The Cake Fairy Asleep on her Watch

I was on the school Thursday night - first part - 3 minutes. I was the Householder, it was not my part.  I just had to respond. But it is a subject dear to my heart - something i always wondered about until I began my Bible study with the JWs.  If God is love, and all powerful, why is the world so full of cruelty and injustice.  We are looking again at how the Bible answers that, using these two Scriptures

"When under trial, let no one say: “I am being tried by God.” For with evil things God cannot be tried, nor does he himself try anyone." - James 1:13

which is leading up to: "We know that we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." - 1 John 5:19

As long as Satan the devil is running the system of things on the earth, there will be suffering. But, thank God, his time is very short now.

We had our last glimpse of this year's Convention on Sunday morning as we discussed the previous Sunday afternoon session.  I have really enjoyed it and am sorry it is over.

On a more mundane level, when making the two boxes of sandwiches and cake for the Captain's weekend, I found I was out of cake. I scoured the freezer from top to bottom and unearthed one piece of carrot cake and one marmalade muffin.   So I devoted Friday afternoon to making a batch of marmalade muffins from my reliable Cranks Cookbook recipe.

The Cake Fairy had been sleeping on her watch.

And Col and I are enjoying the new thriller series on the Beeb - Vigil - strange happenings on a nuclear submarine, into which the detective has to be lowered by helicopter.  It is a strange and claustrophobic world.  one in which it is hard to get rid of evidence - it cannot be thrown overboard!

DISRAELI HALL

Here I am reading the first chapter of DISRAELI HALL, which is now officially published:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxzQlDWuCFY

As I have probably mentioned in my blog before, if I write another novel, I will make sure the first chapter is very short.

The Last Kingdom

 We are watching The Last Kingdom.  It is from the novels of Bernard Cornwell, who appears to have thoroughly researched Saxon/Viking England.  It is a fascinating period of history - but also tragic, as is all human history since the loss of Eden.  I have to close my eyes or retreat to my current book for some of the horrors.

But what interests me is that here we have "Christian" Saxons fighting and slaughtering Pagan Danes... both sides busy raising armies, intriguing against each other and killing each other.  What is the difference between them?   Isn't it rather like the ending of Animal Farm when the animals realise that there is no longer any difference between pig and farmer.

Both sides - Saxon and Dane - fight under pagan symbols too.  The cross, while a symbol of Christendom, is not a Christian symbol.  See this interesting article if you wish to know more: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1987605?q=cross&p=par

It is so important to know what Christianity is - which is to say to study the Inspired Scriptures, both Hebrew and Christian Greek (Old and New Testament).  

Monday was a quiet day at home - Col has been testing his repaired camera - we got the supermarket ordering done - and I got my studying for the day done - our fascinating and spine-tingling study of the Book of Ezekiel.  And instead of getting on with other things I re-read Richard Beard's "The Day that Went Missing".  I had lent it to the siblings and it came back to me on the last visit.

It is a wonderful and sad evocation of that missing day - the day his young brother drowned after the two of them went in together to jump the waves while on holiday with their parents.  How I remember those beautiful but dangerous Cornish beaches - and the way the undertow pulled the sand from under your feet.  They were only out of their parents' sight for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. And that was all it took. 

Farewell to the 2021 Convention

 It was the last session of our 2021 online Convention.  After a shortened Watchtower study, we zoomed off through cyberspace to the Sunday afternoon session of POWERFUL BY FAITH.  We saw the second part of the Daniel drama, which did include the Lion's Den - although the lions were offstage.  And then we had the concluding talk Become Powerful by Faith.

It is all still up on our website JW.org.

I am hoping it might encourage people to look into the prophecy in Daniel - most of which has now been fulfilled to the letter.  There is only a little left to come, but it is momentous, and we will need a strong and complete faith in our Creator Jehovah and his inspired word to stand firm.

A sentence from today that stands out is that spiritual power is stronger than physical, mental or emotional power.  That is because it is the power that comes from Jehovah's holy spirit.

Col is off hunting for a more ephemeral form of treasure.  And someone had one good find today - a golden coin, Roman, I have forgotten the name. So I think he will be there until they close the field just in case any more should come up.

