Wansteadium

Services at Wanstead churches today and tomorrow:

Wanstead URC
Christmas Eve
4pm Nativity Service
11.30pm Midnight Communion

Christmas Day
10am Christmas Day service

Christ Church, Wanstead Place
3pm Crib Service
4.30pm Crib Service
6pm Family Service with carols
11.30pm Midnight mass 

Christmas Day
8am Said Eucharist

St Mary’s, Overton Drive
Christmas Day
10am Family Eucharist with Carols

Our Lady of Lourdes
Christmas Eve
5pm Children’s Mass
7pm First Mass
11.30pm Carols
12.00am Midnight Mass

Christmas Day
9.30am Mass
11.30am Mass

St Gabriel’s Aldersbrook
Christmas Eve
4pm Crib Service
11.30pm Midnight Mass

Christmas Day
10am Christmas Day service

(Errors or omissions? Please let us know asap at info@wansteadium.com)

Many ambitious lighting displays around Wanstead this year – but our eye was caught by this enormous tree on Cranbourne Avenue. It looks even bigger in real life – and faithfully wrapped in lights as if it was a mere Tombliboo bush. So one question: did they use a cherrypicker or a drone?

Wanstead’s newest shop, Superdrug, is opening its doors on Thursday  morning, just in time for last-weekend-before-Christmas gifts.  As we traditionally do here to new ventures, we wish them and their staff good luck.

And while we’re on the subject, bravo to the shop for following the correct planning rules about their shop sign not being “internally illuminated”. It looks much better for it.

(Updated to reflect fact that it’s not yet Thursday. Thanks @dj_slipper for the stubborn adherence to facts.)

Does Wanstead have its own microclimate which makes it colder than its surrounding areas?

Wanstead’s own weatherman, Scott Whitehead, who tweets as @wansteadmeteo, has blogged saying he has been comparing temperatures since the snow, and found that:

Wanstead was a degree cooler than St James’s Park, half a degree cooler than Heathrow and marginally cooler than Northholt. Only Kenley, with its whopping 170m of altitude, was cooler. While half a degree doesn’t sound much it can make all the difference, as we saw at the weekend when some areas recorded inches of snow while others barely a centimetre.

Intriguing. More discussion at his post.

Even more after the event, but still worth sharing… these from one of our favourite photographers Jennifer Schenck.

On a wet and windy Monday morning, Wanstead’s brief snowfest seems like a distant memory. But thanks to Radek Pazdera for capturing the moment.