KHPC Fabric Team

Wow! What a weekend! The start of something?        Perhaps?          Yes in many ways, not only because it was Advent. Starting with a team of locals ensuring that the parking outside the Church was reserved for the BBC's OB van. Not always the simplest of tasks in an urban area and especially not here in the West End. There are always spaces to park, but we wanted one particular space right outside the front door!     Achieved! Then we had Recording checks, rehearsals, - one choir upstairs, the other downstairs. In the early evening Cathures gave one of their accomplished performances, much appreciated by all who attended, a good turnout considering that there were several other performances by various groups all on Saturday night! Come Sunday morning - early - back to Church we went, amazingly 80 people were fed and watered following the beautiful Sunday Worship Service, amazingly because I...

I sometimes feel as if the rain will never stop, then I look at the News and see what devastation has been caused by a cyclone in India - Half a Million people affected! All things pale into consideration -  Then I think am I scared of heights - Not if I'm careful! I really would like to see St Cecilia face to face again - especially as a technology malfunction has meant that I've lost a lot of photographs taken when KH was decked with scaffolding before, many have been retrieved but the tower on the Burne Jones Window just might give me the opportunity to retake some.  Then I also remember how happy I was to be up high on a ship's look out tower. SO I'm thinking I'm going to get a new boat, an Ark perhaps?

Here we go again! More scaffolding; this tower went up on Monday, just after another successful Glasgow Doors Open Days weekend. The Window in question showed the effects of the gales the previous weekend, pieces of the external secondary protection had fallen and others were hanging loose. However as I type this Blog I know that the damage will take a bit more work than first envisaged. Already scaffolders, stained glass experts and stone masons have been involved. The conservation architects and insurance loss adjusters may well be next. I have to apologise to our new locum who was thrown in at the deep end when his first attendance at a Mission Panel meeting was enlivened by the workmen above his head. Such is life in a busy working Church building.

Please don't ask me for the translation right away, Portuguese is not my strongest foreign language! However all will be revealed at 7pm on Friday evening at Kelvinside Hillhead Parish Church. This major fundraising event for Christian Aid in Brazil will take place then -and all will be explained. All I do know is, that there will be Food and Music, and that is always a good starting point for any party. Especially as the music is Brazilian (and there will be dance as well!) surely a recipe for success? Glasgow Capoeira will perform their particular type of Dance/Martial Art, always exciting to watch and music from Duo Souza e Mello as well. With fairly-traded food and drink from both sides of the Atlantic, we're in for a most enjoyable evening. All in a good cause,and if we raise £5000, then the EC will match it! Our six combined Churches were able to do this for Malawi, so let's go for it again and spread the message of how unequal life can be in one of the fastest growin...

 Now we restart the Blog on a regular basis and as a catch up, here are some photos to bring us up to date.  More info and pics will follow and please remember that others may contribute too. Winter Sky A useful perch for the birds? Our Joint Churches Service  on a cold Winter's day Our Young Church ensures that we 'Feed the Birds' Spring Tulips Communion Flowers Plucky little Snowdrops pushing through the 'hard as iron' ground Crystal clear night Music on a Sunday afternoon  Twilight Easter Eggs Easter Chocolate (All for devouring!) Easter Daffodils - finally!

Precipitation: 1% Rain: 0 mm Snow: 0 cm Humidity: 60% Cloud Cover: 76% Dew Point: 6° C Visibility: 10 km And a 'real-feel' of 16 degrees C Why is this importatnt?  Beacause it's our annual Plant Sale on Saturday 2nd.June. Peter was out this last week, playing with the power tools, cutting the Grass and Hedges, all in readiness for the Sale. New this year will be the addition of our regular Book Stall, just a little extra to tempt you to part with your coppers -- or even Pounds! As per usual, there will be Cream Teas served in the Hall, (you can't have a garden event without tea) Come along and support us and stock up on locally raised bedding plants for your pots and window boxes. Hope to see you there!

Is that a Perigean Moon peeking through the Scaffold? A rather fetching shade of pink for the inside tower. As before when we need to repair a window, we need to have an inside tower and an outside one. Such are the height of our windows, it's the only way.  Next week the Conservators will remove the badly damaged window and board up the space, probably for about 3 months. Then a nice clean, repaired and re-leaded window will be brought back. That should get rid of a few more drafts.

Beautiful Spring Day. Blue Sky Day. Blossom shows the way.  

