House Hunting

 

HOUSE HUNTING

by me

“A Bijou Residence”

Is very very small

“Needs some modernization”

No foundations left at all

“Exquisite Chelsea Garden”

Rockery in backyard

“Rural Situation”

Getting there is hard

“Suitable for Children”

Slap bang on main road

“Cottage Style Accommodation”

Damp enough for toads

“Must view this House Internally”

PLEASE don’t look outside

Sometimes these Agents’ details

Don't half take you for a ride.

When did I write this? No idea. Many years ago. How many houses have I lived in? I have lost count, we have moved so many times. But I guess this flat by the sea will be our last one - well, until after Armageddon, if we are both on the earth then, with life "to time indefinite" stretching ahead of us. Who knows where we will live then? But for sure, under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God everyone then on the earth will have a lovely, safe and secure home.

They will sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree,

And no one will make them afraid,

For the mouth of Jehovah of armies has spoken.

- Micah 4:4

And no-one will make them afraid.

When I looked in Col's photo gallery I found this, of our first married house, in Alton, many many years ago. There is a young Mrs Captain Butterfly standing outside the door. It makes me feel sad somehow. But don't all lives look sad in retrospect. How could it be otherwise, cut off from our Creator, our Source of life, as we are. So I must, and do, think ahead to the restoration.

And here is a poem I wrote about another house - my brother's house in the years before he left the UK for Oz and became an Australian. He shared a terraced house with a nice fellow student called Judy - and others, all just friends. And there was a Victoria Plum tree in her tiny garden - full of fruit, plus spider.

AVONDALE ROAD

by me

The spider guard to Judy’s plum tree

Nearly caught me

However tables neatly turned

For Colin caught it in his hand

It was lifted, turned, and photographed

Exultantly our Colin laughed

“This photograph, it will be good.”

And sure enough, it got a first

At the Dhahran Expat’s Camera Club.

Yes, that was a long time ago.  Not only was John a student then, not a father of grown-up children as he is now,  but we were in the very early days of our Expat years - the Camera Club with Bruce years. They were the days of Abqaiq Court, when I used to walk back from work through the desert in the noonday heat - I worked from 7 in the morning till midday.  

It is strange as you get older - and older and older - to have all these layers of memory.  And I am so grateful to still be here, and do thank Jehovah for the precious, wonderful, fascinating gift of life.