Fotographing Fungi

Captain Butterfly was out all day last Wednesday - firstly doing a presentation and then he went off to chase the wild mushroom herds over the plains of Ebernoe.     He found and photographed a "Beechwood Sickener".  Now, call it a woman's intuition, but I don't think he will be taking that one home for tea.

Beechwood Sickener, Russula nobilis

I would never dare to pick and eat mushrooms anyway, as even experienced pickers can make mistakes, and those mistakes can be fatal.

Jean and I had a lovely morning on the doors today doing return visits. The traffic is getting worse though - more and more complicated.   Roadworks, which of course have to be done; there are lorries parked on narrow roads on double yellow lines, because there is nowhere else for them to park, and a worrying number of people don't seem to understand how a roundabout works. That is a traffic island for my American readers - if I have any - and Hello from across The Pond.

And I feel so tired.   I did make a big carrot cake for the freezer, for Himself's packed lunches.  And got us our lunch and supper, but that was about it.

I was wondering about calling this blog "For all the Lonely People" - because of this short video we watched and discussed at a recent meeting at The Kingdom Hall.   Or I could have called it "No Longer a Fatherless Child", in my dear Chinese sister's own powerful words.

https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/VODIntExpTransformations/pub-jwb_201902_5_VIDEO

Foam Flowers

Saturday morning as I drove back from the field service the tide was so high and the Channel so stormy that foam flowers were blowing across my windscreen like Autumn blossom. It was a beautiful morning, with scudding clouds, high seas and wild winds.   It was sunny and the wind was warm, but it changed into full storm mode in the afternoon and I got soaked doing the shopping for me and Jacks.  And Captain Butterfly actually came back early from his Metal Detectorising.

Him, entering, sternly and urgently:   "Don't tell me what the results of the Match are!"
Me:    "Whar match?"
Him:  "The RUGBY of course!   England v NZ."

Against the odds it turned out that England had won.  So Captain B was a happy butterfly. Things have moved on since then and I believe England now plays South Africa.   I only hope he will enjoy the game, whichever way it goes.

Because of the torrential storm on Saturday the fireworks and the procession had to be cancelled. The bonfire had already been cancelled, due to lack of volunteers to build, tend and guard it.  The whole event (minus said bonfire) has now been moved to tonight.

Jackie cancelled on Sunday night too - she was coming round for supper - but  was not well enough. We are all getting older and older and closer to that edge,damaged children of Adam that we are.    How would I be feeling about this if I did not know what the Bible says about death?

Wouldn't I be wondering sadly what the point of it all is?

And the fragile foam flowers reminded me of Swinburne's poem "The Forsaken Garden".  Its a long time favourite of mine, and when I read it I always think of my young parents in the year before their marriage, an engaged couple, very much in love, visiting Cornwall, where my granny used to have a house.

So I imagine this forsaken garden to be in Cornwall - which was a wild and remote place back then.

               Heart handfast in heart as they stood, "Look thither,"

       Did he whisper? "look forth from the flowers to the sea;

              For the foam-flowers endure when the rose-blossoms wither,

       And men that love lightly may die—but we?"

  The foam flowers are still here, but my parents are not.

My October Talk

It was my talk in the Ministry School last night.  And my householder rang up just as I was getting supper to say she couldn't make it!  She had a bad cold - she sounded very hoarse poor girl. 

Panic panic. Anyway the sister I chauffeur to the Hall kindly volunteered and we had a few minutes to run through it together before the meeting started.  She did a great job, but I could hear the nervousness in my voice.

It was a 5-minuter. I had to use the sample conversation, include the video, and discuss it.  And I was working on Study 8: Illustrations that teach.

And illustrations, if appropriate and simple, are very powerful.  I can remember to this day the first Watchtower study I ever attended - over 30 years ago - because it was about following in Jesus' footsteps and it used a powerful illustration. It asked us this.  If we were following a trusted guide through a very dangerous area - a swamp or a minefield say - where one false step could lead to disaster, wouldn't we be very careful to put our feet exactly where our guide put his feet?  We would not try to second guess him, or take any shortcuts.

I thought of Grimpen Mire, in The Hound of the Baskervilles (that poor hound by the way!), and it has stayed with me.  We are in a very dangerous world - a minefield - we need to pay careful attention to God's word, and follow it exactly.  And of course to do that we would first need to know what it says.  Which brings me to the talk:

Sue:  Hello HH.  I’m very glad to find you at home this morning.  I’m Sue if you remember. We had such an interesting talk on your doorstep last week, and I left you with a question..

