On the Threshold of Spring (and of Too Much Information)

 

The Trees (1974)

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

by Philip Larkin

https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/the-trees

The above picture is not really the kind of tree the poet is writing about, but I thought I would post it as a memorial to our lost pine.  Once it is balcony weather, I will be missing it, as will the birds who used to perch in it.

When I go for the odd drive/outing, usually for medical purposes these days, I note the skeletal trees everywhere, each one a work of art, and think that soon they will be covered in a fuzz of green, as the new leaves begins to grow and shape themselves.

Dylan Thomas spoke in a poem about the "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower".  That force is the spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, who is the Grand Creator.

We are surrounded by miracles.

I also wonder, sometimes aloud, if one day, a thousand years from now, Col and I will be wandering through some lovely woodland and come across the fragment of a road and remember that once we had to journey on it, many times, for hospital appointments.

Sickness will be a thing of the past then.

On a more mundane level - and as sickness is still prevalent among us damaged children of Adam - I have tried the new med and it has made me really ill. I spent most of early Wednesday morning in the loo and then, to my horror, when I rang up our Bible student to check that she was OK for the morning study, she told me all the plumbing on the estate had packed up!  Not one of her 3 loos was viable.

NOOO!!!!  Not that morning of all mornings.  Anyway, she still wanted to see us - was looking forward to it - so off we went.  Although it did not seem there could be anything left inside me, I took two instant imodiums before we set off, just in case.  (Sorry if this has all headed into the "too much information" arena.)  When we drove in we had to squeeze past two gigantic tankers working on the drains, and as we left we drove past two more tankers driving in, the original ones having left, presumably with a full load. 

Quite a problem. I only hope it's sorted now. We have the privilege of taking all these things for granted until they go wrong - just as we take having clean water coming out of our taps.

And once the whole earth is under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God, everyone will be cared for properly - it will be managed perfectly, with love.  I hope so much we will all be there to find out just how wonderful it will be.

The Wild Silence

Col had ordered Raynor Winn's next two books for me  and they arrived on Monday.  I have already got well into The Wild Silence, and am so looking forward to Landlines.

The central metaphor of The Wild Silence is the parallel with the damage we are wreaking on the planet and the damage being done by the illness that is progressively damaging the author's husband, Moth.  Yet it is not depressing - quite the opposite. It is absorbing and inspiring.  And such a good read that I am going to have a struggle to get my necessary studying and housework done today, instead of spending the whole day on the sofa with her books.

I am in a lot of pain too, and got minimal sleep, so the sofa option is very tempting.

What I must do is get this blog finished and published as I try for ten blogs a month.  I need to do some housework.  I also need to do my studying for the day - see the weekly schedule for meetings on the site JW.org.  Plus some witnessing - I have two blocks of flats to write to, along with another email to Bruce of South Africa.  Oh, and some lentil veggie soup for us this evening.

If that does not sound like a satisfying meal for a man back from a hard day in The Field (resident detectorist on local Archeology Site) then please bear in mind that it will have chicken added to it and become a chicken, lentil and veggie soup. And I have his favourite dessert - apple crumble - for afters.

And in any case, the Captain threw my plans into disarray by coming back early for lunch.  I threw the soup together hastily and have a baked potato and some salad he can have for his supper.

I have chosen another Cornish photo from Col's gallery - the view of Praa Sands beach from the house my granny used to own there, many years ago, the house where we spent our childhood summers back in the 1950s.   I can remember nothing about the house, but I remember the steep garden steps. And I remember the wonderful beach vividly.  I chose it because Raynor and Moth are busy re-wilding a neglected farm in Cornwall.

And the book is a reminder that what is needed is not neglect, just letting things run wild, but careful and loving stewardship of the land.  Which is the wonderful occupation Jehovah gave our first parents - to turn the whole earth into paradise - a beautiful garden.

We constantly try to restore the harmony they lost, but we are up against two impossibilities. Firstly, we were not designed to rule ourselves, but were designed to freely accept and follow our Creator's loving law, his perfect standards of good and bad.  And, secondly, the hands that really rule the world are bent on destruction. They are not human hands, and they are much more powerful than we are.  Ephesians 6:12 spells that out for us, clearly and simply.

