In Like a Lion, or Out Like a Lamb?

We are now on the threshold of March, and the old saying is that if March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb - and vice versa.  I must remember to notice if that rule still works, as the weather patterns do seem to be changing, worldwide.  It was a cold but sunny Springlike day on Saturday and I managed to get to the field service group. And I was given a lift, as we had to drive across the roundabout of terror.*  It was a good morning. 

On the way back I got some milk and coffee from Tesco's, as I was on what Sheldon Cooper would call "hot beverage" duty after the meeting on Sunday. I also picked up some After Eight mints for someone who is buying a copy of my book Disraeli Hall, which I delivered on the way to the meeting.  I have probably said this before, but it is odd how the week reverses in retirement. My weekends are usually very busy, and I quite look forward to a rest on Monday.

Of course I got a bit stressed about it all and had a rather restless night dreaming about forgetting to bring the milk to the Hall.  But it went well, greatly helped by my partner, who made real coffee for us all - the best Brazilian at that.  We usually make do with instant.

The Captain and I still compete over Wordle, Quordle and Octordle every morning.  We look set for a draw this morning - which is my preferred option.

The Octordle words on Monday morning - so no spoiler alert required - were: Miser, Paste, Dunce, Adobe, Bayou, Major, Clone, Inbox.

I expect one of the great Japanese masters of the Haiku could make a wonderful poem out of that.  I can't, try as I might. 

The lion and the various lambs above were all taken by Captain B - the lion taken on our trip to S.A. for a friend's wedding.  I don't want to give anyone the impression that Sussex has lions living wild and free.  Not until the Kingdom of God is ruling over us that is.   Who knows, maybe then it will?  But then famously, the lion will lie down with the lamb, as the peace that prevailed in Eden will be restored, earthwide.

"Re the roundabout of terror, ideally of course one drives round it, not across it.

The School

There was an Emergency  call for a volunteer in the School on Thursday night, so I thought I should respond.  I have been grateful when other people have responded when my partner in the school has been unable to do it.  

Jehovah always helps, and a plus is that I didn't have to angst about it very much beforehand as there was no time to.

I remember many years ago - probably 30 to be exact - I heard my mother in the kitchen saying to one of my sisters about my intention to become a Jehovah's Witness: "Sue must be serious about this. I never thought there was anything that would make her stand up and speak in public."

Neither did I!  But it is amazing what you can do with Jehovah's help.

We had our usual Friday visit to the local Greengrocers, and found the shelves as full as ever - with loads of tomatoes. The tabloids have been shrieking about empty veg shelves and food shortages. But at any rate there was no sign of it in our local shop.  Which is a good thing as I don't think our balcony is going to be very productive if we have to grow our own.

One of my sisters from 'oop North said that, yes, there are empty shelves and shortages in their locale.  At least they do have a garden, if push comes to shove.  I remember visiting one Autumn and found George and Gabi in the kitchen busy preparing and preserving mounds of garden fruit.

A chili plant we bought from Waitrose did flourish on our orchid table for a long time - and I harvested quite a crop from it.  Not enough for our 5 a day mind you, but enough to enliven our regular vegetable soup lunches.   

The photo above is one of the Captain's - of a lovely Five-spot Burnet moth on a Pyramidal orchid.  Its a wild orchid obviously - not one of the table variety.

The Gold

We were both hobbling painfully around on Wednesday. Me because it tends to be my default mode these day - "You walk like a penguin!" my young physio said - and the Captain because his knee is very painful following some days of intensive searching and metal detecting.

We watched the BBC Series The Gold and did enjoy it.  It took the story of the Brink's Mat robbery to the moment that Kenny Noye was first jailed, and not beyond.  However, it did present Kenny and those involved as rather lovable rogues, which has greatly upset the families of the two men killed by Kenny Noye. And understandably so.  

However, I also take the point about the double standards of "the world", the current wicked system of things on the earth, which applauds some for their wickedness, and punishes and imprisons others.

Its hard not to think of Jimmy Saville, lauded and applauded by the Movers and Shakers until the day he died. 

The image above has no connection at all, I must hastily add, with Brink's Mat. though it is gold!  It is a Durotriges Gold Stater, apparently, and it reminds me of Lance Stater in the brilliant Detectorists, and his gold dance.  Should Col ever find a hoard of these we will both be dancing - in a Zimmery sort of way.

Of course I do want to point out that there is something more precious than all the gold in the world being offered freely to all who will accept it.  It is the knowledge of God.

When you go out with your metal detector, you never know if you will find anything - let alone a gold coin. But if you seek for your Creator, he will let you find him. 

