Winter Icing

WINTER ICING   by  me

Winter has iced the cars,

it's frosted The Green,

it's steeled sky and sea,

and it's frosted me.

In my personal midwinter

my car Badge is Blue.

And that, poem-wise,

is the best I can do.

Its not really a poem, I think, more of a verse.  But it does have its metaphor, in that I can no longer tell myself I am in the Autumn of my life. It is definitely Winter for me now.  And in acknowledgment of that, I have a Blue Badge for my car, which allows me to park in disabled parking spaces. And, as noted in a previous blog, it has already come in handy.

While I hope to "inherit the earth" and live forever on this lovely planet, as the Bible promises, I do not know whether, IF I do, I might live to see  - and be protected through! - Armageddon, or whether I will have to come the long way round, via the resurrection.

Either way it will be so wonderful to be there.  No more health concerns...  that alone will be miraculous.  And as it as "undeserved kindness" we all have grounds for hope that we will be there.  It is a real hope.

The poor Captain had yet another trip to the Clinic. We were looking over our medical appointments...  there are a lot of them.  It is Winter, Winter, Winter.

The Zoom Session with my siblings was transferred to Tuesday, as Nute was working.  All seems well.  I was talking about how much I enjoyed the book Nute gave me, "The Salt Path", by Raynor Winn.  It is such a page-turner.  It begins with the author and her husband hiding under the stairs of their farmhouse as the bailiffs, who have come to evict them, are knocking at the door.

They are 50 years old, and are about to lose their home, and their only means of livelihood. Their savings have gone, trying to fight what does sound like a very unjust court case.  And then...  anyway, all I can say is read the book.

This morning I have to conduct a Bible study with the lady of the flowers.  Jean and I called on her and her husband for many years.  And suddenly she has decided she would like to look into the Bible.  Another sister is kindly chauffering me.  I feel so inadequate to do this, even though I have been having the best teaching and training in the world for the last 30 years - well more like 35 years now!  How did that extra 5 years suddenly hurtle past?

But I am so much not a people person.  Lockdown was wonderful for me, I have to admit.  So I have been having anxiety dreams all night - and feel even more tired than usual.

All I have to do though is my best, however pathetic that is, and leave the rest to Jehovah.  He does all the really hard work. And the sister I am with is very competent and it will be so reassuring to have her with me.  I am very grateful for that.

The Clever Children?

The Clever Children

by Philip Gross

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

                                               Their father

teased them on their way to bed.

They lay awake for hours, those clever 

children.  Then one little egghead said,

"Inside the shell the embryonic hen

has got all her cells in her, even the cell

of her egg, within which... So on, in, on

in time to the smallest conceivable."  Well,

now they couldn't sleep.  They had to see

the ultimate egg, the egg of the future. On the way

how many breakages, unwanted omelettes, casually

discarded chickens?  At last, there it lay.

so tiny, so precious, so shimmeringly slight

it made them feel tremendous, like a pride

of giants.  Now to sleep, but... "Wait!"

said one (yes), ""What's inside?"

So they split it.  What hatched out?

"Quick," they hollered, "put it back again."

But those clever children couldn't, not

with all the king's horses, all the king's men.

This poem, by Philip Gross, is one I have loved for many years, but it does not seem to be anywhere in cyberspace.  Maybe it's just that I can't find it - but I felt it ought to be out there and so have decided to blog it.  I hope I have transcribed it accurately. It only exists for me in a faded clipping from an old magazine that probably went out of print years ago.

The poet says so much, succinctly and, wonderfully, in Humpty Dumpty language, about cleverness unguided by wisdom and love.  And typing it up reminded me of a talk I heard at a Kingdom Hall some years ago in which the Speaker pointed out that if Jehovah had not confused the languages at Babel we, the human family, would have reached the madness of weapons of mass destruction before the Messiah had even come to the earth and paid the ransom.

Jehovah had to patiently select and train a people, and choose from them a faithful family, before he could entrust his only-begotten Son to their care.

