Tuesday 30 October 2018

The Man in the Shed

"More sandwiches" commanded The Captain sternly, interrupting my morning phone chat with Jacks.

A sandwich emergency!     I was puzzled as I had already sent him off on his latest Fungi Hunt with sandwiches plus an extra cake for Butterfly Mark.

"There is a man in our shed, and he needs breakfast!"

Apparently some homeless chap had spent Sunday night in our dustbin shed...   and it was a cold night too.   Now our shed is reasonably clean and upmarket as such things go - it is designed to look like the garages and there is just about room for one person to lie down.  But, how worrying it is that someone has had to sleep there.

He was moving on apparently, but I made him up a lunch box - cake, fruit and sandwiches. And Col gave him a warm coat.  I have been longing to have a coat and jacket clear out, so maybe this homeless chap has helped to get us started.

I knocked at the shed door at lunchtime, but there was no-one there. I was going to offer him some lunch.  Why he was homeless I do not know.  Many who are have come through our "Care" system so may never even have known what a home is.

Its an insane world system we live in.   And a cruel one.

I was out with my siblings this morning going door to door with our Bibles and Watchtowers, telling all who will listen what the Bible has to say about this - and to assure them that things will not be going on this way.  Soon God's will WILL be done on the earth.  And Jehovah's foremost quality is love.

Monday morning, I took Jackie's prescription to the Clinic for her and took the opportunity to get the mystifying form for my upcoming diabetes course filled out.  It seemed to mystify them too, but some medical figures have now been entered in various boxes and, hopefully, they will have to do.

Our imperfection - the imperfection we are born with - makes getting older a painful business.  Otherwise getting older would be wonderful- learning all the time, appreciating the beauty of the world more and more... learning to love each other more and more.

And we will be so happy when God's will is done on the earth.  Already we can find much happiness through the teaching in the Christian congregation and in the loving and orderly way it is organised.

There is no teaching like it on the earth.  And it is a small taste of wonderful things to come.


Sunday 28 October 2018

Poems in The Spectator - and Bonfires

Littlehampton bonfire night - boat burning
As a long time Spectator subscriber, I loved the poems they published in the magazine.   Then they stopped. And I think many of us wrote in to ask for the poems back.

And back they came. But somehow, for me, the magic had gone.  I am sure the poems were all good ones, but just not on my wavelength anymore.  Perhaps the Poetry Editor had changed?

Anyway, I was delighted to find these two wonderful poems in my current Speccie.

Going Home
Folk Festival

Closing her last set
She sings of going home
While couples rise up
From the bales they share
To fold into each other's arms
Already spirited
Across love's threshold,

Then later as I step
Alone into our house
I think of us as the song
Must have me do
On this dusky, scented
Summer night
That still belongs to you.

        John Mole



The Shadow

As the sun to the moon,
So is a parent to a favoured child,
Bestowing a concentrated bounty:
But such a child - like the moon -
Has a cold and dark side.

        Tim Hopkins



Hurray for The Speccie and for Tim Hopkins and John Mole.   Maybe they are back on my wavelength, or maybe my wavelength has changed?  Either way, I really enjoyed them, and will add them to my poetry pantheon.

Yesterday was bonfire night - the BIG bonfire was lit on The Green - its  still smouldering now, and as the sun sets I expect to see it still glowing orange - and they had the procession and the fireworks.  Jacks came over to join us but, here is another of the sad "firsts" on the slippery slope, for the first time we didn't make it through to the end of the fireworks. We had to hobble back indoors so we could sit down.

Still, it was  a good evening - veggie lasagne with salad, ice-cream and a cheese plate - and our usual NZ Marlborough wine. All those Marlboroughs are so good.

It was the meeting this morning and then I crashed out in front of the telly. Captain Butterfly is just back from a day's Treasure Hunting, so I will have to go and get him some supper in a minute.  (What is left of last nights - via the microwave).
porcupine sceat, Early Anglo-Saxon England, continental phase. 695-740 AD. AR Sceat, Series E, variety G1

No Treasure today, but he did find a sceat this week which will be appearing on his blog in due time I expect.

