Ye Olde Dewick's Plusia

Here is a strange and wonderful moth that turned up on our balcony recently - a Dewick's Plusia.   It is of course photographed by my resident photographer, Captain Moth-Butterfly.

Were the photography left to me, my blog would consist of a lot of photos of my thumb, my lens cap (if smartphones have them), and of me looking especially gormless saying "Is this the selfie button?"

I had another anxiety dream on Monday night.  There is enough going on in the world to make anyone anxious. The Israel/Palestine situation, in which I have brothers and sisters on both sides, both Arab and Jew - not mind you that they will be taking sides in the political or military sense, but they are caught up in the horror of it.  There is the ongoing tragedy which Private Eye has just explained (in A Postcard from Tripoli) as families of desperate refugees are being pushed back into the desert.

Yet my dream was presumably caused by my own selfish anxiety about our upcoming get together with a young rellie couple who have just had their first baby.  Because I dreamt I was at the Kingdom Hall aware that the new baby would be present and I found myself cooing over a round faced middle-aged sister who was drinking a cup of tea. I had mistaken her for the new baby!

Once again, I have to ask my subconscious, which surely is lurking here if it's lurking anywhere - why I have to be so Aspergery in my dreams.  Couldn't I function brilliantly in them at least?  And last night I had a nightmare about being stalked.  Can't remember any details, except shouting fiercely at my stalker and then waking up. Thankfully.

So the News is getting to me, but in odd and unexpected ways.  The Watchtower Society warns us to limit our newswatching - take in just enough, but no more. And I find that to be wise advice in these "difficult times, hard to deal with".  It is awful seeing hatreds being ramped up in the wake of the current troubles in the Middle East, knowing that those hatreds will lead to more and more suffering.

Well, it will until God's Kingdom acts to remove every vestige of the current wicked system of things from the earth.  Which it will do, as God has promised us it will

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Have any of Jehovah's promises ever failed?  They never have and they never will.  And there lies our hope.

Our meeting with Rob and Cat and their baby yesterday went well - great pub, lovely lunch, charming child - she is going to be as lovely a little girl as I remember her mother was.  We had so much to talk about that the staff had to come over and very gently remind us that they were closing in 10 minutes.

We met at Ye Olde George Inn, East Meon - a charming pub, in a charming village. Never been to either before, thoroughly recommend it. Small menu, great food.  I weakened and had a plate of Gnocchi, which is not something I should be eating now... but it was excellent.

And Cat said she really liked  Waiting for Gordo, which she read, appropriately, on a dive holiday!  So she has now got a copy of The Umbrellas of Hamelin, which I hope she will enjoy just as much.

We caught up on a lot of family news. And I wondered if Col and I ever decided to have a pub of our own what would we call it?  I think a Butterfly or Moth name would be great and would mean a lovely signboard. But not perhaps Ye Olde Dewick's Plusia.