" Just Nipping Out"

There is a running joke at the cottage that I am always " Nipping Out"
This morning I have nipped out to the field, nipped out to deliver eggs, nipped out to pop some bird antibiotic to a friend and nipped out to walk the dogs along the old railway line at Dyserth
" if I didn't know you better, I would think that you you're having an affair" Chris will often say

Then he will look me up and down, shake his head and say
" who would have you?"


I will leave you today with a little video, which I thought strangely melancholy. Although I am not a churchgoer, the single bell calling the small congregation to church here in the village is strangely evocative of times gone by.
The church's future in the village is numbered., like it is in most towns and villages in the Uk......it is a inevitable shame. I thought this sad thought this morning as the Storm clouds drifted in again from the west and Mrs Trellis hurried down the church path, clutching her hat to her head as the winds whistled in the trees.

59 comments:

  1. Our church bells are now mechanically (computer) operated; I presume yours are still hand rung. A village isn't a proper village without bells.

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    1. That's what I think.....there is something quite English ( dare I say that) about a hand pulled bell....

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  2. I would have you, John! I love the single bell calling the few to church.

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  3. I loved the sound of church bells tolling across the countryside.

    Lucky you being able to nip out. I spent all yesterday til midnight washing laundry, was at it again at seven this morning and still have nine loads to go, each at 2 hours a cycle!

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    1. Proud are becoming a washing queen thomas

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  4. That's rather lovely John.

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  5. no nipping out here, snowing like the dickens in for another major snow storm.........roll on Spring!!

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    1. I feel for you guys in canada and the US
      Have just read about firemen hosing down fires in New York and the spray freezing on contact!

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  6. Anonymous1:02 pm

    A padded bra works for me.

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  7. All our village churches ring out on the hour. Just single bells like yours, nothing fancy, but a lovely sound. We look similar to yourself for most of the time. It's called living the country life! Vx

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    1. Is it a dying spectacle in France as it is in the uk Vera?

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  8. "just nipping out" - I thought I was going to see some shirtless pix of you. quelle dommage. :(

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    1. Not before lunch AM !

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    2. here it's 8:30a, cloudy and 30F. breakfast is in the oven (a quiche). and a shirtless pix would be welcome ANY time of day! :)

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  9. You are stylin;, John :)

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  10. What a day it would be when those bells cease to ring. It sounds rather lonely right now. And I could do with a pair of your boots and trousers with all the rainy weather we are getting in London right now.

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    1. Plastic trousers are a bloody godsend believe me x

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  11. No nipping around here in a large part of the US. Snow and unbelievable cold has made many ( including moi) housebound.

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    1. Going stir crazy? Keep warm and safe

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  12. we have a church on the corner that rings bells and i swear when it closes, those bells will be on my roof!

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  13. Your wellies match your trousers...now there's posh!
    Jane x

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  14. I don't see why the church's days in the village should be numbered, but we in England have been buying up all the chapels and their furniture for years now. A lot of middle-class houses actually have real pews to grab. Maybe you should swell the numbers by dressing up like Chris does and get the Bishop around again?

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    1. I would like to think that you are right tom....especially as the congregation now is 500% bigger than it was in the 1980s

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  15. I "nip out" all the time, too, John, but Kali calls it "disappearing." If she were more "domestic," she'd see the need to run around outside all the time--feed the birds, dump kitchen scraps on the compost pile, etc...

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    1. I do the chores Scott......he doesn't .....so I need to pop here and there.........

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    2. Same here, John.

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  16. This weather cannot get better too soon. Both sides of the ocean!

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  17. Anonymous3:19 pm

    We have one church in the city that has wonderful bells that are hand rung...every Sunday and also for special events. I've been meaning to ask how the poor little mud coloured hen is doing. Has she survived or was she badger food?

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    1. She is doing ok....still very light, so I suspect it's some sort of cancer , but she's eating well.......she has also become quite tame and will take her treat ( a daily cracked duck egg) sat on my knee...

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  18. Is it just me or does the spirit of Tony Hancock live on in Christopher....?

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  19. No affair maybe, but plenty of celebrity crushes....

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  20. Mournful though it is I love the sound of the lone bell.

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    1. We should keep them...just incase of ww3

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    2. or a zombie apocalypse

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    3. Even better!
      Good job I can fire a crossbow

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  21. If I wasn't married (and was your type! lol) I would have you John! I think you're awesome and Chris is a lucky man! :)

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  22. I love the sound of church bells and until a year or so ago we still had them every Sunday but the church was sold off to Coptic Christians who had come over from Egypt and sadly the bell is not rung any more.
    My Mum always used to be nipping out somewhere..
    Briony
    x

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  23. My hubby nips out, but I pop out (ohhhhhh vicar)

    Our village church still has bell ringers. If the wind is in the right direction, we hear the Wednesday practice of our nearest town Minster. I love to hear them on a quiet summer evening.


    Your dress sense is impeccable, wellies as well as crocs, what a turn on.

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  24. When I read that the church bells were silenced for the duration during World War 2, I was very moved. A huge part of so many people's lives (church goers or not) silenced.

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  25. We have an old church very close to us that was built in the late 1800's and its bell rings every Sunday morning--I enjoy hearing it too, there's something very reverent about it...

    But Chris better not be so sure, I think you'd be snapped up in no time, especially if they tried your quiche! :-)!!!

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  26. What a wonderful yet sad post.

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  27. We live in the edge of the city, sharing our little street with a big modern style church. No physial clues it is there on the floor above the chinese supermarket, but come Sunday morning they start to sing and praise in glorious harmony as only Pacific people can. It's quite lovely, the modern day equivalent of the bells. I think they're all mad of course, but I love the singing! (to be clear, I have no issue with God who I think is pretty fabulous, but I do think it weird that everyone wants to praise and worship an egoless entity. It's very human)

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  28. I sometimes wonder if I'm the same person my husband married 24 years ago; back then I was a career woman in the city, wearing a suit and a trench coat, make up and carrying a briefcase. Was that really me?! Now the real country girl, living in a small village in a farming area, usually to be seen in worn out hand me down clothes and mucky walking boots, hair like a scarecrow, no make up and hanging on to two large, mad dogs. But happier and being who I am! And he still loves me.

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  29. Pray the bell stays....also the church.

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  30. For whom the bell tolls? It tolls for thee. Thou? Thy?

    Ah well...With all you do around the Village, I'm surprised you don't ring the bell, too. QuasiJohnO. ;)

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  31. Nice post, John. ♥

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  32. Don't worry, Chris; if he's having an affair it's probably with a chicken.

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  33. oh I don't know, some women like a dirty man...

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