S.   Yes, you showed me that the Bible says it’s not God who causes us to suffer – and that left the question: if it is not God who is causing our suffering, why are we suffering - what is causing it?

Sue: Yes. Well remembered! And the Bible gives a simple and clear answer, here at 1 John 5:19. "We know that we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.".  The wicked one is Satan the devil, and it is he who is controlling  the present wicked system of things on the earth.

HH:  Really I’m sorry but I can’t accept this idea of a devil – that’s a very nasty idea, tormenting people in hell.

Sue: I want to assure you that hellfire torment is not a Bible teaching   The Biblical hell is simply the ground, the grave, where the dead sleep in complete unconsciousness, awaiting a resurrection.  And would it surprise you to know that, according to the Bible, hell is one place Satan never was, he never is, and he never will be?

HH. Now that would surprise me. I’m not saying I even believe in Satan, or everything in the Bible, but surely that IS what the Bible says?

Sue. That is what many of us were told it says, yes. I was taught that in my schooldays, and its a teaching that put me off the whole idea of God and the Bible for many years.  But what does it really say?   It is so important that everyone study it for themselves.  To help you see why,  I would like to show you this short video, just over 3 minutes called ”Why study the Bible?” (shows video).

Sue. And do you notice that after raising the question of suffering, it speaks of Satan as someone who is pulling the strings behind the scenes right here on the earth   It uses the simple illustration of the puppeteer. We don’t see the puppeteer, but we certainly see the effects of his string pulling.  So think what is happening, what we are seeing on the earth.  Is it exaggeration to say that it is close to being ruined?

HH.  I see we are in a lot of trouble and many people are concerned. In fact I just read an article in The Independent in which David Attenborough says that humanity has made a “tragic, desperate mess” of the planet.   And I have to agree.   But why blame it on Satan?  Aren’t we bringing all this on ourselves?

Sue. For sure we do bring a lot of trouble on ourselves. But think about this. Why would we set a system in place which is bringing the planet to ruin – the only planet we have to live on?!   And if it’s really the rich and the powerful who run things on the earth, why would they do it?  However rich and powerful you are, you can’t buy yourself another planet to live on.  But if the one really in charge, the one pulling the strings, is Satan, who wants to spoil God’s creation, does it begin to make a horrible kind of sense?

HH.  It does.   But what can we do about it?  It doesn’t seem to hold out much hope.

Sue. And this is just why we want you to know what the Bible says. As the little video says, it answers all the important questions.  Is there hope?  How does our Creator, Jehovah, feel about what Satan is doing to his lovely creation?   Has he abandoned us to this? What is he going to do about it?  May I call back and show you what the Bible has to say about that - because it holds out such a wonderful hope.

HH.  Well, why not?  We do need some hope.

This was the brief:

First Return Visit: (5 min. or less) Begin with the sample conversation. Then introduce and discuss (but do not play) the video Why Study the Bible? (th study 8)

The sample conversation is:   "Why do we suffer?"   1 John 5:19: "We know that we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one."

And study 8 is: Illustrations that teach,  Matthew 13:34.35:  "All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds by illustrations. Indeed, without an illustration he would not speak to them, in order to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet who said: “I will open my mouth with illustrations; I will proclaim things hidden since the founding.”"

The Women's Exchange

Way back in our expat years, in our expat compound/town, we had a shop called The Women's Exchange, where us wives and single girls could bring clothes and books and such like and sell them.

A visiting rock star was heard to say that he would have brought his wife along on the tour if he had known he would be able to exchange her.   "It doesn't work like that" said Captain Butterfly (and I hope there wasn't a note of yearning in his voice.)

Anyway, I was reminded of that at the weekend as us sisters were invited to a Clothes Swap party on Saturday afternoon.  We all brought and took clothes and had tea and coffee together.  I swapped a blouse for a rather nice blue scarf.  I am trying not to add anything to my wardrobe because at the moment I am trying to get rid of things. We spend the first two thirds of our lives collecting things, and then we wonder why on earth we did, and wonder how to get rid.

Saturday was a busy day.  I chauffered a young sister to the Kingdom Hall for the Field Service group, then dashed off - rather a slow dash but the best I could do - and did a brief shop, then on to pick Jean up, and take her to Liam.  I had asked Jehovah if he would be kind enough to supply us with a parking space - a workable one - close to Liam's house, as parking is very difficult there.     And when we got there we found one enormous double-decker bus sized space right outside the gate!

