The Common Spotted Orchid

We chose a Common Spotted Orchid as our calendar picture for June -  a COMMON Spotted Orchid.  Hyacinth Bucket - sorry Bouquet  - would not have given our calendar house room this year.

Saturday was a very stormy day, wonderful waves, Sunday was sunny but not warm.  I pixellated myself to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday morning, even though Col was at home - no detecting, on either Saturday or Sunday!  

He would have been able to help me dress and chauffeur me, but my right foot was so swollen and painful I could hardly walk, let alone get it into a shoe. It was a comforting meeting, reminding us that we can be strong and endure IF we rely on Jehovah to give us the strength.

And this is a phrase from the public talk I want to hold on to.  The speaker pointed out that whatever problems and stresses we are going through, it is "only a single page in our life story".

Yes.  If we inherit the earth, and live forever upon it, and are to be joyful forever, it does put whatever we are going through now into its right perspective.  Our lives, even at best, are so short now, so quickly gone. 

Col was a bee of busyness making his chutney, which he does about once a year.  As I have probably said before, when he made it in Saudi, we could go out and pick fresh dates to go in it.  Which was not something I had ever expected to be doing.

A pair of pigeons are trying to build a nest in the downpipe on our balcony - which will be a disaster if we don't stop them.  Col has filled it up with wire again, and we had the balcony door open for a while to deter them.  They clearly need to find somewhere soon, and I can only hope they will.

Oh for the time when God's Kingdom is ruling over the earth and we can help all the little creatures on it to find safe and secure nests in which to bring up their families.  There will be such happiness in being able to care for the earthly creation properly.

Cut Grass Lies Frail

 

CUT GRASS

by Philip Larkin

Cut grass lies frail:
Brief is the breath
Mown stalks exhale.
Long, long the death

It dies in the white hours
Of young-leafed June
With chestnut flowers,
With hedges snowlike strewn,

White lilac bowed,
Lost lanes of Queen Anne's lace,
And that high-builded cloud
Moving at summer's pace.

https://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poems/short/june


I think it has to be a Philip Larkin poem for June - as it expresses both beauty and sadness.  

Our Bible study on Wednesday morning went well, and my gallant chauffeur picked me up from the Kingdom Hall Thursday night and we drove back home into a wonderful sunset.  He is also a valet these days as I can't get myself dressed to Kingdom Hall standards without his help.

Of course I saw the sunset through a veil of black spots and something like a small knot of hair - effects left by my cataract operation. But it was beautiful nonetheless.

Poor Col spent Friday trying to get the insurance on my car renewed - not that I will be driving again, but he has decided to keep it and use it for the moment. It proved immensely difficult finding a human being he could actually talk to. And my main achievement of the day was making a carrot cake for the freezer. And that takes it out of me to an alarming extent these days.
I still find myself wanting to write limericks:
There was a young man of Dhahran
Who drove out to sea in his van
It was foolish of him
as he could not swim
and neither, it seems, could his van.

My (no longer) young man (no longer) of Dhahran is having loads of visitors to his balcony moth hotel at the moment He will soon be checking them out - into the rain this morning.

Him Basil Fawlty - me Sybil.

 

Flowers for Henry Nowak

These are some flowers for Henry. As I feel I must note the tragedy that has befallen young Henry Nowak and his family - a tragedy that has been filling the media. Why all this publicity given that, horribly, knife crime seems to have become almost routine on our streets, and given that "the increase of lawlessness" is earthwide? All over the world precious people are being slaughtered as if they were of no value.

But this happened just down the coast from us. And it is the contrast in the way young Henry was treated, and the way the murderer was treated by the forces of law and order that is so startling, so upsetting.

He was dying on the pavement, choking on his own blood, and the Police handcuffed, arrested and cautioned him. He was shown no kindness, no courtesy - and given no help.

But I will leave the rest to his very dignified father, Mark Nowak. Speaking after the court case which has jailed the murderer of his son, he said "justice alone is not enough", adding that the way his son was treated, compared to Digwa, was "unbearable".

"Let me be absolutely clear - we hold Vickrum Digwa solely and 100 per cent responsible for the brutal murder of our son," the father said. "But Henry should not have died on the streets of Southampton in police custody. The way he was treated was inhumane and degrading."

'His murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed. He was not handcuffed when arrested. He was not handcuffed when transported to the police station. As far as we understand, he was never handcuffed at all."

It is, as his father said, unbearable. And it all happened just down the road from here. So it is both heartbreaking and frightening.

In shining contrast the law of our loving Creator, Jehovah, is perfect and impartial. He has one standard for all, and knows, loves and values every one of his subjects. And he has taught us what a serious thing it is to take a human life.

God's word really is a beacon of light shining in a cruel and unjust world system. Please can it draw more and more of us to our loving Creator.

And I hope that once the whole earth is at peace under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government, for whose coming Jesus taught us to pray, Jehovah will wake young Henry from the dreamless sleep of death and he will be reunited with his family. I hope that for so many more of us, the human family, too.

