Swimming in Flaming June

As July approaches - at the speed of light it seems - I have to say that June has lived up to its "flaming June" description. We have had a lot of sunshine - and some heartbreakingly beautiful blue skies full of white clouds, all moving along at stately or scudding pace.

We have had visitors - a rare thing in these pandemic days - and more to come next month. And I have had a fall - which has ensured my back is now more painful then ever. Moan moan whinge whinge.

Carol Rumens picked this as Poem of the Week in The Guardian. It is a sort of Pantoum, I think:

Llyn Gwynant by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

All through the night I twitch my heart.
Swimming is a kind of hiccup
that jolts the body clean apart.
All through the night I twitch my heart;
tight contractions of sleep starts
break like waves pushing me up.
All through the night I twitch my heart.
Swimming is a kind of hiccup.


And though I wake from something deep,
the pull comes from the darkening lake.
It is not night, I did not sleep.
And though I wake from something deep,
it is not sleep my muscles heap
on bone but waves that gently break.
And though I wake from something deep,
the pull comes from the darkening lake.

Then always afterwards a calm
that flattens out the body’s crease,
the water holds me in its palm
and always afterwards a calm,
a wash of mint and lemon balm
and wallflowers (once known as heart’s ease);
then always afterwards a calm
that flattens out the body’s crease.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2022/jun/27/poem-of-the-week-llyn-gwynant-by-elizabeth-jane-burnett

Wild swimming would be lovely in this weather. But it is one of the things I have had to say goodbye to, due to my age. I have "wild swum" in the River Derwent and in the Lake District when I was young, though we just called it swimming then.

And when the earth is restored to Paradise, under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God, and all streams are clear, all lakes are brimming with life as they should be - and all lochs are free of monsters - then I hope to go wild swimming again.

Wednesday night I heard of the death of an old friend.  I will be blogging some memories of the times we had together.  

Sea Flowers

Hopefully this blog will be headed by a photo of Clownfish and their anemones, from our Maldive years.  I have been thinking over our old expat days since Karen's visit.

We had another visitor.  A friend called in for coffee this morning and brought me some very welcome invitations to our upcoming online Convention. We had coffee and a chat out on the balcony watching the sea and the sky, which was full of scudding clouds - and enjoying the balcony geraniums and nemesia in their glory.

Here is the link to the invitation:

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/conventions/

The Friday Sessions

Friday Sessions: Learn how love leads to inner peace and peace with others. See why the Bible’s advice for marriage mates, parents, and children can be called “the road map to family peace.”

Saturday Sessions: Is it possible to enjoy peace if you suffer from illness, economic problems, natural disasters, or other difficulties? Watch an uplifting video that shows what people around the world are doing to enjoy peace.

Sunday Sessions: Can we really become God’s friends? Is friendship with God automatic, or is something required of us? Hear the answers to those questions in the Bible-based talk “Friendship With God​—How Possible?”

There is a programme on this link, so if you want to have look and see if there are some sessions you would like to come to, please do.  The drama is well worth seeing - professionally produced and informative.

We can have so much peace of mind even now, if we listen to our Creator, Jehovah.  As he himself said:

 "This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel:

“I, Jehovah, am your God,

The One teaching you to benefit yourself,

The One guiding you in the way you should walk.

 If only you would pay attention to my commandments!

Then your peace would become just like a river

And your righteousness like the waves of the sea."

Isaiah 48:17,18

This Convention will help us to pay attention to our Creator's commandments, to walk in his way, and find out for ourselves how much that benefits us.

We, in the congregation here, start our Covention this Sunday, from the comfort of our own homes, with Friday morning's programme after a shortened Watchtower study.  I am really looking forward to it.

Moth City, Conch City

The moths are starting to return to the balcony wall.  I think maybe the scaffolding has discouraged the breakfasting magpie, for the moment anyway.

Or it could be the GIANT Poplar Hawk Moth in the photo above that has scared it - and the builders - off.    Though most probably the builders are waiting until we have our family visitors before they start doing their noisy and view-blocking stuff.

Our lift is still out, which is annoying as I would have liked to attempt a walk to the sea, but I dare not try going down the stairs if Col isn't here to help me. The thought of a fall going downstairs... shudder...  

Spoiler Alert, in retrospect:  Wednesday's Quordle which I got in 7 (not that I want to brag about it, given that "pride comes before a fall" and I have had enough falling)  is: Conch, Crowd, Chase, Thrum.  Surely there is a Haiku in that?

The Conch in its Crowd of shells, gave Chase, with its Thrum of the sea...

