SOS AGM (and a Flare-up)

I haven't yet embarked on a Selfie, but if I can manage a picture of the balcony geraniums flowering valiantly through the winter rain I will post it.  There has been snow elsewhere, but not down here as yet. We have had to be content with making rainmen and throwing rainballs at each other.

I love snow.  The world of freshly fallen snow is so beautiful,  and the terrors of slippage that come with age are not so bad during Lockdown as I am not really going out. Not even for my walks. I have been crippled with pain this week.  I assumed it was because I had been out walking a bit, but it could be because I am now a month away from my fortnightly injection - not taken because of the Covid Vax.  I have to stab myself with it tomorrow - so maybe that will help.

It has been a bad few days painwise - left leg, hip, so much pain that I arrived late at the Friday morning field-service, which is held on my own computer in my own kitchen. And I did not turn on the video, as I was not able to get myself dressed and did not want to appear in my jimjams. While Captain B would have helped I was in such a state that I could not have managed to get dressed even with help.   Still at least I was there for most of it.  

And we were greatly encouraged at the meeting this morning, which I got to in proper attire, and which included a positive loving message from the Governing Body.  Hopefully we can all get out there now - by letter - and encourage others.   

Afterwards I drove my computer back to the Dining Room to find that two of the books Col has just ordered for me have arrived:

They are:  "And So To Murder" and "Behind the Crimson Blind", both by Carter Dickson.  I know I will be enthralled and baffled and fall for every red herring along the way.  But I must do some preaching work before I settle down with them. I have a new road to do, with over 50 houses.

This evening we - the Captain and his Missus - attended the first part of the AGM of SOS (Sussex Ornithologist Society) - on our respective computers, in the dining room.   

The Ironing Board and Me or Gorgon's Loch, the Board Game and Me

Poor Captain Butterfly must be wondering if its safe to leave me alone without a babysitter these days. Last week he came back to find me panicking because I had managed to delete all my files.  And he came back from his beach walk yesterday to find I had lost my fight with the ironing board. It had refused to close up and go back to its space but had sprawled about upside down and inside out, taking over the kitchen.

He wrestled it back into its place and I was able to make us our post-walk cup of hot chocolate.   I can't walk much at the moment as our little Sunday afternoon walk to Lobbs Wood seems to have crippled me.  I have been in a lot of pain ever since, and am back on the maximum dose of painkillers.  

You can see the wood above in all its dark fastness.  If the Brothers Grimm had lived in our little seaside town, I don't think many of their tales would have got written.  Don't their stories often involve woods you can get lost in?

The enclosures for my witnessing letters were delivered Sunday - thanks! - and I made an aubergine and chick pea curry.  Not brilliant but OK.   And I had a nice zoom chat with the siblings today.  Now I need to get some more territory to work.

My young publisher's Kickstarter for his boardgame Gorgon's Loch has been a success!  He has put so much work into it. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantasticbooks/the-gorgons-loch-save-your-souls-defeat-the-gorgon-queen

I must just make the point that, Biblically speaking, the soul is the person, the being.  We are souls, as the animals are.  How this board game defines it, I am not sure. Hopefully the same. When we get our copy we will find out.  When we were young marrieds, in London, many years ago, we used to play boardgames regularly with a couple of friends. They too are now retired to the South Coast.

Where did that time go?  And what is it all about?  Only one book can give us the answer, and can show us the way to a wonderful future, right here on the earth.

https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/about-the-bible/

  

The Deer that Went on Tiptoe

Winterwatch on Friday showed us Chris Packham out at night, in the New Forest (where he lives by the way, he was not breaking Lockdown regulations), with a heat-seeking camera.  Two deer walking across the other side of a big clearing suddenly saw Chris, and, as he pointed out, on the instant they became aware of him,  both began to tiptoe!   Which has made me think. Do they know that while they can see him, he cannot see them, and will not know they are there unless they make a noise?   We can't expect them to know about heat-seeking cameras yet, but give them a year or two...

How we under-estimate the wisdom of the animal creation - their intelligence, their capacity for feeling.  But they too were made by the Grand Creator, Jehovah of armies.   And when God's Kingdom is ruling over the earth, they will have nothing to fear from us, or from any predators of the night.  All the earthly creation will be at peace, as it was in the beginning.