I believe if more than about 4 such coins should be found in the same field it has to be declared as a hoard and handed over to the archeological authorities. It is all well regulated.

Doris's Last Day

Today, I have to say a goodbye to my sister's rescue dog Doris.  She was put to sleep quietly and peacefully on Tuesday afternoon, happy to the last, being fed her absolute favourite food, cheese.  She has been on borrowed time for a few weeks, and she has been enjoying her favourite walks and treats.  But it had reached the stage where even one more day could have put her in pain and distress. She was fading so fast.

Nute is going to feel the house is very empty now. Doris was a BIG personality,  And you had to hear her see a squirrel in the garden (which happened quite a lot) to realise what a BIG voice she had. She could have had a lucrative career as a foghorn in the English Channel.

She was a lost dog, found wandering near the Canal Basin.  And Nute and Ken had decided they would adopt an older dog this time, after the loss of their Ollie, another rescue who they had from when he was young.

So she came to them. With a guarantee that she was "good with cats" as they had two at the time.  Unfortunately it turned out she was good with cats being on the Hunt Your Own Food menu. But apart from that, she settled down very well.

I always hoped that one day, walking her in the park, they would come across someone Doris recognised - someone from her mysterious previous life.

It is a sad world at the moment.   And the News is terrible.  People so desperate to get out of Afghanistan; an earthquake in Haiti; yet another woman killed by an abusive husband here in the UK; and and and...

But Doris' last years were as happy as they could be made.

And her Creator, who notes the fall of every sparrow, knew Doris.  And loved her.  So we can leave her safely in His hands.

A Massive Mound of Memberships

Finally, finally, the much delayed new memberships for Butterfly Conservation arrived at my computer. Seventy of them!   I will have to do them in batches.  I fear I was selfishly hoping that they would not arrive until after my retirement, but, still it will be much nicer to hand it over up to date.  And much kinder.

Up until this year, I believe our Branch was known for getting its membership packages out promptly.  But a new computer system at HQ, plus lockdown, seems to have stalled everything. including the butterfly paperwork.

We have an on-line Convention today - Sunday morning session:   https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/categories/2021Convention

We will be learning from the faithful women of old.  And there will be a talk "Have Faith in the Good News".  The whole aim of this Convention is to strengthen our faith in our Creator, Jehovah, in his Messiah, Jesus, and in his inspired word, the Bible.  We live in a world system that will do everything it can to damage and destroy that faith.

And I would like to note that Una Stubbs has died.  I have known her - via media - since the far-off days of the Cliff Richard movie "Summer Holiday" - and her career continued right through to the most recent - and very successful - version of Sherlock Holmes.  I went to the Cliff movies as my best friend, Janie, was a Cliff fan - so I was too. 

I blogged my one brief almost meeting with Una here:  https://sueknight2000.blogspot.com/search?q=una+stubbs

She was lovely.  And I hope she sleeps safe in Jehovah's memory, safe in "the everlasting arms", and has a wonderful awakening ahead of her when the time comes.

A Walk to the Sea

For the first time since my siblings were here, I managed a walk - a very very small one - 30 minutes to the sea and back - but walking slowly and with a 5 minute break sitting on the wall watching the sea.  Everything is grey and green today and the breeze off the sea is refreshing, not cold.  The Channel is calm, and all was quiet apart from a few valiant dogwalkers and the odd runner.  Please, please, don't wear out your knees, I want to shout at them.

And there was a man with a loudspeaker practising his lines for a Sandcastle Competition - if I heard him right.  Equally he could have been telling us to Mind the Gap.

The Captain left early, a metal detector at every corner, and with his packed lunch - which included an extra slice of cake for the fellow detectorist who gives us the eggs from his various flocks (hens, ducks, what have you),. We have nearly finished our Lilac Tree Farm eggs, so another batch would be timely.

He, the Captain not the Eggman, had a very frustrating day yesterday - tangles with online banking, standing orders, and a call out just before supper to a young person who was so upset by their exam results they had rushed off saying they were going to kill themselves. They had been missing all day so the SUSSAR searchers were called out and Col set off with sandwiches for his supper, but when he got there (an hour and a half later) they had been stood down.  The Misper (missing person to you and me) had been found, alive and well as far as I know.