And the Speaker then asked us to think about how, ever since 1914, scientists the world over have increasingly been able to communicate with one another.  The results?  Some wonderful advances for which we are all grateful, but haven't we also bought the earth to the verge of ruin - see the poem above?

What we have to hang on to now is Jehovah's promise the he will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth".  He is the very Source of wisdom, and of power.  And he is the fulfiller of all his promises, as we can demonstrate to you if you will accept a free home Bible study from us.

I put "egg" into the search engine of Col's Photo gallery, and selected this rather lovely Song Thrush egg to head the blog.

The cars and the Green were frosted over on Friday morning, and it has inspired a small poem - maybe a verse - that I plan to put in my next blogpost. And my "good" shoulder has now completely seized up. I can barely type and will probably have to appear at the mornings meeting as a blank square with my name on it in Zoom if I can't get myself dressed in time.

.

Shepherd's Warning

On the first Saturday of the year the sun rose in a deep rose pink band above the Channel - you could see where it was going to make its appearance.  And, as the rhyme says:  Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning,  but I forgot to note if the price of wool dropped steeply that day.

I thought I would look for a sheep photo from the Captain's Gallery to head this blog and you will now be able to see if I found one.

My "good" shoulder is still painful and I am having to hit the paracetamol.  Monday was the Zoom session with the siblings, all seems well - we have all made it into 2025!  Thank God.  And we even saw Darren briefly, as he is staying at Lilac Tree for a few days.  We haven't seen him since his brother Shaun's funeral. A very very sad occasion.

And thinking of Shaun has, of course, made me think of Jehovah's repeated promise of the resurrection.  He assures us, in the Book of Daniel, that "many of those asleep in the dust of the ground will wake up".

I hope so much Shaun will be among them.  But God will not wake the dead until the whole earth is at peace under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God.

I spent part of Tuesday morning in a Zoom session with two of my sisters - which was very encouraging. No snow down here as yet, but it is definitely cold, though not as cold as it should be in midWinter.  The Captain left very early on Tuesday for his stint as a detectorist on a local archeological site.  He had some good finds too.  Though he could only bring them home in photo form of course.  And in the evening I had a video conference with some of my fellow Fantastic Book Authors. We hope to start meeting regularly to encourage each other and to (hopefully) help us to sell some books.

Apparently it is better for us, and the publisher, if people buy our books in Kindle form. Which makes me wonder if I too ought to have a Kindle.  It would have been great in our travelling days, for sure.

It was my Annual Health Review on Wednesday. Oh dear. The poor nurse had terrible problems getting the two vials of blood they apparently needed out of my wrist and hand - my arms can no longer cope with blood tests.  But, on the doubleplusgood side, my foot test was fine.  My feet have not yet fallen off, and they still work (after a fashion). And I am grateful for that.  But also look forward to the moment when no resident of the earth will say "I am sick".

The rain that was falling when we set off to the bank on Wednesday afternoon had turned to snow by the time we set off back for home.

No snow this morning however, and hopefully no icy roads, as Col and Jim left in the darkness for The Current Field.  In fact, now, at 9:30, the sun is shining in, warming up our living rooms.

Blue Badge

On the Monday before the holiday, we headed off up North via a trip to Jackie's to drop off her calendar.  She asked us in and clearly will now welcome visits, even though she is so frail. All being well, we hope to call in and see her often.  To Tesco for petrol, then we faced the Xmas traffic. We made it to the bungalow by 4 p.m. to find Alex there. He too had come through some dreadful traffic and was exhausted. We woke up that next morning to find: no heat, no hot water. The system seemed to have collapsed on Christmas Eve!!

Captain B worked out that one little widget needed new batteries, and even had the right batteries with him... brilliant. We then went to Broomhill to do some last minute shopping - and my blue badge, which only arrived the day before we travelled, came into its own again.