So I will end with this beautiful promise from the Book of Isaiah:

Your dead will live...

Awake and shout joyfully,

You residents in the dust!

For your dew is as the dew of the morning,

And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life.

Two Poems

 

These are two more poems I have blogged before, but I want to keep sharing them..

I found them both in Hand Luggage - a quirky anthology by John Bayley.  And they could not be more different.

The first is A War by Randall Jarrell.  Its context is World War 2, and it is tragically topical.  The way he inverts the expression: "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs" gives the familiar saying startling effect.  The poet knew only too well what he was talking about as he was in the US Airforce at the time.

A WAR

by Randall Jarrell

There set out slowly, for a Different World.

At four, on winter mornings, different legs...

You can't break eggs without making an omelette

 - That's what they tell the eggs.

The "different legs" suggests to me how many young men have been sacrificed to the gods of war - relays of them.  As they are being sacrificed to this day, and will be I guess until God's Kingdom is ruling over the earth.

The other poem I wanted to share is a gentle parody of Thomas Hardy (whose poems I love): 

A Luncheon (Thomas Hardy entertains the Prince of Wales)

by Max Beerbohm

Lift latch, step in, be welcome, Sir,
Albeit to see you I'm unglad
And your face is fraught with a deathly shyness
Bleaching what pink it may have had,
Come in, come in, Your Royal Highness.

Beautiful weather? — Sir, that's true,
Though the farmers are casting rueful looks
At tilth's and pasture's dearth of spryness. —
Yes, Sir, I've written several books. —
A little more chicken, Your Royal Highness?

Lift latch, step out, your car is there,
To bear you hence from this antient vale.
We are both of us aged by our strange brief nighness,
But each of us lives to tell the tale.
Farewell, farewell, Your Royal Highness.

https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/luncheon

As John Bayley says in his intro to the poem, Hardy would probably have appreciated it too.  I hope so anyway.

How creative Jehovah made us to be.  But we are made in his image, and he is "the Grand Creator".  And damaged though we all are at the moment, we can still be very creative.  We need to be I think.  And  I have chosen one of Col's photos of a grand creation, the Swallowtail butterfly, to head this blog.  It was taken on one of his trips to Corfu.

It is lovelier than the most expensive Tiffany jewel, and has finer engineering than our latest computer system.  Doesn't it tell us of its Grand Creator as clearly as if it spoke?

I managed to get to the Kingdom Hall by person, not pixel, on Thursday, thanks to my gallant chauffeur and valet Captain Butterfly.  Two more blood tests on Friday - horrendously bruised arm, not the fault of the nurse, but due to the state of me. It was still very hot, but we drove to the Post Office and I managed to stock up on the little cards that I am using in my witnessing, and Col went and got some more bread and some strawberries from Waitrose. I simply could not make it the few steps to  Waitrose to go with him, which I am trying not to get too depressed about.

When we came back from the shops there was a cool breeze coming off the sea which was so welcome.

Another June approaches rapidly... how grateful I am to be here still.  

We had a special morning at the Kingdom Hall yesterday - I had to attend by Zoom as Col was off with the detectorist lads.  When I have digested a few points I will probably blog them.

Shadow Dreams

My dreams keep taking me back to the house of my 1950s childhood - which appears in a couple of my books as 5 Disraeli Crescent. It worries me a little bit.

The other night I dreamt about Shadow, the lovely golden retriever from our expat days.  So here is a photo of him, in the desert, the only environment he ever knew.  And while the dream started in our flat here, it ended up in the front garden of Disraeli Crescent, in the rain. In the interim two lions turned up in the flat/house of my dream. I wondered where they had come from and what to do about them, but they seemed OK.  Then I remembered I had to let Shadow out. We hadn't had a walk as it was pouring with rain, so I opened the front door and let him into the large front garden at Disraeli Crescent, having first made sure that the front gate was securely locked so he couldn't get into the road.

I do remember wondering if the gate would still be there, so at some level I was aware that 5 Disraeli was in the past.  The gate was there, but I had to make an effort for it to be, I had to sort of dream it into existence.

Then I was looking for Shadow, not finding him, and realising that he was out with the door closed, went and got him. The rain had stopped and he was cuddled up to a large and fluffy cat, the like of which was never seen in the Northern hometown of my 1950s.  That reminded me I needed to feed him. And the lions!  But the lions had vanished and just as it dawned on me they must have gone out while I opened the door for Shadow, I woke up - feeling guilty that I hadn't fed any of them.

Our heatwave continues, It was a Bank Holiday weekend too, which usually guarantees rain.  I had never seen beach and Green so full as it was on Monday - and when I looked out in the morning, nearly every one of the many guest parking spots in our block of flats was already full.  Things are getting scarily crowded.

There was a recent news item showing a tiny village in the beautiful Italian Tyrol which has become so full of coach parties that the locals were having a problem getting out of their front doors which opened straight onto the narrow tourist-packed streets.

So I am wondering why people want to travel anywhere on a Bank Holiday, however sunny.  Yet clearly they do.  The heat, the hassle, the traffic jams, the parking problems, the public loos (aargghh)... the crowded beaches. Though admittedly we do have acres of sand down here.

