The Old Mill Lodges

The News is so sad and depressing that it is hard to know where to start. We have had a Winter tragedy as three young boys have died after falling through ice on a frozen pond, and one is in hospital fighting for his life, at 6 years old.  

Since I began to write this blog, the little lad has died. So it will be a bleak midwinter indeed for their families.

I can only hope they know - or will come to know - about the resurrection hope - that their children are not lost, just sleeping safe in the everlasting arms until the time comes to wake them.

It could have happened to my sister and me on the frozen Mill Lodges back in the 1950s. 

And if this very cold Winter continues, there will almost certainly be deaths from hypothermia. How are the street homeless coping with the cold nights?  If you read George Orwell's "A Clergyman's Daughter", you will find a vivid description of just what it is like to sleep out on the Winter streets, in the UK.  He was speaking from personal experience.

On a much cosier (and I hope not insensitive) note, Professional Masterchef UK has finished.  They chose three great finalists - my favourite Charlie didn't win, but getting into that final is a win, careerwise. Nikita, who did win, had also been brilliant throughout. And the other finalist, Sagar, cooked a starter that is the dish I would most have liked to eat, out of all the lovely dishes on offer.  It was Puri/Poori (not sure of the spelling) based - Indian street food, but cheffed-up for the occasion.  It looked totally delicious.  

I could never eat the meat they cook though as chefs like their meat raw - or "rare" in chef-speak. When I do eat meat, on social occasions, I like it very well done.  If I were to go out to a steakhouse - not likely as I don't like steak - I would ring up the day before to book the table and probably ask them to put my steak on there and then just to be sure - on a lowish sort of heat of course.

The ground outside the flat is still a sheet of ice, and as I cannot overcome my anxiety about falling and breaking something, I am back on Zoom - both for meetings and witnessing.   I hope this is not a big failure in faith.

Jehovah asks us to throw all our anxiety on him because he cares for us.  "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time, while you throw all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." - 1 Peter 5:6,7

The problem is that we don't "throw" our anxieties on Him, having done what we could about them, we tend - or I tend - to put them down and pick them up again, and worry away at them.  But also our Creator does expect us to use the common sense he gave us... which means I should be very cautious about ice.

Anyway, I could witter on about my worries for ages, so all I will say is that I have done a letter and a bluebell card for Julia.  And we have finally sorted out a calendar for next year - plus some new butterfly cards, which should arrive in a day or two. And that I got quite a bit of Zoom witnessing done yesterday.