never knows when these hints and signs are coming in our own life and some of the some of those can be quite unwelcome about what we're being expected and asked to do in that sign of our own particular vocation this is the time when we walk through passion tide pace by pace we'll come back to this story of course on sunday palm sunday when a real donkey will be here leading our procession in the cathedral from the chapter house around the cloister often two donkeys generally called william and mary uh and uh we've got to know them over the years but in the pandemic of course we're not allowed to have those live processions on sunday we're able to do it again so we shall do that remembering the entry into jerusalem here there in this gospel there is no pause on the mount of olives where jesus weeps over the beauty of the city of jerusalem and then says how i wish you had known the moment when it came i am remember in the church choir keep talking about that uh there used to be two particular cantatas uh and were talking sort of late 50s early 60s which were always sung alternately almost um from on on good friday one was stayner's crucifixion always made an evening presentation of that and the other was maundus olivet to calvary and in that one i remember well a beautiful tenor recitative uh which shows how jesus crests the mount of olives and looks down on the city of jerusalem below and he the the recitative which isn't taken from biblical words it's it's a kind of poetic reflection to start with like of our vision in the morning sun lay the proud city of jerusalem it talks about its shining towers and and then um on on zion's holy hill the glorious temple in its splendor sean with its gold shining snow white pinnacles and then the tennet aria goes at the sorry the recitative goes on and jesus paused and gazed with wandering eyes while the hushed multitudes to stood wandering near i think i think the words are something like that and then then the lovely arya begins oh jerusalem oh jerusalem if you had but known in this your day the things that belong to your peace but now they are hid from your eyes for the day shall come upon you when your enemies will surround you and dash you to the ground you and your children within you o jerusalem had you but known the things that belong to your peace that's a lucan meditation from the gospel of saint luke but we tend always and as i say this evangelist seems to assume that we know parts of the gospel of saint luke if not all of it when the the the gospel the fourth gospel is being put together and there is that sense of jesus entering a city that he knows its name means vision of peace but she finds it full of violence and controversy and that we shall see as we go step by step through this particular week the prophecy the palms and the intention of jesus to show what kind of king if they're going to use that word it wasn't a word he liked to use he tended to use the word son of man and being lifted up and spreading his arms for the whole world and there's something prophetic from the pharisees also in verse 19 if you look at it the pharisees said to one another you see you are gaining nothing look the world has gone after him not the people of jerusalem not our own people have gone from judea and galilee no the world has gone after him well let's come to our reflection for today and um think of these special dates as i say there are two special dates but they belong to the same family william wordsworth born on the 7th of april 1770 and died in 1850 and we can never think of william wordsworth without thinking also of his sister dorothy wordsworth and i want to think of both of them this morning her date doesn't coincide with april the seventh dorothy was born on christmas day 1771 and they themselves were baptized together as as as babies and she died after william in 1855 and through the whole of their adult life they were inseparable not just siblings but close and creative friends and i often wonder how wordsworth's wife mary when he married mary because dorothy continued to live there actually coped with that situation because dorothy very much claimed ownership not only of her brother in real terms as his sister but also of his creative genius and just as william wordsworth wrote poetry so dorothy wordsworth wrote constantly in her journal and thank god those journals have all now been published so that her great part in the inspiration of the romantic poet williams wordsworth is now known because william used her notebooks to remind him constantly of experiences that they both had had often with another friend in earlier years with coleridge but we remember them being born in the lake district and wordsworth's life was after a real sort of branching out into a flavor of let's go and claim the world of suddenly feeling homesick for the lake district and are going home and when one gets to his later poetry there are two things that are there one is that sense of being home again in the lake district for the latter part the worry most of his life and the other is the sense that in childhood or in the qualities of childhood the spiritual perception was much brighter and one could reclaim it with moments of memory so that one of his odes is called intimations of immortality and the intimations are taken from childhood it's one of his odes but for the moment let's uh think how his romantic poetry began to flourish at first he found himself completely besotted with the ideals of the french revolution as though this was a moment of freedom and this was at the very very early