Col left the Archeological site early on Tuesday, as it was so HOT.  And he was Mr. Desert Dweller (for 25 years)! 

Today was very hot too, but the car situation in our block of flats had eased as the Bank holiday is over.   And we went to spend the morning with our Bible student - the Flower lady - finishing the chapter on Why do Evil and Suffering Exist.  Next week, all being well, we start on How Can Jesus' Death Save Us?   

We were taught at school that Jesus died for us.  But what does that mean - and why?   The Inspired Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation explain it clearly and logically, and I hope that our student is going to see that.

Wulf and Eadwacer

I have blogged this poem before, some years ago. But it speaks so powerfully of the tragedy we, the human family, have been living in since the loss of Eden, that I want to blog it again.

Wulf and Eadwacer

Anonymous

The men of my tribe would treat him as game:
if he comes to the camp they will kill him outright.

            Our fate is forked.

Wulf is on one island, I on another.
Mine is a fastness: the fens girdle it
and it is defended by the fiercest men.
If he comes to the camp they will kill him for sure.

            Our fate is forked.

It was rainy weather, and I wept by the hearth,
thinking of my Wulf's far wanderings;
one of the captains caught me in his arms.
It gladdened me then; but it grieved me too.

Wulf, my Wulf, it was wanting you
that made me sick, your seldom coming,
the hollowness at heart; not the hunger I spoke of.

Do you hear, Eadwacer?  Our whelp Wulf shall take to the wood.
What was never bound is broken easily,
            our song together.   

English - 10th century - translated by Michael Alexander

https://voetica.com/poem/5813

There are many translations of this, but Michael Alexander's is my favourite. It is a cry of pain from the past, its sadness and longing are so immediate, so vivid.  Its meaning is not quite clear beyond that.  Nor do I know how to pronounce Eadwacer.  I suppose scholars of Anglo-Saxon English would know.

The pic that heads the blog is of Strumpshaw Fen, in Norfolk. It is from Col's photo gallery of course.  We had a couple of holidays there in our early retirement, when I could still get about - and WALK!

We were hunting the wild Swallowtail butterfly.  And we were, as we thought, on our own on a boardwalk amidst the marshy Fen, when one landed in front of us!  Immediately hordes of middle-aged Butterfliers appeared from the rushes, with cameras, and it was well and truly photographed. 

And a very sad bit of news.   The identity of the three young women found drowned on one of our local beaches has finally been revealed. They were sisters, Londoners, down here on holiday.  It seems that no-one else was involved, this was an accident, of awful proportions.  My guess would be that they were paddling on the slippery pebbles, all moving in the undertow, close to a drop-off they did not know was there, and one of them slipped into the deep water and the others tried to help...   And it was dark and cold...  Well, God bless them and remember them when the time comes for the resurrection, so that they will next open their eyes in the restored earthly paradise.

My condolences to their family.  What a terrible loss.

But how sad things have been since the loss of Eden, the sadness expressed by the writer of Wulf and Eadwacer  all those centuries ago - and we still have continuing clan warfare, only on a titanic scale, and then these daily tragedies.

And on a much much more minor note, I am feeling really sick as I try to adjust to a new bp medication.  I have to give it 3 weeks at least. I had hoped to get to the Kingdom Hall Thursday night, but had to hitch up my pixels and go on Zoom. Col took one look at me when I got back and said I was not going anywhere.  

We had hoped to visit Jacks on Friday morning, but I am still not up to going anywhere.  The balcony is as far as I have gone all week. And what a privilege to have that, with its constant view of the ever changing English Channel.

And, right on time for the Bank Holiday weekend, a heatwave arrived.  Both beach and Green are going to be very busy.  

Captain Butterfly came back early from his metal detecting.  HE CAME BACK EARLY.  Apparently it was just too hot.  And this is  a man who has spent days in the Saudi desert  - in Summer.  So, yes, this is quite a heatwave we are having. There is not a parking space left locally as myriads have headed for the beach.

I just hope for no more beach tragedies.

Moonpenny Daisies

 

The Moonpenny daisies are lining the roads and filling the fields now, along with all the splendid flowers of May.

There once were some daisies of Moon,

resplendent in their Springtime bloom,
by the roadside in drifts, 

they are paradise gifts,
and they do help to lift all the gloom.

Monday was a day of Zooms (to continue the rhyme scheme).  We both Zoomed with our siblings - well, not with Nute as she was working.  And i also had three Zoom sessions with friends.

I managed a bit of studying and witnessing, but still feel very drained from the last three weeks, which ended with that tiring trek to the hospital on Friday.

We woke up to stormy weather on Tuesday - the rain was much needed I must say. Though, as I begin to write this blog, we are wondering if Col's Tuesday session with the archeologists will go ahead or not. It's a really fierce storm!  Anyway he did trek out into the storm, laden with metal detectors and his sandwich lunch.  Next stop K2!!  (Or maybe not.)