I got it with almost worrying ease this time.  The first time I applied, during my knee operations, I was turned down, had to appeal and have a personal interview with a Physio/Doctor (who said that as soon as he saw me creaking out of the car at the hospital carpark he knew he would give me a badge). But I did not apply to renew it as by then I could walk more than the limit required. Now, however... and alas.

Anyway, not only have I now got it, but we have used it. It arrived on Saturday morning. We travelled up North on the Monday and it allowed us to park right by the entrance to the Motorway Service station. And then it allowed us to park outside the supermarket in Broomhill.

Wanting a photo for this blog, I put the word "blue" into Col's photo gallery, and decided on this Mazarine Blue. taken on one of his Corfu trips.

While we were up North we were visited by: the Derby family, the Lilac Tree Farmers, and the Dronfield Rellies.  And Julia, a friend from Planet Expat came over for lunch and a catch-up on Monday.  And we had our now traditional veggie feast at Jen's, where Kathryn joined us.  It's always good, but Jen excelled herself this year.

We also visited Crookes Cemetery on a blustering, wuthering day, to leave some flowers at daddy and Jo's graves.  It is high up there, with an amazing view - and on the day we visited, with an icy wind blowing.

The blue badge came into its own again, as we stopped off at the small Tesco to get some flowers and the Disabled spot was vacant.  So I only had a few steps to totter. They also had some tulips that were lovely, just what we wanted.

We did not manage to see Bea and Co, which is a first - but hopefully next time.  Nor did we manage to get over to York.  We had invited them to come to us this year, but Janet's fall and broken arm put paid to any travelling.  Surely next time.  

Talking of such things, my "good" shoulder has been painful enough to keep me awake for a couple of weeks now, which is worrying.  I already have very limited movement in my replacement shoulder...

And now 2025 begins...  what will it bring?  The most hopeful way to look at it is that every day that passes brings us closer to the moment when Jehovah intervenes  to remove every vestige of the current wicked system of things from the earth.

So let me leave you with this promise:

“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it alone will stand forever. - Daniel 2:44

Earth's Immeasureable Surprise

First Sight, by Philip Larkin

Lambs that learn to walk in snow
When their bleating clouds into the air
Meet a vast unwelcome, know
Nothing but a sunless glare.
Newly stumbling to and fro
All they find, outside the fold,
Is a wretched width of cold.

As they wait beside the ewe,
Her fleeces wetly caked, there lies
Hidden around them, waiting too,
Earth's immeasurable surprise.
They could not grasp it if they knew
What will soon wake and grow
Utterly unlike the snow.

We got back from our trip up North on the 2nd, after a good drive on a sunny, but very cold day.  We saw lots of family and friends.  And we have all made it to 2025, thank God!

I thought this might be a great way to start the New Year, a photograph of the winter sunset in Sheffield - the sunset of the 30th - and this Philip Larkin poem about new life and the surprise of Spring being on the way.

Sheffield is a city full of trees - I remember walking to school under the chestnuts in bloom, and then in the Autumn term, hunting for conkers that nestled like treasures in the fallen leaves.  Watching the skies through the empty trees on this winter visit has been wonderful.

On the last day of the year we - the Captain, Nute and me - went to the cemetery at Crookes and left some flowers - tulips - on daddy's and Jo's graves.  There was an icy wind blowing, but it was lovely in a wuthering kind of way.

Jehovah made such beauty for us.  And I hope so much that daddy and Jo will be woken from the dreamless sleep of death and see it all again.  

That will be an immeasurable surprise, as Jehovah recreates the dead from the dust of the ground, and they find themselves alive again, in the restored earthly paradise.  Because how many of the dead even knew of the promise of the resurrection?   It will be such a joyful time.

As the King James translation says: "Awake and sing, all ye that dwell in dust!"

The Story I did not Write

The festive day itself ended, unexpectedly, with a dog
fight. At least we have learnt that two of the family dogs can't be in the same room together. We had been trying to introduce them to each other gradually and we thought it had been going well.  Clearly the dogs thought differently. It has made me wonder about how everyone else's day went.

