The Moon on a Stick

Is there an election in the offing?  I ask because someone on the telly was just offering me the moon on a stick if I voted for him.   Fortunately, that offer does not tempt me to take sides and vote as I don't know what I would do with it, or where I could store it.  Back in the night sky I guess.

So its all a bit pointless.  I am more than happy to go on being "no part" of it all.

The valiant Jean and I were out Saturday morning.  We even managed to make it to the Field Service group, after our usual confusions.  The kind elder in charge gave us a small and beautiful Close, just on the edge of my driving territory - involving a big boy roundabout that is scary, a train crossing that is scary, and on the way back a nasty right hand turn on a bend... also scary.

I prayed about it and it all went like clockwork - no holdups - a straightforward glide through.  And I am so grateful to Jehovah for that.

Yeserday afternoon we were at Dan and Libby's, with the Corfu crowd, including Butterfly Mark and his wife.  We took the curries I spent Friday making:  Potato, Guerati cabbage and carrot, and a tomato'ey salsa thing.  It was a lovely spread of Indian foods, and I got to sit next to the young son of the household - an interesting lad (good looking too!) - and told him something about the olden days.  Food rationing etc.

We knew nothing of Indian cuisine back then - well I suppose those who had served in the Raj did, but that was not most of us.   The first we knew of it was a Vesta dried curry... which was very exciting at the time.

Yesterday was a million miles away from Vesta.  And a fun afternoon/evening.

I love the Dan and Libby house.  It is old and rambling and full of books, pictures and interesting things.

Today the rain is lashing down - wonderful waves on the Channel - its a symphony of grey and white and quite hard to tell sea from sky. The balcony geraniums are lashing about too.  And we are both going out in it.  Himself is off detectorising - and I am off to the meeting.

This has been a very busy weekend - for me, nowadays.  And its not finished yet, as we have Jacks coming for supper and I have no idea what to give her.  I will have to have a mad dash through the rain this afternoon to get something in, or the poor Captain will have to go for fish and chips later.

And we are nearly at the end of another month. Talking about the 1950s yesterday reminded me of how long a month used to last.  They have shrunk a lot since then and hurtle past, faster and faster.

One thing you don't need to worry about in retirement is being bored.  Life seems more and more ineresting and wonderful but it hurtles by more and more quickly.

Our lives are so short now.  But if we listen to our Creator, Jehovah, and obey him, (and he is sending his Witnesses out worldwide) we can hope to live forever on this lovely planet.   We can "inherit the earth", as Jesus famously promised.

Can we even imagine how much happiness lies in store?

And this is a promise we can rely on.   As we study the Inspired Scriptures we can see over and over again how all that Jehovah promises he carries out - perfectly and to time.   An example is the Seventy Weeks prophecy in Daniel - which not only told the Jews the exact year the Messiah would arrive, but which warns what would happen next.   As it did.

Jehovah's promises are not moons-on-sticks, as election promises, no mattter how sincerely made, can often prove to be.   These are promises from the One who created the moon and the stars and whose power keeps them safely in the skies.

Pot Luck

For the first time I can remember since our expat days, we have been asked to a Potluck supper.  It is going to be a selection of curries, and I am providing veggie curries.   I plan to make two, maybe three, and devote today to making them.   I used to do this a lot in Saudi, and we entertained a lot.  In fact, what I really missed at first after we left, apart from friends, was my big American kitchen.

But we live quietly these days, as far as entertaining goes.   So I feel very out of practise.  I am hoping that if I cook 3 curries, 2 of them will be OK.

Jean has returned from her holiday in Wales, looking refreshed.   She was at the meeting last night.  I had had a lovely morning on the work with another of my sisters.  We visited the gentleman who gave us some cooking apples and took a magazine.   Sadly he is not interested in hearing any more, but we were able to thank him for the apples - Captain B had them baked, with custard - and we parted on good terms.

Then I started a second doorstep Bible study...   in one week... never had one before... never had a Bible student in the UK before...   will they flourish?  I must pray about this.

All this talk of apples has reminded me of a Yeats poem, a sort of longing for our lost Eden poem, which ends this way:

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done,

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

(from The Song of Wandering Aengus, by William Butler Yeats)

Moons and Parrots

Arundel WWT from the Scrape Hide 

Monday morning was spent shopping for Jacks and us.   We had a veggie minestrone soup (half home-made half Waitrose) for lunch, plus yoghourt, and then Captain Butterfly watched the Rugby. So he was a happy lad.  Six weeks of it I believe.  During which he will either be Over the Moon, or As Sick as a Parrot (or am I thinking of football?)