And he had some very interesting finds.  He brought them home in photo form only, and they should be appearing on his blog in time.  Bea rang to get the name of the scented flowers we have on our balcony - Nemesia.  We are having to grow them from seed this year - and they are sprouting up well. They are like a little green forest on the balcony, soon, hopefully to be a forest of scented flowers.

Our Bible Study went well - I think. And we are welcome to come back next week.  I continue with my Not Home letters, and also am slowly doing the block of flats I was given for my territory this month. Every day that goes past, makes the Kingdom preaching work that Jesus left for his followers to do more urgent.

I had such a strange vivid dream in the early hours. Col's alarm clock when off at 4:30 - as it often does on Detecting days - but I managed to fall into a deep sleep almost straightaway - well into a vivid dream anyway.  I had had some kind of fall, just leaving me mildly bruised, but I had been sent to A & E and was now in the operating theatre awaiting an operation to make me more steady on my feet.  All the nurses and technicians were getting themselves dressed up in this vivid stripy garb. I really did not want the operation. But I remember thinking that if the worst came to the worst, and I did not make it through the operation (which I doubt I would), then as long as Jehovah remembers me, I would next open my years in the paradise earth.

That was a very comforting thought, but I was glad to wake up and find myself in my own bedroom, not in an operating theatre.

The Bow in the Cloud

 

There was a double rainbow on Wednesday, arching from sea to land. You can see a glimpse of the double bow in Captain B's photo.  And the Moonpenny daisies are out everywhere now, lining the roads as we drove to Worthing for my latest hospital appointment.  All went OK.  But but but - how many more times am I going to see the splendid flowers of May?

Of course, if I inherit the earth, as Jesus promised, I will never have to leave them behind. But that remains to be seen. It is not in my power to grant.  As things are now, I have very few Springs left - if any more at all.  I have to keep reminding myself that, at my advanced age, I can't expect to feel wonderful, and just to be grateful still to be here.

The first Biblical reference to a rainbow is in the account of the covenant God made with Noah and his offspring after the Flood survivors came out of the ark.  (Genesis 9:8-17)  This splendid sight of itself would have been reassuring and an indication of peace to Noah and his family.

But of course the ransom and the rule of the heavenly government, the Kingdom of God, were still centuries away.  So rather than peace on earth we have - well, watch any episode of the News.

And here is a strange and startling headline from today. Rioting over a watch...  ?

From the online Daily Mail today, under the heading SWATCH STAMPEDES:

Violent scenes erupted across Britain, Europe and the US this weekend after the launch of Swatch's latest limited-edition watch - sparking overnight queues, mass crowd surges and police interventions. Thousands of desperate shoppers camped outside stores for days in the hope of securing one of the £335 'Royal Pop' watches - a collaboration between Swatch and luxury brand Audemars Piguet. But the frenzy quickly descended into chaos, with fights breaking out, police dog units deployed and stores forced to shut their doors after crowds overwhelmed security staff.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15825625/brawls-globe-WATCH-Violent-scenes-Europe-UK-US-Swatch.html

That is so sad - if true - and the photos do look distressing.  But it reminds me of an expression the Bible uses:

Do not love either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world. - 1 John 2:15.16

The phrase the showy display of one's means of life seems to describe the Designer Label culture very well.

There was a first for our Moth Hotel when we checked the guests out this morning.  We had a pair of honeymooners - two Shuttle-shaped Darts, clearly very much in love.  I hope life goes well for them, and their many children.

A Lunar Double Strike

 

This moth, found in our moth hotel on Sunday morning, is a very rare sighting indeed (for our location)- and for sure it is new to our balcony. Col was thrilled.  It is beautiful and has an amazing name too : the Lunar Double Strike. It could be the title of a best selling SciFi Novel.

We went early to our student on Wednesday morning and had a good session.  She does seem to be so much more receptive now.

Bea called  - and I also emailed her as I was rather distracted while Col was talking to her as I was looking for the paper for the printer which seemed to have disappeared.

Spoke to Bea again Thursday morning, and we sent each other various emails,  and made the usual apple crumble, and the (fairly) usual mushroom curry.  And realised that I would have to Zoom to the meeting this evening and do my part on the dreaded Zoom cameras.

And an idea for a limerick suddenly came to me - re the crumble:

There once were two apples so green

flour, sugar, butter (not margarine)
all crumbled somehow
Colin said "Wow!"
then they disappeared from the scene.

If only I had thought to get out my scary Smartphone and photograph it while it was still in its pristine state!  On the other hand, all that might have done is added to my collection of photos of me looking especially gormless while saying "How does this work?"

There was a tragedy occurring on a local beach on Wednesday morning. The bodies of three women were found floating in the water.  At first it was assumed they must have been swimmers who got into trouble, but as the day went on it seems they may likely have been from a student party that was apparently happening at a beachfront nightclub the previous night.  Very strange either way - and especially tragic in that they are all so young.

There wasn't really a nightclub culture in my student days, for which I am very grateful.  