Ne'er Crowd a Conch, nor Chase it, lest its Thrum of the sea falls silent...

or maybe not.

But here is a poem about the sea, one I just discovered:

Smooth Between Sea and Land

A.E.Houseman

Shall it be Troy or Rome
I fence against the foam,
Or my own name, to stay
When I depart for aye?

Nothing: too near at hand,
Planing the figure sand,
Effacing clean and fast
Cities not built to last
And charms devised in vain,
Pours the confounding main.

https://interestingliterature.com/2017/08/10-of-the-best-poems-about-the-sea/

How clearly the poet sees the futility that our first parents tragic decision in Eden condemned us to.  Nothing we build can last.   Except and unless we build a good name with God.  And to do that we need to find our Creator and learn what it is he requires from us.

I wish the poet could have known that.   And it reminds me that I need to keep trying to tell all I can about Jehovah and the Kingdom of God while I can.  So I hope to be at the field service group this morning, in Zoom, with some letters printed and ready.

I have also found quite a few phone numbers listed so I must pray about that and try to have a go this afternoon.  And I do hope that my next blog - should there be one, nothing is certain in this system of things - will not record that I still have not done them.  

The Castle

 

Here are a couple of Col's photos from his and Karen's trip to the fairytale Arundel Castle,  It is still the family home of the Duke of Norfolk, which makes it extra special.  Karen said that the scent of the roses was amazing.

I would like to visit this week while the rose garden is in its glory - but am still badly shaken by my fall and feeling every inch of my (mumble mumble) and seventy years.  I know I keep saying it, but how short our lives are now.  Seventy years (and the etc) have gone by so fast, and they are speeding up alarmingly.  

Writers, poets, have lamented this down the ages, as well they might.  As the Bible says, our Creator, Jehovah, has put eternity into our minds.  His purpose for us was, and is, that we should live forever on this lovely planet, which floats like a blue and white jewel in an awe-inspiring, ever expanding universe.

We feel that purpose in our hearts, so running out of time so rapidly is a shock, to say the least.  

Karen, on her travels, is now in Dublin - visiting the Guinness Storehouse apparently. To which I can only say "Cheers!".  I could do with a glass or two of it myself.

The big train strike is starting today - neither rail staff, nor management, nor government, is happy or prepared to compromise.

As the Inspired Scriptures warn us, "it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step".   The truth of those words should be becoming more evident every day - as should our need for the perfect government of the Kingdom of God.  Its loving rule will ensure the happiness of all the earthly creation.

Shaken and Stirred

On Friday, while Col was out, I had a fall.  In the bedroom, falling backwards into my Zimmer. Had I fallen forwards into it I could have saved myself.  The Captain came back to find me stranded.  

I have no kneecaps now, and one duff shoulder (not very successful implant) and one arthritic shoulder.  Trying to pull myself up, even with help, is a nightmare.  But we did it.  And believe me I prayed to Jehovah for help.

I am rather shaken.  When you fall when you are seven years old, you just spring up again.  When you are seventy and then some, you don't.  I am sore and bruised and still a bit shaky.  And Col has been reminiscing about the Galapagos Islands (off which he dove many years ago) and its giant turtles which sometimes get stranded helplessly upside down.

Grrrrrrrrr....  

How much I am looking forward to the moment when Jehovah makes all things new.  I am urgently in need of a brand new body - and, child of Adam that I am, have never had a perfect body anyway.

On Wednesday, I met up with the Dental Surgeon. I had hoped we would not have to meet again - nothing personal, he is a nice guy.  But my tooth fell out.  It has been glued back in again, hopefully to stay put this time.  It did at least time its fall well as it was on the afternoon he visits. And he is much more expert at these things than my dentist.

Anyway, it does make me glad my travelling days are over.  I don't fancy my teeth falling out mid-flight.

Karen came yesterday. It was great to see her and to catch up. Her parents, good friends from our expat days, were so lovely.  For some years it almost felt as if we lived at their house we were over there so much.

She took a copy of my book "Waiting for Gordo" with her, as her parents are included in the dedication, which is as follows:

"This book is dedicated to Colin and to the Aramco Shoal with whom I spent many happy small island holidays - none of which, thankfully, turned out as this one does..."

I dove the barrier reef once with Col, Chuck and Mary - them in scuba, me in a submersible.  They emerged freezing cold, not having seen much - and I emerged warm and dry, having seen loads.

I am still dazed from my fall - and other symptoms have appeared, which I will leave out of the blog (under the "too much info" rule).  So Col took Karen to Arundel Castle after lunch. I recommended both Rose Garden and Chapel. And she loved both. 