And why Sick as a Parrot...?  Are parrots known for being sick, poor little souls. 

Anyway, I have been feeling as tired as a football recently - but a couple of good nights sleep has helped. I hope to get out on the Field Service this week...  its not something I find at all easy but I can't deny its importance.   Lives, many many lives, are at stake.

Yet on Tuesday I failed to get to the Field Service Group - pouring rain. After 25 years of living in a desert, I am not used to driving in heavy rain.   But it cleared up in the afternoon and Captain B and his missus (me) went to Arundel. We gave a sackload of books to the second hand bookshop there - and I came back with 2 Carter Dicksons. 

I will now have another go at my bookshelves and try to take a bag at a time to our local Charity Shops until I have reduced my library by half.   I am on borrowed time now - and don't want to leave too horrible a mess for others to sort.

After my mother died, we found she had been quietly going through everything. All her papers were sorted and catalogued - not a single one out of order. Will I be able to say the same?  Not so far.

Then as it was such a lovely September afternoon, we went to the Wetlands Trust, checked the Hides, had a walk. We haven't been for ages, and it was good to be back.  It was like a second home during my Knee troubles.  I plan to ask Col for a photo to head this blog - hopefully to convey the feeling of Autumn.  It is my favourite season. 

This morning - not much done - the eczema kept me awake - but I plan to go out on the Field Service this afternoon with one of the young Pioneer sisters.  So far the weather is holding, after a rainy start. In fact, the September sun is shining.

Over-Success? (or an odd flare-up)

My right knee was painful Thursday/Friday - painful enough to wake me in the night, but not with the agony of a full blown flare up thank goodness.

But, this is my artifiical knee - both my knees are artificial - so why does it have these episodes?  Has the NHS been too successful, building in some real twinges when fitting it?

Anyway, I remain very grateful to the NHS for my Knew Knees as I am still able to get about and drive locally, which is all I need to do.

And it is being wonderfully supportive of my bro in law, who has terminal cancer. They are supporting him and my sister at home so well.   

Today I went to the meeting, but am feeling quilty that I did not take myself out to at least do a few calls.  I didn't get to the Field Service group yesterday either - I exercised my Special Skill of turning up at the wrong door, and turned up at the wrong door.   However it gave me a chance to get out shopping early as we had Jacks coming round for supper.   So I did all that, lugged it all home, prepared things, had lunch, and then nothing, I guess I fell asleep. I hope I can make up for it this week.

I feel like I am running on empty a lot of the time.

Lovely meeting at the Hall. And the Watchtower was all about the importance of the preaching work that Jesus left for his followers to do. It is essential if we are to follow in his footsteps.  I was one brought in by the door to door work.   It must be over thirty years now since Ruby and Wilhellmina first knocked at my door in Sheffield - and changed my life, infinitely for the better.

So I must, please God, get out there this week and try to tell others what was told to me.

The Crystal Spirit

The Crick biography of George Orwell has nearly reduced me to tears.  I am just reading about his experiences in Spain in the 1930s, where just for a moment, he found a glimpse of what he was looking for.

He had come from a dismal minor public school background, and had worked as part of the Imperial Police in Burma - an experience which made him loathe colonialism in all its forms.

Then for a moment in Spain - how to explain without explaining the ramifications of the Spanish Civil War, which I am not able to do  - but just for a moment, before the totalitarians on both sides surged in and took over he saw what he felt was true brotherhood - the world as it should be.

The faction he joined was the POUM (as I said, I can't explain all the politics of the Spanish civil war) and George Orwell said this of it:

"The essential point of the system was social equality between officers and men.  Everyone... mingled on terms of complete equality... Of course, there was not perfect equality, but there was a nearer approach to it than I would have thought conceivable in time of war." Describing his feeling three months later he said:  "I was breathing the air of equality, and I was simple enough to imagine that it existed all over Spain.  I did not realise that more or less by chance I was isolated among the most revolutionary section of the Spanish working class". ...  He was engulfed in comradeship.  Nothing that happened later could ever take away that extraordinary experience."
("George Orwell a Life", by Bernard Crick, Penguin 1982)

And Orwell wrote this:

But the thing that I saw in your face
No power can disinherit
No bomb that ever burst
Shatters the crystal spirit.

