[Matt Q]

Hi David,

I enjoyed this. Though I have a couple of wonderings.

I wonder about "come alive" and "enliven" sharing the first S. At first I though maybe "come alive" might be the one to go, since it's a bit of a stock phrase, but then I thought, actually, the reference to birth plays nicely off the impending death of the "tottering delicacy", where delicacy suggests, perhaps, a nice meal of roast lamb. So maybe there's an alternative to "enliven"?

In the last S, I wonder a little about how the sexton connects. Maybe the it's just the van driving around that's likened to a sexton walking the grounds, but what's in between seems part of the simile, and the calendar calculations and the precision, and the things being worked out to the hundredth has me wondering. Maybe, I'm missing a reference (not sure I've ever met a sexton), but is there a connection between sextons, calculations and precision? I guess he rings he bells for services, which entails a degree of good time-keeping.

best,

Matt