And is there anything in the tragedy that has been human history that should cause us to doubt the truth of that warning in Ephesians?

February Fill-Dyke

Apparently the Romans in Britain used to call February "Fill-dyke", as it was such a rainy month.  We have had a fair amount of rain this Feb.  It was raining on Thursday morning as I started this blog - the balcony geraniums - sturdy creatures - were blowing about in the salt wind, still flowering, and there were white horses on the Channel.

As snowdrops are rumoured to be appearing - not that I have seen any yet - I have put in a request for a snowdrop photo for this blog - from Col's photo gallery.

Things in the Middle East go from bad to worse it seems, as hostages are returned as bodies, and as Palestinians return to the bodies of their families buried under the rubble of their homes.

Once again, I ask what the world's religions have been teaching their people.  We have, for example, the perfect advice in Psalm 37 that, if taught and applied, would have avoided all this death and suffering.

No wonder Jesus taught - and teaches - us to be "no part of the world" - to stay out of its divisive politics and its cruel wars.  The world will turn brother against brother, sister against sister, over and over. And it has had such success that we have already had two wars so terrible that they were called World Wars.

On a personal level, I had yet another bad night, and am still agonising over whether I should start on the diabetes medicine or not. I was hoping to manage without it, and thought I was doing OK.  But...  I am scared that once I start on it I may not be able to come off it without my blood sugar count surging.  And also I am afraid of what it is going to do to my poor old digestive system, already somewhat in turmoil due to having to take max painkillers and inflammatories pretty much every day this year... however, this is verging on "too much information", so I had better stop.

Had a long chat with Bea on Saturday. She is going through it too. But on the doubleplusamazing side one of her granddaughters is now appearing on Coronation Street - one of the extras at The Rovers saying "Rhubarb, Rhubarb" as they tuck into Betty's hotpot.  Amazing really, as that is such an iconic show.

My Sunday was happy enough  - the meeting via Zoom - yet more lovely teaching - and I made a lamb hotpot (not up to Betty's iconic one of course) for himself. who had left at the crack of dawn to join the Detectorists in The Field. He is back to watch the Rugby match - in fact he is watching now.  He has an amazing ability to be able to tell one rugby match from another... a skill which I am completely lacking.

The Salt Path

I

Back From Australia by John Betjeman

Cocooned in Time, at this inhuman height,
The packaged food tastes neutrally of clay,
We never seem to catch the running day
But travel on in everlasting night
With all the chic accoutrements of flight:
Lotions and essences in neat array
And yet another plastic cup and tray.
"Thank you so much. Oh no, I'm quite all right".

At home in Cornwall hurrying autumn skies
Leave Bray Hill barren, Stepper jutting bare,
And hold the moon above the sea-wet sand.
The very last of late September dies
In frosty silence and the hills declare
How vast the sky is, looked at from the land.

https://allpoetry.com/Back-From-Australia

I wanted to recommend The Salt Path by Raynor Winn again.  I have read it twice now, it is such a good read.  And I have found a photo of a path in Cornwall to head this blog. Its from Col's photo gallery, of course.

Apparently the book began when she wrote an article for The Big Issue about the backpackers walk she and her husband, Moth, took after they had been made homeless and jobless, and her husband had been given a terminal diagnosis!

Yet it is in no way a depressing book - quite the opposite.  And I plan to put her next two books into my next book order. Col does the Amazon order online.  I would be interested to know if they stayed in Cornwall, having walked the coastal path. It is such a lovely county - well conveyed in the Betfeman poem above - and full of early childhood memories for me.

Our Bible student, with whom we spent Wednesday afternoon, has just re-read Neville Shute's "A Town Like Alice".  It is years since I read it, but I guess I should read it again.  It is a book that sweeps you along.  It was made into a successful movie too.

The News goes on being tragic, as no lessons have been learnt, not even from the horrors of two World Wars. 

Bea and I were talking about war today, because she is giving a talk this afternoon which  will include the subject of Armageddon.  I was wanting to let her know what the Bible says about it, as there are so many misconceptions.