And she saw the tomb that inspired that Philip Larkin poem "An Arundel Tomb".  I have sent her the poem and link, as she did not know it.

It is a bit of a fairytale castle altogether.  Karen said the scent in the rose garden was wonderful.   

I have been in the rose garden there, but never at rose time.  I have been when the tulips were out though, and you can see the glory of tulip time at this blogpost:

https://sueknight2000.blogspot.com/search?q=tulips

Descending Up, Ascending Down

I heard the expression, of a climber, "she descended down".  "As opposed to descending UP!!!"  I screamed wearily at the screen.  Doesn't the excellent word "descend" tell you that only a downward movement is going on?

What next?  "She descended down, downwards, towards the bottom of the hill, not towards its summit"?  "She ascended up, upwards, towards the summit of the hill, not towards the bottom."?

All those words, where only four used to be needed: "She descended", "she ascended".

On Monday, I tackled the rhubarb Captain Moth-Butterfly brought back from the Greengrocer and made the crumble he was looking forward to. It turned out very well (though I says so as shouldn't), and I wish I could have had more than a spoonful of it.  And after that headline grabbing piece of news...

The Scaffolders have not yet reappeared, but their construction looms at our kitchen window and is threatening lounge and dining room.  Our block is undergoing extensive, but routine, maintenance.

The scaffolding arrived last week, and I had a shock as I wandered into the kitchen in my jim-jams and found a large scaffolder at the window.  I scuttled hastily off.  Captain M-B claims to have heard a terrible scream and a thud in the wake of my appearance.   Maybe the poor scaffolding lad was dazzled by my gleaming new teeth?

We, the Captain and myself, watched the Chris Packham programme: The Walk that Made Me last night.                                                    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xqgp

It was on while the Captain was away in Corfu, and I recorded it as I knew he would enjoy it.  I loved seeing it again.  Chris talks movingly about his Autism/Aspergers and how much he spent of his childhood alone - but alone with nature. And how it helped him.  Being on the spectrum myself I identify very strongly, especially with the horror of schooldays.

He was talking about his dad who, while still alive when the programme was made, could no longer do this walk with his son, as they had done so many times before.

I wonder if it will cause Chris to think, as I did so many years ago, about how short our lives are now, how quickly they go. And to wonder if there is any meaning, any purpose to it all. But above all I hope it will make him start to search for the Creator of this amazing, beautiful, complex planet, as I did, all those years ago.  

Because if you do seek for your Creator with all your heart, he will let you find him .   Here is the assurance, given 2,000 years ago, and recorded and preserved for us down the centuries to help and reassure us now.   It says, of Jehovah:

"And he made out of one man every nation of men to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,and he decreed the appointed times and the set limits of where men would dwell, so that they would seek God, if they might grope for him and really find him, although, in fact, he is not far off from each one of us." - Acts 17:26,27

Truly Jehovah does not hold himself far off.  He reads every heart.  He knows you and me better than we know ourselves.  And his purpose for us has not changed.  He wants us to live forever in the restored earthly paradise.

I thought of that prospect this morning as I hesitated over a magpie on the balcony, looking like it was after one of our moths. Should I scare it away and save the moth - or should I let it catch a moth to feed its hungry young?

While I was pondering this ethical dilemma the magpie made up its own mind and got whatever it was after and ate it.  It didn't seem to be a moth though.  When I told Col of the tragedy he said he thought it might have got the jumping spider - which also eats the moths!

What an ethical mess we are living in. It is only God's Kingdom that can put all this right.

Ministry School

 

The lovely poppy field is where Captain Moth-Butterfly was detecting on Saturday.  He found no gold, but brought back some great photos.

I was on the School on Thursday night. This was my material:

4. The Bible reveals its Author

Play the VIDEO. Then read 2 Timothy 3:16, and discuss the questions that follow.

VIDEO: Who Is the Author of the Bible?​—Excerpt (2:48)

• If men wrote the Bible, why is it called the Word of God?

• Do you think it is reasonable to believe that God could transmit his thoughts to human writers.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/meetings/r1/lp-e/2022/23

And this is how it went, with a little improv en route:

Sue:  We have just seen that the Bible consists of 66 books and was written by some 40 writers over many hundreds of years. And yet it claims to be the inspired word of God not the word of man.  To examine that claim further we are going to look at this interesting video.   (They watch video)  Now, they quoted 2 Timothy 3:16, and I would like us to read the whole verse before we discuss the video.  Would you read it for me?

HH: "All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness." 