Friday 26 October 2018

A Glass of Blessings

Finished my re-read of "A Glass of Blessings" (Barbara Pym) yesterday.  Loved it even more the second time. 

Could it end up being my favourite Pym?   I will have to settle for it being one of  my favourites, as its impossible to pick a favourite between Glass and "Excellent Women" and "Quartet in Autumn", and "Some Tame Gazelle" (which is surely the funniest).

Wilmet - spoiler alert - gets everything wonderfully wrong throughout. And the world Barbara Pym is writing about is the world I was born into - the world that lingered on into the 1950s.  I feel at home in her world.  And she is so funny.

Anyway, to get to my dazzling diary - my partner for field service on Thursday cancelled, so I decided not to go to the group but to do a call - long overdue - to a very nice lady my age, who lives within walking distance. We had a good talk and I hope to continue it next week.  My excuse for calling will be to deliver a copy of the new magazine.

She really seems to appreciate them.

She has been a churchgoer all her life, but seems to know as little about what the Bible says as I did before I talked to the two Jehovah's Witnesses who called.

I must pray about this.  I need to find the right brother or sister to go along with me.

I can't think what I did in the afternoon. Finished my study for the meeting and lay on the sofa dozing in front of the telly - trying to rest my horribly swollen legs. 

This morning we shopped - for us and for Jacks - delivered her shopping and had a coffee and a chat. She is feeling no better, no worse.

And we had a chat with Bea of the North on the phone. The Bavarian branch of the family has just left after a short visit.  They did a tour of the local brewery - and were amazed and I'm sure pleased to find out that the machinery came from Friesing, their local town. 

So my blog returns to a glassy note, where it began, and to a literary note, as I too have had a novel published.  And my latest reader just told me she loved it, really loved it!   Which is what every author wants to hear, that  they have written a book that people enjoy reading.  And I had better be honest and say that her husband found it a bit slow going but did like the second half when it became more incident packed.

https://www.fantasticbooksstore.com/waiting-for-gordo-all-formats.html

Wednesday 24 October 2018

The Arun Octopus

On Monday,Col and I went for a walk along the seafront. It is such a lovely Autumn.  He took some  photos, including (at my request) our octopus.
River Arun
Oyster Pond
And on Tuesday we spent the day in Chichester.  We went to the Pallant Gallery to see the Julian Trevelyan Exhibition - well worth a visit - I love his pictures of the Potteries, and the smoke-filled cities of my Northern childhood - and also the later ones he did of the Thames.

One of my many favourites was of the harbour at Whitehaven.  I sat (have to stop and sit a lot these days) and looked at it for a long time, thinking of an old friend whose home town it was.  Diana died almost 15 years ago. Is she sleeping safe  in "the everlasting arms"?  And will she see this lovely earth again, when the time comes for the resurrection?

And, if so, will the Captain and his Mrs be there?


Then we tried a new health food restaurant - Luckes - for lunch - salad and a Brie tartlet for me - and salad and an egg thingummy (I forget its name) for the Captain.  And I had a Vitality drink - beetroot, orange, apple and ginger - interesting and bursting with healthiness. Except at the same time being bad for my diabetes...  oh well.

Then we shopped, and I found loads of books. I am re-visiting all the early Ruth Rendells.  And I bought a copy of "The Day that Went Missing" by Richard Beard.

Oh Oh Oh. I bought it and read it on the same day. Could not put it down. I want to write to the author and tell him how compelling it was.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01I0RU17G/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Now I have started on a  re-reading of Barbara Pym's "A Glass of Blessings", and must hold myself back from cramming it all down in one day.  I have shopping to do - for us and for Jackie - then Maggie to be visited and Jean to chauffeur - and then I am going out with one of the young pioneers, on the door to door preaching work.

Saturday 20 October 2018

An Interesting and Fascinating Blogpost (and Gerda Charles)

At least it will be interesting and fascinating if I can find anything interesting and fascinating to put in it.  My life is full of interest to me - but would it be to anyone else?