 Oh Dear! I was waiting to be collected the other day and as the sun was shining it was quite a pleasant experience standing at the side of the road, watching the world go by. Then I saw it - what had happened? I don't know, perhaps a well fed Westend pigeon decided to rest on this once comfortable perch. The last straw perhaps? However it happened, I do know that unfortunately it will not necessarily be the easiest thing to fix. I'm sure the University were delighted to see it as well, just when they think they've got one bit of the roof fixed another little problem crops up. Cest la vie! N'est pas?

At our Kirk Session Meeting this week we were joined for the first time by our newest Elders. I thought back to my first Session Meeting, and subsequent ones where we would often discuss various matters long into the night. How lucky we are, that with our new way of working within our Unitary Constitution, we have been able to find a better way of looking after the key aspects of our work as a Congregation of the Church of Scotland. We are able to have our lengthy discussions outwith the Session in Panels specifically set up to manage our Congregation. Reports from those Panel discussions are brought to the Session and the entire process becomes more streamlined and effective. For busy people with busy lives it makes sense that we have found a way to make a success of this way of working. New hearts and minds, and hands too, are brought on board to learn procedures and to add their own ideas and inspirations.             ...

The last day of the Month was quite a busy one for us at KH, The first Spring Garden Party and then Open Church, Then in the EveningCathures performing Earth Song for EarthHour. Some but not all are found in the Grounds of KH!

Spring Cleaning! The new daffodils , (many of which were planted personally by Rory) are looking good, and next year should be even better. However it seems that many of the older ones are coming up 'blind'. It is essential that we don't cut them down too soon and it would also be beneficial if we were able to give them some tomato feed weekly over the next month!  The Saltoun Bank It may be that I might not manage to organise the next Garden Party for this coming weekend. But I'm certainly going to try. We need to carefully collect the fallen twigs and branches from around our bulbs and we can strim the 'Front Lawn ; around the bulb clusters. The grass in front of the Oil Tank needs cutting and to that end all of the Power tools have had their batteries charged.  Spring in the Poppy Field The side sweep of grass beside Observatory Road, which will become known as the Poppy Field when it (hopefully) performs next summer,  has got some under-performing...

A couple of computers, a pile of papers and also importantly a plentiful supply of tea and coffee. A busy time for lots of Churches as Accounts are balanced and Annual Reports are prepared. During Lent perhaps the giving up of ones Saturday afternoon is no bad thing. (Not that it's generally just the one Saturday afternoon) A giving of ones Talents and Time,; A sharing of Talent and Time; thankful that we have the Talent and Time to give.

      Promises    of future    Hope?

Rest Time! Yesterday was another glorious day, and big thanks to all who came out and helped. An incredible amount was achieved - I'm still smiling about some people's realisation of just how big the grounds actually are. We were able to get straight into cutting grass and hedges and clearing the stuff from last weeks efforts straight into the Skip. (I'll worry about getting it out of the car park on Monday!) At an appropriate moment, Ann produced yet another batch of yummy sandwiches and she and Elizabeth made the tea and coffee and those who were there all day sat on the "ruins" of the wall and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade. I can't help feeling that the lure of new 'Power tools' helped to keep some of the guys interested for longer. Boys and their Toys! Certainly those arriving for Sunday Service will surely notice a difference.  I wonder if we'll have lunch in the Garden today?

At last! We managed, finally, to get a 40 ton crane into the car park! Hot-Work permits for the roof gutters and all at the same time as the visit from the Insurance Company's Risk Assessor! Umm? Gulp! Mission accomplished! And!!!!!! A Skip is sitting in the Car Park, waiting for the Garden Work Party. Oh Happy Day!

At KH there has been a tradition of having a Garden Party (or parties!) to allow members and friends to come together at the appropriate time to carry out essential works in the garden grounds. Yesterday was one of those days, and the rain did stop and the sun did come out! Firstly, many thanks to those who turned out and contributed their time and energy, and special thanks to Ann Shill for the yummy sandwiches. Our youngest labourer took great delight in sowing the seeds of the Wildflower Meadow, showing great interest in the different sizes and colours of seed, while Mum raked and prepared the ground! Office-bound workers enjoyed their blisters (I hope) proof of their hard work - and a chance for my new First Aid Kit to be used. And what was very pleasant was being able to actually do a little proper gardening apart from just the hard work of cutting grass and hedges! New gardeners were surprised at just how extensive the grounds actually are. Alas; because of Parked c...

These special flowers for the last days of July, were given to some special people after Sunday Service.