DECEMBER months in Salcombe seldom hold snow, but nevertheless, silver hues and low suns hang over the harbour, the sparsely populated beaches marking out Nature’s quieting of the seasons. Most yawls and yachts are back in boatyards, leaving the waters vacant for hardy surfers and persevering fishermen. Striking seascapes and close-knit communities make winter and especially Christmas in south Devon a glorious place to be.
A solitary habit of mine is to rise early with a giant mug of tea and sit in our sea facing verandah to say the Psalms. With good timing, I can catch the winter sun breaking the horizon. Avoiding social media, opening emails, taking calls—before porridge and toast and even sorting out teenagers—this has to be the first duty of the day. If I forget or get distracted, then I generally feel out of kilter or overwhelmed with the subsequent pastoral duties and church busyness. I commence my Matins ritual by repeating the Easter proclamation and responses: ‘ Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed!’ This is my daily one-line bespoke sermon to myself.
It is my standing joke with parishioners at Midnight Mass to wish them a Happy Easter from the high altar as part of the final benediction. Tongue in cheek, before the sacred liturgy concludes with a rousing congregational H ark the Herald Angels Sing, I underline that we might all spice up our perfunctory greetings of ‘ Merry Christmas’ with Easter acclamations. Faith informs us that every day is Easter and all Holy Communions, even a Midnight Mass, proclaim the empty tomb as much if not more than the birth at Bethlehem.
This story is from the December 15 - 22, 2021 (Double Issue) edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 15 - 22, 2021 (Double Issue) edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Too divine
Four actresses earn the plaudits this month, for parts ranging from Sarah Siddons to Charlotte Bronté
Stashed away
The vast collection of the late George Withers, encompassing everything from Prattware pot lids to barometers, doubles up as a guide to the mid-market collecting fancies of the past 60 years
Parsley of Macedon
Not quite a native, alexanders can taste like joss stick-tainted celery or sweetly spiced parsnips, depending on your method, warns John Wright
A hungry heart
A man who strove, sought and found, Wassily Kandinsky pioneered not one, but two artistic movements against the tumultuous backdrop of early-20thcentury Europe, as Holly Black relates
Royal favours
AFTER much speculation as to what might be the favourite flower Her of Elizabeth II, the truth was revealed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2019.
Smart thinking
A private family garden near Godalming in Surrey How does a garden design begin? With a lot of questions and by finding a central theme says James Alexander-Sinclair
Escape to the hills
These four houses in the county of Surrey can offer the best of both worlds: rural settings and easy access to London
A little help from your friends
Driven to distraction by paint charts? A colour consultant could be the answer for anyone befuddled by choosing the right hue
A (crab) apple a day
They may be too tart to eat, but crab apples can be made into all sorts of good things, from jellies to salves, and may even have been Adam and Eve's forbidden fruit, says Ian Morton
The sound of centuries past
The past 50 years have seen an energetic revival of the instruments that would have been played in Bach's day. Henrietta Bredin meets players fascinated by the noises Baroque composers would have heard