Sunday started out very cold with such dark clouds at sunrise that had it been a bit colder we would have had snow.   As it was, we had rain. And now, lunchtime, its sunny.

The meeting this morning was very comforting, reminding us of the importance of keeping on the narrow road that leads to life.   

I have re-started my half hour beach walks.  So far without crippling myself, though it is still painful.

Climbing K2 in Winter

A team of Nepalese climbers has just reached the top of K2 in Winter - and it seems they all got back down safely!  As a keen armchair climber I can say that is amazing, an incredible achievement.  In fact, I would have said it could not be done...  Yet these Nepalese climbers have done it.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-55710125

K2 is, I would guess, the most dangerous mountain in the world to climb - with Everest and Annapurna fighting for second place.   Though I think life is too precious to take such risks, nevertheless I have to acknowledge it as the amazing achievement it is.

And on our Tuesday afternoon walk, we saw another more minor feat of derring-do in the cold, as a few valiant surfers were out.  Brrrrrrr - though I guess, compared to the top of K2 in the middle of Winter it was almost tropical.  Amazing waves on The Channel on Wednesday - Storm Something is in the offing.

Winter Watch has started.  Hurray!  Though it is sad that while they praise and appreciate the creation, they never mention or thank the Creator of it all, Jehovah.  The Theory of Evolution has put up a tragically successful screen which is preventing so many people from seeing what Genesis is so clearly telling us.

On Wednesday the Self-isolating Bird Club (fb) had a picture of a gigantic bird called The Quetzalcoatlus Northropi, Apparently it's the largest known flying animal that ever existed.  It is BIG.

And it caused me to remember this little verse, much appreciated by us schoolkids of the 1950s:

Once a bird flying high

Dropped some whitewash in my eye

I don't scream, I don't cry

I'm just glad that cows don't fly.

Vaccination!

It was a medical weekend.  Saturday was Col's eye test, with me along as the extra driver - eye drops.  It was one of those long long waits to see the doctor.  And on Sunday afternoon we had our Covid jabs at a local Health Centre.  So, if the conspiracy theories are true...  

Anyway, hopefully, it has worked out well.  Its now Monday and we are both still here.  It was all very well organised. You got a chat with a nice young doctor just before the jab - so I was able to witter on about my fearsome arthritis med. He assured me that he did not know of any problem interactions between it and the vaccine but approved my plan not to take it for another 2 weeks.  And they kept us there for 15 mins afterwards - all well separated on chairs positively damp from all the disinfectant.  

Impressive.  Thank you the Angmering Health Centre.

If anyone from Twinings is lurking on my blog - ? - am I due some advertising revenue, given that two of my blog readers have been asking about their Sleep Tea - and one has even taken the details and ordered a box.

I baked some bread - first time for a long time.  For some reason - probably because Himself is not requiring 3 sandwich lunches a week at the moment - no metal detecting outings - I am not as bread-conscious as usual and let us run out of bread.  And at the moment we are not just popping out to the shops.  I had no yeast in, so on Sunday morning I made soda bread (takes about 40 mins in all, from opening bag of flour to taking loaf out of oven and  - importantly given my arthritic hands - Kno Kneading is required).   It tastes rather good.  I even had a slice with my lunchtime veggie stew though I am not supposed to be eating bread anymore.  Its not a bread that keeps, so it is sliced and frozen, ready for action. And it will see us through - well see the Captain through - to our next supermarket delivery on Wednesday.

I used this recipe, using a mixture of full fat yoghurt and skimmed milk instead of buttermilk:

https://www.easypeasyfoodie.com/easy-wholemeal-soda-bread/   But you can also sour ordinary milk with apple cider vinegar if necessary.

Today I plan to get back to my letter writing and try to find a couple of cards from my cardfile that I can send to the two friends who are recovering after their operations.  And I have ordered some: What Does the Future Hold?" tracts, as many people must be wondering.

Jehovah is the one who knows.  And He promises us that when God's Kingdom is ruling over the earth "no resident will say: “I am sick.”" ( Isaiah 33:24 )  The link so fatally broken in Eden will be restored and we will have the perfect health and happiness that our Creator, Jehovah, always intended for us.

And then our real lives can begin.