Moreover, if you call out for understanding

And raise your voice for discernment;

 f you keep seeking for it as for silver,

And you keep searching for it as for hidden treasures;

 Then you will understand the fear of Jehovah,

And you will find the knowledge of God.

- Proverbs 2:3-5

True.

Pioneers, O Pioneers

Emily Dickinson, ‘A Light Exists in Spring‘.

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period –
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels…

https://interestingliterature.com/2016/03/10-classic-spring-poems-everyone-should-read/

The poetry of Emily Dickinson was a discovery for me in my first year at Newcastle Uni, many years ago.  I have loved her poems ever since, and, as February draws to its end, this seems like a good one for the blog.

Will I meet her one day in the restored earthly paradise?  And if so, what will she be writing then?  

Captain Moth-Butterfly (who took the late February sunrise photo above) has had to dive into the local phone box and get changed into his SuperRescueman gear at lightning speed a couple of times this week.  All day Saturday they were out searching for the MISPER - missing person to you and me.  Not found yet, which is worrying.  

Problem:  There are no local phone boxes any more.

And I am not in Superwoman mode at all, as I didn't manage to get out on the doors even once last week.  So tired.  Though I did help with the tea and coffee again after the meeting, and have signed up as a Pioneer for the next 3 months. It's under a new arrangement by which the minimum requirement is 15 hours field service a month, which I can usually do, plus.  So I am trying not to stress about it. People need to hear the good news of the Kingdom so much.  And it is so urgent.

I shopped on the way back from the Hall and got in the makings of a chicken casserole for my SuperRescuer who gets home tired and hungry from a day out metal detecting.  It turned out well.  And there is enough left for tonight, so all I have to do, cooking-wise today is to make a veggie soup for lunch.  We both have our Zoom sessions with siblings today, but otherwise I hope hope hope for a quiet day in.

There was just 3 of us siblings today, as one of us is off-line, a very large tree having come down in the recent storm and taken a lot of power lines out. And a man was seriously injured - I hope he has survived, but I don't know.  It was very close to home.  

We are still living in the wake of the loss of Eden so troubles are increasing - but hopefully not for much longer.

Recording Hedges - and a Flare-up

Bad night - up in the early hours of Wednesday taking anti-inflammatories and pain killers - left leg.

However, it was not as bad as the one I had in December, thank God. And I was able to get to the Kingdom Hall on Thursday night to do my part in the School.

It was a new experience for me, as my poor partner had come down with a bad cold and was appearing in Pixel form from home. So I had to go into the back room, where a young brother brought me a device on which she and I appeared together when our moment came.  Amazing!

Though the thought of what I must look like appearing on the harshly lit enormous screen in the main body of the Hall... well, it does make me wish for a best seller, so I could afford to hire Kate Moss to appear as me on these Pixel occasions.

I have the programme for the Biological Recorders' Seminar we went to at the weekend beside me, as I have been thinking about the talk on hedgerows: The Great British Hedgerow and Dormouse Survey, by Sarah Barnsley and Ian White.

They stressed how important hedgerow is for so many little creatures, but also pointed out how important it is that they are properly cared for.   And this was the point that I took away from it.  To work for all their little creatures, the hedgerows need to be gardened.  And to just the right amount.

Too little care and they revert to a line of trees, and that dense thicket is lost.  Too much care - if say they are pruned too often - then the flowers and berries, which are an important food source, are lost.

Of course this took me right back to the Garden of Eden, when God told our first parents to care for the earth - to turn the whole earth into a paradise.

The earth needs to be gardened by us - not ruthlessly and exploited and ruined, but gardened. We should be working in perfect harmony with the natural laws, and caring so tenderly for all of it. And it will be so satisfying when we can.  It can make us happy even now, in these "difficult times, hard to deal with".

I guess what we need is the perfect balance between wild and gardened, formal and informal.  Which of course the Kingdom of God will achieve.  And how lovely will it be then?  It can be lovely enough now as I hope the photos above, from the camera of Captain Moth-Butterfly, demonstrate. They are from a trip we had to Nymans Gardens (local) plus an anonymous bit of hedgerow, possibly from Cornwall.

A Post-it Note, to My Husband

Two poems. Beautiful, sad, and so so relevant, given our age.  Words are powerful.   The first was in The Spectator of the 4th February. 