However, it now seems they were all relatives - sisters? - all down from London and what may have happened is that, not knowing the beach, they went for a paddle, not realising that there was a sudden sharp drop off and powerful currents, including undertow.  I didn't know about the drop off myself.  It could be that one of them got into trouble and the others tried to help.

What a frightening and dangerous world it is for us, the children of Adam, since the loss of Eden, so that even what should be a pleasant paddle in the sea can turn into such a tragedy.

I hope the family of the girls know that they are not lost, but are sleeping safe in "the everlasting arms".

Jehovah will wake them from the dreamless sleep of death when the time comes, but not until the whole earth is restored to paradise, under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God. They will wake in perfect safety then, with nothing to distress them.

Visitors - Human and Moth

   

As I start this blog, we are expecting visitors, old friends from our Uni days - such old friends that we were at each others' weddings, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth. So I chose a picture of Dunstanburgh Castle.  It's close to where they used to live.  We had some fun visits there. The beaches are stunning.

Bob and Judy arrived safely on Saturday afternoon.  I checked online and they were last here in August 2015, blogged as The Walnut Tree.  And Jacks joined us for supper!  How things change as you get older.  Jacks can no longer visit us and we will not be able to visit her in her Home this coming Friday either as, once again, my medical appointments interfere - this time a hospital trip.

Sunday was a quiet day. Rob and Judy went for a walk along the beach after breakfast, after witnessing the checking out of our guests from the Moth Hotel. There was an exciting new visitor which will appear in my next blog.  If I live that long... this beastly cold followed by that even more beastly flare-up has left me feeling very down.

Monday they all went off to Portsmouth to visit the Mary Rose and the Other Ship (whose name escapes me).  I had two Zoom sessions in the morning, plus a phone call to the Lady of the Flowers to ask if we could come a bit earlier on Wednesday. She said we could come at 5 o'clock in the morning, as long as we came!  So that was nice.

I also had a medical appointment, by phone, in which I managed to sort out the problem of my bp medication. So I should have yet another pill to add to my pantheon by the end of the week. How grateful I am for the NHS

But how much I look forward to the restored earthly paradise in which "No resident will say 'I am sick'".

Then I tried to rustle up some kind of soup for the returnees to have in the evening, out of the leftover chicken, some lentils, veggies, and spices.  It was edible and hopefully filled a gap.

And they left this morning after a long and leisurely breakfast over many cups of coffee. Col is driving them to Arundel as they are having lunch with a friend there, and then they head home.  It has been a great three days - and it will feel a bit flat without them.

They have taken three copies of my books with them - paying for two, the third being a bonus. I am hoping they will find them to be page-turners, books that make you want to know what happens next.  That is what I always aim for when I am writing.

I hope we will see them again. This is yet another thing you don't realise about old age when you are young - how many people you will lose.

I had another Zoom in the afternoon, rehearsing my part in the School on Thursday.  And I also had to prepare for our Bible study tomorrow morning.

A Very Painful Flare-up

This beastly cold has led to the worst arthritis flare-up I have had for some years, giving me a night and day of such intense pain. I remember how angry I feel at these times that we are not allowed effective pain killing.  Because the pain is severe and relentless. You are not able to sleep or eat - not that you want to eat - and there is no way to be comfortable.

I didn't even get to the Thursday meeting in Zoom.  I wasn't able to be at the computer chair.

A friend of my mother's actually killed herself during one of these intense and painful flare ups... so far I hang to the knowledge that Jehovah will help.  But if you don't have that knowledge, that help? 

So couldn't there be some effective pain killing made available.

My leg, left upper, is still very painful today but at least I can get about again.  I am exhausted though and will have to pace myself carefully.  I have to make the mushrooms into a soup, cook the chicken (the stuffing is done) and finish tidying up my paperwork. 

The mushroom soup gave me the idea for a photo for this blog, one of fungi in a field. For sure I would not risk eating them though.  Even expert mushroomers can make mistakes, and those mistakes can be fatal.

Though one of the things I picture myself doing in the paradise earth is wandering through Autumn woods, gathering mushrooms to make soup for supper.  In paradise there will be no lethal mistakes.

I am on the school next, as assistant. This is our brief:

(4 min.) INFORMAL WITNESSING. In a previous conversation, the person mentioned that he had recently lost a loved one in death. (lmd lesson 4 point 4)

There was a young lady

There was a (not so) young lady of Rye

who wished she had wings and could fly

her legs would not go

her zimmer was slow

and she envied the birds in the sky.

I am the star of this limerick, but I had to move my place of residence further down the coast for the sake of the rhyme.  No doubt Edward Lear could have done something wonderful with my real address, but I am not up to his standard.

I chose this photo Col took of a pelican in flight on a trip to Oz (many years ago) as I thought it was quite dramatic.  It is hard to remember the energy of youth, all that travel...   

Col has given me an amazing life really, as I was towed along in his wake.  And here is something else I didn't think about when we were young.  If you stay married, you end up with lots of running jokes, which seem to get funnier as the years go on.

On the less doubleplusgood side, we are very old now - and so have our running jokes run their course?

