There is nothing so exciting as a box of new books. In these troubled times, little rays of sunshine are always a blessing, and opening the box containing the advance copies of a new school hymn book certainly brightened up my morning as the rain poured down.

With plans afoot to reopen our local church on Monday, if only for private prayer, there is a sense that things are beginning, very, very slowly, to return to something that we all recognise. Not normality, by a long way, but something that we recognise. And as we await the advance copies for the Barnard Castle School hymn book, I wonder whether Mr Cummings will be popping in to check it out or not. I assume not. So far we only have the cover, so there is probably time for another visit!