A Return to the Field

Captain M-B set off very early (5 o clock alarm call) for The Field on Saturday morning - and I too, after a lot of trepidation, managed to get back to the witnessing field.  He is looking for treasure, I am looking for those who will accept and treasure the good news of the Kingdom of God - which is of more value than all the gold in the world.

The thought for the day spurred me on, reminding me as it did of Jesus' command to all who wish to follow him:  Go, therefore, and make disciples . . . , teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded.​—Matt. 28:19, 20.

And the continuing horrors in the News are also a constant reminder of how much people need the hope of the incoming Kingdom.

Anyway, I made it to the Field Service group, and found we were working on a local road so close to home that I was able to park my car at our apartment block and walk to the territory.  

We had a good morning out, and I felt so grateful to Jehovah for giving me an easy start. I haven't been out for weeks, as I have been ill for such a long time. What I now have to do is to keep praying and keep going.  I have been witnessing by email and letter of course.  Once you know what the Bible actually says, it impels you to tell people.

But I was shocked at how exhausted I was by my gentle little walk on Saturday morning - and in a fair amount of pain too.  I used to be a great walker.  Old age is a series of goodbyes - most painfully of all to family and friends as they go over that edge - but also to things (for me) like walking along the sea edge with my shoes off, paddling in the waves.  Or indeed swimming in the sea, Or anywhere. I can do neither now.  I can no longer walk to the shops and back, or to the Hall and back.

Mind you, there are some firsts.  On Sunday I found I had my first parking ticket!  I have been away from the Hall - attending in Zoom - for such a long time that I assume the Sunday parking rules must have changed, and I did not realise.  Or had I forgotten what they were? That is also more than possible.  My two remaining brain cells are kept at full stretch remembering my own name these days.

I feel very guilty as followers of Christ should always be law-abiding, though I had not meant to park where I shouldn't. Anyway we will pay the fine today - you only have to pay half if you pay up promptly,  And I found myself worrying in the small hours about where I am going to park on Thursday nights as the roads are so dark and I am so scared of falling.  Another thing you lose as you get older is good night vision, and another thing you gain is a fear of falling.

Having said all that though, I am still loving our retirement, by the Sea, with Captain M-B (a little poem there), and am so grateful to be here still.

I noticed that the daffodils at the Kingdom Hall were starting to blossom!  Should they be out so early?    But they were why I chose a picture, taken somewhere, sometime by Captain M-B of a field with daffodils.

The Small Print

 "I should have read the small print" said Captain Moth-Butterfly ruefully.  He had just said that he never thought he would be cuddling a 75 year old lady - old being the operative word - and I pointed out that he had better cuddle her while he could as during this year I will transmute into a 76 year old lady.

"Can't I trade you in for a younger model?" he asked plaintively.  "Not allowed in the contract", I reminded him firmly.  Which caused the lament about the small print.  In any case, my trade-in value these days would be minimal to none.

And I tormented myself with another anxiety dream on Tuesday night. I was trying to tell a very nice young lad I had met at some kind of Occasion what the Bible says. In the dream he had asked  the right question: Why if there is a Creator who is both all-powerful and kind is the world so full of cruelty and injustice?

I was longing to show him what Genesis says, but try as I might I could not find Genesis in my Bible.  In desperation I tried to find the last book of the Bible, Revelation. as that not only refers us back to what happened in Eden, as it warns us about "the original serpent", but it also assures us of how wonderful the coming rescue will be, when Jehovah will wipe out every tear from our eyes.  But Revelation had disappeared too!

Then I thought, well, I will just tell him what it says, but at that point my bus came (? don't ask, I don't know) and the nice young lad put put me on the bus, looking worried.

Goodness knows what that was all about, what depths of anxiety were being plumbed.  But isn't life stressful enough without my sleeping brain adding to it?

But it has come back to me that he warned me that my belt was falling off. Which makes me think of Ephesians, which tells us to "wear the belt of truth" around our waist.  Is this a guilt dream because i have been slacking off in my study of God's word?

It is worth thinking about.  The other problem is that I have taken to drinking coffee, not tea. And I think I need to return myself to tea. I am sitting here right now with my second cup of coffee to hand, and it is not lunchtime yet.  And I am not sleeping well.

