20 May

Dear Friends,

The sunshine has sent me back to the Vondelpark to walk and sit and people/dog/duck-watch from my favoured bench - directly opposite the stork’s nest. It is curious how you become invested in small features of your landscape, even in a temporary capacity.

It seems to me that the female is sitting on eggs, though it seems a late hatching, and the male comes and goes, gives her a wee break, as she stands and stretches her wings, literally, and delivers food. Do you have Deliveroo here in the Netherlands?

It was a joy to host the youngsters of the 20/30’s group on Sunday past. What a lively and interesting group of young people! To say nothing of talented and generous, arriving with a beautiful dessert, and taking over the making and serving of coffee and tea to accompany same. Many congregations would envy you the diversity of age range represented here in the ERC, Amsterdam. I mentioned in passing to them how impressed I was with the courtesy of the young folk here, always standing up for their seniors on trams etc. even though it confirms that we are undeniably in “that” age group! My friends who visited here earlier in my stay noticed it too, and wondered whether it was due to the young peoples’ fear that, as the trams rattled around corners, the “old folk” would lose their footing and land on top of them.

Wishing you all what promises to be another lovely sunny weekend, and a good week.

With blessings and best wishes,
Fiona Lillie

ERC Locum Minister