A Post-it Note   by John Levett

So time, for one of us, will carry on

in chilly rooms where either you or me

will linger for a while after we've gone

in silences on worn upholstery,

in orange paperbacks we'll never read

by crooked lamps, the shadows they still throw

now falling where. for once, we'd both agreed

the lucky one would be the first to go

and in their rush, perhaps, leave keys and coat,

a just popped out, back soon that comes unstuck

to curl up in a yellow post-it note

with two small kisses clinging on for luck

and, trembling on the fridge, collecting fluff.

the love for which there's never time enough.

To My Husband  by Wendy Cope

If we were never going to die,

I might not hug you quite as often or as tight,

Or say goodbye to you as carefully 

If I were certain you’d come back to me. 

Perhaps I wouldn’t value every day,

Every act of kindness, every laugh

As much, if I knew you and I could stay

For ever as each other’s other half.

We may not have too many years before

One disappears to the eternal yonder

And I can’t hug or touch you any more. 

Yes, of course that knowledge makes us fonder. 

Would I want to change things, if I could, 

And make us both immortal? Love, I would. 

Of course she would. We were not made to die, even though, as damaged children of disobedient Adam, we do now.  We want to live here on this lovely earth for ever, and never lose the people we love. Which is exactly the hope that that the Bible holds out.

We saw some old friends at The Recorder's Conference in Haywards Heath on Saturday.  One of them was talking about his feelings of mortality since retirement.  It really began to dawn on me how short out lives are now, how little time we get to spend with the people we love, as I was coming up to 40 - many years ago.

It was nice to be back in touch with what I think of as the Butterfly World.  The Recorders work hard for and record all sort of wildlife, trying their best to protect this region against the destructive forces of the world.

It is nearly 3 years since the Captain and I had a day out like this.  And it was great.  Tiring because of my back, but great.  We brought a sandwich lunch, and sandwiches are a treat for me now. So I enjoyed that too.

The butterflies were photographed by The Captain of course.  Loving couples, I hope.

What Lurks in Lobbs Wood?

Well, I managed to help with the tea and coffee at the Kingdom Hall without any Beverage Related Disasters occurring. So that is a plus. I got the easy job too, dispensing the tea, as most people seemed to want coffee.

I have been watching some YouTube videos about disappearances in America's National Parks. These parks are vast wilderness areas, so beautiful, so wild, and often full of bears and cougars.  As they should be of course - the wilderness is their home.  But a lot of people have disappeared in them - experienced hikers and hunters too - and not necessarily at the hands (and teeth and claws) of the local wildlife.  So I told Captain M-B I hoped he would never take to adventuring in such places.  I worry about him enough on his detectoring days out there in the Wiltshire Wilderness.

And I shall be very careful the next time I walk the 20 paces that take me through Lobbs Wood - see Col's picture of our own local fearsome wilderness above.  

There is always a Red Admiral butterfly in there during the summer, I do know that. And who is to say if it might not turn nasty one day... ? And, OK, so, no, we cannot compete with the American version.

Its just the older I get, the more fragile and precious the gift of life seems, as if even the touch of the wing of a slightly annoyed butterfly might take it away - let alone vast earthquakes which swallow up thousands in an instant.

Our Watchtower study at the Hall on Sunday was very comforting,  as it was about the Bible's promise of everlasting life.  And I need to keep firmly in mind that our Creator, Jehovah, can remember us, keep us safe in his memory, every hair of our heads numbered, and can re-create us, wake us from the dreamless sleep of death when the time comes. 

Friday morning was yet another medical check-up and rather a cheerful occasion.  Col came in with me as the very nice nurse was going to teach me how to use the Blood Sugar testing machine.  We had quite a chat, and found out that she too had worked on Planet Expat, and had friends who worked at our company hospital.  We had an interesting consultation and made each other laugh. Not bad for a medical occasion!

Oh and I also found out that I will only need to use the machine IF I ever have to go on insulin, and then the NHS will supply one.  

A Great Earthquake

How fragile life is.  There was a massive earthquake in Turkey in the early hours of Monday morning, killing thousands and burying many more in the rubble.  And they are having bad aftershocks too. It was an immense earthquake, felt in many other countries. 

The story is getting worse and worse, families, including pregnant women and children trapped in the rubble - and freezing cold weather, with nowhere for people to safely go and keep warm.

The world was not meant to be like this - and it will not be when God's Kingdom is ruling over us.   "For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but through the one who subjected it, on the basis of hope that the creation itself will also be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God." - Romans 8:20,21

Jesus showed that he has the ability to control the natural elements when he calmed the storm. And that is the kind of ruler, the kind of government, that we (the children of Adam) so badly need.