stages of the french revolution he had a french lover annette valone from with whom he had a child and uh in 1791 all of that was was strong with him and remember that couplet in one of his poems bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven there were no limits to what he could do and then suddenly all the terrible disillusionment of the reign of terror and all that happened following the early years of the sense of democratic freedom coming to the french people which turned into the guillotining reign of terror and a sea of blood across france and he recoiled from that and then later when he and dorothy were in germany those first uh stirrings of homesickness for the countryside and the home he had known and he and dorothy came back they lived in somerset for a while as you probably know and then eventually returned properly home to the lake district and to look at some of his i've got the whole set of words of my copy of wordsworth here to look at some of his his uh poems at that time become quite a a lesson as to how he was thinking at that time he was telling the feelings of his heart to others in a quite intimate way but most of them were things which he viewed or suddenly came upon upon him and of course the the most famous is the poem about the daffodils let's do that i'm going to read that in a moment please don't worry uh but um let's do that after though a poem which he wrote in 1802 when he like jesus was looking at a city early in the morning looking so beautiful and still and peaceful in the morning sunshine you will already have guessed i'm talking not about jerusalem but of wordsworth's view of the city of london early in the morning of september the 3rd 1802 earth has not anything to show more fair dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty this city now does like a garment where the beauty of the morning silent there ships towers domes theaters and temples lie open unto the fields and to the sky all bright and glittering in the smokeless air never did sun more beautifully steep in his first splendor valley rock or hill now saw i never felt a calm so deep the river glideth at his own sweet will dear god the very houses seem asleep and all that mighty heart is lying still very soon the city would awaken to its work and the moment would be lost but see how wordsworth captures the moment and then reflects that to the heavenly itself dear god there's always that spiritual dimension within wordsworth poetry but let's come to the daffodils then because they too are of that kind of vintage what i wanted to do there though was first read you dorothy wordsworth's piece in her journal for that day when they saw the daffodils together it was compared william westworth was composed in 1804 but in her grasmere journal dorothy writes on the 15th of april 1802 so that's before that poem about the city of london and and the sonnet about westminster uh then uh she wrote and this is not poetry this is diary i never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew up on them over the lake they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing that's dorothy in her journal in april 1802 here's william in his poem which was uh published in 1807 but composed in 1804 two years after doris's journal describing the scene the poem talks about now we're in poetry not in diary i wondered lonely as a cloud that floats on high or veils and hills when all at once i saw a crowd a host of golden daffodils beside the lake beneath the trees fluttering and dancing in the breeze continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay ten thousand soy at a glance tossing their heads in sprightly dance the waves beside them danced but they out did the sparkling waves in glee a poet could not but be gay in such a jockened company i gazed and gazed but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought for oft when on my couch i lie in vacant or in pensive mood they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude and then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils a sign of god's glory but taken from the diarist his sister waking a memory that constantly comes back to him in his solitude and his thinking time that seems to me the creative partnership which these two had and it's one in which we rejoice here's another obviously when he's sitting in the garden but at the same time in 1802 and in his orchard dorothy is remembered here too but he's looking at a butterfly with spreading its wings in the warmth of the sunshine on a flower this is simply called to a butterfly and it was composed on april the 20th 1802 i've watched you now a full half hour self-poised upon that yellow flower and little butterfly indeed i know not if you sleep or feed how motionless not frozen seas more motionless and then what joy awaits you when the breeze has found you out among the trees and calls you forth again this plot of orchard ground is ours my trees they are my sister's flowers here rest your wings when they are weary hear lodge as in a sanctuary come often to us fear no wrong sit near us on the bow we'll talk of sunshine and of song and summer days when we were young sweet childish days that were as long as 20 days are now all kinds of intimations there both of immortality under the beauty of creation but also of sitting amongst the trees as they begin to flower april it was then april it is now and here's a young flowering crab behind me that is blossoming with the daffodils in our orchard and the yellow flowers bit windy for butterflies this morning and a little bit cold but i sort of