A Walk by the Sea and a trip to the Dentist

Iping Common

My morning was spent at the Dentist - 6 monthly check up - I had 2 x-rays, a painful and effective clean, and a filling replaced.   My teeth are OK, and, all being well I won't be seeing the Tooth Doctor again for 6 months.   Which is a relief.

The Captain left early for a day at Iping Common and he captured the beauty of the day. It was lovely. And I took myself out for a walk by the sea in the afternoon - my favourite walk to the river and back - the flood defences are still under way.    I wish I could find the words to describe the beauty of the sky and the light.

As the Psalmist says:  "The heavens are declaring the glory of God..."

Talked to Jacks on the phone - we had a lovely evening together on Sunday - and Maggie sent through another of her showbiz clips.   She is looking v.glamorous.  Who says there is no life after retirement?  It all seems to get more exciting and more interesting by the day.

The Match that started March

March has come in like a lamb - a beautiful sunny spring-like day.   That means something weather-wise, but I have forgotten what it is.  It might mean it goes out "like a lion". i.e. with the return of the winter weather. Time will tell.

Captain Butterfly rushed back for The Match at 3.00 - England v Ireland.    Its all very tense - rugby bats at dawn, Ireland leading 30 love, but, if England can score double top - marvelous stuff - zzzzzzzzzzzz

I finished my last 3 magazine route calls after the meeting.  Ursula was at home and we had a long talk, She showed me some beautiful flowers in her garden that she calls Christmas roses - she couldn't remember the official name, and I have never seen them before.  Some of them are quite orchid like, but they flowered all through the cold last month.

I just looked them up on the net and apparently they are of the genus Hellebores.  I must make a note to tell Ursula when I take the March magazines and the Memorial invitation round.    

I have never been so late with the magazines I don't think. I had intended to deliver them yesterday, but it rained all day.

Jackie is coming for supper tonight. The chile is made - as are the small small things (yoghurt, grated cheese, and a salad). And Col has made three ice-creams for afters.

Weavers Down - Can Nothing be Left Unspoilt?

The Grayling butterflies, and many other creatures, are about to be turfed out of Weavers Down to make way for another golf course.     How selfish we - the children of Adam - are. We are leaving no space for the creatures with which we share the planet.
To see how to object to this planning application please see The Captain's blog:
http://colinknight.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/weavers-down-please-object-to-golf.html

We were given a sacred trust - to care for them. And I know many many people find great happiness in trying to do so.  However, the world system is against us. It all lies in the hands of Satan - and he is a destroyer.

But a rescue is so close at hand.  Soon God's will WILL be done on the earth.  And he loves all his creation. One of the many wonderful things we will be able to do then is to care for it all properly - and, under the heavenly government, the incoming Kingdom of God, we will be able to restore the perfect harmony that was there in the beginning.   In the restored earthly Paradise, we will wake up every morning simply longing to go to work - as work will be the wonderful, creative thing it always should have been.

A return visit, not mine, said crossly:   "You Jehovah's Witnesses take the Bible much too seriously. We don't at MY church."   Yes.  My sibling has managed to get a very important point across to him.

A Nice Cup of Iced Tea

I am off up Everest again, on my sofa, as I am reading "Dark Summit" by Nick Heil.

I came across this in the first few pages, which kind of says it all, and explains why we really should not be up there, except by sofa.

He says:   "Cholatse provided my first exposure to Himalayan climbing, and I began to understand just how formidable it can be.  On our trip, five of my team members managed to summit, but it required a strenuous twenty-four hour push from the highest camp.  One of those who made it, Abby Watkins, a professional climber from Golden, British Columbia, and as capable and fit a mountain athlete as I've ever met, told me later how someone at high camp had handed her a cup of hot tea as she'd collapsed in her tent on the way back down.  She woke up the next morning wearing her boots and parka, a full cup of tea in her hand - frozen solid."

Getting down is even more likely to kill you than going up. And she is fortunate that it was not her hand or her foot that  was frozen solid!

I made it to the field service group yesterday and Kathy and I set off from the Kingdom Hall just before 10.  We had some territory down by the station - not fond of driving there - so many parked cars you constantly have to watch for what is coming from the other direction.   We didn't cover much of our road though, as Kathy needed to do some return visits. We did a couple of her visits, and one of mine, but we only found one person at home.

We both have return visits down by the Station, as we both had a couple of interesting doorstep talks and left some literature. We hope to do them together in March.

Just that small outing tired me so much, that I did next to nothing during the rest of the day. I did my studies, finished the Book of Judges (a scary one) and, of course, got lunch and supper for the Captain and moi - veggie soup for lunch, chicken curry this evening.

Security Gates Redux

I was getting ready to go out on the field service yesterday morning... slowly and if I am honest reluctantly.  Felt so washed-out I didn't want to do anything.  But then the phone rang and it was Jean. She too was going slowly this morning and wasn't going to make it unless I gave her a lift.

So I picked her up and we ended up doing not far off 2 hours.   We were assigned a long road in the upmarket part of town and found a lot of people at home.  Had some good talks, left some Bible based literature, and hope to call back.  And we also found the long drive leading down to the security gates that mysteriously creaked open last time, though there was no-one in the mansion that lay beyond.   I hadn't remembered where they were, and didn't even remember working on that particular road.

This time I managed to work the fearsome control panel properly and something began to ring in the mansion. And somebody answered!

Me (to Gate):    "Good morning.  We are Jean and Sue, from your local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses."
Gate:    "Er, no thankyou... we are just going out." (It was a nice polite Gate).
Me:      "May we leave a small leaflet in your letterbox by the gate so you can see why we called.
Gate;    "Yes."

We toiled on down the road, finding quite  lot of people at home, until we met up with some of our siblings approaching from the other end and knew we had finished our territory.  We then did a couple of route calls on the way home.

