A Taste of Christmas Pie in May

At the beginning of May, early on a Saturday morning, Karen and I were sat enjoying our breakfast cup of tea, pondering what to do that day. After a bit of deliberating, we decided that we would take a trip to Guildford. From where we live in Ash, there are five methods of transport to Guildford – car, train, bus, cycle or walk. And it was the latter of these means of transport that we decided to make use of. The distance from Ash to Guildford is 8 miles and rather than walk along the pavements and roads, we decided to follow the Christmas Pie Trail instead.

We joined the disused railway path and headed in the direction of Ash Green along the Christmas Pie Trail. As we continued, we walked through the villages of Christmas Pie and Flexford and passed Wood Street Village and Broadstreet Common. At one point we were greeted by a nonchalant fox who did not seem bothered at all to see us.

As we approached Guildford, we passed the Surrey Research Park and came out into a Halls of Residence area of the University of Surrey Campus. From there we made our way over the railway and into town.

Once in town we made a perusal of some shops and a couple of purchases were made. A particular highlight was the warm sausage roll and Belgian bun from a well-known baker that we felt we deserved.

After our time in town, we both realised that we had quite a walk to return to Ash. However, we decided to support the local bus Company by purchasing two tickets and were delighted when the bus pulled up at the Friary Bus Station. It was a double decker and we sat on the top deck at the front. By the time we got home it was early evening and though we both had aching muscles in our legs, it had been a thoroughly enjoyable day.

So, is there a message in this account? Well, nothing clever or well thought out. But simply that we had made good use of the day that the Lord had given us.

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” Psalm 118:24

For those that keep a tally of their daily step rate, I clocked up 28,015 steps that day.

David Tuson – Church & Community Worker