Anyway, here is a news item that appeared on Wednesday, that is at once so sad - poor poor little lad and his family - but also wonderful, in that it seems the crocodile was trying to save the child, certainly not hurt him.  And who knows what might have happened had the croc been there when the child fell in.  Would he have returned him safe to shore?  I would love to think so. It would have been a paradise earth moment, the earthly creation helping not hurting each other. 

I have found a Croc photo from the Captain's Log to remember the little lad and the kind creature, who I really hope was trying to help.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11671925/Extraordinary-moment-crocodile-carries-body-boy-four-mile-Indonesian-river.html

A Second Childhood

We haven't had any snow as such yet, but have had some icy days.  This is a lovely bleak photo of the Rusty Hulk in the snow in one of our snowy winters.  It was taken by Captain Moth-Butterfly of course.

Monday, when I started this blog was sunny and cold, and when I checked out the bedroom window, the garden was frosted over.

We have a neat arrangement here by which our living rooms: kitchen, lounge, dining room (computer room now), all look out over the Channel, while both bedrooms look inland, over the gardens.

The Assembly on Saturday was FRIENDS OF PEACE.  You can find the programme on the site JW.org.   The key Scripture was Luke 10:6: "And if a friend of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if there is not, it will return to you."

In the Kingdom preaching work we are looking for those who are friends of peace, those who above all want to know their Creator and be at peace with him.  And when we are at peace with Jehovah, we can be at peace with our fellow men, as he teaches us how to be.

I have to go over my notes and pick out some points. But already it has galvanised me to get out on the doors and make a very overdue call - overdue because I have been coughing and sneezing for weeks.  If the householder in question, who now has all my contact details, decides to accept the offer of a Bible study in the "Enjoy Life Forever" book, I will take a brother with me - and one who (unlike me) is smarter than his Smartphone.  There is a series of short videos that go with this study brochure and they are very helpful.

Once again, you can find all this on JW.org.

I had my annual Health Review on Monday morning - very nice nurse, who helped me back on with my socks after checking my feet.  "This is over and above the call of duty", I said as I thanked her.  Old age is described as a "second childhood".  And here I am again, needing help getting dressed, but with none of the winning cuteness that goes along with the first childhood.

A Taxing Time

What would be an appropriate photo for this time of year, as we wrestle with our tax returns, knowing that the Income Tax People know more about our income than we do anyway, or certainly more than I do. Every year another precious forest  has to be felled - well a virtual forest  these days I guess - to tell the Inland Revenue what it already knows.

I wonder if I can find one from our Prague trip of long ago - one that references Kafka?   No, I can't.

I have no problem paying taxes when they are due.  Its just that the paperwork seems so pointless.  They know what, if anything, we owe. Why not just tell us?  And mostly it's already been deducted anyway.

Col and Jim went off a'detecting on Thursday - somewhere in the Outer Planets I am assuming given the time the alarm clock went off.  And my Annual Health Check, set for Friday was cancelled via email at the last minute as the practise nurse was off sick.  I guess they are exposed to everything going in their job, masks not withstanding.

Hopefully I will have it next week. Though I'm not sure I want to know the result.

Winterwatch is back - as fascinating as ever.  The creation is endlessly interesting, and so lovely.

This weekend it is our assembly at Haysbridge, on Saturday, but I will be attending in pixel form, as I am still coughing, sneezing and in a fair amount of arthritic pain. Hopefully it will be a lovely day, either way, with some perfect, loving teaching, in a harsh and imperfect world.

And yet again I find myself thinking of the time and effort, sincere time and effort on the most part I think, that was put in to the intensive religious training we got at our Convent schools.  Yet if only they had taught us what the Bible actually says.  When I did hear - at last  - I did respond to it.

Would I have responded back then?  While I hope so, of course, I can't be sure. But God's inspired word has immense power.

As the apostle Paul wrote: "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 and their marrow, and is able to discern thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

God's inspired word has an unequalled power to reach hearts.  And something we read in my faraway schooldays,  as we did read bits of the Gospels regularly, must have touched my heart as I can remember wondering why we weren't kinder to each other, given what we had just read.

I don't remember what verse it was, but for the moment, it did reach my heart.  It took me nearly 30 years to find out why though.

The Betty McDonald Book and I

The photo is one Col took in South Africa - not sure which trip.  He had a dive trip there with Dave, in which they cage dove with Big White Sharks...   and Col and I went there about 14 years ago for a friend's wedding.  The wedding was in Jo'burg and then we went down to the lovely Cape to stay with Roger and Anne.