Carter Dickson Redux

I must have been sleeping through recently as I don't seem to have a teabag text waiting by my computer come the morning. Clearly the Sleep Tea I have already had is working well.  I talked to the siblings on Zoom - or rather a Zoom equivalent - Wednesday morning.  And in the afternoon I excelled myself by managing to wipe all my files off my computer, including all my writing, with one stroke of the mouse.

Captain B, the superhero, retrieved them all when he found me panicking in the hall as he returned from his walk. Thank goodness.  It has inspired me to do a long overdue springclean on my files though.

I have resumed my letter witnessing, which included a lovely pbone call to a lady Jean and I used to call on - she wants another magazine and I have got one in the post with a letter - and have been studying and attending the meetings.  Our study on Ezekiel has really got going now, and I can'r recommend it enough. Half an hour a week, on Zoom, at your local Jehovah's Witness congregation.  It includes the famous prophecies about the dry bones coming to life again, and the attack on God's people by Gog of Magog - an attack which will mark the end of the present wicked system of things on the earth.

So it could not be more urgent to pay attention.

And I have also been getting a lot of fun out re-reading my Carter Dickson collection.  He specialises in the Locked Room mystery, which I love.  I would guess the writer of the TV series Jonathan Creek is also a fan as he carried the idea brilliantly through onto the TV.

And one thing about being old, and having my two remaining brain cells kept at full stretch trying to remember my own name (she said, taking an anxious glance at the title of her blog) is that although I have read my Carter Dickson collection before I can't remember what happened, who did it, why, and how!  I have already fallen for two of the red herrings I fell for the last time I read them, so I am really getting value for money here.

Flowers from Julia

On Wednesday a box of iris and freesia arrived from Julia - a good friend from our PlanetExpat years, who is also retired.  So this is the first photo I have taken with my new Smart phone -though Col had to be on standby to make sure it didn't outsmart me.   I might even have a go at one of those Selfies if I can work out how to reverse things.

Not only do I love freesia, but they bring back a wonderful memory from our travelling days, of rounding a corner somewhere north of Perth (the Oz Perth), wondering where the scent was coming from, and finding a swathe of freesias growing wild under a tree.  

Thank you Julia!

In the early hours of Saturday morning, over a cup of Sleep Tea, I found that my kind friend had allotted these verses from Psalm 37:4- 6 to my current teabag:  "Find exquisite delight in Jehovah, and he will grant you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to Jehovah; rely on him, and he will act in your behalf.   He will make your righteousness shine like daybreak, and your justice like the midday sun."

On Sunday morning the Channel was late back from its night out - there was only sea fret covering a frosted Green.   I wish I could write a poem to try and describe how lovely it was.  Or paint it.  In either case, there would be a few valiant balcony geraniums in the foreground, adding a note of red and pink - or as we seem to be saying these days, adding "a pop" of colour.  I wish I had taken a photo, but I keep forgetting that, in theory, I am now able to do so.  Captain B - at the next seat at the dining table - has just told me that he did take a photo!  So, all being well, I might be able to add it

Our meeting and field service arrangements continue in Zoom providing a positive refreshing framework to the week.   

The Yeartext for 2021 - Keep Calm and Trust in God

Our Yeartext for 2021 is from Isaiah 30:15 and in the face of the recent troubles in America (and so many other places) could hardly be more timely.  It says: "Your strength will be in keeping calm and showing trust.” 

The beauty of the creation is so calming and reassuring. The Captain caught the late Winter afternoon light in these lovely photos.  Surely we can trust the One who created such beauty?

And we are trying to reach everyone with the good news of the Kingdom of God - the perfect, just and loving government that the earth so badly needs - even though we cannot, for the foreseeable future, go door to door as we used to.

Keep calm. Trust in Jehovah.  If we trust Jehovah, we can keep calm. And trusting him means obeying him, as we trust that he knows exactly what is best for us.

Tuesday was X-ray day for me.  We parked up in Waitrose and walked  (we, or rather the Captain, did shop there - two pizzas and some chicken soups).  The X-ray process is so quick now - on the couch, a brief bit of re-arranging from the young lad in charge - a click a clank a whirr - and it was done. I was free to limp all the way back to Waitrose with Captain B.

At least I got my walk - not just to Waitrose and back, but also the walk from Reception to X-ray itself. It feels a bit on the triagy-side these days . If you survive the walk, you get the treatment.

