No doubt today will be celebrated on many a Scottish grouse moor with the popping of guns (and corks? I’ve never been on a grouse moor on 12 August: it sounds like a deadly combination). Here in the monastery it will be that most blissful of occasions, a green feria: in other words, an “ordinary day”. No special liturgical complexities, no culinary complications, hopefully not too many surprise guests (forgive the misanthropic confession, but even nuns have to see to such mundane tasks as laundry, gardening, housework, repairs and book-keeping as well as earning their living, and it isn’t always easy to give the warm-hearted welcome Benedict expects when one is conscious of needing to get a job into the post or fix something that is broken before the rain begins). Perhaps we take the holiness of the ordinary for granted and have to be surprised into fresh awareness every now and then. It is cloudy and overcast this morning but if I look out of my window at the sweet peas in the bed immediately below, I can count fourteen different colours of bloom. Magical. (We continue to experiment with the commenting system and hope to get the Facebook link working today. For those who wish to view the BBC link referred to yesterday, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m5x70/What_to_Eat_Now_Series_2_Episode_6/ (link opens in new window).