The Priory Church, St. Bees

It was a grand event that filled the church.  We had special music from the Brownies, poems from the Sunday School, and a special anthem from the Choir.  There was a lot of donated food that is being distributed on Monday to various people around the village.  Thanks you to everyone who worked so hard to decorate the church, prepare the music and poems, and gave food. 

St. Bees Parochial Church Council

Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 6^th October 2008 at 7.30pm in New College Hall.

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A photo of the sun shining through the west windows and the chancel screen on a crisp sunny autumn evening.  Please click on the thumbnail for to enlarge the photo.

This last summer Claire and I had the opportunity to spend some time with my parents on their boat on the west coast of Canada. This isn’t just any old boat. They live on it. It’s a 57 foot pre Second World War fishing boat with a checkered history. When my dad first saw it it was nothing but a wreck. It had sunk in the slip and was being fixed up by a drug smuggler. This drug smuggler ended up getting caught in another boat off the Washington coast with a substantial drug cargo so the work on it stopped while he sat in prison. Dad saw potential in this old boat. It had fine lines. It didn’t look like a typical wooden hull fishing boat. He bought this boat off of the marine salvage agent who initially raised it up and set to work on it.

A lot of the guys working on the ship yard thought the boat was too far gone, but my dad has an understanding of how long term projects unfold (he supervises mechanical contracting on large scale building projects in Vancouver). So, methodically and deliberately, he set about giving this old boat a new lease on life. He gave it a new name (Axelina, after my great grandmother). He went through Axelina beam by beam, plank by plank, pipe by pipe. Sorted the mechanics out, removed, replaced, revitalized whatever needed to be done. As my dad began to work on Axelina the smuggler’s illicit purposes became more clear. There were two water tanks in the back containing petrol with a pipe running from each tank into the bilge. The boat has a diesel engine. The intentions were clear enough, the smuggler was going to set fire to the boat if he got caught off the coast. Read the rest of this entry »