feel like ought to write a poem about a robin because he's been my companion all the time i've been talking to you hopping backwards and forwards and getting so close and being so beautiful that in the same way one has that intimation of memories of robins who have been once companions in gardens right throughout one's life the friendliest birds of all of england and these islands i just wanted to say just before we go on to the next little bit of what we're thinking about there's also a poem he wrote some rather formal poems later in life as he became more and more conservative with a a small sea and more traditional in his thinking and more hankering for days gone by as the his life seemed to go full circle but he wrote a whole series of ecclesiastical sonnets portraying the growth of the christian faith in these islands through the centuries and i was going to read you ecclesiastical sonnet 14 because it tells the story of the coming of sint augustine to kent here it is forever hallowed be this morning fair blessed be the unconscious shore on which he tread and bless the silver cross which ye instead of marshall banner in procession bear the cross preceding him who floats in air the pictured savior by augustine led they come an onward travel without dread chanting in barbarous ears a tuneful prayer sung for themselves and those whom they would free rich conquest awaits them the tempestuous sea of ignorance that ran so rough and high and heeded not the voice of clashing swords these good men humble by a few bare words and calm with fear of god's divinity speaking of the procession of the 40 monks who came with augustine led by the cross as they landed at pegwell bay and walked up to meet queen bertha and king ethelbet so we give thanks for the way in which wordsworth early in life was inspired by this but all through his life he had in mind a vision that he would write an epic poem in three parts he wrote the prelude and that's probably one of his most famous poems it's full of autobiographical information in poetry just as the diaries of dorothy wordsworth now published are full of autobiographical uh descriptions of their joint life together he wrote the second part which was called the excursion and as with so many trilogies one thinks of elgar's desire to write the apostles the kingdom and then the history of the church that was never done but the first two parts were complete and we've seen other trilogies that were not finished wordsworth ran out of steam towards the end but the first two tell an amazing picture and take us back and particularly the prelude take us back to those intimations of immortality as captured in childhood and then with the same simplicity let's come back to that word again simplicity as his life goes on those gleaming moments when the vision of the daffodils are is realized but the second part is about a journey the excursion and the wanderer is one of the characters so too in that poem the solitary is another these are characteristics of wordsworth himself of how things are sometimes perceived in solitude and how often is when one is journeying that one has other kinds of of experiences which come back to one and his sister's journals were helping him that all the time but the third character in the excursion is the pastor and this is an image of a pastor a priest with his church and his household in stability the church yard in the mountains you you will well know the poem i'm sure it's a long long poem but as this opens up the intimations of immortality by that stability that stabilitas of the benedictine tradition portrayed by the pastoral ministry of the parson or the pastor in their house and their family and the village around them and the gravestones of those who have handed this on and the parish church standing there and the person knowing his people really well all of that gave uh wordsworth an intimation of the stability which the vision of heaven in pastoral terms and welfare offers and for him that became a vision of the church his poetic capacity began to run fairly dry and still towards the end he became the poet laureate in 1843 and in the seven years before his death that he was poet laureate he wrote nothing at all nothing in poetic terms he'd thought a great deal and everything was left there to be published but the last thing to be published were doris's journals i don't think he ever thought they would be published but they were and thank god for that because all the inspiration that they gathered jointly with other friends from time to time and of course wordsworth wife and family because they had children who were part of the household nevertheless the creative partnership a brother and sister went on and all those journals now tell that tale and how the poems were fed but most of the feeding was done by was with himself in solitude and then maybe two years after the experience from doris's journal a poem would come from it intimations of immortality body mind and spirit the wanderer the solitary and then the pastor expressing jesus his care and longing to put his arms around the whole city of jerusalem in pastoral care let's uh say our prayers then on this morning but to get the little sheet to tell me what we're praying for as well we're praying on this day uh the 7th of april for the diocese of western kowloon we're back in hong kong again we prayed for our friends in hong kong in detail yesterday and we do so today again and at the same time we're praying in the diocese for the len valley benefits now that uh comprises the parishes of saint nicholas borton mulherb