It seems months since I wrote (under Minnow End Musings), so a NEW START is the order of the day.

We journeyed from Essex and retirement in the depths of winter to the frozen lands of the Upper Pennines where we arrived on February 3, and Oh! the space! Not only all around us but in the house as well. Home in Essex was our lovely, cosy 2 bedroom cottage. Home here is 5 bedrooms, 3 receptions rooms, a barn and a garden laid out by a former Rector who was trained at Kew Gardens - despite the fact that it was under several inches of snow.

So here we are - after 3 1/2 weeks of sorting out the furniture, unpacking one million boxes of books, curtain making (Micky) and generally settling in, came the licencing service of welcome, because we have, after all, come to work!

It was a wonderful occasion with a full church with some good music played by a dear friend who plays in a church in Brussels (did anyone recognise "I'm going to leave old Durham town"?) And so it is down to work.

So what is this work? As a house for duty priest I have responsibility for three churches along the north sides of the River Tees. I do not get paid as I am a pensioner, but in return the house is provided rent and rate free. The work agreement is Sundays and two and a half days a week. That is all very fine, but it is virtually impossible to do it in that time, and pastoral crises are not dependent on my diary! So I just gets on with the job and take time off when I need to! Eventually some kind of pattern will emerge: for instance I am discovering that wednesday is not generally a day on which I am inclined to work!

Middleton-in-Teesdale (where we live) is a lovely town/village. Lots of good shops, friendly locals and plenty of visitors. There are loads of good eating places in the area and much good walking. Scamp the dog regularly takes us on circuitous rputes round the town or through the woods. One of our favourites is to follow a mile or so up Hudebeck

I have been visiting someone at the top end of the dale - about a mile off-road along tracks, and the bird life is fairly exciting - to which I shall return on another occasion.

Thats all for now.