Well, not if we "inherit the earth" and live forever upon it, as Jesus promised.  So who knows?

It is still fairly cold but sunny - and the Green looks a bit more cheerful now after the rain on Saturday.  I had my usual two Zoom sessions on Monday morning, friends and family.  It is such a good way to keep in touch.

I am still full of this cold and had to cancel the lady of the flowers today.  Well, we did not cancel her, but I won't be going.  We have old friends visiting at the weekend so I do need to be over it by then.  So I rang her on Tuesday to explain that I would not be coming, but two other sisters who she knows would.  I hope it will go well.

Col is getting rid of a load of stuff, to Charity Shops and what have you.  Which we have badly needed to do for a while. I have donated a large pile of books, which are all good, but which I won't read again.

The situation in the Middle East continues to surge and spin dangerously causing suffering now -  with the promise of even more to come.  And of course it will have consequences for those who make their living in the holiday trade, as it seems that holiday travel will be somewhat limited due to the oil crisis - the difficulties at the Strait of Hormuz.

The Fly Orchid

 

We picked a rather scary orchid for May in our 2026 calendar. And I note from previous blogs that I have sometimes posted Karen Volkman's poem about May this time of year. It is a poem that is both beautiful and scary, rather like the orchid.  It begins:
  
In May’s gaud gown and ruby reckoning
the old saw wind repeats a colder thing...

But this May I thought I would post a poem from Ogden Nash:

A Caution To Everybody  

by Ogden Nash

Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

https://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poems/short/may

May - with its blossom, its "gaud gown" - should be such a paradise month. But we are still living in the tragedy of the loss of Eden. However we have this promise from Jehovah - whose every purpose is fulfilled - that he will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth". (Revelation 11:18)

So the current state of things should tell us how close the end of the current wicked system of things on the earth is, as it hardly seems like an exaggeration to say that we are in the process of ruining the very planet we are living on.

I am still full of this beastly cold and had to pixel it to the meeting on Thursday.  And I had sad vivid dreams - not bad dreams and not sad at the time, but ones that left me with a feeling of sadness when I woke up.  But maybe that is because of my age, not because of the cold.

I dreamt I was visiting Lilac Tree Farm only they had moved.  Their house was down a winding country lane, lots of tall trees, so just as rural. And in my dream I said how lovely their new garden was, even though it was all straight ahead, long and running down to trees, rather than the interesting ramble of the Lilac Tree garden.  There were big lilies growing in the garden and a storm blowing everything about. It looked beautiful, but with an Autumnal sadness.   I knew I had to put off leaving until the weather improved.  It looked like they had just moved in - there was a bed in the lounge, with someone asleep and children running about.  I remember thinking now which one is Pen's - and picking out a small blonde lad who looked rather like my cousin Peter when he was a child.

I don't know why it left such a feeling of sadness. Part of it might be that my body and my brain know I will not be here much longer to see all this beauty, and so it showed me this beautiful garden in an Autumn gale.  Who knows?

We are supposed to be in for some rain this weekend. Badly needed  - our Green is starting to turn into a Brown.  And indeed it did rain on Saturday afternoon, and there may be more today.

Col left very early to join The Lads in The Field, with his sandwich lunch and his metal detectors.  The homemade cake this month is marmalade muffins.  He also took with him a long mysterious piece of plastic that has been lying in the hall for a couple of days. Something to do with the garage door apparently. And I am about to harness up my pixel pony and make it to the virtual Kingdom Hall for the morning meeting.

It will be an antidote for sadness.

The Holly Blue

There was a young Holly of Blue
it pupated, it hatched, and it flew

It landed nearby

Col's camera let fly

And now I can show it to you!

It seems I have become a Limerick addict - and so late in life too.

The Holly Blue is an exquisite butterfly, as is the Wood White - and... well, all of them I suppose.  The whole process from tiny egg, like a little pearl, to caterpillar - that little eating train - to pupa, to the flying flower that is the butterfly is a miracle in plain sight.  How could a process like that just evolve?!

Well that, I guess, is one of the many things us Jehovah's Witnesses are trying and trying to get across to everyone. The creation is telling us of its Grand Creator as clearly as if it spoke.

I must admit that the Limerick form is so much easier than the Haiku, which I have been trying out in various blogs with a great lack of success.  If I can get them short enough - IF, as I am not the best at counting - then they do not make their point; if I make the point, then they are too long...

How did the great Matsuo Basho do it?

Col was off on his first butterfly transect for a long time yesterday, trying to find Wood Whites in one of the local woods.  So I had to quickly whip up a box of sandwiches and cake for his lunch.  He did not find any to record, but that of course is a finding in itself - there were no Wood Whites in that specific area of Sussex on the 29th April 2026.

He left very early this morning, with his box of sandwiches, to goodness knows where to join the detectorists in The Field.  And I am down with a terrible cold - my first for ages, but it seems to be doing the rounds. Sore throat, coughing, the works. I  think I may just go back to bed and try to sleep.