Sue: So do you see from the verse why the Bible is called the Word of God?

HH:  Yes.  It claims that all Scripture is inspired by God.

Sue:  It does. And did you notice how Jehovah transmitted his word to these human authors, how he inspired them?

HH:  Yes. The video said by means of dreams, in visions, and also sometimes God used angels.

Sue: Exactly.  Which brings us to the second question. Does it seem reasonable to you that God could transmit his thoughts to human writers?

HH: It still seems a strange idea to me. But that little video had two interesting illustrations that did help. There was one about the business man dictating a letter to his secretary, so that although it was the secretary who typed it up, it was the business man’s thoughts the secretary was writing down, not his own.  And then it also made the point that even us humans can talk to each other across vast distances. They can even talk to the astronauts out in space now!

Sue:  Yes, that is a good point isn’t it?  I can now talk face to face every week to my brother and his family who live in Australia, and I just take it for granted, yet 30 years ago it would have seemed like a miracle.  So it’s not unreasonable to believe that the Almighty God could transmit his thoughts to humans when he wanted to.  It clearly would be no problem for him.  But why has Jehovah done this? What is he telling us? Did you notice what that Scripture I just read said? 

HH:  Yes, it said that the Bible was beneficial and could set things straight.

Sue:  Yes. Bear in mind that Jehovah really loves us, wants nothing but the best for us and that He is the Source of all wisdom, so his word is a perfect guide. As you continue this study, you will find that the Bible promises us more happiness right here on the earth than we can now imagine. This is a promise for the future, when God’s Kingdom is ruling over us, but it also helps us right now.  And you start to learn and to apply Jehovah’s word in your life, you will find out how powerfully it can set things straight even in the very difficult and confusing world we find ourselves living in.  And as you find out just how much it helps you, you will become more and more convinced that it is the word of our Creator, Jehovah.

Bonescan on Friday - done and dusted, but of course I now await the results. What I really need is a brand new face and body to go with these shiny new front teeth, but I will have to wait patiently on Jehovah for that.

But here is a comforting promise: "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth:" - Job 33;25

The Splendid Moths of Corfu - The Guide

Here is the link to Captain Moth-Butterfly's Guide to Corfiot Moths

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uzBQ5kMM0qiZIjIq7s2WKIK-NkHOe5Z7/view

The above is a Giant Peacock Moth, taken on one of his trips to Corfu.   The creation is so wonderful.

However, I am not too impressed with the noble Lord Smartphone at the moment - or whoever it was who created the Smartphone.  Why did he do it?!  Mine rings, and no matter what I do it will hardly ever let me answer it. . I swipe up, I swipe down, I remember my code. I put it in. I swipe up I swipe up, I swipe down. The thing stops ringing.  My real phone rings, and I simply pick it up and answer it.  As easy as that. 

Yesterday the ringee was Penny - she had to resort to the real phone to ask why I hadn't turned up at the family Zoom meeting!  I had lost my bearings as to where I was in the week.  Usually Captain M-B is out all day a'detecting on Sunday. But he was home this Sunday.

It looks like there are changes coming up in that we are hearing that the public preaching work will re-start - not door to door yet, but the literature carts, and some return visits.  I have had a couple of interesting experiences doing a bit of telephone witnessing - something that makes me very nervous.  I spoke for a while to one lady who is deeply depressed about the way things are going and said she feels no hope that any government can sort this out.

I did try to assure her that the heavenly government can and will. I forgot to ask her if she had ever prayed for God's Kingdom to come. She sounded quite young, so possibly not.  Talking to people is not my forte.  But I was able to read her Jehovah's promise, from the book of Revelation, his assurance that He will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth". (Revelation 11:18).  And, as she spoke about the horrors of the invasion of the Ukraine - the continuing horrors - I also read her this promise from Psalms:

“Come and witness the activities of Jehovah,

 How he has done astonishing things on the earth.

 He is bringing an end to wars throughout the earth…” - Psalm 46:8,9

Astonishing things.  She did not want me to send her any further information, or links. But God's word is so powerful that I hope, and must remember to pray, that those words will take root in her heart and lead her to start searching.  If she does, she will find real hope.

My medical stuff proceeds apace.  Today was a Gym Lesson with my lovely, kind and patient Physio. She showed me an amazing exercise for the back that she herself sailed through, but which she was not going to give me. Not yet anyway.

 "Well" I said "If you hear a fleet of ambulances racing towards our block of flats, you'll know I have got a bit over-ambitious and given it a go."