It was perfect. But so is everything Jehovah does.  Anyway we were invited in for a tea and spent an hour and a half chatting, and laughing as he always has some good jokes to tell us.

Then it was on to the Hall for the broadcast:    https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/StudioFeatured/pub-jwb_201910_1_VIDEO

There is a very interesting experience at 18:16 minutes in. 

Jean was too tired to do the Swap, but I went along, having waited till Col's latest parcel had been delivered.

It was the meetng at the Kingdom Hall yesterday - and we heard another lovely experience about the power of God's word.  A young girl whose parents were politically active atheists began to study the Bible with the local Jehovah's Witness congregation.   Her parents, understandably, were very upset by this. And her father actually started to look into the Bible himself...   he wanted to find fault and disprove what she was learning, but he ended up being deeply moved by it.

Both her parents are now baptised Jehovh's Witnesses.

You cannot over-estimate the power of God's word.  As Hebrew 4:12 says:
"For the word of God is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints from the marrow, and is able to discern thoughts and intentions of the heart."

And that is the truth - plain and simple. And it is, in essence, what my Thursday talk in the Ministry school is about.

A Farewell

Well, on Monday it was Hello to the Hibernating Peacock butterfly and on Tuesday it was "Goodbye".     It suddenly re-emerged just as we were finishing our lunch - while watching Bargain Hunt (the blue team did badly), and flew crossly off to the window.   I thought it would be a bit noisy for it in our lounge.  Captain B opened a window and out it flew.   At least it was a much better day for it to go - the rain had stopped and it was sunny.

So we have the use of our tables back.

Jean and I managed over an hour on the field service - doing return visits and got another cup of tea - people are being very kind and hospitable at the moment.   And I was out this morning with the Field Service group - we had a couple of good calls, and many not-at-homes.    I have also shopped for us and Jackie.

I have managed to get my talk for next week written and now have to practise it with my partner.

Very heavy but brief rainstorm as I set of for the meeting tonight.  I hope that the little Hibernator found a dark, quiet and safe place to over-Winter.

According to the News we finally seem to have Brexit...  and the violence and lawlessness in the streets of London continues. 

The Hibernator

Peacock, Inachis io

We have a Hibernator. A hibernating butterfly. I think its a Peacock. It was fluttering alarmingly round the room yesterday - and when I told Captaiin Butterfly about it - he was off detectorising- he sais it would be looking for somewhere to hibernate.

It seemed distressed and wanting to go out, but the weather was awful. I opened a window just in case, but it didn't go. I left a tiny doll's saucer of honey out for it,but it didn't want that either.  I may have been thinking of bees.  You can revive an exhausted bee wonderfully with a dab of honey..In the end the butterfly flew under our nest of tables and settled there.  So the little chap is now sleeping next to the radiator and the telly.. And its the Footie tonight.  And its getting cold and we will be having the central heating on soon.So I don't know if this is going to work.

Can it safely sleep there all winter?   I hope so. And clearly we can't use the tables until it emerges in the Spring.   Its a good thing we have a very low key social life these days.

It was England v Bulgaria on the telly last night.  And I felt so sorry for the Bulgarian team. Not only did they lose, but they were let down badly by some of their fans - only a small group, but they made a lot of noise, caused a lot of trouble, and did their best to spoil the match for everyone.

I hope all the ruckus didn't wake up our little Hibernator.

The God of all Comfort

Jean and I had a great morning on the doors on Friday - even though it was pouring with rain and Jean was not feeling well. But we got to the Kingdom Hall for the meeting conducted by our lovely Circuit Overseer.  He was stressing that the preaching work must be done from the heart, out of love.

It was raining too hard for anyone to do first call, so we did some return visits.  And had some good calls - ending up by being invited in by a kind Welsh lady for coffee. 

It was raining again on Saturday - though not so heavily - but we got to the Kingdom Hall for more encouragement from our kind C.O. and Jean and I did one  call. Coffee again- and two hours talking!

Jackie came round for supper - chicken pie, new potatoes, sweet potatoes (better for moi), stir fry cabbage, carrots and chile - followed by Waitrose ice-cream.   As always we cheered each other up.

And then I had such comfort from the Circuit Overseer's last two talks, on Sunday morning, because Jehovah really is the God of all comfort. 

