The Abbey

The Abbey bell-tower 

DH and I finally managed to have a better look around Quarr Abbey this week.  We love the place for it's peace and tranquility (and the excellent pots of tea served in the cafe) but actually knew very little of the history of the building, nor had we ever been inside.  However, it is possible to have a tour of the Abbey itself, and a very interesting talk given by one of the monks, Father Luke.  The Abbey is part of a Benedictine Monastery, of which I have very little knowledge, so it was very interesting to learn a little about St Benedict, the principles by which the monks live their lives and the history of Benedictine monks on the Island.  The present monastery has been at the present site since 1907, and the Abbey was constructed in 1912, although there was an abbey close by, founded in 1132, which was destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.   We also found the information about the building and design of the Abbey interesting, and seeing inside, we began to appreciate what the architect, Dom Paul Bellot,  was aspiring to.  It is built entirely from bricks, quite unusual, apparently, for such a building, and it is considered the architect's finest design.  It certainly is a lovely building inside, wonderful patterned brickwork, with arches soaring upwards to focus worshippers' thoughts on God.  The sunlight streaming in through the windows cast the most stunning light on the paved floor - it was really beautiful.

Father Luke explained the various daily services that are held in the Abbey - seven in all through the course of the day, beginning with Vigils at 05.30 and ending with Compline at 20.00.  One thing which I think resonated with us was the fact that for quite a part of the day (and night), silence is observed.  No talking or chatting.  There are others around so it is not necessarily solitude, but time to simply be quiet to reflect, pray and study the Bible, or to go about the daily business of the monastery.  N and I are quite happy to spend time in silence, reading or sewing quietly away, but I suspect many people would find the absence of some kind of noisy distraction unnerving.  It was a very interesting hour and I wouldn't mind learning a little more.

Close to the present Abbey site are the remains of the original abbey which was destroyed  - stone from the ruins has been found in a number of prominent buildings around the Island

In the garden, we pulled a good crop of carrots with plenty more still to come.  I've been continuing dead-heading the summer flowering plants, and general tidying-up.  We're mulling over plans for next year.

On the Down to Earth blog, Rhonda has challenged us again on the subject of plastic bags.  The number of plastic bags littering our roadsides, shredded in trees and hedges and floating in rivers and seas is staggering.  I try to do my bit, working on the principle than 'something is better than nothing'.  Earlier this year I made a couple of strong fabric shopping bags which hang by the front door so they are handy to grab on my way out to town.  We re-use plastic bags at the supermarket, and by having my own bags with me I can refuse any new ones offered me in shops, even though that seems to confuse some shop assistants.  

I have started to read some articles online about supermarkets' policies regarding plastic bags, and I intend to follow this up.  I have already found that not just plastic bags, but also other types of plastic film, can be recycled at some supermarkets, so I need to check out the recycling logos more carefully and start making the effort to dispose of that type of plastic at Tesco, rather than in the recycling bin at home.   

The other thing that occurred to me while reading around this subject is the increase in customers who order their grocery shopping online and have it delivered to their house.  Obviously everything is packed in single-use plastic bags.  I suppose some people might choose to unpack their shopping there and then, and hand the bags back to the delivery-driver, but I wonder, in reality, how many customers actually do that.  That's an awful lot of plastic bags being handed out.  I may need to ask some questions. 
As an update to this, I found this link, but I wonder how many customers use the 'no-bag' facility.

(Links to follow tomorrow)
Update 29/8 - finally managed to get links sorted, and updated some info on Quarr Abbey.