And yesterday was The Dentist.  I now have my smile back - though was in too much "discomfort" to smile much to be honest.  Plus i have one more session to go.  The glue/cement is temporary, and it will have to be permanently mortared in in a couple of weeks... oh and I have my part in the Ministry School tonight - and a bonescan to look forward to tomorrow.

How does anyone have the time to be bored in retirement?

I should have mentioned, in my previous blog:  The Queen in her Golden Coach  that just as the lovely young Queen Elizabeth rode to her coronation in a Golden Coach,  she also arrived at her Platinum Jubilee that way, in hologram form!  The coach was real, the Queen was a hologram of her young self, waving.

The Queen in her Golden Coach

I am writing this during a Bank Holiday which has been decreed to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the Second.  She has reigned over us now for 70 years.  I was a schoolgirl when she came to the throne, and remember the excitement, and the beautiful young Queen in her golden coach - like something out of a fairytale.

And all us schoolkids got a coronation mug and a box of coronation chocolates.  I did have the mug and the blue tin box (sans chocolates - they did not survive!) for many years.  But they have disappeared in one of our many moves.

Anyway, it seems appropriate to blog a poem I have loved since childhood. The Monarch in it is our present Queen's father of course.

Buckingham Palace  by A A Milne

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
"A soldier's life is terrible hard,"
                                     Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We saw a guard in a sentry-box.
"One of the sergeants looks after their socks,"
                                     Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We looked for the King, but he never came.
"Well, God take care of him, all the same,"
                                     Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
They've great big parties inside the grounds.
"I wouldn't be King for a hundred pounds,"
                                     Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
A face looked out, but it wasn't the King's.
"He's much too busy a-signing things,"
                                     Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
"Do you think the King knows all about me?"
"Sure to, dear, but it's time for tea,"
                                     Says Alice.

https://allpoetry.com/Buckingham-Palace

The child in the poem is sure that the King knows and cares for him personally.   And the crowds in the Mall, for the evening concert and the Sunday pageant seemed to feel that they know the Queen. And they certainly care for her.  She - frail and fragile though she now is - did make a valiant balcony appearance, and seemed very touched and moved.

It was a small moment of unity in a fractured world.  And it made me think about my youth, and the different and vanished world of the 1950s - though both contained the Queen and her golden coach. 

But it also made me think about the time when we, the human family, will have a King over us who is able to know and care for every one of us, in a way that no human ruler can.  Isn't this what we are praying for when we say the Lord's prayer and ask for God's Kingdom to come?

"Look! A king will reign for righteousness,

And princes will rule for justice.

 And each one will be like a hiding place from the wind,

A place of concealment from the rainstorm,

Like streams of water in a waterless land,

Like the shadow of a massive crag in a parched land."

Isaiah 32:1,2

Spring Watch Begins

The new Spring Watch began as May ended.  Great to see Chris Packham and Co again. This Spring he is joined by Michaela, Iolo, and Megan.   The venues are: Wild Ken Hill, the Isle of Mull, and for Meghan, the Kielder Forest, which is apparently part of her road trip across the North of England - the beautiful North where quite a big part of me would still want to be living.

Apparently viewers have been wondering, as I have, why it has come on so late in Spring.  However, I am just glad to see it back.  And the chicks in all the nests under observation are sturdier and fluffier than usual.   It could of course be that the Covid problem is still causing scheduling difficulties.

Much as I love the Watches - Spring, Autumn, Winter - the full horror of nature now being "red in tooth and claw" is there too.  You don't need lions hunting on the plains of the Serengeti to see it.  We see one nest of cute fluffy fledges being fed another cut fluffy fledge, taken from its nest.

We - the whole creation - are still living in the post-Eden tragedy.  As the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) tell us: "All creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain together".

We must not let ourselves be persuaded by the world that this is natural. It is not.  The natural state of things is love - loving kindness, unselfish love, loyal love.  And we can see glimpses of that everywhere too.   

And that is the state of things that will be restored when the Kingdom of God is ruling over us.   Nature will no longer be "red in tooth and claw".  The animal creation too will have the peace and security it deserves and so badly needs.

Oh and talking of the plains of the Serengeti, Captain Moth-Butterfly is back into his detecting routine - he left early on Thursday morning - very early - 4 o'clock alarm call - for the plains of Wiltshire, which are lion-free, so far.  At any rate, he returned home safe, well, and unchewed.

I made a banana bread on Wednesday, simply to use up a load of over-ripe bananas.  It has turned out OK - but it is an odd recipe. Sometimes it is really special, really lovely - sometimes it is just OK.  It seems to depend on the quality and ripeness of the bananas.