For example, some - maybe many? - believe that it means the end of the world.  Whereas the Bible tells us it is the time when Jehovah puts an end to the present wicked system of things on the earth. And after Armageddon, the restoration of the whole earth to the paradise of peace it was always meant to be will begin.  

So it will in fact mark the beginning of the real life, the life our loving Creator. Jehovah, always intended for us.  It is urgent  that we listen to Him now, as Armageddon is imminent.

My shoulder has improved - but now my right leg is very painful - a legacy from those childrens' chairs at the Conference!

The Recorders Conference - another Last for me?

The years are hurtling around again, as it was the Biological Recorders Conference on Saturday.  This seems like a good moment to pull one of Col's butterfly photos from his Photo Gallery, as he used to walk a Butterfly transect as a Recorder.  I am spoiled for choice, but have decided on a rather splendid Clouded Yellow.

I only managed half of the session, in that we had to leave after lunch - everything too painful - but we got to attend the talks Col was most interested in - one about moths, and one about a cricket called a Wartbiter (thus). Don't ask.

Michael Blencowe was there, the author of the wonderful and heartbreaking LOST.  I wrote this about his book in a previous blog:

"The author starts by taking us to the Booth Museum - just down the road from here. He manages to capture the strangeness and fascination of the Booth. It is well worth a visit by the way. And he also skewers the Victorian obsession it commemorates in a couple of sentences:

"Victorian society was enthralled by the natural world and they demonstrated their admiration through coveting, collecting and categorising it. Birds, butterflies, ferns, eggs, seaweeds, shells,you name it - if the Victorians could get their hands on it, they'd kill it, skin it, stuff it, press it and pin it."

Michael takes us all over the world, from Alaska to New Zealand.  He describes the valiant, hopeless and heartbreaking struggle of the vanished Stellar's Sea Cows as they tried to protect each other from the slaughter."

We have been living in a tragedy since the loss of Eden... and the animal creation has suffered so much. Michael has done a valiant job of commemorating those animals we have lost through our greed and our selfishness.

And a real positive about the Recorders Conference is to see how many people do care for the creation and are trying to help.

It was nice to see a few more from our old Butterfly days.  And the veggie buffet was good - hot bhajis and samosas, and various cold spreads and dips and veggies.

But...unless some wonderful new cure and repair for arthritis and its damage is imminent, I think that will be my last Recorders Conference.  For one thing, I can no longer cope with the dining room we have to eat in. The seats are so low - designed for children and their healthy little knees (the venue is a school) -  and I am still paying for the wrench of getting myself on and off their low dining seats.

I never thought about this aspect of old age - the saying goodbye to things, not realising that they are lasts.  I had my last swim in the sea when my sisters were down a few years ago, and that may well have been my last walk and paddle on the beach.

However, to end on a Doubleplusgood note,  I hope to live forever in the restored earthly paradise, and who knows what we will be doing then - new things as well as old. And re biological conferences, we will all be learning how to take care of the earthly creation perfectly, as the Kingdom of God will be restoring the peace and harmony that prevailed in Eden worldwide. For one thing, it will co-ordinate all our efforts perfectly, and there will be no politics - large or small - to get in the way and make our lives miserable.

And it will give us such joy to be able to care for the earth and all that is on it.

The Orchid Table

Not only is our orchid table doing well, but I came back from the Bible study to find that Col had bought me some daffodils, some sparkly wine and some truffles.  A lovely surprise!

And our Bible student had a vase of tulips her daughter had bought for  her, so spring, or at least its flowers, are in the air,

And how many more springs do I have?   I am very far into my seventies now.  Of course, I am hoping for unnumbered springs in the restored earthly paradise. But that is not up to me. It is only our Creator who can give us back the life and perfection our first parents lost. And it is only through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ that I can inherit the earth, and live forever upon it.

I am very tired as the pain in my shoulder wakes me in the early hours.  Pain Clinics? They have been suggested. But am I now in too much pain to attend one?  Is this a common medical Catch 22?  And just to add to my stress my diabetes med has just arrived and I really do NOT want to be taking it.  My measurement is down by a point, which is good, and both my feet and my eye tests were good.  