There for a moment he saw the potential for a loving world of brothers - but the totalitarians of Left and Right were just about to step out of the wings.  And Genesis tells us who it was set the spirit or rebellion in the world, i.e. Satan the devil.  And he promotes it to this very day. So, with the best and most sincere intentions in the world, can any good come from it in the end?

The warning in the Hebrew Scripures remains as true as it always has been.   It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step. (Jeremiah 10:23)

When George Orwell is woken from the dreamless sleep of death, he will open his eyes in an earth ruled by the law of loving kindness. The human race will be the one family we truly are, united in love for our Creator and each other.  It is the earth we pray for when we ask for God's Kingdom to come.

All that potential he saw for goodness will be realised - not destroyed.  His poem will have proved true.

I hope I am there to meet him one day.



I had intended to get to the Field Service group Tuesday morning but instead I had to go to the doctor's. Flu shot.However, I took the opportunity to do 3 of our return visits which are difficult to do with Jean, as we need to try to park close to the doors, and its so hard to find a space. Anyway, I set off a bit early and thought I would have a go. And had 3 lovely calls. Really lovely.

What I did Monday and Wednesday has vanished - gone with the wind that swept through Georgia (to coin a phrase) - though I did go out on Wednesday afternoon with one of the young pioneers. And this morning was busy.  I met a sister at the territory, an exclusive private road, with some amazing houses. We had got about a quarter way along when we were told very firmly by one gentleman that we must leave the road as it is No Cold Callers - it says so on the big gates that lead into the estate. And we hadn't noticed! We assured him we would leave - and did. And, yes, there was a sgn on the big gates saying No Cold Callers, among other things.  So we will advise the congregation elders accordingly.

We then went to a couple of my return visits across the road - no-one home - then for coffee at Waitrose, followed by shopping in my case - for us and for Jacks.

This afternoon all I seem to have done apart from get Captain B's tea organised - he likely won't be back till I am at the meeting - is doze on the sofa in front of the afternoon telly.

Tomorrow - who knows?  Ideally I will do a couple of return visits and have a walk. And do my studying for the Sunday meeting.

It is a beautiful sunny September - blue skies, sunshine, the Autumn colours starting, and lovely cool nights.

Miss Milton Paled

Is it a sign of my age - of my approaching death (damaged child of Adam that I am) - that glimpses of the past keep coming back so vividly, but, as they say, I can't remember what I had for my lunch yesterday?  Though actually I can - it was the spring rolls from the freezer, and his Lordship had ham sandwiches plus cake somewere out in the Steyning Wilderness.

But I found myself laughing this morning at a childhood memory from the William books.  It amused me then, it amuses me now.  William is to have a part in the village panto. He is to be a member of the bird chorus,, and Miss Milton has written him a little poem to recite.   It goes like this:

"Around the garden
 I do flit
 Tom-tit I am
 I am Tom-tit".

But William says he wants to be a vulture, and he writes his own poem.  It goes like this:

"I swoop down upon 'em
 And then
 Dead men I eat
 I eat dead men."

"Miss Milton paled."

I used to spend many rainy hours at Nabbs curled up in one of its back rooms with a William book from one of the book filled cupboards and shelves.

And I remember what we had for supper yesterday too.  Col had the cold remains of the chicken pie and accompaniments that he, Jacks and I had hot on Saturday night. And I supped off the remains of the soup (veggie) and a bowl of Alpen.

So obviously Jacks was round Saturday night - and we had our usual fun evening.   Col was out metal detecting during the day - after we both had our Flu shots - and I was at the Hall for the broadcast.
https://tv.jw.org/#en/mediaitems/StudioMonthlyPrograms/pub-jwb_201909_1_VIDEO

At about 17 minutes in, you will find the story of the JW congregation in Canada that suddenly found it had a thousand people requesting a home Bible Study! 

I do keep saying to family and friends here in the UK to take the offer of a free home Bible study - one hour a week, at a tme to suit you - while it is still so freely available, so easy.

Just hear us out.  And check everything we tell you against your Bible, which is a rock of truth in a spinning world.  And use whatever translation you want, but preferably a modern language one, as English is a living language.  And ideally use a translation that does not remove God's name, Jehovah. Remember that Jesus asked us to pray that his Father's name should be hallowed, or sanctified.

Jesus made his Father's name known.  At John 17:26 he said:  "I have made your name known to them, and will make it known."

And so shouldn't all his followers do the same, make Jehovah's name known?.

What did I do on Friday? That I must admit has vanished into the mists of time.  I think I must have shopped, for us and for Jacks.- and I would suppose I had made the cauliflower cheese for Saturday then, but in fact I made it Saturday morning.

