Ladydale Diary
St. Cuthbert, 2021
I’m late. At least a day late.
I try to write my weekly diary entry and record the three weekly Inner Sanctum podcasts by Friday, at the latest. It is in fact a good and relaxing way to end the week. This week, however, other work commitments have conspired against me, keeping me from my weekly appointment with my friends in the Inner Sanctum; at least until now, which is Saturday morning. The house is quiet. As quiet as a mouse. Susannah has gone to visit friends with Leo and Evangeline. The purpose of the visit, aside from friendship itself, is to set up a cookie and cake stand at which Evangeline and our friends’ children will sell their homemade fare to raise money for a wildlife charity. Evangeline spent most of yesterday baking and was still working hard in the kitchen when I went to bed. Apparently, it was 1am before she and Susannah retired for what was left of the night.
I hope the cookie and cake sale is a success. The last time they did it, they sold out. This time, however, more cookies have been baked. Will supply outstrip demand? We shall see. Personally, I’m hoping that at least one of the ginger snaps, baked to a new recipe, will remain unsold so that I can buy a couple of them, thereby helping wildlife and, at the same time, assuaging my appetite and my curiosity.
It’s been an exciting week in which the solemnity and sobriety of Lent has been punctuated with the culmination of the Pearce Family birthday season.
Wednesday, as well as being St. Patrick’s Day, was Leo’s nineteenth birthday. Evangeline did a great job decorating the dining room, which becomes the party room on such occasions. Green was of course the colour of choice.
In good hobbit fashion, there was a second breakfast, which also served as the first birthday party. I made Leo a banana pancake, his favourite, and Susannah baked two different types of soda bread, a favourite of mine. I love soda bread! She did a sweet and a less sweet version, both of which were embedded with raisins and sultanas.
If there’s one thing that hobbits enjoy more than second breakfast, it’s a second birthday party, the main event of the day, which took place at dinner time. There was the customary procession of the cake from kitchen to table, the blowing out of the candles, and the opening of cards and presents. As for the dining itself, there was Irish stew, with bangers as a side dish, and even more soda bread for dessert!
And if there’s one thing that hobbits like better than two birthday parties in one day, it’s two birthdays in one week. This was the case, of sorts, in the sense that yesterday, the Feast of St. Joseph, was the thirty-second anniversary of my reception into the Church, back in England, way back in 1989. Considering this my (re)birthday, I try to celebrate each year, which almost always includes the breaking of the Lenten fast. This year, I went out for dinner with two good priest friends, one of whom, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, will be known to many members of the Inner Sanctum for his many books, his own blog and website, and also, perhaps, for those members of the Inner Sanctum who also happen to subscribe to the St. Austin Review, the magazine I edit, for the regular column he writes for that incomparable journal. We began our repast with cocktails. The reverend fathers chose Manhattans whereas I went with a dirty gin Martini with blue-cheese olives. The reverend fathers also chose the same appetizer (shrimp cocktail), whereas I ordered half a dozen raw oysters. We all had steak of one sort or another, accompanied by a good west coast pinot noir, and finished with desert. What a truly joyous evening!
Rewinding to the beginning of the week, it had begun with Evangeline and I going to see an excellent production of C. S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian at the local Logos Theatre. Delightful and edifying!
During the week, I’ve taken part in several online events, organized by Manalive Media Group, the Troubadours and Inside the Vatican. I’ve also been interviewed for Vendée Radio in the UK, as well as for Kresta in the Afternoon on Ave Maria Radio and the Son Rise Morning Show on Sacred Heart Radio. As for teaching, I taught the final class in the five-week seminar course for Memoria College on Poems Everyone Should Know, focusing on war poetry and featuring poetry by Tennyson, Chesterton, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Yesterday morning, I gave my regular online lecture for Red Cultural in Chile which, this week, was on Sophocles’ Antigone.
My writing has been restricted solely to one essay for the Imaginative Conservative, which was published on Thursday and relates to the dangers of the cancel culture. In addition, I’ve been editing the articles for the next issue of the St. Austin Review and continuing my day-to-day responsibilities for the Augustine Institute.
The images which illustrate this week’s Diary, taken as usual by Susannah, show the cherry tree in blossom, on the edge of the appropriately named cherry blossom wood to the east of the house. The camellia bush on the edge of the fairy wood to the west of the house is also resplendent with blooms. The hanging basket on the porch is currently being occupied by a couple of Carolina wrens. Spring is indeed in the air!