The butterfly is a Dancing Acraea - and I am trying to think of a dancing link for this blog. But nothing has turned up yet.

Which kind of reminds me of a Beachcomber headline - from way way back - the 1930s I guess:

FIFTY HORSES WEDGED UP CHIMNEY!

And underneath this alarming headline he had written: The story to fit this sensational headline has not turned up yet.  (For which we can only be thankful.)

So the DANCING ACRAEA has not turned up yet, blogwise. Though it would be quite a sensational story if we saw one on our balcony I guess.    

I must note that I got a card, a Swallowtail, plus letter, sent off to Kathryn, and a Clouded Yellow card and letter off to a local friend who has just broken her wrist.  And I will also note that Kathryn's card crossed with mine. We were both saying we were sorry not to be able to see each other on our recent trip up North. We were both ill.

We are past our sell-by dates, and feeling it.  It is a painful thing to lose old friends. Kathryn and I have known each other since our schooldays. The best friend of my expat years died just before we retired, the best friend of my Uni days died before we came back to the UK too, and my old schoolfriend and girl-next-door, Mary Jane Lee (as was), died a few years ago.

As the Bible says, at the moment "death reigns as king over us".  But our rescue is so close now. And the dead will not be forgotten during the Thousand Years, when, as the Book of Daniel assures us, "many" of those asleep in the dust of the ground will wake up.

So maybe we will all meet again.  There is certainly hope.

Pen kindly sent me a bio of Betty MacDonald by Anne Wellman.  I am enjoying it very much. As a family we have always loved her books: The Egg and I,  Anybody Can do Anything, and Onions in the Stew.

But the book in the News is Prince Harry's autobiography "Spare".  It seems to be a combination of kiss and tell and attacks on his family.  I am going by the headlines. I have not read the book and am not planning to.  He seems to hold a real grudge about his position as "spare" (as in "the heir and the spare"), yet that way don't you get a lot of the privilege without a lot of the responsibilities? So I wish someone would encourage him to think about it that way before he burns all the bridges back to his family.  

Talking of burning bridges, the tabloids are still full of Harry (he is at least being very good value for them) as Jeremy Clarkson has just apologised for a truly nasty thing he said about Meghan. It is quite a grovelling apology, as well it should be.  But... the royal pair have not accepted it.  And it looks like Jeremy will be cancelled from public life.

At any rate, he has made his money and had his career.  And you may well feel he deserves it.

Yes, but... Harry, who did something rather worse, by turning up at a party dressed in Nazi uniform, thus brutally insulting many people, did apologise and was forgiven.  And he is far from cancelled.

This will probably get me accused of a new (to me) thing called "Whataboutism" - but surely, whatever Whataboutism is all about, the gracious thing would have been to accept the apology.

And above all, every one of us, the damaged, dying children of Adam, are in need of undeserved kindness from our Creator, if we are to have back the life and perfection  that our first parents so tragically lost.  We need constant forgiveness from our Jehovah, and so we need to try hard to forgive each other.

Not easy, I know. Especially when it is someone we love who has been hurt.  But here is the perfect definition of love, from 1 Corinthians 13:

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth."

And how different the world would be if each of us was doing our imperfect best to follow that perfect advice.

"

Sleeping Sally

While we were up North, Nute reminded me of another Sally poem I had written - before, of course, I understood that Genesis is the history of us, and that it is true, not a "creation myth" - in other words that we were created, that we have a Creator.  But maybe I was having some doubts about the theory of Evolution even back then, for all it is pushed at us so strongly.  For sure, I saw it meant that life was ultimately futile.  It seemed so bleak. But I was thinking and wondering about it, as I felt I needed to know the truth. How do you know how to live unless you do?

The poem has several titles, but "Sleeping Sally" is its first and best.

"SLEEPING SALLY"

or

MAKING COCOA FOR RICHARD DAWKINS
(With apologies to Wendy Cope)
or

PRIMEVAL SALLY
or

A THEORY OF EVOLUTION EVERY BIT AS ACCURATE AS DARWIN’S OWN


Sleeping Sally dreams of biscuits
Hordes and hordes and herds of biscuits
Herds of migrating chocolate biscuits
Thundering across the primeval plain

Sally and ancestral sisters
Rush among the herds of biscuits
Bark and tumble, kill and guzzle
Satiated, they sleep under the hot sun.

