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.  

A Trifling Matter

 

WHERE I AM

by me

Sand and concrete, concrete and sand

Flat standard housing, sandy coloured, new

Skies so hot, so close, so damp,

It’s like walking in the greenhouse at Kew

Or on an endless beach, no sea in view

And tropical flowers everywhere

Then yellow sand, then barbed wire, then debris

And after that, just yellow sand, stripped bare.

This is the companion poem to the one I put in a previous blog - Where I am Not.  They were both written at the time of my first experience of Planet Expat, and our first trip to visit friends in Thailand.  Both places amazed me and inspired some poems, one of which was published in an anthology: the poem Chiang Mai Sunset, which I blogged in March.

So I found one of Col's photos from our Saudi years to head the blog.

Our next Covid shots were scheduled for Tuesday.  The kind pharmacist who did mine listened patiently to my worries about being on an immuno-suppressant and explained that (a) that made me more prone to infections so I need the shot (which I knew and which is why I have them) and (b) that the effectiveness of the vaccine relies on a strong response from the immune system, which my immune system will not be able to provide. So it might be less effective in my case.  I hadn't realised that, and, in a way it put my mind at rest. I was grateful for the info.

Apparently he said to Col that he had "very strong muscles".  Which he does.  Its all that hard work in The Field that does it.

"He didn't say that to me!" I protested.  To be fair, he would probably have been more likely to have advised me to look for work in a Trifle Factory as they were short of jelly at the moment.  

And I wouldn't take such work anyway as I am firmly of the school of of thought that believes jelly has no place in a trifle.

But I had better say no more as haven't wars been caused by such trifling issues?

And talking of war, the situation in the Gulf is madness. And I feel very much for the people of Iran and the Lebanon - and for everyone caught up in it.  I have no idea why the Lebanon is being attacked. Wasn't it once called the Pearl of the Middle East?   But the whole thing defies logic. What is anyone gaining from this?  Shouldn't we, the human family,  be stopping to think why it is we haven't learnt even some basic lessons from the horrors of two wars so terrible they are called World Wars?

What is the force that is driving us to fear, hate and kill our brothers and sisters?  The Inspired Scriptures not only explain it and teach us how to resist it, but also assure us of the coming rescue.