The first talk had the title: "Do you Matter to God?", and was a reminder to us of how much Jehovah cares for us. We live in a world system that can often make us feel worthless, valueless, so we need to remember that Jehovah never looks at us that way.  He values his creation, even damaged as we are.

"“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, And your ways are not my ways,” declares Jehovah.   “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So my ways are higher than your ways And my thoughts than your thoughts."" - Isaiah 55:8.9

The second talk was  "Do not be Afraid or be Terrified".   Psalm 27:14 was a key scripture. It says:    "Hope in Jehovah; Be courageous and strong of heart. Yes, hope in Jehovah."

We can be courageous if we trust in Jehovah's strength and not our own.    And that is true even if you have a backbone of solid custard like me.    The speaker also reminded us of the lovely commendation the resurrected Jesus gave to the Christian congregation in Thyatira, at Revelation 2:19: ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and ministry and endurance, and that your deeds of late are more than those you did at first."

Our service to Jehovah is very precious, and it makes us happy, even under present circumstances.    But I often think how wonderful it will be during the Thousand Years when we have the opportunity to teach those who are resurrected. They will want to learn, be longng to lean, in wonderful loving circumstances, in an earth that is being transformed into a paradise.

I hope we are all there to experience it.  We will learn new things then too.  Things we can't even imagine or dream of.

And to bring myelf back down to the earth as it is now, it was my six monthly check and clean at the Dentist's this morning.   "And how are you?" asked my charming Turkish dentist.  "Fine, thanks. Can I go now?"  I asked hopefully. 

But no. I had my check and my clean. And he is very pleased with me!  For the first time ever I think I wasn't given stern instructions about flossing more.  So thank you Jehovah, because everything good in our lives we owe to you.  And also thank you to my dentist who is doing a good job of keeping me on the strait and narrow toothwise.

The Circuit Overseer's Visit

It is the Circuit Overseer's visit this week.  We had our first talk from him on Tuesday night, and I plan to get to the Field Service group at the Kingdom Hall this morning - and hopefully tomorrow and Saturday too.

The C.O. will give us lots of encouragement.

His first talk was "Do you put your heart into the work?"     We were reminded of the example of Nehemiah, and of all our faithful brothers and sisters

I was reading about the Extinction Rebellion protest which seems to be bringing central London to a standstill for a couple of weeks.  Apparently one of the rebels was lying on the pavement crying hysterically - he is so afraid of what is happening on and to the earth.   People need to hear the truth, so urgently.  We had some good talks this morning and left some information with people, including invitations to come to the Kingdom Hall and learn more.

This preaching work is going on worlwide, just as Jesus prophesied it would when he said:
"And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come." - Matthew 24:14

People need to know that soon Jehovah will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth".

They also need to realise that all rebellion comes from Satan. He persuaded our first parents to rebel against their Creator, thus setting in train the disaster we are living in.  And he promotes and encourages a rebellious spirit in the world to this day.   Perhaps as never before. We have even had, famously, a movie called "Rebel without a Cause", very influential in its day. 

So while I understand the Extinction Rebels concern, I know that this protest is not going to help.  It may in fact make things worse.   

On a lighter note, we, the Captain and his missus, have been watching the Athletics in Doha - on the telly, we were not in the Middle East.  And we saw one or two false starts, which is heartbreaking for the young athletes concerned as these days they are straight out of the race they have been training for for so long.

But since then I have been amusing myself by imaging a false start in the Marathon.

Has that ever happened?  Could it ever happen?   I'm sure Jean and I could manage it, given our track record.  Track record - ha!   We would also need a head start, of, say a week or two.

Our hour and a half in the field service on Tuesday morning was a bit of a marathon for us these days.

Shots! (and Fascinators)

Not gunshots, thank goodness, not yet in our sleepy seaside town. But we still have our share of the worldwide "increase in lawlessness", sadly.  These were flu shots. To be exact, Jean's flu shot.  Which I took her to Saturday morning, after we had first managed to drive ourselves to the wrong Clinic.

However all is well. And we even managed a call after. A lovely lady, one of Jean's calls. We wanted to follow up on her interest in something in the current magazine. I placed it with her while Jean was away, and I pointed her to the back page which speaks of the resurrection.  And I asked her if she knew that the Bible says that the hope for most of us is to be resurrected right here on the earth.

And I reminded her that Jesus (famously) said that the meek would inherit "the earth". She seemed quite surprised by that, and said she would certainly read the magazine. So we hope that she might look into this a bit more.