Sunday was the meeting at the Kingdom Hall. I chauffered a young sister and her father to the Hall, but they decided they would walk back, it was such a nice day. And its a lovely walk along the Seafront.

I used to do it myself.  Yesterday, when I was young.

Ivon Hitchens at The Pallant

We went to Chichester on Tuesday, shopped a bit, had a curry lunch, and then visited the Ivon Hitchens at The Pallant Gallery:
https://pallant.org.uk/whats-on/ivon-hitchens-space-through-colour/

Its a fun exhibition. I love the colours he uses, we both did.  My favourite was The Iron Bridge over the Rother.   Normally Jacks would have come with us, but I think those days are now gone.

Getting old means saying goodbye to more and more things.   We had a "last Pallant visit" with Jacks over 2 years ago, I guess. But we didn't know it was the last.   We are talking about taking her out for a pub lunch next month though, when she is over the shock of the fall.

And as for what is happening in the world...  that is all recorded every day, all over cyberspace. And it is awful as cruelty and lawlessness increase worldwide.   Why anyone should doubt the Bible's warning that the whole system lies in the power of "the wicked one" Satan the devil, I do not know. He is called both "the father of the lie" and "a manslayer". 

And how many lies are used to start wars, getting brother to kill brother?

The current wicked system of things on the earth is coming to its end, and Satan will take as many down into destruction as he can.   Has the Kingdom preaching work Jesus left for his followers to do ever been as urgent?

Whch makes me wonder guiltily what on earth I did on Wednesday?  I know we shopped - for us and Jacks - and I have a feeling I slept on the sofa most of the afternoon.   All I can say is must try to do better.   I am so tired at the moment.  Being old, with arthritis, is sometimes like running on empty.

My Fitbit is a little sneakpot.  Captain B was sitting at his computer and he suddenly said accusingly: "Your Fibit battery is low."   "How do you know?", I asked, surprised.  "It just told me so."

Big Brother is watching me.

We seem to have lost quite a few of our moth babies, but the others are thriving, and Col went out and found some more of the leaves they like. They are very faddy, but that is babies for you. 

And I was out on the door to door preaching work with my siblings Thursday morning. Had a good morning - not many at home, but had some good conversations, placed  3 little publications, and were given some cooking apples by one kind gentleman.  I had intended Captain B to have baked apple and custard for his supper, but Jean rang me while I was cooking, with a lot to tell me, and it turned out to be disintegrated apple by the time I got to it.

Still, he has eaten it all.

A Family BBQ and No Water

Small Tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae

We woke up on Saturday morning to find we were without water. So was the whole block. As, it turned out, so was the whole town!   How much we take for granted that we turn on a tap and clean water comes out.

All credit to Southern Water as they managed to find and fix the leak - which was quite obscure apparently, though it must also have been an immense one.  It was a good day to be going out to a family BBQ being held in a different town, in a different county - although we had to go without a shower... I had to scrub myself down with wet wipes.   The water was back on by the time we got back in the evening.

We hadn't seen Rob and Catherine's new house before, and were very impressed.  It is an end terrace, which gives them a couple of dormer windows on the side, and, very importantly, in the Home Counties, it gives them a 3 car garage plus extra parking space.   They have plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms - and a lovely walled garden. 

And they had water coming out of their taps!

We saw Linda, and Richard and Jenny and enchanting little daughter, and - big surprise this - the Thai Branch of the family, over on a visit sorting out his paperwork.   Catherine says that they plan to make the BBQ an annual event.

And Captain Butterfly, his camera, and myself spent some time in their sunny front garden which has a budleia bush that was buzzing with butterflies - Whites, Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, and I can't remember, so I will have to use my all-purpose buttterfly name: a Duke of Fritillary.  Actually it may have been a Tortoisehell.

Sunday was the meeting - very very good public talk about the Biblical view of headship - so different from the spirit promoted by "the world" and its media.   And please never forget that it is Satan who set the spirit of rebellion in the world and who promotes it strongly.

Jackie came round for supper Sunday evening:  Thai Chicken (courtesy of Cooks), rice, white and brown (for me). vegetable spring rolls (courtesy of Waitrose), followed by ice-cream with choc flakes for those able to have them (i.e. not me).  We had a good evening together, as we always have.   But for how much longer I now wonder?