I hope that those who are killed this earthquake, in all these ongoing disasters, have a wonderful awakening ahead of them into an earth where we can all sleep safely in our beds - and wake up every morning in paradise, the paradise this lovely earth was meant to be.

And I have chosen a paradise photo - one of Captain Moth-Butterfly's - for this blog, to illustrate that hope.

All other news seems to pale beside this - though it is not good.  And I am still enmeshed in medical matters - my Diabetes check on Monday was good overall - for which I am thankful - though my blood pressure is a bit up. I am measuring it all this week and it was OK this morning.

And I have my annual GP arthritis check-up on Friday.  The kind nurse says she has scheduled a bit of extra time to show me how to use my blood sugar machine.  I hope she has scheduled in enough time, as I am not quick on the uptake re such things.  And I now have a friend who wants me to teach her.

Anyway, I can only hope that medical help, along with all other forms of help - food and clothing and clean water - is reaching those affected by the earthquake.  The Governing Body of the Watchtower Society will be working hard on this, I know. And doing things Jehovah's way is always always effective.

Didn't it all start to go wrong for us here on the earth when our first parents were persuaded to cut themselves off from their Creator and go it alone?  

Bake me a cake!

Apparently, or so I was reading,  a man asking a woman to "make him a sandwich" is now a sexist insult, designed to put her in her place.  Oh dear. How to keep up with it all?  I not only make 3 sets of sandwich lunches for Captain Moth-Butterfly each week, but he also has a piece of homemade cake in each.  Gasp!

Clearly we must have a very toxic relationship. Fortunately neither of us seems to have noticed as we continue to enjoy our retirement together.

But hopefully I will keep on baking in my usual routine without him having to say those terrible (presumably) words: "Bake me a cake!"

Talking of such things, I have volunteered to help with the tea and coffee after the meeting at the Kingdom Hall today.  And of course that kept me awake in the early hours worrying that I would come down with such a severe flare-up that I would not even be able to leave my bed...  however all is well, so far.

I feel so unreliable these days that it is an effort to commit to anything.

My other problem is my clumsiness.  I can't say I was ever that graceful, but when you add arthritic hands and a rather unsuccessful shoulder replacement to the mix... oh dear.  We have already had one soup-related incident, and there was the dropped pie...  

The above is our calendar pic for February, one Col took of the sunset on our local beach.   And it brings to  mind that lovely verse from the Book of Revelation, which says: "I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you about these things for the congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright morning star."

It will be such a wonderful new dawn for the earth, when Jesus, as the King of Jehovah's Kingdom is ruling over it.  Already I am experiencing how gently and patiently he teaches us.

On Planet Expat (Memories)

The photo is of the road to Abqaiq - one that I travelled both by bus and car in my expat years.  I was thinking in my previous blog about how old age is ongoing loss. Though it is not of course only that.  We go on learning, experiencing, and adding layer upon layer of memory, seeing new meaning in the past.

This is picture from our life on Planet Expat - 25 years that seem to have rushed past and vanished.  But it reminds me how the heat and the dust and camels on the side of the road became so familiar over the years.  I remember one time arriving back at Dhahran airport, the old one, after a visit to a very wintry UK and drinking in the dusty heat and smell of oil and thinking "We're home."

But our real home will be in the restored earthly paradise. And the memories we make there, during the Thousand Years, and then on through unnumbered years, will all be happy ones.  Which is most certainly not the way it is now.

Anyway, what spectacular things have I been doing?  I made a fruit cake on Monday, as I needed to re-stock the freezer with cakes for Col's Detectorist lunches.  It's a boil and bake cake from a Cranks recipe book the Captain bought me years ago. In all the years I have been making it, it has never turned out badly, yet.  It has to be made in two parts really, as the fruit mix has to cool down before you add the eggs. So I simmered the fruit and sugar and jam and orange zest and juice in the morning and added the dry ingredients in the afternoon.

When I made it in Saudi Arabia, I could use fresh dates - freshly picked at that, with our own fair hands.

That and getting the meals and doing my study for the day was pretty much it.  Captain Moth-Butterfly was home cleaning, sorting and classifying his finds from the weekend.  Always nice to have him with me.

The cake got the thumbs-up from Captain B, and of course being a fruitcake it ought to improve with keeping as well.

Us siblings had our usual Zoom chat on Monday morning and Col and his siblings chatted on Monday evening. All seems well. And I had my usual Zoom with a friend this morning. As she is the same age as me we talked a lot about our medical issues... oh dear.

And I posted a couple of letters to the Care Homes on the roads we did on Saturday.