So Saturday was the annual charity Christmas card sale in Charlbury and the Hound and I popped in to help our favourite local charity;
Helen and Douglas House, the very first children's hospice based in Oxford. It
has a link with my favourite London church , All Saints, Margaret St and the
head of the Sisters of All Saints was the founder. They have since moved from
Margaret St and set the mother house in
Oxford and the hospice was developed in the extensive grounds of the nuns place
there. I'm a great fan of charity shops in general but my favourite has to be
their shop in Chipping Norton. Practically all of my curtains come from there;
probably Jeremy Clarkson's cast offs, and its always a treasure trove of
interesting gifts. So it was a pleasure to support them.
And while on the subject let me mention another very
local charity, Cecily's Fund,set up in Stonesfield, the next village South of
Charlbury and now based in Witney. It was established in 1995 in memory of
Cecily Eastwood who died tragically in a road accident in Zambia whilst working
with children orphaned by AIDS. The charity now supports over 8000 orphaned kids
and helps them to attend school and to train as teachers and health
educators.
http://www.cecilysfund.org/
The weekend was rounded off by the events of Remembrance
Sunday. I went to the Royal Albert Hall for a memorial performance of Britten's
War Requiem. The singing was magnificent; as you would expect form the Royal
Choral Society with my sister Lucy prominent among them. As I mentioned to
Peter Ainsworth, the Chair of the Big Lottery Fund who was also there that it's rather
good having a sister with a superb voice, slightly better than mine indeed and
useful at Bubb weddings, funerals etc.
Britten's work is set around the Latin Mass and the
poems of Wilfred Owen: "Doomed youth" sums up the dreadful slaughter
of youth in the Great War, my great Uncle Vivian included.
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Caption. Can you spot sister Lucy? All the proceeds from the concert are going to Veterans Aid, who are ACEVO members! And that it's
being broadcast on Classic FM 8pm on Tuesday 11th November!
And finally a visit to see the poppies in the moat at the
Tower. A quite extraordinary sight.
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