William Roberts painted ‘The Common Market‘ in 1963. Back then, we were debating joining the European common market which we did the following decade. Two years ago, we voted to leave the political union into which this market had evolved. The decision has split parties, ended political careers and rendered politics unusually hostile and divisive.
On Tuesday of this week, the price of palladium overtook gold. The following day, palladium was £15 an ounce dearer than its more famous yellow rival. The market soon adjusted itself, and once more, gold reigned supreme as the world’s most expensive metal.
The weather this week has been so grey and misty that the beautiful sunny days we enjoyed in the Autumn seem quite a distant memory. But thinking back, when I was out on my bike a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help noticing that many of the trees had already lost their leaves. Of those that hadn’t, I think the beeches were the stars of the show, smooth, grey boles reaching up to a green-gold canopy gleaming against a cloudless blue sky.
En route to a trustees’ meeting last week, I passed over Howgill Beck, between the Canine Hydro place and Robin Lane. It was dark, wet and windy, and I braked for a creature on the road above the beck. It was the size of a cat or dog, brown, had a long thick tail and similar long neck/head. It ran away from the car, attempting to gain access to a field under the gate, but failed. I drove slowly forwards, willing it off the road. It found a garden gate and ran in.
I was privileged to see the salmon coming up the river again this year. There were not as many as some years, but a wonderful sight all the same.
The colours of the leaves were particularly beautiful this autumn. I once read, or heard someone say, that the green of summer leaves is caused by excessive chlorophyll (needed, of course, for growth) and it is only in the autumn that trees show their true, distinctive colours.
01282 540562
pastor@martintop.org.uk
Salem Chapel, Martin Top
Rimington, Clitheroe BB7 4EG
Sunday Worship 10.45am & 6pm