The ape upon the hillside
Watches Sally enviously
Soon the apeman will have tools
He’ll corral the biscuits into packets
And dole them out meanly- one by one.

I don't know whether I should add a health warning about chocolate not being good for dogs - something we did not know back then.  But given that if there ever were herds of chocolate biscuits they are now extinct, it is probably OK.  I am not sure that Sally could have caught one anyway. She never managed to get near a squirrel in the park for all her efforts.

And if you would like to read the scientific case for creation, then please do look at this link: https://www.jw.org/en/library/series/more-topics/how-did-life-start/  You will find a lot of valuable information in short and easy to read articles.

This is so important, as what our Creator, Jehovah,  is offering us is everlasting life in a paradise earth  - and more happiness than we can now imagine.  We need to take hold of his offer if we want to be there.  And we need to come to know him to be able to do that.

It saddens me to think how many years I lived my life persuaded that Genesis was simply a "creation myth", and so never bothered to even read it and find out what it was so urgently telling me.

Col left very early for The Field - as he did yesterday - with his box of cake and sandwiches and a metal detector at every corner. And I am about to attend the Sunday meeting, in pixel form, as I am still in the throes of a bad cold, with the attendant coughing, sneezing, sore throat, and the added extra of sore eyes.

It is sunny this morning - and the rain has stopped.  It is apparently going to get colder and more wintery during the week, which it needs to do as it is still midWinter.

A Part in the School - and Eye Trouble

I have a part in the Ministry School Thursday if my poor wounded eyes are equal to it. This cold we have both come down with has gone to my eyes. They have become so sore and painful that I can hardly see to read or type. I tried self help, as our poor overwhelmed NHS is begging us to do, and got some Optrex from the Chemist on Friday. I also soaked my eyes in a hot wet slightly soapy flannel for ages. But no use. So after the weekend I had to ring up the surgery - half an hour on phone, not too bad - and they were very helpful and got some eye cream to the Pharmacy straight away.

The eyes are improving. Thank Goodness.

And I had the second return visit in the Ministry School last night. The schedule for the worldwide congregations midweek meeting is here:

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/meetings/r1/lp-e/2023/2

And this is my script:

Sue:  Thanks for asking me in.

HH:  Hello, yes, its too cold to talk on the doorstep. And I wanted to talk to you as I have been thinking about what you said last week about prayer and knowing God’s name, but it’s still hard to believe that there really is a God who will hear my prayers.

Sue: I am so pleased you have been thinking about it.  Be sure that our Creator sees and notes that you are listening to him. You are very precious to him. We all are.  And he himself teaches us how to pray to him and be heard, because he wants to hear us. For example let’s look at these words at 1 John 5:14.  Would you mind reading them for us?

HH:  Reads 1 John 5:14. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that no matter what we ask according to his will, he hears us.”  

Sue: It says that whatever we ask according to God’s will he hears us. So what would it be important to know if we want Jehovah to hear our prayers?

HH: I guess we would need to know what his will is.

Sue: That is it. In other words, if we want him to listen to us - and we do! - then don’t we also need to listen to him?

HH: I had never thought about it like that. But, yes, that is only reasonable.

Sue: So where do you think we could find out what it is he wants - for us and from us?

HH: As you are Jehovah’s Witness, I think you are going to say the Bible.

Sue: Yes. Certainly, It is Jehovah’s message to us. Which is why we not only encourage people to read the Bible, but we also offer a free home Bible study. In fact I bought this brochure with me today, hoping I could demonstrate a study to you.

HH: Ok. If it won’t take too long.

Sue: No, it won’t, I just wanted to show you the first two paragraphs. The brochure is called Enjoy Life Forever - and I want to stress the word enjoy. Jehovah is the happy God and he wants all his creation to be happy too. Which is one of the many things you will find out about him as you study his word. And the first section is simply called “How Can the Bible help You? And it says (reads)

Nearly all of us have questions about life, suffering, death, and the future. We are also concerned about day-to-day matters, such as making a living or having a happy family. Many people find that the Bible not only helps them answer life’s big questions but also gives them practical advice for daily living. Do you think that the Bible can help anyone you know?

HH: I hadn’t really thought of the Bible as being a source of practical advice - not for us today.

Sue: Sadly, I don’t think many people do. And I used to be one of them, and yet I found as I began to study the Bible that it can help us in every way. And to look further into the help it gives us, would you read the next para.

