Easter 2002

The churches in the village have been delivering Easter Greetings to all residents in Bagshot, and I though you might like an electronic copy (on the left).  The inside gives details of the services in the three churches during Holy Week so there is little point in me providing a copy of that!

St Anne's church held its Mothering Sunday service earlier in March (you will note that I am one of those who insists on calling it by its traditional name rather than 'Mothers Day' which is what the greetings card industry seem to have corrupted it to).   Slices of Simnel cake were distributed to all the mothers.  Simnel cake is a traditional Easter cake - it is a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan (almond paste) baked in the middle of it, as well as a marzipan coating. That might sound weird, but it tastes very nice.

I guess it is no coincidence that the Christian festival that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus following his death on the cross is at the same time of year as we see the rebirth of the world after the death of winter. It is certainly a joy to see the spring flowers brighten up both our gardens and the hedgerows - there is nothing subtle about spring colours is there?
 
The winter here in Surrey has, overall, been very mild, I only recall one slight flurry of snow during the whole winter. The frosts have not been severe either, which probably bodes ill for insect pests in the garden this summer. We have had the occasional cold spell, and Christmas was one such time, there was snow in some parts of the country, but not here in Bagshot.

Following the mild winter, spring was early this year, according to one report I read it was three weeks early. As an example, the photos I used last year in my Easter newsletter had been taken at the end of March, this year I am using pictures taken at the beginning of March. I trust that you will indulge me the collection of pictures I have included, incidentally the blossom tree near the foot of this page is one of several outside St Anne's church.

In the last newsletter I described the accidents on the A322. Well the council have now decided to take some action including replacing some more crash barriers (which has already been done) and significantly altering one of the junctions to eliminate a blind entry onto the road. I don't think a decision to reduce the speed limit has yet been taken.

Those in the UK will know of London's Millennium Bridge, a new footbridge over the Thames that gained notoriety because it wobbled (a problem that has now been overcome and the bridge is at long last open). The bridge's sponsor wanted it to be known as the 'blade of light' after the visual image the bridge's lighting presents after dark. I fancy that Bagshot is about to get its own 'blade of light' footbridge as, after 115 years of total darkness, the Victorian iron footbridge over the railway is being lit with a near-continuous row of strip lights along its balustrade. I hasten to add that our footbridge has no other similarities with the one in London.