I don't know what to do.  I need to pray about this.

On the doubleplusgood side, though the pain in my "good" shoulder is still keeping me awake at nights, I do have some function back in it. Which is very encouraging. I thought it might have gone for good.

My fellow Fantastic Books authors are busy in cyberspace at the moment as we all try to publicise our books.  Its not easy to follow all the techie stuff, but interesting and hopefully some of us will get some sales out of it.  

And to end as I began, with the Orchid table, it has a lot of history. It used to stand in the summerhouse at Nabbs, covered in newspaper and windfall apples, gradually rotting away. Then when my parents were young married, in search of furniture, my father put new legs on it - very 1950s legs, which it has to this day. Then later, when the Captain and I were young marrieds ourselves, Ron, my father in law, restored the top for us.

So many memories... so what will it be like having lived say 800 years on the earth, building up layers of completely happy memories, and learning all sorts of new and wonderful things?  I hope we  will all find out one day - approximately 880 years from now!

A Watercolour Morning

 

Captain B took a photograph of a recent sunrise - a perfect watercolour. Every morning, every evening, there is a masterpiece, such is the variety and splendour of Jehovah's creation.

Both shoulders are now very bad, and it is hard to get a night's sleep. And I can get a bit bad crabby because of it all. I can no longer call myself a Grumpy Middle-aged Woman. I guess I am now a Grumpy Old Woman, plain and simple.  ("Very plain and very simple" do I hear a murmur sounding above the bleeping of metal detectors from a distant Field?)

I'll tell you how the Sun rose

Emily Dickinson

I’ll tell you how the Sun rose –
A Ribbon at a time –
The Steeples swam in Amethyst –
The news, like Squirrels, ran –
The Hills untied their Bonnets –
The Bobolinks – begun –
Then I said softly to myself –
“That must have been the Sun”!
But how he set – I know not –
There seemed a purple stile
That little Yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while –
Till when they reached the other side –
A Dominie in Gray –
Put gently up the evening Bars –
And led the flock away –

https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/ill-tell-you-how-the-sun-rose/

The watercolour on Sunday morning was shades of grey - the sea a whiter shade  and the sky a bluer. It was changing all the time, of course.  And Monday morning was similar.

We Zoomed on Monday as usual - me and the siblings, Sussex, to Yorkshire, to Oz.  All seems well, thank God.  Col's afternoon Zoom session with his siblings - Sussex, to Yorkshire, to Bavaria - was cancelled. It seems one sibling is swamped in paperwork this week - possibly trying to get the sale of his flat completed?

I sympathise if so. We had the easiest of sales in that we had buyers (our tenants) clamouring to buy and eager to help us every step of the way. But every time Captain B got one form filled out, signed and dispatched, another one turned up. It was insane. There is clearly a better and easier way to do this.

I sometimes watch those Million Dollar Property programmes on the afternoon telly, and I note that you can sell and buy a many million dollar apartment within a week to ten days in the US.

So maybe we could make our buying/selling system a little bit simpler here?   The downside of watching those programmes - by the way - is that after a while I find myself saying things like "I couldn't possibly slum it in a house with only 7 bathrooms!"

I seem to remember that one mansion had 17 bathrooms.  17!  Who needs 17 bathrooms. And who has the cleaning of them?

Us Fantastic Books authors had a Zoom session yesterday - interesting - and nice to meet my fellow authors - but I feel I don't have much to offer by way of ideas to increase sales.  I wish I did.

The Bow in the Cloud

A recent rainbow, taken by Himself.  And of course a new month.  No pot of gold as yet, but still being here and enjoying life is treasure enough.

Both my parents were born in February, and I often think about how short their lives were, even though they made it to their retirement and had some happy retired years.  As we have, thank God.  But they loved life, and being on this wonderful planet.  They never used to close the curtains of their rambling retirement bungalow until the last bit of sunset had gone from the sky behind the trees.