I had quite a surprise this week. I have a fb friend in Oz. We have known each other for many years, but never met, who suddenly phoned me, and we were talking for the first time.  He is having his problems, in these "difficult times, hard to deal with".  I hope talking about it helped.

A Longhorn of Green

There once was a Longhorn of Green
And at Kithurst Hill it was seen
But Colin was there
with his camera set fair
So now it appears on your screen.

Sorry about this.  I can't seem to stop Limericking.  The Green Longhorn - a rather elegant moth - was one of the little creatures Col photographed at Kithurst Hill.

Col spent Friday and Saturday with the Detectorists at Petworth Park - nothing exciting found by him, but there were some interesting things found.  Saturday evening he collected and delivered some medicine to a sibling who has gone down with a very bad cold.  I am not able to help now.  A few years ago I could have walked to both the Pharmacy and her house - I used to do the same for Jacks.  And then, later, I could still have driven. But my driving days are over. I have decided to stop before I have the crash that tells me I should have stopped.  The eye problem has confirmed the decision.  I am seeing this screen through a sort of gauzy haze of dots.

We are now sitting out on the balcony of an evening, just before sunset, with a coffee for me and a glass of wine for Himself.  It's still not warm, but the evenings are light and long.

Old age is scary - for us both.  Though the Captain is braver than me. But we are so grateful to be together.  "Well, unless I could be with Rachel off Countdown" I seem to see in the Thought Bubble floating above the Captain's head, as we contemplate the sun beginning to set.  "You can't and that is all there is to it!" I bubble back.

The sun will still set and the moon will still rise when we are no longer here to see it, as it did for the millenia (billenia!) before we had the privilege of opening our eyes and seeing this beautiful planet.  But I do hope that we will be able to inherit the earth and live forever upon it, even if we have to come the long way round - via the resurrection.

As Ecclesiastes tells us, Jehovah has put eternity into our minds. We don't want to leave the people we love - or this beautiful and fascinating paradise home, with all its precious little creatures And with them in mind,  I hope the Green Longhorn moth above is having a life full of joy, and lots and lots of little egglets.

Three Limericks

Three Limericks

by me

There was a young lady from Hull
Who went for a ride on a gull

She swooped through the air

with brio and flair

that daring young lady from Hull

There was an old lady from Wick

who dined every day on a brick

followed by a roast stone

which she chewed like a bone

that sturdy old lady from Wick

There was a young man from Dhahran

Who drove through the dunes in a van

He was not very fast

so the camels rushed past

which upset that young man (and his van).

This outburst of limericks is because Col bought me a book on our half day out at the Birders Conference in Brighton.  It is a biography of Edward Lear by Jenny Uglow.  So I am enjoying meeting up with all his limericks again. And they have inspired me to have a go.

I feel there is going to be a lot of sadness in his life - but then somehow everyone's life seems sad in retrospect.  Even if it was perfect, and no lives are, at best it is so short.  The Threescore Years and Ten just vanish in our hands.

The photo is of a black headed gull from the Captain's photo gallery.  And my youngest grand-niece is the young lady from Hull.  Not that she has ridden on a gull, but knowing her, she would if she could.

We saw our Bible student Wednesday morning - the lady of the flowers.  We had a chat and a cup of coffee and then had a good study session.  Next week we hope to show her what the Bible says about why there is such suffering, so much injustice, on this beautiful earth, and show her what our Creator is going to do about it - what he is already doing about it.

Col started on his detecting work at Petworth Park on Thursday  - a rare opportunity for the detectorists.  And he spent Wednesday at Kithurst Hill, photographing butterfies, which inspired him to do a blog - and me to write a couple more limericks, which will turn up in my blog in time.

I must say they are easier than Haikus.

I am just about to brace myself to go off and look at the News headlines and see how bad the situation in the Middle East currently is.  Yet more talk of a ceasefire apparently - though I don't think it feels like fire is ceasing for all those in the vicinity.  Quite the reverse, it seems.

The fact that my cataract operation has left me with worse sight in one eye than before... there ought to be a limerick in that... but I am trying not to brood about about it, and not to forget that I am very fortunate to still be here, and still able to enjoy the gift of life.

Eye Eye

I decided on the heading for this blog with much apprehension on the Saturday morning  before we left for Brighton and before my afternoon appointment with the Optician.  I have no idea how this will continue  - or indeed if it will.

Well, it has continued and there is a glad thing and a sad thing.  Glad, very, that after an exhaustive eye examination, at Specsavers, Saturday afternoon, the kind young Optician assured me that my eyes were fine. It is perhaps rather horrid, but the manifestations are caused by the jelly in one of my eyes moving, as the artificial whatsit inserted when I had my Cataract operation is not as finely honed as the original one - as made by Jehovah! - and there is a bit more room. So this can happen. And it may well settle down and wear off. Though it also might not...

Very relieved, and very grateful, as I did pray about this.  And I will have to get used to looking through a sort of misty veil and having some odd and alarming black threads rush across my eyes every so often.  This is yet another reason why my driving days are over.