st john the baptist harriet sham saint mary's lenin and all saints alchem and we pray for the ministry of john huggins and his assistant curate charlotte coles and the ministry of all that parish all those four parishes and especially the schools of alcam church of england primary school and harriet sham church of england primary school pray for archbishop archbishop dustin for bishop rose of dover bishop emma at lambeth but talking about those places the len valley is an area of enormous natural beauty and i'm sure people walking there with uh creative instincts to write things down would have many intimations of immortality as they walk over the hills of the len valley and go from beautiful village to beautiful village so let's say the prayers we have for today and join us with your own prayers at this time bring your own intentions and picture those for whom you want to pray most merciful god who by the death and resurrection of your son jesus christ delivered and saved the world grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory through jesus christ our lord amen and the connect for lent itself almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen oh sorry robin i know you were there so let's say together the prayer our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men see a moment of silence now for your own reflections [Music] he came riding on a donkey he came riding into town slow and easy kind of lowly he came riding with the dawn [Music] his disciples walked beside him saying close a little shine not too sure where he would guide them on to live or on to die but on the morning sang his praises waking first and dancing wind here he is the son of david riding on to take his throne [Music] then the children gathered singing shouts of laughter bursting cheered in the streets their song was ringing hosanna's filled the morning air timid adults strained to see him caught the spirit joined the song spread their clothes along before him branches flashing in the sun so all the city sang his praises waking streets and dancing crowd here he is the son of david our messiah son of god in our fasting and our feasting called to follow in his way called to walk his road to easter called to live his cross today [Music] hosanna's to the son of david hosanna in the heavens above blessed is he who comes to save us blessed is he who brings his love let us join to sing his praises open hearts and souls to god he is with the son of david god's messiah christ the lord let us join to sing his praises open hearts and souls to god he is with us david god's messiah christ the lord [Music] [Music] christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen well it's time to think of riddles and uh we can set another one too uh before the day goes on uh so yesterday we asked let's find uh yes i jump when i walk and sit when i stand what am i well i guess that it's a kangaroo and then as a state in america i am round on both sides and high in the middle what am i and the state is ohio with an o at the beginning and end and high in the middle so here are two more just to keep the day uh you can hold me in your left hand but not in your right what am i and then i am always coming but never arrive what am i leave those two with you they're considered early ones so now let's just look at our other book which we've been enjoying and this is the lost words and we had come yesterday getting through this one now quite fast with these beautiful pictures today we are on uh dandelion yesterday we were on conquer i think so here's a dandelion i can't see any dandelions around here there they're oh there's let's just say there's one over by him in flower or not yes in flower so there we are the acrostic all the way down beginning with d and then a nd and so on dazzle me little son of the grass and spin me tiny time machine tick-tock sun clock thistle and dock now no longer know as dong lion's tooth or wind blow tick tock sun clock nettle and dock evening glow milk witch or parachute so let new names take and root thrive and grow tick tock sun clock rattle and dock i would make you some such as bane of lawn perfection i think that should be bane of lawn perfection or fallen star of the football pitch or scatter seed but never would i call you only merely simply weed tick tock sun clock clover and dock one remembers that uh dandelion leaves are a wonderful salad vegetable and at the same time the seeds themselves uh are um the seeds that we used to blow saying what time is it and you would blow them and as they would go until the thing was over one o'clock two o'clock three o'clock hence sun clock but here's a lovely picture of goldfinches feeding on the seeds with i think a hair do you think uh standing up in the middle of all the dandelions they are tough little things dandelions because if you put tarmac over them on a tennis court they'll push up through unless you've taken the the roots out and i'm being reminded by fletcher that the tortoises love nothing better than dandelion leaves so we think of all that on this early spring day when the sun is still being a bit cloudy and shy but i've no doubt we'll have some brightness later i have a nice morning because i have to go and celebrate communion at one of our arms houses to the folk there who live in sheltered accommodations we call it and gather in their chapel once a month on a thursday morning and this is the morning so i shall go and celebrate the communion with them this morning i hope you have a lovely day as well [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you