In which we lunch with Mrs. Hudson

We, that is to say the Captain, Jackie and I, ate lunch in the restaurant in which Una Stubbs was lunching!    I remember her as a lovely young teen in "The Young Ones" with Cliff Richard, and now, some few years later (ahem),  she is Mrs.Hudson in the brilliant new Sherlock.

She gave us a dazzling smile on the way out.

It was a good day out altogether, and seeing Una Stubbs was the icing on the cake.  We went to the Pallant to see The Scottish Colourist, J.D. Fergusson. So that was fun.   Then we lunched with Una - duck pate, toast and salad for Jackie and Himself, and an open sandwich for me (goats cheese and onion marmalade) - a glass of wine each, and a coffee and a biscuit.  I can't imagine Una had much, as she has to stay so slim and glamorous.

The whole gallery made me want to create, to paint, to sew, to work in silk.  (I can't do any of those things - but, if and when I am in the restored earthly Paradise, who can say what I will be able to do. I remember how Jehovah gave the makers of the tabernacle all the skills they needed to carry out their work*.)

They had two extraordinary ultra modern mechanical tapestries on the staircase walls in the old building.  And I thought what an amazing technique to work with.  I would want to create something quite different though, which is the beauty of it.  If everyone on earth sat down to paint the same bowl of fruit, no two paintings would be the same.

Jehovah's creation is so varied.  No snowflake repeats the other.

And, talking of snowflakes, it has gone quite cold now.

*"Then Moses said to the Israelites: “See, Jehovah has chosen Bez′al·el the son of U′ri the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah.  He has filled him with the spirit of God, giving him wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of every sort of craftsmanship  for making artistic designs, for working with gold, silver, and copper,  for cutting and setting stones, and for making all kinds of artistic wood products.  And he has put it into his heart to teach, he and O·ho′li·ab the son of A·his′a·mach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do all the work of a craftsman, an embroiderer, and a weaver using blue thread, purple wool, scarlet material, and fine linen, and of a loom worker. These men will do every sort of work and prepare every sort of design."
Exodus 35:30-35

The Team of Sue and Sue

The team of Sue and Sue were out, working one of the new estates. Its one that doesn't appear in my map book - must see if they have an updated version in the Stationers now - the last time we worked there - four of us - our second road eluded us.

As it was, on our Saturday street, the numbers were all over the place.  And so were we, trying to find them (we were working with a  list of not-at-homes).  I say "street", but of course there was not a "street" to be found. They were all "close" or "crescent" or "ride" or "chase". And so language continues to lose its meaning.

And I often wonder if the whole business of the academic deconstruction of language (insofar as my rusty brain can understand it) is to blind people to the clear and simple message in the Inspired Scriptures.

Isn't human language a big problem for Darwinists?  Under the theory of evolution, it should have started with grunts and become more complex.  Yet isn't our linguistic history the exact opposite? The early languages are immensely complex and beautiful, but we are heading into the world of Newspeak and the gutter grunts of some movie scripts.  Which is in harmony with the Genesis account of a perfect start, and a continuing fall from that perfection.


Our Watchtower this month has a lovely article telling people what the Kingdom of God is, according to the Inspired Scriptures, and, on page 6, it lists the wonderful things promised for the earth then. And the public talk yesterday gave a great reinforcement. It was about the importance of listening to the prophetic word. And the speaker went through some of the prophecies about the coming of the Messiah - how specific they are, how they were fulfilled to the last detail.

So there is every reason to trust the Bible when it tells us what is going to happen next.

Jackie came for a curry supper:  marinated chicken, a dahl, a hot tomato chutney and rice. And of course along with it we had the small small things: Uncle Butterfly's home made date chutney, bananas in lemon juice, and Patak's hot lime pickle.  It all worked together well.  We had Lidl's trifle for dessert.

The thunderstormy weather seems to have gone and it was suddenly quite cold on Sunday morning.  Its raining today and the Channel is now completely calm. There is a valiant dog walker on the Green.

The Ebola crisis is worsening.

An Autumn Garden

I was thinking again today of how our first father Adam opened his eyes in an Autumn Garden. The gardens at the Wetland Trust are so lovely, even now, with the serpent still in the garden.

Common Evening-Primrose, Oenorthera biennis

We lunched there - sweet and sour chicken for the Captain and his Mrs (which seems a bit insensitive now I come to think of it - it is a wildfowl trust...) and Terry, who joined us, had baked potato.

We spent a couple of hours in the sand martin hide, but the kingfishers proved elusive today.

I did my Watchtower study - encouraging and helping us to get out there and tell people what they urgently need to hear. The horsemen of Revelation are riding harder than ever it seems. Ebola is raging in some African countries, and nowadays with the world so small, it may well be raging worldwide in no time.

