325 It rains on Mondays too ...

 It was a grey day by the River Wear today.  

Tons of silt are being carried along and even the ducks looked bedraggled.  You can see the rain bouncing off the water surface.

 "Atmosphere" is what you get in this kind of weather!  ... oh, and you do get a wee bit wet as well!

 Yesterday, in the rain, the Christmas lights were switched on.  Now, you might find it hard to believe that these two photographs were taken around eleven o'clock in the morning today!  It looks as if it is the edge of dusk. 

 I keep thinking that if "tomorrow" is bright I'll get some good pictures of the beautiful and interesting houses around the city ... today my aim was to keep the camera dry under the umbrella!  

 There were splashes of colour too - the phone box and rather drunken-angled letter box add a dramatic foreground to yet another picture of the Cathedral.  I spent a good while in there today - praying and thinking.  There's also a good coffee shop where my visit finished up! The bookshop was tempting too ... and I'm afraid another couple of volumes have been added to the homeward bound luggage. 

 You'd have felt sorry for the poor workmen out in today's downpour!  But they remained cheerful and appeared to be enjoying their job!  Their high visibility jackets provide yet another focal point in what would otherwise be a rather dull picture. 

 Now I'm off to the library before another trip across to the Cathedral for Evensong.  There is so much here that does your soul good - even if it has hardly stopped raining since I arrived.  

 Today is Saint Cecilia's Day.  She (Sancta Caecilia) is the patron saint of musicians and church music because as she was dying she sang to God. It is also written that when the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord".  Her feast day is celebrated on 22nd November.

⁷ You, Christ, are the King of glory, 
the eternal Son of the Father.

⁸ When you took our flesh to set us free, 
you humbly chose the Virgin's womb.

⁹ You overcame the sting of death 
and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

¹⁰ You are seated at God's right hand in glory: 
we believe that you will come to be our judge.

¹¹ Come then, Lord, and help your people,
bought with the price of your own blood,

¹² and bring us with your saints 
to glory everlasting.

Te Deum

Book of Common Prayer.