Devon and Downpours

I'm looking out of the window of my room in the country, at the green house, the summer house - well shed really, and Ade and Sue's sloping garden. The birds are twittering, and a cockerel is crowing. Otherwise, not a sound. Peace.
Last week was the bank holiday weekend, and for me that means either the European Cardiology Conference or Greenbelt. This time it was Greenbelt.
I could have gone to the ESC again. It was in Munich, as it was about four years ago, but I have to distance myself from pharmaceuticals these days. So I have had to turn down some offers. Anyway Greenbelt is so much better and a much more sensible use of time. The speakers this year were just mind blowing.
I decided not to get a programme and be 'lead by the Lord'. This turned out to be a great strategy. For a start I wasn't worried about missing things, and secondly I saw all the best things anyway. The big names are on in one of two or three venues, and I simply joined the longest queues. This year John Deer and Giles Fraser were my main inspirations, and John Bell of course. John, he of the Iona Community and regular on 'Thought for the Day', has become a favourite at this gathering. I know they've all practiced what they're going to say a hundred times, but I just think it's brilliant when they talk, as if extemporising, without notes and with arm jestures and emotion.
I love this weekend because it is not simplistic or evangelical, but takes the complexities of faith seriously and offers sensible ways of following the Word. Issues like the use of money and power, sexuality, and what does it mean to be a seeker of Peace. Did you know that Islam means Peace? I was never told that in RE. People are not afraid to find the word of God in the other Abrahamic religions, but also in Buddhism and Hinduism and other faiths. For the first time I have understood what a revolutionary Jesus was and how radical his teaching become for every day life, the Spiritual journey and Politics.
Surely, God was in this place, but the one person I wanted to be there wasn't.
Well if He was there, then He didn't make the weather easy for us. I got a lift down from Ben and Miriam Jones. I hadn't been able to find my tent and pegs so had to go to Camperlands in the morning to get kitted out. When I arrived at the campsite I just managed to get the tent up when the heavens opened, and continued to open for the rest of the weekend. We were literally in bare feet slipping through the mud, just like those pictures you see on the TV of washed out summer concerts. It rained right until we left, as we watched Seth Lakeman on the main stage.
So here in sunny Devon the next weekend it's also time to go home. It's so chilled, as they say, I love it. We took the dogs for a walk yesterday morning and had lunch at a wonderful pub, the 'Ring of Bells'. The walk was in a forest with warm sunshine and crazy flat coats. One of them, Xante, has been putting on weight, becoming lethargic and loosing her coat. These turn out to be the classic signs of hypothyroidism in Retrievers, and so it has proved to be. Next week she's going to start on medication. Pebbles, meanwhile, is a jumpy uppy, lick you all over puppy still.
I shared my early thoughts on what to say at the Labour Party conference fringe meeting with Adie, and he offered some useful feedback and thoughts. I'm going to be letting those thoughts simmer on a low burner while away in Mauritius and wait for them to mature.
Oh did I tell you I'm going to Mauritius? I'm going to Mauritius next week, with all the family including Lucas. 
And a new series of Dr Who. What a lucky lucky person I am.