It was such a beautiful morning - the sky was a tender blue with fluffy clouds, there were snowdrops and crocuses (croci?) in the gardens, and we had some good talks. We were both so glad we got out there.

We had supper at Jackie's last night - roast lamb, followed by a lemon tart.   All excellent as usual, and a lovely evening. Though we seem to have more and more health problems, our own and various friends and family problems, to discuss...  

There was frost on ground and car this morning, and now the sea is stormy.

Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

I thought I would blog the letter I wrote after a lovely talk with one of my route calls. I posted it yesterday as I fought my way through wind and rain to the Hall.  Its impossible to park very near these days.

We had been talking about her and her family's concern about the suffering of animals.  It had been a real sunny spring-like morning, but with an ominous background to it, making for a wonderful light. I wrote:

Dear Joyce,

I thought I would type out the verses we read this morning, and the ones about the promises of the restoration of Paradise on earth.

The Bible message has been so hidden from us.

Genesis 1:29-31 tells us:

"Then God said: “Here I have given to you every seed-bearing plant that is on the entire earth and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. Let them serve as food for you.  And to every wild animal of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving on the earth in which there is life, I have given all green vegetation for food.” And it was so.  After that God saw everything he had made, and look! it was very good...."

It was very good. It was perfect.  Adam and Eve lived in Paradise.  Everything was ruled by the law of loving kindness. And nature was not "red in tooth and claw".  This was not a world full of the hunters and the hunted.

And, wonderfully, the Inspired Scriptures promise us a restoration of that Paradise state.   Isn't it what we pray for when we say the Lord's prayer and ask for God's will to be done on the earth?

For example, under the rule of God's Kingdom, which is a heavenly government, nature will no longer be "red in tooth and claw".  It will return to the peace of Paradise. 

Isaiah 11:6-9 promises us this:

"The wolf will reside for a while with the lamb, And with the young goat the leopard will lie down, And the calf and the lion and the fattened animal will all be together; And a little boy will lead them.   The cow and the bear will feed together, And their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the bull.   The nursing child will play over the lair of a cobra, And a weaned child will put his hand over the den of a poisonous snake.   They will not cause any harm Or any ruin in all my holy mountain, Because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah As the waters cover the sea."

The lion will eat straw, just like the bull.  The animals will have nothing to fear from us, or from each other.  We will have nothing to fear from them.

What human government could ever achieve that?

Jehovah is "the God of all comfort", and this is so comforting.    

A rescue for all the earthly creation - man and animal - is so close now.  It is what we are trying to tell you as we come to your doors.

Not one of Jehovah's promises has ever failed, or ever will.

Hope to see you next month!

love    Sue

Butterfly Mark called in for a coffee this afternoon.  Great to see him.  He is dealing with Silverfish and Firebrats at the moment.   I know silverfish - you used to find them a lot in old kitchens, especially dank basementy ones.    But I had never heard of Firebrats.  Apparently, they are a similar sort of thing, except that they love the heat and the dryness, and are found in bakeries and suchlike.

His visit reminded of our years on Planet Expat, when I don't think a day went past without people dropping in.  And we have both been thinking of that time because Mary is so ill.   She and Chuck were a big part of our expat lives.   They retired to Texas, we retired to South Coast England.  But when we lived in the same town we saw them all the time.  We visited the Barrier Reef together, many years ago. They went diving in the Maldives with Captain Butterfly while I house-sat all the animals.

I have been listening to the Sandy Denny song, "Who knows where the time goes?"

Wolf Hall

Still loving Wolf Hall.  The hour goes so quickly.   Will now have to read the Hilary Mantel books on which it is based.  And we would love to see the compelling Mark Rylance on stage - however, what would be the chances of getting tickets now?

There was a chilling moment last night as Anne Boleyn's "fool" brutally mimicked the second miscarriage her mistress was undergoing.   A miscarriage fatal for both mother and child as, unless she bears Henry a son, she will not survive.  And of course, if Anne Boleyn survives, Mary, the child of Henry's first wife, will not.

As I am a complete wimp, with a backbone of solid custard, I did find myself thinking that it will be a bit scary when these people are resurrected during the Thousand Years.  And, of course, I hope for their sake they will be.   If I am there it will only be through "undeserved kindness" from my Creator, so I must not grudge it to anyone else.    But... scary...  only of course it won't be. And it will be so wonderful for them to wake up in an earth ruled by loving kindness, not selfish intrigue.

Jehovah doesn't want anyone to be lost, so I know if he sees something in their hearts that will respond when taught the truth, they will be in the restored earthly Paradise.

They have all ignored his command to be "no part" of the world. To be fair, they probably don't understand it.   I didn't, until I talked to the Jehovah's Witnesses.  And so we see the disasterous consequences as church and state and military combine.  We can see it now.  It is causing immense suffering as I type - but not for much longer.  Very soon, Jehovah will act.   And, according to the Book of Revelation, it is the world empire of false religion that will be destroyed first.

Once again, it is what we are trying to tell you as we go door to door.

I have had two violent arthritis flare-ups, one after the other.   They have left me exhausted, but I am so grateful to be out of that paralyzing pain. The first time it happened to me (years ago), I was carted off by ambulance as they thought I had had a stroke.  It was then I was diagnosed by a Saudi doctor. I told him it wasn't arthritis, as I had been tested but come up negative. He assured me it was, and he was right. I am very grateful to him, as I then began to get the proper treatment.

The family arthritis is, apparently, of a  kind that did not show up in the standard blood test done back them.  I think the test is different now.

Well, when the Kingdom of God is ruling over the earth, "no resident will say "I am sick"".    And I hope we are all there to find out just how wonderful that will be.