The vicar joked that the 6pm Evensong would be delayed until 8.30pm and then promptly ran out of the vestry before we could whip him. Strangely, the music was the same as Saturday evening in the cathedral - Stanford and Ives, but this time with our choir singing the Sweeney responses. To extend the day even further, two psalms were sung (67 and 133), both fortunately short.

Thank goodness we get the next two Sunday evenings off to recover.

This Saturday saw us in Exeter Cathedral for another RSCM event (there haven't been any for ages and then two come along at once). It was a pleasure to sing Evensong with the cathedral choirs: good old Stanford in C, with the anthems: Listen Sweet Dove (Ives) as an introit, and 'The Spirit of the Lord' (Elgar). Most of the choristers had not sung the Elgar before, so we were very glad of a confident lead from the young professionals.

A male quartet (of vicar and choir members), sounding eerily like the King's Singers, sang 'Happy Birthday' to our organist on Sunday morning. Of course, we had to sing the organist's own Mass setting and also the communion anthem, 'If ye love me keep my commandments' (Tallis) - source of a private joke between him and the vicar. The organist then played us out to 'Fanfare' by Whitlock and kept right on playing until we thought the coffee would run out. Well, if you can't do that on your birthday, when can you?

The vicar enjoyed himself during evensong by singing Alto, Tenor and Bass alternately, while one of the readers sang the Office. We had just enough sopranos to sing 'O for a closer walk with God' (Stanford)- as usual for our choir (but apparently unusual elsewhere) the bass section was enormous and had to pipe down a tad.

The choir had an evening off as there was no sung Evensong, so two of us took ourselves off to Exeter Cathedral to hear the men and boys strut their stuff, instead. It's so good to sit quietly and let someone else's hard work wash over us. We were treated to Wesley's 'Ascribe unto the Lord' (the full version, not the last few pages as we normally sing), responses by Tomkins, and the Bairstow Canticles in D. As usual, there were an equivalent number of alert, more senior choir boys to balance those who were young, overwhelmed and looking as if they needed a good sleep. It was their third service of the day.

The civic service saw a much-enlarged evening congregation, with various mayors dressed in fine regalia, and a small Salvation Army band. Fortunately their harmonies were mostly the same as ours, although there was some uncertainty at the end whether they were giving us an introduction to 'God save the Queen' or not. Fortunately the Queen herself was not present to hear our rather wobbly start. The choir's contribution to the evening was H. Balfour Gardiner's 'Evening Hymn' plus huge appetites for the drinks and snacks in the Town Hall afterwards.

It was a very quiet Evensong, both in the choir and in the congregation. Not many of the older generation like to come out when it has been snowing. All the choir members sat on one side to sing 'Lead me Lord' (Wesley) - a sensible choice given the anticipated low numbers. It was also quite cosy sitting close together and made up for the chilly weather outside.

We sang a choir special today, 'This Joyful Eastertide' (Wood). In fact, it has wormed its way into our repertoire so thoroughly that we repeated it for Evensong at our daughter church.

We had to arrive very quietly for the Last Hour of the Good Friday service as there was silent prayer and meditation on the addresses during the first part of the service. This posed a problem for the oboe player in 'Christ has no body now but yours' (Ogden) who was therefore unable to warm-up beforehand. Much sucking of the reed ensured that no disasters occured and the music sounded suitably haunting. The other choir item was 'We glory in thy Cross, O Lord' (Shepherd), alternating in style between plainsong psalm-chant and chorale response.

There was a good turn-out of all parts to all the services except that we were short of enough top line on Easter Day to do justice to the celebratory Hallelujah Chorus (sung to a completely full church) and the Festival Evensong. The Noble in B minor canticle settings sounded confident in the lower parts but tentative in the upper parts; however this combination worked much better in How's two-part 'Bless O Lord', where S and T combined to sing the top line and A and B the lower line.

We need to recruit more sopranos to make up for the times when several are ill or away on holiday. Perhaps we could spread the word that the vicar always gives out creme eggs after the Easter service?

The choir anthem, 'Bread is Blessed and Broken' (Iona) caused some interest. We haven't sung it for a while and some people enjoyed it so much they asked for more music in a similar style. I suppose we should have taken the opportunity to plug our choir CD, which includes this piece, but we were either far too modest or (again) not quick-thinking enough to milk the opportunity.

It was good to be back at our own church after the break. More Lenten music was sung, including the hymn 'O Sacred Head' (sung as an anthem) and Stainer's 'God so loved the World'. Our singing apparently moved at least one person to tears - I hope it was for the right reasons.

Now it's time for the final countdown of Lent, through Holy Week and on to Easter.