{"id":30525,"date":"2026-05-01T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/?p=30525"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:18:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T08:18:57","slug":"letter-from-church-warden-martin-dines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/?p=30525","title":{"rendered":"Letter from Church Warden Martin Dines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>The Darling Buds of May (1958)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Shall I compare thee to a summer\u2019s day?<br \/>\nThou art more lovely and more temperate:<br \/>\nRough winds do shake the darling buds of May,<br \/>\nAnd summer\u2019s lease hath all too short a date.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&nbsp;<\/em>The words from one of William Shakespeare\u2019s sonnets compare the extremes and shortness of summer to his beloved\u2019s eternal beauty.<\/p>\n<p>The Darling Buds of May, which he talks about, inspired H E Bates to write a series of five books about the Larkin family, which portrayed rural English life in the 1950\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Bates had been inspired to write the stories after encountering a real-life family of junk dealers in Kent, whose zest for life and entrepreneurial spirit caught his imagination. The family, with their unorthodox lifestyle and joy in simple pleasures, provided the template for the fictional Larkins<\/p>\n<p>Amidst the constant demands and stresses of daily life, it can be wonderfully uplifting to pause and savour the simple joys that surround us\u2014though we often overlook these small pleasures.<\/p>\n<p>With May upon us, the landscape begins to transform, offering fresh sights and experiences in the countryside. Fresh green fields, golden sunlight and wildflowers bursting through nooks and crannies. The cacophony of birdsong can be heard everywhere, and blossom fills the air as if to honour the passing bride and groom.<\/p>\n<p>Taking time to enjoy a picnic or simply wandering along winding lanes, one is reminded that life\u2019s greatest joys are often found in these God-given moments\u2014relishing nature\u2019s beauty and the pleasure of unhurried days.<\/p>\n<p>Amid the troubles of the world, let us not forget\u2026\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Darling Buds of May (1958) Shall I compare thee to a summer\u2019s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer\u2019s lease hath all too short a date. &nbsp;The words from one of William Shakespeare\u2019s sonnets compare the extremes and shortness of summer to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30526,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30525\/revisions\/30526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}