SPRING ARRIVES WITH A FLOURISH!

1st. MARCH 2010 SPRING ARRIVES WITH A FLOURISH!
Spring has arrived with a flourish! As we finished Evening Prayer yesterday evening we saw the fires on the hills around Korce. Two were particularly bright and an impressive size, so Mirjam got some excellent photos. Later, Lalini and I went to nearby waste ground that had another fire. We walked in the city and saw two more with another by the Cathedral that had just finished. Then today, in each Orthodox home they bake KULACE - a cake with figs, nuts and raisins. We had no less than three sets of visitors bringing us this cake and assuring us we would have a good summer. This does not sound very much like Lent! My Albanian teacher had told me of these traditions. I will now have to hear and see what will happen later in the month for the Muslim Spring celebration!

We also had the Bishop for Mass yesterday and he dined here with us afterwards. We were very glad he promised to do his best to visit us at Easter. He will be en route to the Czech Republic, but luckily they will travel via Macedonia, which hopefully will enable him to divert in this direction during Easter week.

Blessings and prayers especially for those in recent fracture accidents.