Saturday

I spent a good part of the day keeping my foot elevated, which is the best place for it.   This afternoon though I went to the movies with Pattisue, she has been wanting to see Star Trek since it was released here about six weeks ago.     I saw it with Jeremy the day it was released over there, and realised today that American cinemas are twice as loud as ours, I missed some of the film in Northampton because I fell asleep, but there is no way anyone could have slept through any part of today's showing, it was DEAFENING.     

We were going to eat afterwards, but both of us felt a bit too tired, so we might go tomorrow.

From my pics

  This is the east end of All Saints Church, Brixworth, near Jeremy. It is one of the oldest in England, built about 675 in the early Anglo Saxon period.  The early Christian churches were all built like a Roman basilica with a rounded apse at the east end, and the entrance at the west, and I think they are still like that in Europe, but in England they are mostly laid out like the Celtic church, with a square east end, and the entrance in the south wall.  It is all that remains of our Celtic past.    

 A rather nice modern glass porch has been set in the south wall here.

This church also contains a relic (most of them disappeared during the Reformation) said to be the throat bone of St Boniface.

It is said of St Boniface that when he chopped down the pagan Thor's oak at Geismar, he claimed a tiny fir tree growing in its roots as the new Christian symbol.

He told the heathen tribes This humble tree's wood is used to build your homes; let Christ be at the centre of your households - its leaves remain evergreen in the darkest days; let Christ be your constant light -its bough reach out to embrace and its top points to heaven; let Christ be your comfort and your guide.

So the fir tree became a sign of Christ amongst the German peoples, and eventually it became a world-wide symbol of Christmas.