I will let Gerda Charles speak for me at the end.

And hello Julia if you are catching up - blogwise. And thanks so much for the offer of putting us up during the AGM..  Look forward very much to seeing you all.

Yesterday I was out and about with my siblings, trying to tell all who will listen about the Kingdom of God - and we all met up for a coffee break mid morning.   We had an interesting talk with a couple who are members of a small Protestant church that would I think see itself as Bible fundamentalist.

Yet we could not reason with them from the Bible itself.   They seemed shocked when we said that, no, we are not expecting to go to heaven, but are hoping to "inherit the earth" as Jesus promised, and to live for ever upon it.

"In YOUR translation" they said with a certain scorn.  We pointed out gently that we hadn't come across any Bible translation (and we use many) that translated those famous words from the Sermon on the Mount any differently. And when Jesus said that the meek would inherit "the earth" he was confirming the promises in the Hebrew Scriptures.

For example, Psalm 37:11 says:  "But the meek will possess the earth, And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace"

They will possess the earth,, not heaven.   And it will be an earth truly at peace.

And verse 29 of the same Psalm says simply:  "The righteous will possess the earth, And they will live forever on it. "

But as we tried, gently to point that out, they changed from "in YOUR translation" to "in YOUR interpretation".

Now, I can't see that those words are open to any other interpretation. But we left it there. Someone else will call in time, and maybe they will find the right words.

Captain B and I shopped yesterday, and popped Jackie's shopping in to her, stopping for coffee and choccie biccies (well just coffee for me) and a chat.   Then home for lunch - remains of yesterday's soup - after which the Captain went off to Petworth House, and I made a carrot cake, did the ironing and some much needed housework.  And got us something for supper - steak and ale pie for him, veggie pasta for me.

Re interesting and fascinating... I am a long time fan of the writer Gerda Charles.  She did win at least one big literary prize, but seems to have been forgotten now.  But she could write, so might she be in for a revival?

Her book  "The True Voice' ends like this:

"I saw my bus coming in the distance. I smiled at the baby.  A light-hearted happiness filled me. There had been the caterpillar, Colin, his father, the Chinese baby; I was going to tea with Miss Hallam.  Feathers... feathers...  But they were enough.  I had too delicate a digestion for richer joys.

It was only four o'clock and the sun was still bright, but a blue haze was spreading across the distance, a faint sparkle of cold touched the air.  Tomorrow would be the autumnal equinox, the beginning of Autumn; my season.  For some, the spring or summer of their lives is their time, their tender springs most beautiful or their summers most glorious.  But for me, my spirit's time was autumn.  Tomorrow it would be autumn.  The bus came up and I got on and drove towards the west.  'In heaven' says John Donne, 'it is always autumn'."

She too finds such joy and interest in the ordinary things of life.   And there too, I guess, is the idea of going to heaven when we die.  Which is all tied up with the idea of a separate immortal soul.   The Bible says something different, something wonderful.  Please ask the next Jehovah's Witness who calls, if you want to know, and please have a copy of the Bible to hand, so you can check everything we tell you against the touchstone of God's word.

Any translation is fine, but preferably a modern translation, as English is very much a living language. And no need for interpretations. The Bible interprets itself.

I want to have unnumbered Autumns in the restored earthly Paradise. I hope we all will - including, of course, Gerda Charles.





Tuesday 16 October 2018

Supper with Miss Jackie

Jacks came Saturday night - we had lamb shank, mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli - followed by ice-cream and some chocolates we had saved from Jon and Linda's wedding.    A great evening - almost like old times - though Jacks and me are in no way what we were.

Saturday I was out with the Kingdom Hall group, working with one of my brothers on a housing estate so new I didn't even know it was there.   We had a great morning and I placed some literature, but will I find my way back - bearing in mind that I am the sort of person who needs a map to find her way to her own front door?

