Dear Brethren All,
Here it is just after 07.00 hours on a dull, wet, yes, it is raining, summer morning, where is our summer this year!!!! It has been a topic of conversation on television recently but we cannot control the weather. In spite of that, the soft fruits in the garden are producing well. A couple of days ago our, 15 months old, great grandson visited, with his mother, to pick some raspberries, it was a picture to watch him assisting and he did not eat one raspberry but carried the container around very carefully. There is plenty of fruit forming on the blackberry bush and loganberries are doing well. Pat has lost all of her sweetcorn to mice, along with a few other vegetables.
Our cruise was interesting, as with many of the passengers on board we were looking forward to visit the Isles of Scilly, especially the Tresco gardens, but due to heavy seas that port was cancelled. So, we visited Guernsey, St. Malo, which was not scheduled on this trip, and Honfleur. A good time was had by all in spite of the changes that were made due to bad weather. Safety first though as most of these ports are only accessible by using the tenders.
On Tuesday last many of us attended Mark Grand Lodge at Great Queen Street to see some of our brethren receive their first Mark Grand Lodge Appointments. Many congratulations to those who received such honours. This again was an interesting day for travel. Just before Mervyn Harkness and I boarded the train in Andover an announcement was made that there was a signalling problem in the Basingstoke area which was causing problems. In the end we arrived about 50 mins late at Waterloo. We still had plenty of time and travelled by taxi from Waterloo with brethren from Devon. It was really good to see a goodly number of our brethren giving support to this occasion, I am sure that the Provincial Grand Master is proud to have such supportive brethren. Please, if you can, support the Provincial Promotions meeting coming up soon.
Tomorrow is Father’s day, I hope that you all have a good time, as this is another chance to be with family and enjoy one another’s company. It is not possible for us all to enjoy getting together for a number of reasons but I hope that where possible, contact is made with the family. As I have said on a number of times, families are so important to our mental and physical welfare please have a good time.
There are still some brethren who are not able to attend our meetings, please keep them in mind and make contact where possible. A phone call or visit might help tremendously, I do not know, but try and keep those lines of communication open.
The European Football Finals have started, and in my opinion, the German team has set out it’s stall in the first game against Scotland, they will be stiff competition to take on but I hope that we see some good interesting and well contended matches.
Best wishes to you all.
Malcolm Lloyd, P.G.S.D., Prov. Grand Almoner