We need to remember that the Rider on the White Horse - Jesus Christ - is also riding, and that he will soon take action.    When the Kingdom of God is ruling over us, "no resident will say 'I am sick'".   People need to know there is real hope for us.

And we won't be killing and eating the animal creation then - and they won't be killing and eating each other.  The world will be Paradise.

Its lovely enough now.  How lovely will it be then?

Climbing Butterfly Mountain

Yesterday I climbed a paperwork mountain.  With no Sherpa support. And no oxygen.  There must have been another recruitment drive as there were a lot of new Butterfly members to process. Me and my knees plan to stagger down to the Post Office today (if and when it stops raining) and get all the membership packages posted.  I hope my young surgeon provided extra scaffolding in view of these increasing memberships.

We had a couple of violent thunderstorms yesterday.  The sky went really dark and then WOW.   Thankfully Captain Butterfly got back from his Course just before it all started.  But he has had to drive off this morning in thunderstorms and torrential rains.   He just rang me to say he had arrived safely and was having his first cup of tea.

Well...  I am trying to think of some excitement and drama with which to fill my blog. Though I should be grateful - and am grateful - that there is none.  A calm life and a routine is what I love.

Perhaps I could borrow a sensational Beachcomber headline to liven things up?

He headlined:

SIXTY HORSES WEDGED UP CHIMNEY!

And underneath he wrote:  "The story to fit this sensational headline has not turned up yet."

Its the final of the Great British Bake-off tonight.  THE FINAL OF THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE-OFF!

Now that is a worth a sensational headline, in anybody's money.  I am really looking forward to it.

The Autumn Sunrise

Captain Butterfly has to leave early this morning, on his Course, so we were up watching the beginning of the morning - heavy black clouds with a crimson edge. The sky is now becoming pinker round the edges, and as the wind gets up, there are white horses on the Channel.  Its so lovely.

I don't know how Jehovah could have made it more lovely than He has.

Jacks treated us, me, the Captain and Tom, to a beef bourguinon (which I hope I have spelt right) with mashed potatoes, sprouts and courgettes - followed by a selection of cheeses, and a lemon tart. She provided a goats cheese for me, and yoghurt as an alternative to cream.  I find that cream flares my arthritis up - and leads to hours of intense pain.

What a good friend she is.   Once again we all had a collection of ailments to discuss - children of Adam that we are - but we did cheer each other up.

That was Saturday night.   And the meeting at the Hall yesterday was so comforting.   Maggie is back from her travels to save me a seat next to her.  The talk was about the urgent necessity of paying attention to Bible prophecy.  For all my years of churchgoing - both Catholic and Protestant - I had never even heard of the Seventy weeks prophecy in Daniel until I began to study the Bible with my local Jehovah's Witness congregation.  And yet that alone should and could tell us that what Jehovah says, he means. And that what he says he will do, will come about without fail.

Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained

We (Jane and I) were taken in from the rain when were out this morning, as a kind lady who Jane regularly calls on asked us in, and we had a lovely talk.  Altogether we met two people who seem genuinely interested - one from Poland, and one from Texas.

It was very hard to get myself out this morning - I think I am one of those people who could end up unable to leave the house, if I am not careful.  But I had my flu shot scheduled for 9 a.m. and that was such an efficient production line, that I got to the Field Service group early and had to sit outside in my car for a while, tempted to run away.  Then Jane drove us to the territory, which was very kind of her.  I got back just in time to get Captain B's lunch, thanks to our wonderful new Soup Machine.  

We are going to Jackie's tonight for supper.

Our Watchtower magazine this month has a lovely article about the incoming Kingdom of God.  I will link to it on the site, as I would like everyone on earth to read it.
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp20141001/interested-in-gods-kingdom/

God's Kingdom will bring peace to the earth.  It will restore the Paradise our first parents lost.  And at at time when we are commemorating World War 1 - "the war to end wars" - by having lots more wars, it is very comforting to know that the Kingdom of God will bring peace on earth.

“He is bringing an end to wars throughout the earth.”—Psalm 46:9.

“Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore.”—Isaiah 2:4.

Climbs with my Couch

We spent Tuesday in Arundel with Sue (ex-expat).  We started the day with a discussion of all our health problems - Sue is also facing the prospect of a Knew Knee.  Oh dear.   Great to see her though, she seems just the same, apart from the problems with walking.

We did the tour of the Reserve - a first for me.    I haven't been able to walk that far for a long time.   It was great - and we saw the Water Vole.   Apparently Captain Butterfly heard it crunching under the bridge!  It was tucking into a tasty reed.

I am busy climbing Everest again, with a Chris Bonington expedition this time.  A very large expedition fortunately, as they have to drag me, my couch, and my cups of tea, all the way to the top - the hard way - via the unclimbed South West Ridge in fact.