And today I am rather zombified.  We - the Arundel 3, Terry, the Captain and me - went to a talk on Indonesia in Arundel - a great talk, one of the best ever - but when we got back Col had a SUSSAR callout to help search for a dementia patient who had gone missing.   I made him some sandwiches and off he went, into the West Sussex wilderness.  It was a dark and foggy night.  And I lay awake and worried.

The older I get, the more fragile everything seems.

The lost guy - or misper, to use the technical term - was found wandering around a field calling for help - so glad that help arrived - and thanks to all searchers, police and civilians who turned out until the early hours.    Col got back about 3 a.m. so I was able to get to sleep, but I feel exhausted this morning.   Jean and I did manage to get to the Field Service Group at the Hall, but it was a bit of a scramble on my part.

And hello Bob of the North (of Thailand), in case you have dropped by.  I see you and Captain Butterfly have been talking on facebook about attending a reunion. And Col mentioned my blog.  Hope you are all well and enjoying your retirement.

Friday 12 October 2018

Are you Banksy?

I asked Captain Butterfly the question as we watched the news about the mysterious artist Banksy - and the way he built a shredder into one of his paintings which was activated (in a way as mysterious as himself) the moment it was sold at Sothebys for a trillion dollars, or some such.

We both take his point about the Art World - and the obscene amounts of money involved - but at the same time note that Banksy has also upped the value of his artwork yet again.

Hence my hopeful question.  Could the mysterious Captain B be the mysterious artist Banksy?!!!

No.   He isn't.   Pity, as some of that money would have been nice.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/buyer-of-banksy-piece-that-shredded-moments-after-it-was-sold-for-over-1m-at-sothebys-auction-will-a3959896.html

Still, I wasn't very hopeful as I don't see how he would find the time to go around building shredders into paintings, let alone do any paintings in the first place.  He has been on SUSSAR callouts, SUSSAR training, Detectorists Meets, Butterfly business etc etc.  But hopefully he is at home today.  He is making the breakfast as I speak

If he brings through SHREDDED Wheat, dare I hope that some Banksyan money is going to come our way?

Well, it was the usual oats and fruit, so I guess not. Lovely brekkie though - the Captain makes the best coffee.

Tuesday Jean and I managed to get to the Field Service Group, do some first calls and some return visits.  Wednesday was a hospital day - at Bognor.  And Thursday was a GP day.  I asked Dr.M (perhaps I should call him Doc Martin) if it was OK to go on using the strong steroid cream.   "Ok" was his answer "It can be damaging to the skin,  But we won't worry. If you were 7 we would, but as you are 70..."

Indeed.  My skin doesn't have to last all that much longer either way let's face it.

Though I am hoping to "inherit the earth", and live forever upon it in, but in a renewed, perfect, living body.  Not in this old worn out and dying one.   And the meeting last night was full of comfort - well worth driving through the rain for.


Monday 8 October 2018

Cornering Horses (and Highdown Gardens)

Birch-bark Tree (Tibetan Cherry), Prunus serrula
We went to Highdown Gardens on Friday afternoon, and there were dragonflies on the pond. And a robin sitting on a waterlily leaf.  Very charming.  Very Beatrix Potter..
Southern Hawker male, Aeshna cyanea
A Dragonfly alone seems a splendid argument for creation.  It is more exquisite than the finest Tiffany jewel - and with engineering superior to the latest warplane.   Its beauty and complexity  tell us that it has a Grand Creator.  But to know who the Creator is, we need to study the Inspired Scriptures.
Robin on a lily
And given the predatory nature of the Dragonfly (and I would not care to meet one down a dark alley) we need to read the Bible so we can understand that Jehovah did not make nature "red in tooth and claw", and that He will not leave it this way.

The Autumn sunlight was so beautiful.   We shopped in the morning, and I also did my studying for the Sunday meeting.     Jean and I had a good morning out on the field service on Saturday.  We were neither of us feeling good - especially Jean. But we encouraged each other - and most importantly prayed about it - and out we went.

It cheered us both up.   When I got back I found that a batch of 24 new Butterfly memberships had flown through the letterbox. I gritted my teeth and got them all done - ready to be posted on Monday.

