Postcard from England

Our favorite Tuplet Nester (Fourth Degree) writes:

The Advent service is tomorrow (which is also my birthday — halfway to my three score and ten...) but the pre-service rehearsal will be over in a rush and doubtless a little stressful for reasons I shouldn’t go into here! So I popped over to school just now and unlocked the church just to refresh my memory of the organ there and so on. Every year it’s the same as this service approaches, though it’s earlier than usual this year — it’s an idyll: an English country church set in beautiful grounds, the air bright and clear and cold, but sunny. Today there is snow covering the churchyard, too. It all feels....right! A vision of Olde England, or something. And I sat there at the organ in the cold church, shivering as I tried to remember how to use the pedals (no chance!) and felt rather peaceful for the first time in who knows how long. Certainly my favourite event of the year, this one, and the girls are singing so nicely that I’m not nervous about my own piece this time round, though perhaps that’s a bad sign. Plus, now that my kids are at the school too, my daughter is in the choir/chamber choir, which makes tomorrow extra special.