I took Jean out on Monday morning, as Tuesday we were planning to have the day in Chichester.  And we had a good hour - got three warm welcomes, and were invited in. We got caught in two cloudbursts and we were soaked.  "What have you been doing?" asked the kind lady, as she helped us out of our sodden coats and made us cups of coffee.  Jean left the current magazine with her married daughter who was visiting too.  And I noticed her quietly looking through it and reading as we were talking.

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no3-2019-sep-oct/sad-reality-of-death/

It is so well worth a read.

Religious Truths?

Its been a  pretty quiet housebound week, though we both got back to reasonable form on Thursday- Himself out detectorising and me to the meeting at the Hall.

We shopped for Jacks and ourselves on Friday.  And we have a busy weekend coming up.  There is a bit of a family reunion, and Dave and Maggie - ex-Expats - are in the country so we plan to get together next week. Hopefully we will be seeing a bit more of them in the future as they will be spending more time in the UK.

And I found this among my files - don't know where it came from, but it is rather clever.

It's spot on about us Jehovah's Witnesses at least.  And given the awful mess we, the damaged children of disobedient Adam are in, how urgently everyone needs to know why all this is happening and what is going to happen next.

         R E L I G I O U S  T R U T H S

TAOISM

THINGS HAPPEN

CONFUCIANISM

CONFUCIUS SAY “THINGS HAPPEN”

ZEN-BUDDHISM

WHAT IS THE SOUND OF THINGS HAPPENING?

HINDUISM

THIS THING HAPPENED BEFORE

ISLAM

IF THINGS HAPPEN IT IS THE WILL OF ALLAH

PROTESTANTISM

LET THINGS HAPPEN TO SOMEONE ELSE

CATHOLICISM

IF THINGS HAPPEN YOU DESERVE IT

JUDAISM

WHY DO THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO US?

ATHEISM

THINGS HAPPEN FOR NO APPARENT REASON

AGNOSTICISM

WE CAN’T PROVE THINGS HAPPEN

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

LET US IN AND WE’LL TELL YOU WHY THINGS HAPPEN

CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS

ONLY GOOD THINGS HAPPEN

HARE KRISHNA

THINGS HAPPEN, THINGS HAPPEN, THINGS HAPPEN, THINGS, THINGS

EVANGELISM

SEND ME 8,000,000 DOLLARS OR THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU


So please yes let us in and we will tell you why all these things are happening and what Jehovah is going to do about it.  It is all set out in the Bible on your shelf, and we long to show you what it really says.

A Zimmer Frame made for Two (or a Double Flare-up)

Jean and I did not get Saturday off to the most brilliant of starts.   "Is it Saturday already?!" asked Jean in amazement when I rang her in the morning to see if she was able to come out on the service.  She had me doubting it, and I had to go and check with Captain Butterfly.

We seem to be giving that well-worked phrase "You're a pair of idiots" plenty of exercise these days, as I drive us to the wrong road, and Jean forgets what day it is.  However, our student had prepared the room for us and cleared all the chairs so we could get down to the Bible study.  Which was very encouraging.

Touchingly he keeps a picture of his late wife on one of the chairs so she can keep him company and they can watch telly together.  He is s lovely old-fashioned man.  Went to Sunday school, to church, was brought up by parents who taught him and brought him up well.

However, he knows next to nothing about the Bible.  Which is something Jean and I realised about ourselves when we both started our Bible study with our local Jehovah's Witness congregations many years ago.  We knew next to nothing about it either, despite our religious educations.

Friday...  what did I do?  I did a big shop for us and for Jacks, and delivered it.  And my afternoon went in making a roast chicken dinner - which gave plenty of cold chicken, veggies and salad for the Captain's carnivorous meals for the rest of the weekend.   It was a free range chicken by the way.

Saturday night was not good in that the pain in my right foot woke me up, I had to get up, get a bowl of cereal so I could take all my medicines - they are hard on the insides.  And I did pray to Jehovah that I would be able to drive us to the Meeting, and I did.  So I thank for that. I missed last Sunday's meeting because I wasn't even able to get dressed, let alone drive.  But I have done nothing to speak of since, beyond making sure Captain B's supper was ready for him, when he got in tired and hungry from a day in the field (the Detectorist field in this case).  It was chicken salad so not too difficult.

And yes it is an arthritis flare up - right foot very swollen and painful.

And this morning, the Captain is down too. His knee!   And we only have the one Zimmer frame beween us.    I hope we can manage to get me to my doctor's appointment this afternoon, and then on to the Post Office to despatch the latest Butterfly Membership Packages, and also a small parcel for Darren.