And also I was thinking about the story I did not write. I have no idea what it would be about but it would be called: Miss Milton Paled.

It would have been inspired by something in one of Richmal Crompton's William stories, one in which William is taking part in a village pageant organised by Miss Milton, the Sunday School teacher.

She is assigning each small child the part of a bird, and writing a little rhyme to go with it. William is given the part of the Tom Tit, and this is his rhyme:

Around the garden

I do flit

Tom Tit I am

I am Tom Tit.

William, unsurprisingly, is not too keen on this.  He tells Miss Milton he wants to be a vulture, and will write his own rhyme, thus:

I swoop down upon 'em,

and then

dead men I eat 

I eat dead men.

whereupon:   "Miss Milton paled"

What could the story be?  Sadly, if I wanted to have a blockbusting best seller, I should make it a gore-fest and title it Miss Milton Impaled.

As I have no intention of doing that, I guess the story will never get written.

But, to end on a more positive note, will I meet Richmal Crompton one day - if Jehovah remembers us and wakes us from the dreamless sleep of death when the time comes?  If so, I will be able to tell her how much I loved the William stories.  I don't know how many hours I spent in the 1950s in various cosy corners at Nabbs Cotttage, bookworming over a William book.

You will see that I made more of a Violet Elizabeth Bott choice for the blog photo than a William one, as it is a long tailed tit, not a vulture - even though I am sure I could find a vulture in the Captain's archive.  But I went for pretty.  Vultures are beautiful, in their way, and very useful birds too, but not exactly chocolate-box pretty.

"And neither are you lady!"  did I hear our local vultures chorus from, well, it would be the local safari park I suppose?

I hope we are all going to make it into the year 2025. We are nearly there. And we are now one year nearer to the coming of the Kingdom of God to rule over the earth and restore it to the paradise it was always meant to be.

How much we need that restoration.

QUAIL

It has taken me a long time to really start to get to grips with advice from my shepherding visit, and to start to read the Bible daily, consistently.  I do read it all the time, in that I follow the weekly schedule for the congregations worldwide, but this is my own separate reading, beginning at Genesis 1:1, which tells us with unique clarity: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

I am doing a chapter a day, and taking it slowly and carefully as the brothers advised.  There is so much in the Bible. So much in the first chapter of Genesis for example.  Bear in mind that I had an intensive religious education at my convent school, and also later attended a small Protestant Church that sincerely would have regarded itself as fundamentalist, but it wasn't until I began to study the Bible with the Jehovah's Witnesses that I found that the answer to one of the questions I had had for so long was right there - in the very first chapter of Genesis.

The question was, why, if there is a God who is almighty and all good, nature is "red in tooth and claw with ravine"?  Why would a loving God have created it that way?

Wondered about it for nearly 40 years, until those two JWs called.  And there the answer was in Genesis - He did not create it that way! 

"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..." - Genesis 1:29-31

This was not a world full of the hunters and the hunted, not a world where nature was "red in tooth and claw".  It was paradise, a paradise of peace. But it was lost.  And we, along with the animal creation - the blameless animal creation - are still living in the tragedy of that lost paradise.  Which is why we need God's Kingdom to come to restore the peace and joy of paradise worldwide.

And the Bible also contains a promise that carefully details that restoration.  If you look at the context of this, you will see that it refers to the time when God's Kingdom, with Jesus at its head, is ruling over the earth:

 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.

- Isaiah 11:6-9

This does not explain why this blog is headed Quail, and now there isn't time, but I hope to get back to it, and it has given me a nice photo (from Captain Butterfly of course) to head the blog.  But it all comes back to the shepherding visit, when the brothers (the shepherds) read me a short account of the quail Jehovah supplied to the Israelites in the desert. And what they did, and what happened next.

When you actually stop and look into the details of the short account, you see why Jehovah had it recorded and preserved for us.  We can learn so much about relying completely on Jehovah, on knowing that he can and will support all who exercise faith in him.

So I hope to get back to it.