Bea of the North had a long phone chat with Col, which I missed as I was catching up with Vanity Fair and sobbing over the episode where they all go off to war, so confident in their scarlet coats, to face horror.   Spoiler Alert!   Becky is soon going to corner every horse in Brussels and make a fortune from those desperate to escape the approaching armies - while Amelia will soon be praying for the safety of her husband, who is lying dead on the battlefield with a bullet through his heart.

After the meeting today, I had a long chat with a Bible student who comes nearly every Sunday. He is not young, and I can see him drinking the teaching in.  Apparently he said at his last study how much time he had wasted.   And I too wish that I had listened to Jehovah's Witnesses long before I did.

But I hope we will both be so grateful that we did listen - always.

Poor Captain B has had car troubles so we will be using my car until his is out of Car Hospital.


Friday 5 October 2018

The Apprentice Returns

The new series of The Apprentice has begun.

“I’m like a cash machine. If you punch the right buttons I will give you money”: Alex Finn, “IT analyst”, offering a perfect précis of a mugging.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-apprentice-review-episode-1-lord-sugar-candidates-fired-karren-claude-house-bbc-a8567566.html

Are the Candidates coached to say these sorts of things, or chosen because they say these sorts of things?  Would any of them say the things they say in real life?   Are they all simply after a career in Reality TV, or do they really want to set up a business?

And has it just got too idiotic now to be watchable? 

Anyway, I am going to give it a try. 

I was out with my siblings on Thursday morning- we had a good morning, did over an hour and a half on the field service - and it was the meeting in the evening.  And typing this blog reminds me that I must put a note in my diary that we have the Broadcast on Saturday week.

Which I have just done.

I can't say I did much else yesterday, apart from provide lunch and dinner for The Captain et moi.  Veggie soup for lunch, and a supper of omelette and chips for himself, and a more diabetes compatible veggie curry for me.

And I took Jean over to see Maggie on Wednesday. She gave us a very warm welcome.

It should be a quiet enough weekend for me, but a hectic metal-detecting one for the Captain, who I will only be seeing in the evenings. 

Tuesday 2 October 2018

Jon and Linda's Wedding

We are just back from an overnighter in Kent as it was Linda's wedding on Sunday.   Where to start?

I guess I will have to start with highlights, the first of which was seeing Jon and Linda getting married. We are so pleased for them. And while we did of course wish them a wonderful wedding day, most of all we wish them a very very happy marriage.

Another highlight was meeting up with Charlie and Lorrie - quite an Aramco reunion.   

And two more.  One was the surprise Linda had told us was coming.   As we got to the Ring bit of the ceremony. the groom suddenly put a large white gauntlet on and looked to the back of the church.  We all looked. And there was a Falconer with a beautiful white owl.   It flew down the aisle to Jon  - in that silent owl glide, the plan being that it would deliver both rings.   It changed its mind after the first ring and flew back to its Falconer.  She and Jon coaxed it and back it same with the second ring.

A wonderful moment.

Then Linda had found a great live band for the Reception in the fabulous Leeds Castle - one girl singing, one guy on piano, and one guy on cello.    We stayed till 11.30 listening to them.

I will have to say more about the wedding later, including a contact for the musicians, but for now I will just mention that I had a busy day today.  Out on the preaching work with Jean and my siblings this morning - had a wonderful time - came back, got lunch for the Captain and me - veggie soup (already made) and the rest of the mandarin jelly from last week.   Then off to the docs for more medical stuff - yet more checks and blood tests.  Then shopping, for us and Jackie.  We had a tea and a chat with Jacks when we took her shopping round.  She wanted to hear all about the wedding. Then home and got supper - salmon and salad (with potatoes for Captain B), and yoghurt after.

Good telly tonight. - The Great British Menu followed by Saving Lives at Sea.

Poor Doris of the North is in a depressed state as her person and pack leader had a fall and is now in a wheelchair. She can't get to grips with it at all.  I just hope she doesn't make a bid for the leadership