I chose an Ox-eye Daisy from Col's photo gallery to head this blog.  They are out too, I noted as we drove along through blossom-lined roads.

The sad thing was that maybe Saturday was another of the "lasts" of old age.  We went to the AGM of SOS - Sussex Ornithologists - a day of talks from people working in the field of Bird.  We used to go to lots of these Conservation Meeting days in our years with Butterfly Conservation.  It is always good to see how many people are volunteering their time, energy and money to try to care for the creation.

We were only there for the morning sadly, but it was interesting.  However, whether I will be able to make another of these days is the problem - the sad thing. Was that my last?  It is getting increasingly difficult.  All being well, and if the venue is the same - Brighton University - I might try again next year.  

But what a bleak place Brighton Uni is, building wise.  Such a bleak campus. And I wonder why.  Why not have made it beautiful?

The early Spring day was beautiful though - the creation still shines in spite of all the violence and the sadness in the world.  I hope it can reassure us of the truth - that Jehovah, the Creator of this loveliness has not abandoned us and will not abandon us.

And I thought I would post Emily Dickinson's poem again - as it is just right for this time of year, as the trees begin to put on the green bonnets of Spring.  I would love to have written it.

Not at Home to Callers 

 by Emily Dickinson

Not at Home to Callers 

Says the Naked Tree -- 

Bonnet due in April -- 

Wishing you Good Day --

https://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poems/short/april

Blossom

 

Captain B took this for me on a recent outing to The Field.  It is a reminder that the whole earth was intended to be paradise - a beautiful garden.  The Bible study on Wednesday morning went well.  It does seem as if the power of Jehovah's word may be getting through to our lovely student.

Thursday morning I made the now routine crumble, though I did vary it with rhubarb last week as rhubard suddenly appeared Abel&Cole-wise. I got some more Not Home letters done, did my studies,  a load of washing, and made a mushroom curry.  Oh and a fair amount of sofa-surfing - which is depressingly necessary these days as I get so tired and my back hurts so much.

The gallant Captain chauffered me to the Kingdom Hall on Thursday night - a great meeting as always. There is no teaching like it.

I have been watching some episodes of a programme called MAFSAUS  - attracted by it being set in Sydney - a place of many happy memories from our expat years.  But, oh dear - what a cruel thing reality TV is, and why does anyone ever agree to take part in it?

And has the relationship between men and women, so horribly damaged in Eden, ever been worse?  The malicious glee some of the women show - openly on camera - when they are attacking and hurting others is distressing. They must, I assume, believe that to achieve such nastiness is a credit to them.

It was never easy to be young, but now!   All the girls for example, are glamorous, tanned, depilated, tattooed, and in some cases plastically-enhanced. Yet seemingly it is even harder for them to find a life partner than it was in my day.

But what incredible beauty standards they have to live up to - apparently all fuelled by the media, especially some of its darker areas.

And the programme, for what I have seen of it, is gladiatorial, pitching man against woman, and woman against woman. On the whole the guys seem to get along with each other a lot better.

In some ways are the current horrors in The Gulf simply this programme writ large, all stemming from how easily we allow "the world", the present wicked system of things on the earth, to turn us against each other?

We can resist the spirit of the world.  But we cannot do so successfully without our Creator's help, and the power of his holy spirit.

Here is the contrast, set out in Galatians:

Now the works of the flesh are plainly seen, and they are sexual immorality, uncleanness, brazen conduct, idolatry, spiritism, hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, dissensions, divisions, sects, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and things like these. I am forewarning you about these things, the same way I already warned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.  On the other hand, the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:19-23

I have been having some strange phenomenon in my right eye since the cataract operations, but it was so spectacularly bad Friday morning that I have had to call the Optician and have an appointment for this afternoon.  It is so hard to know what is to be expected as the unavoidable deterioration of old age, and what can be fixed.

And this morning I am seeing everything through a veil of black spots, so it is not good - it is my right eye, the one that was treated with the new Cataract procedure, which may be what has caused the problem.

Unfortunately we have one of our rare (these days) outings, to the Sussex Ornithological Society special day at Brighton Uni.  We will have to leave at the lunch break, taking our sandwiches with us, to get to my appointment.  After that, I do not know.  I hope I am not rushed straight off to A & E - on a Saturday night!  The horror - and the hours of waiting.

I am trying to tell myself that I do have another eye  - and that I am in my eightieth year... so everything in me is failing.  It is to be expected.  And above all I am trying to fix my mind on the healing that Jesus did when he was on the earth, showing us what he will do for us when he is ruling over the whole earth as the King of Jehovah's Kingdom.

And, to end on a positive note, Captain B is being a tower of strength, poor guy - and I have just got my 15 hours witnessing in for this month.  I had hoped to do more, obviously, but at least I have got the amount in I had aimed at.  And I still may be able to do more.

Though I am not, alas, one of these wonderful brothers and sisters who can give such an excellent witness while going through medical horrors. I am very far from that.  And if you ever find me doing so, you will know a miracle has occurred, so please credit it to Jehovah.  And I am sure those brothers and sisters would tell you the same.