It is very very important.

Then I shopped, got lunch for the Captain who is glued to the telly at the moment - rugby and athletics.. Then it was off to the wedding at the Kingdom Hall, beautifully conducted by one of the brothers.  It was quiet and simple, yet full of emotion.  No mather how much "the world" tries to denigrate and downgrade marriage, its sacred nature still shines though.

The bride wore a lovely hat - the sort that is called, or used to be called, a fascinator. I am not into hats, but I love those.  It looked really good on her.  So pretty and elegant.

Jacks came for supper Saturday evening.  Captain B bought her a colourful bunch of Autumn flowers to cheer her up and I made a big pan full of Indian vegetable stir fry - cabbage, carrots and coriander, with chile and black mustard seeds.  It is a Madhur Jaffery recipe I have been making for years.  Its good hot and cold.  And we had a chicken curry - courtesy of Cook's - to go with it, along with rice and pickles; and the usual ice-cream for pudding.  We are all into choc ices at the moment. With a vengeance.  Yet I guess they are not very diabetes compatible...

The meeting at the Kingdom Hall this morning was so helpful.   We were reminded, for example, to look ahead to what John Milton called "Paradise regained" (in his epic poem).   And Paul's example is so helpful. He wrote honestly about his struggles.  And we were reminded to trust in the ransom sacrifice and not look back to past mistakes and waste a lot of time and energy in guilt and regrets.

So comforting.

We were also reminded not to look back at what we had left behind in "the world". Paul had the 1st century equivalent of an Oxbridge education, and a great career would have been open to him within the Jewish political and religious establishment of the day, but he considered it to be nothing compared to the happiness that was set before him.

"Yet, the things that were gains to me, I have considered loss on account of the Christ. What is more, I do indeed also consider all things to be loss on account of the excelling value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have taken the loss of all things and I consider them as a lot of refuse, that I may gain Christ." - Philippians 3:7,8

His hope was for the heavenly resurrection, as he was one of the 144,000 who are taken from the earth to be part of the Kingdom of God. But the hope for most of us is to live forever in the restored earthly paradise, safe under that Kingdom's loving rule.

And had I had a glittering career... not very likely admittedly, given I was the lady who looked after the Boarders at the Kennel Club and tried to make sure that every pet in our little expat town had its rabies shots.  But if I had had fame, fortune, money, all the rest of it, I would now be sitting here, in my Seventies, my life nearly over, wondering what on earth it had all been for.

But when you serve Jehovah you see a wonderful future.    Paul understood that, and his letters can help us to understand that now.

Meeting Bill and Carol

This week - this month - is hurtling by.  What have we been doing?  Mostly Metal detectorising in the case of Captain B.

My Monday morning was spent in taking Jean to the doctors over a minor medical emergency. She was at the meeting last night and all is OK. In fact, we managed some calls on Tuesday too.  And, all being well, I am taking her to get her flu shot on Saturday.

We - Captain Butterfly and me - met up with American friends from our expat years in a pub near Southampton on Wednesday and had lunch together.  We found it was 24 years since we had last seen each other. We live on different continents, but Carol and I worked together many years ago on Planet Expat.

It was so nice to see them. And we recognised each other!  Which says something.  Not sure if its about how young we all still look, or how bad our eyes are these days.  Either way, great.   Col had found a pub that they could easily get to after the left the IOW ferry and was en route to their friends in Dorset.

We only had a couple of hours with them, but it was so lovely to see them.  And to see them enjoying their well-earned retirement so much. And it brought back a lot of memories. We lived on Planet Expat a long time.

I got to the Field Service meeting on Thursday morning and did first calls with one of my siblings, down by the Station.  We placed quite a few little leaflets about the hope for the future - the Biblical hope, the sure hope of the restored earthly Paradise. 

And we sure hope that people will read them and think seriously and urgently about it.

The meeting last night provided another little marker in time. I had to put my lights on to drive TO the Hall.

We are getting the tail end of StormSomething, over from the Americas, and it was suddenly colder too. So another summer is gone, and yet another year is winding down.

And poor Captain B came limping back from a long day out in the Field - the farmer's field, with the detectorists.  "Lets face it, we are not as young as we were." I said, by way of consolation.

Usually he responds instantly with "Speak for yourself Miss!".   But this time he didn't.   Oh dear oh dear oh dear.  How can my London boy be getting old?    How wrong this all is.