I was up in the early hours of Friday morning - watched an episode of Bake-off - and had a cup of Twining Sleep Tea, The kind and beautiful friend who gave me the tea has added a comforting Scripture to each tea bag.  This one was Psalm 139:1-4, which says:

"I said: “I will guard my step To avoid sinning with my tongue. I will guard my mouth with a muzzle As long as anyone wicked is in my presence.”   I was speechless and silent; I kept quiet even about what is good, But my pain was intense.   My heart smoldered inside me. As I pondered, the fire kept burning. Then my tongue spoke:   “O Jehovah, help me to know what my end will be, And the measure of my days, So that I may know how short my life is."

These are powerful words, and harmonise with our Yeartext.  Just for a start if we don't keep calm in the face of all that is going on, we are, at the very least, likely to say things that are better not said.   

And Jehovah does help us to understand how short our lives are now, but that what he wants to give us is what he originally intended for us - life forever in the earthly paradise.

Notes from the Assembly

 It was my routine arthritis appointment at the Hospital yesterday.  The verdict: I am still clinging on to life. Thank God.  And my blood results were "excellent".  

A bit of good health news. Wonderful!

On the doubleplusUNgood side though, I am to have an x-ray to see what is happening re leg and hip.   I am terrified at the thought of another major operation looming up.  Though given what the Waiting Lists will be for routine stuff by now, old age may get me first.  

Anyway, how thankful I was for the Assembly on Saturday, a bright spot in a bit of a worrying time.

The Key Scripture for the REJOICE IN JEHOVAH Assembly was Psalm 32:11, which says:   "Rejoice in Jehovah and be joyful, you righteous ones; Shout joyfully, all you who are upright in heart."   (And I would want to make a clear distinction between "righteous" and "self-righteous". They are completely opposite things.) 

The Baptism talk was the best ever.  It was about Jehovah being "the happy God".  He is the greatest giver of all time.  He chose to share the wonderful gift of life, which he had no need to do.  And then, when our first parents chose to reject the life and perfection he had given them, when they chose to cut themselves off from their Creator, their Source of life, Jehovah gave his only-begotten son, the dearest of all his creation, his first-born, to help us, their damaged children - to give us back the life and perfection our first parents lost.

As God's word tells us, there is more happiness in giving than receiving.

On Sunday I got the info together for our tax forms. It is that tax time of the year again, and I say crossly as I always do, every year, that I am sure the Inland Revenue know and understand much more about my tax situation than I do.  And poor Mr.Capps who had the thankless task of trying to teach me maths back in the day would have vouched for that.

A New Day, a New Year (and a flare-up, left ankle)

 

                                                     A NEW DAY – A NEW YEAR  by me

                                                            The morning fires burn

                                                            Behind the long line of the horizon

                                                            Cloud covers come off

                                                            Grey flocks fold in sheets

                                                            All flat and squashed

                                                            Stars have fled West

                                                            Us passengers wake cross

                                                            To airline tea

                                                            And airline toast.

                                           A JANUARY WASHDAY IN SHEFFIELD  also by me

                                                        Black trees rattle in the icy wind

                                                        Through gale-smashed panes the greenhouse sings

                                                        Tights, shirts, tea-towels, bras and knicks

                                                         Dance to welcome eighty-six

Those poems were written so long ago. The second one carries its date within it, but i am not sure when I wrote the first - early in our expat travelling days, on our first big trip to the Far East I think. We were sleeping on the plane as the new year dawned and woke to a wonderful flat flocked cloudscape.  

And I do remember that January washday - icy cold, panes of greenhouse glass smashed in the storm, and my mother's washing flapping valiantly in the back garden.  I hope so much I will see my parents again, and that one day, my mother and I will be hanging out the washing together in the paradise earth.

My attempt to restart my walks, just half an hour a day, has not gone well.  We had a very disturbed night (Friday/Saturday) as my ankle swelled up, I was in so much pain I could barely move and the Captain had to help re painkillers. I did manage to get back to sleep.   Last night was not good either. My right shoulder - my only real one - is now troubling me because I had to get back on my zimmer briefly.

Yesterday it was the Assembly at Haysbridge - REJOICE IN JEHOVAH.  There is no way I could have got there, but, wonderfully, due to the Covid lockdown, the Assembly came to me!   I hope to post a few points from it as I digest my notes - assuming I will be able to read my mad arthritic scrawl.