                 FEBRUARY (not by me)

The winter moon has such a quiet car
That all the winter nights are dumb with rest.
She drives the gradual dark with drooping crest,
And dreams go wandering from her drowsy star.
Because the nights are silent, do not wake:
But there shall tremble through the general earth,
And over you, a quickening and a birth.
The sun is near the hill-tops for your sake.

The latest born of all the days shall creep
To kiss the tender eyelids of the year;
And you shall wake, grown young with perfect sleep,
And smile at the new world, and make it dear
With living murmurs more than dreams are deep.
Silence is dead, my Dawn; the morning's here.

Hilaire Belloc

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/month-of-february/

A wonderful morning is on the way for all the earthly creation.  And I hope to be there, and to see my parents then, when the time comes for the dead to wake from their dreamless sleep.

In the meantime, we all have to struggle. I had my scan on Wednesday. Ouch. But the staff were lovely, and we arrived early and got straight in - no waiting. I guess someone did not turn up for the previous appointment.  I now await the results and must try not to get too worried about it.

And  the rest of my week included a Bible Study on Thursday which went very well - our student wishes to continue - and also an appointment with the Diabetes nurse. That last worried me too, as it suggest my last blood test was not too good. She did not ask to see me after my last blood test.  However, my measurement has actually improved, my foot test is OK, and so was my eye test.  Thank God.  In fact, I will be on a two-year test now, not the yearly one.

Yet they do want me to start on diabetes med, low dosage...  just to make sure I guess that no problems do occur...  I was doubtful, but the Captain says I should, and I do trust his judgement.  And, as he says, we should be very grateful this is all still available.

So I now await a new medication to add to my pantheon.  The way things are going, I will get up in the morning, creak slowly about, laboriously taking all my meds, and then it will be time for bed and my evening meds...

The February Calendar Picture - Clifden Nonpareil

We chose a photo of this lovely moth - a Clifden Nonpareil - as our February calendar picture.

The News, alas, is not so lovely. There has been a fatal stabbing of a young pupil at a convent school in Sheffield, my Northern hometown.  A stabbing...  I was a convent schoolgirl back in the 1950s and while I was very unhappy at school at least our lives were not at risk.  And also the very next day - Tuesday - there was a shooting in a Swedish school, with possibly as many as ten dead.

The broken nights are making me so tired.  I can't think what I did on Tuesday. Col was out on his Archeological site - no interesting finds this time - I did a load of washing, and made lentil and veggie soup for supper - did a bit of studying and a few witness letters and that was that.

Oh, and HOLD THE PRESSES, I did scrub out the bathroom.

That was quite sensational actually, as everything hurts so much at the moment its hard to do anything.

And we woke up to the News that President Trump is proposing to ethnically cleanse all the Palestinians from Gaza.  I say "ethnically cleanse", but I guess it will be called something more anodyne when and if it happens.   For sure the place has been laid waste.  And someone has to rebuild it, which will be America apparently.  But I hope the President will at least allow the returnees time to bury their dead, who lie under the rubble of their homes and neighbourhoods.

And I also hope that the remaining hostages will be returned, unharmed, to their families in Israel.

What a cruel cruel world system we live in - and have done every since our first parents made that tragic decisions to cut themselves, and us (their unborn children), off from their loving Creator, and his law of loving-kindness.

How could it have been otherwise?

I hope the beauty and delicacy and strength of the Clifden Nonpareil, whose photo (by Captain B) heads the blog, will prove reassuring in the face of all the sadness.  The One who made it, and who made this splendid universe, Jehovah, can and will restore paradise earthwide. 

My Recent Part in the School

The photo is of a Blood Red Frogfish that Col took when he was in The Galapagos - many years ago.  Our expat life is fading into the rearview mirror so fast, but we just had some sad news. A good friend from our expat years, Mike Kenyon, has died - of Motor Neurone Disease. So he went through the same ordeal that our friend Janet did.

He was a great guy, always cheerful, interested and interesting. We need more people like Mike, not less.

I had the 6th part in the School on Thursday night.  It was a tricky subject and hard to get into the 5 minutes. My partner did sterling work in coping with a last minute change to shrink it a bit.

