» It has been a quiet start to the new year at the monastery. And a wet one. Fr Alban returned yesterday after spending a week with his father Don, coinciding with the latter's taking ill. Don, happily, is back at home after a spell in hospital. Br Alexander also returned yesterday from a shprt holiday which marked the end of his formal three-month postulancy. Please continue to pray for him as he continues his discernment towards applying to enter the novitiate. Fr Hugh leaves today for a week supplying in the parish on Jersey. At the end of the week Fr Gervase will also be away, on a spell of holiday at home on another island, the Isle of Wight.
» The constant wind and rain the last few weeks have exposed us more frequently to the problems in the upper windows of the nave in the abbey church. A number of leaks appear when the wind is high and from a particular direction. Apart from the constant need to be putting out buckets and mopping up sodden chairs in the nave, it is doing no good to the concrete down which the leaks stream. In the next few weeks we hope to get a cherry-picker in to enable an inspection of these hard-to-reach upper levels in order to determine the best (and hopefully not too expensive) remedy.