St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
March 2021
Dear People of Alnwick,
In early January Jane began her gardening year by planting tomato seeds.
This year we will have red, yellow and black – yes, black – tomatoes.
The seeds were carefully nurtured in the warmth of the house but now, with plants some three to four inches high, they are lovingly transported to the greenhouse each morning and then returned to the house overnight.
Whilst Jane simply loves the whole process of propagation and nurture I’m afraid my real interest is in consuming the end product. At the height of the season I’d be very happy to have home-grown tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, tea and supper!
Perhaps it is because of ‘lockdown’ but I do find that I’ve taken more interest in watching the seedlings grow this year. Indeed, I was fascinated, when the tiny plants were mainly on the kitchen windowsill, to watch them grow and, more especially, to see how they needed to be turned each day as the leaves reoriented themselves to the direction of sun, growing taller and stronger as a result.
And then, at our streamed Eucharist for Candlemas, Gerard introduced me to a hymn I’d not come across before. I’ve found myself returning to the words regularly and they have become a source of encouragement and hope:
In a world where people walk in darkness,
let us turn our faces to the light, to the light of God
revealed in Jesus, to the daystar scattering our night.
For the light is stronger than the darkness and the day
will overcome the night, though the shadows linger all
around us, let us turn our faces to the light.
Paul.