Anyway, here is the Script, plus the brief:

6. Explaining Your Beliefs

(5 min.) Demonstration. ijwfq article 21​—Theme: Why Don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses Accept Blood Transfusions? (th study 7)

HH:  Sue, I’m afraid I have to tell you that I don’t want to continue the Bible study. I did try to phone to save you a journey, but I couldn’t get an answer.

Sue:  I am so sorry,  I should have told you you can almost always get me on my landline, my Smartphone is still baffling me.   But listen I am glad that I have come as I would love to know why you have decided not to continue.  I felt we had made such a good start.  As you know, I was very impressed by how well you know your Bible.

HH. I was talking to a friend at Church about what we studied last week and she told me that you are those people who refuse blood transfusions. I’m sorry but I find that unacceptable. I think life is very precious and we should do all we can to protect it, including accepting all the medical help we need.

Sue, I do agree with you, and I don’t think you would find any Jehovah’s Witness who didn’t.  We are so grateful for the gift of life, and that gratitude includes taking the best care of it we can, including having transfusions, if needed. It’s just that we won’t take blood transfusions, for the simple reason that God has forbidden us to eat blood, and so we think we should not take it into our bodies by transfusion either.

HH:  Oh. Is that why?  Then I’m afraid you have been misled, because, yes, the Bible does forbid the eating of blood, but that was part of the Mosaic Law, and that is not binding on Christans.

Sue:  You really do know your Bible, don’t you?  Because you are quite right, that was one of the prohibitions of the Law given to the Jews.   And, as you say, the Law is not binding on Christians.  However, would you be surprised to know that the prohibition on blood was not only given before the Law came into existence but that it was given to all humankind?

HH:  Very surprised.

Sue:  I had an intensive religious education at my Convent School, yet I was very surprised too when this was shown to me.   So let me show you, from Genesis. It is just after the deluge, when Noah was given permission to kill and eat the animals, and Jehovah said this.  Would you read it from your Bible. It’s at Genesis 9:4.

HH:  (reads Genesis 9:4) “ Only flesh with its life—its blood—you must not eat.”

Sue:  You must not eat the blood.  Now this prohibition was given to Noah and his family. And as every one of us on the earth now is descended from one of the three sons of Noah, wasn’t it given to all mankind?  

HH:  Well, yes, I guess so.  I didn’t know about those words to Noah.  That surprises me.  But if this is still binding after the Law ended, then wouldn’t God have made that very clear to us?

Sue:  Yes. He certainly would.  Jehovah always makes things clear. And He did. If you would like to turn to your Bible and read Acts 15:28,29 you might be as surprised as I was when this was first shown to me.

HH:  (reads Acts 15:28,29)  “For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you except these necessary things:  to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!”

Sue:  So, hasn’t God made it very clear that we should abstain from blood, even being careful about how the meat we eat was killed.

HH:  Well, it does seem so. I am shocked that I did not know this.  And this makes me think I need to continue the study with you. But I have to tell you, I don’t know if I could ever agree about refusing a blood transfusion. 

Sue:   It is something you need to think about of course.  And if you are happy to continue the study you will become more and more convinced about how beneficial Jehovah’s laws always are for us.  Also you can look at our website JW.org, if you like, and research this a bit. For instance, you will find that bloodless surgery has been pioneered on many of us JWs and that doctors are finding it to be beneficial, not harmful.  An article in the journal Heart, Lung and Circulation said in 2010 that “‘bloodless surgery’ should not be limited to J[ehovah’s] W[itnesses] but should form an integral part of everyday surgical practice.”  So could it be that by taking the prohibition on blood so seriously we benefit not only ourselves, but others too?

HH:  You have given me a lot to think about.  So, yes, I will continue, and I will look at the website. I may have some questions for you next week.

Sue: That is great. And please ring anytime you have a question. But remember, it is safer with me to use the landline.

There has been a collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter over Washington. No survivors, as far as I know. Awful, awful, awful for the bereaved families And I heard on the News this morning, early, that a small plane has crashed in the residential area of Philadelphia. It seems inevitable that there will be casualties on the ground too.

We, the human family, simply cannot cope on our own. We never could. How much we need the Kingdom of God to rule over the earth.