HH: Reads para 1.
 What are some questions that the Bible answers?
The Bible answers these important questions: How did life begin? Why are we here? Why do innocent people suffer? What happens when a person dies? If everyone wants peace, why is there so much war? What will happen to the earth in the future? The Bible encourages us to seek answers to such questions, and millions have found its answers very satisfying.

Sue:  Which of those questions would you most like answered?

HH: it's impossible to say really. They are all so important, and so baffling. People say all sorts of things about death, and life after death, frightening things. And why do we keep attacking and killing each other in war? Will it always be like this?

Sue. Yes. Why indeed. And why all the confusion. Would like to know more about what the Bible says about this and also why we can trust what it says?

HH: Yes. Why not. I realise I probably don’t know very much about the Bible.

Sue: Your saying that reminds me of myself when I first began to study with the JWs all those years ago. I realised I knew next to nothing about what the Bible says, and yet I had had an intensive religious education. So I would love to continue going through this brochure with you. Could you spare me an hour, or even half an hour next week?

HH. Yes. Actually this time on a Wednesday is usually good for me. I should have the morning free and we can have a cup of coffee along with our study.

Sue: Thanks I will be looking forward to it.

And that is how a study in the Enjoy Life Forever! Brochure begins.  And it is freely available to all, in-person, conducted weekly in your home by a member of your local congregation, or on-line, via JW.org.

Calendar

Captain M-B had not found time to do a calendar this year as he usually does - and they are always lovely - full of his year's worth of photos - and he is professional standard.  But he has been so busy over the last couple of years he has not devoted a lot of time to photography. So our last calendar was of photos from his diving days, when we used to go regularly to the beautiful Maldive Islands. They inspired my first  novel - "Waiting for Gordo" - and some wonderful photos from Himself.

However, suddenly, at the last minute, he decided to do a 2023 calendar using photos he has taken locally.  During the first months of Lockdown we went for a walk within our allotted bounds every day and always found something to photograph. Then of course I was confined to home apart from medical appointments.

The beach hut photo above is not the one that made the calendar, but I do like it.  It (the calendar) was so hastily done that we forgot to put the year on it - and we have not yet taken Jacks round  her copy!  And I only put up our own copy yesterday. Hopefully today, we will be taking it round.  At least they rain has stopped.  But we are both suffering from very bad colds.  

Everyone seems to be down with something at the moment. Maybe our immune systems are a bit weak after the long Lockdown?   Anyway, how wonderful perfect health will be. And that is what lies ahead for us, if we will only listen to our loving Creator, Jehovah.

The last chapter of Revelation contains this invitation to each one of us:  "And the spirit and the bride keep on saying, “Come!” and let anyone hearing say, “Come!” and let anyone thirsting come; let anyone who wishes take life’s water free."

Let anyone who wishes take life's water free.  Why not take the invitation, while is it being freely offered, to every one of us, worldwide?  Why not be there, in the restored earthly paradise, living the joyful life that our Creator, Jehovah, always intended for us?

 

Mods and Rockers

We met the boyfriend of the second oldest granddaughter while we were up North.  She has replaced her lovely natural blonde hair with purple, has piercings everywhere, a tattoo (the first of many to come apparently) and was dressed in black.  

The boyfriend turned out to be much the same, except the hair was black too.  I thought they were GOTHS, and was rather pleased with myself for knowing that. But it turns out they are not, they are EMOS.

Goths are the ones who wear black, have lots of tattoos and piercings, whereas Emos are the ones who wear black and have lots of tattoos and piercings...

What is happening to young people?  Back in the 1960s you could tell a Mod from a Rocker at a hundred paces!

Anyway, the Emo boyfriend turned out to be a really nice young lad, and he and Col had a long chat about metal detecting.  So who knows?  Perhaps it will all turn out well, despite all the tattoos and piercings (which look so horrid to our generation). We hope so anyway.

I must note that I have done the following cards:  A thank you to Jen, a thank you to Bea, a card to Das who we did not manage to see, one to the Bavarian branch, and one to Helen to thank her for the cake, which has been a bit of a godsend, as we did not really shop on the way down and the Waitrose delivery was not till Wednesday evening.

We are now restocked, Col left very early metal detecting, and I am trying to catch up with my studies. And we both brought back colds from the North, so we are both coughing and sneezing again.

Re tattoos, we in the worldwide congregations note a principle from Jehovah's word.  While we are no longer under the Mosaic Law, and thus free, for example, from its dietary restrictions - it does say this:

"Significantly, the Mosaic Law forbade God’s people to tattoo themselves. Said Leviticus 19:28: “You must not make cuts in your flesh for a deceased soul, and you must not put tattoo marking upon yourselves. I am Jehovah.” Pagan worshipers, such as the Egyptians, tattooed the names or symbols of their deities on their breast or arms. By complying with Jehovah’s ban on tattoo markings, the Israelites would stand out as different from other nations.​—Deuteronomy 14:1, 2.

While Christians today are not under the Law of Moses, the prohibition it laid on tattooing is sobering. (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14, 15) If you are a Christian, you would certainly not want to make markings on your body​—even temporarily—​that smack of paganism or false worship.​—2 Corinthians 6:15-18."

This quote is from an Awake article: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102003689?q=tattoos&p=par

And as we are to be "no part" of the world, to stay out of its political fights and factions, would we want markings on us that identified us as belonging to whatever the currently fashionable teenage tribe is?

We want to belong to Jehovah.

An Imaginary Cat

I shall farewell the year 2022 and welcome the year 2023 with a photo of an imaginary cat - Tabs to be specific.  You can be sure she is imaginary as: Cats Are Not Allowed On The Dining Table.

Both of the imaginaries spent their time winding round us, jumping on our laps, mewing at us for whatever luxury food they currently require, and running away in terror if we moved from our chairs, coughed or breathed too deeply.

Clearly they remembered us from our last stay.  Though I can't myself remember the moment when we must have sprung coughing from our chairs, breathing deeply while attacking them...?  How?  And why?

Anyway, they love my sister. They seem to have shared her out between them.  Tabs sits on her lap in the evenings, and Abra sleeps on her bed at night. And they have a big house and garden as their new domain, and seem glossy, healthy and happy, which is what Janet wanted for them. 

We have had a busy week 'oop North.  The Dronfield crowd came for lunch on the day itself - Nute cooked up a turkey feast with all the trimmings, including Yorkshire puds; Lilac Tree Farm came on the 27th including the 5 years old tornado of energy that is the youngest great grandaughter. Nute conjured up a masterly turkey curry plus a bowl of spaghetti with a tomato veggie sauce, and I made a raita.  Though I did not eat myself.  More Scrooge-like than ever, I just had a mug of boiled water from the kettle.   I was struck down by a violent arthritis flare up, which necessitated emergency painkillers, which cause stomach problems...  

The whole thing may have originated in a rather rich soup I made us from veggies and the turkey stock.  Or it may have happened anyway.

So I missed the trip to York on the Thursday - but Col and Nute went. They had a trip to Yorvik and lunched sumptuously at Keith and Janet's.   I did get across The Snake to see Bea and family on Saturday, and Nute came with us. Bea also provided a super lunch. 

Derby sadly had gone down with Covid, so we did not get to see them this time - but we did see them all over the summer at least.

The week ended with what has become the traditional veggie feast from Jen.  She introduced me to bulgur wheat - which I loved. Well, I loved it as she cooked it.  So I am hoping to get the recipe. And it was Captain B's favorite, crumble for dessert - a raspberry and peach crumble to be specific.  Knowing Jen they were probably her own home-grown raspberries.  Her garden, like Bea's, is a work of art.

It seems, reading this back, as if we did nothing but eat...  but all our socialising did centre round lunch. I tried to be careful, blood sugar wise, but there were failures.

We travelled back on Bank Holiday Monday - it was a sunny winter's day, not too cold, and there were no hold ups.  It is strange to be back, but I need to get back into my routine. We both do.

I wish I could have found someone among my family and friends who wanted to hear about the Kingdom of God, and of all it will do for us, here on the earth. And soon. Urgently soon. But alas our Catholic Convent schooldays seem to have put up a barrier against the whole idea of God and religion that is very hard to get past.

As the Inspired Scriptures warn - at 2 Corinthians 4:3,4:

"If, in fact, the good news we declare is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of thing has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through."

The "god of this system of things" is Satan the devil.  And he will use the system he runs to stop people from finding out, understanding, and acting on, what the Bible says.

Reading the Wolf Hall trilogy shows that system at work - and it's frightening. But I was also thinking how our religious education at school worked effectively to blind us to what our Creator is so clearly telling us.