What is happening in the world?  I too can remember the anguish of waiting for exam results, and the horrible feeling when they were not as expected. But I do not remember anything like this.

The Inspired Scriptures say we are living in "difficult times hard to deal with" - and that seems to be increasingly true.  We need to trust in our Creator, Jehovah, with all our heart, listen to him, and follow his instructions.  With that in mind we have our midweek meeting tonight, and continue our study of the amazing book of Ezekiel.

A Message from The Cape

The Captain bought me some dark red carnations from his Tesco expedition, which echo the colours of our orchid table - which is flourishing at the moment.   Surely there is a Haiku somewhere in there.  But if so, I have not found it.

My feeling of terminal tiredness was really helped by finally getting a positive answer to one of my letters.  We have been inviting people to the on-line Convention and suddenly I got a response - in the form of an email - from a total stranger in The Cape, South Africa!

It is a warm email- full of questions.  He says that it was my talking about the Kingdom of God that got him wondering.   This all stems from the invite I emailed to The Roger, who then emailed it to our mutual friend Anne - also of The Cape - who emailed it one of her friends.

I have sent a friendly response and hope very much that the correspondence will continue.

However, I can't say I have done much more than that that today.  I was out on our flower-scented balcony doing my studying - and I got us our lunch and supper - a leftover veg chile plus yoghurts - and in the evening an omelette (with Lilac Tree Farm eggs) followed by banana and custard for Himself, and lentil pasta with cheese and tomato (and a choc ice) for me. 

I have been re-reading my Ursula Curtiss thrillers, seeing if I can inspire myself to begin another book. Though that brings me back to how tired i am.  Writing takes energy, of a strange sort.

And I have had some nice emails thanking me for my 10 years service to the cause of Butterfly Conservation.  Having seen the valiant work of so many volunteers down the years, I hope I have an ever deeper appreciation and understanding of why it is only the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government, that can restore the perfect balance that was there in the beginning, in Eden.

Under its loving reign, will we once again see clouds of butterflies in our summer skies?  I hope we are all there to find out.

The Blogpost with Three Titles

The loss of Monday - in a haze of pain and painkillers - has thrown both me and the Sandwich fairy out.  We have lost a day. So when Captain B came back after a long search for a missing depressive who had said he was going off to hang himself in the local woods - (a horrifying search for the volunteers) - and then said "I'm going to bed now as my alarm clock is going off at 4 a.m."  I suddenly realised that it was Wednesday and that therefore the next day was a Treasure Hunt day, which requires a box of sandwiches and cake to be ready in the fridge.

I had got a bit lost in space and time.  I am happy to report both that the depressive was found alive and well, and that the Sandwich Fairy did her stuff and materialised a packed lunch.  So I could have called this blog "The Sandwich Fairy Panics".

And yesterday I got myself an apple in the afternoon, cut up in a bowl,  and was instantly bothered by a wasp which got in among my apple and was not going to leave.  I did not want to risk annoying it so in the end I took wasp and apple and bowl to the balcony door and threw out a piece of apple which the wasp thankfully followed.  So I could have called this blog "Intimations of Autumn".  Wasps, fruit and , yes, already there is something in the air that says Autumn is coming. 

No problem for me.  I love Autumn.  Its just how quickly the years are rushing past.

Or I could have called this blog "The End of an Era" because come the November AGM I will have been Membership Secretary for Sussex Butterfly Conservation for 10 years.  So it is time for someone younger and with more energy to take over I think, and I have handed in my resignation - to give them time to organise a new secretary by November.

And given that Roger of The Cape rang us this morning, there could even have been a fourth blog title: The Return of the Roger.  It was lovely to hear from him.  He is riding out the Covid crisis on the Cape with his amazing view of the Pacific Ocean with its whales and dolphins coming and going. 

I asked him if he had received a letter from his local Jehovah's Witness congregation yet, but he said that his letterbox no longer really functions.  He doesn't get letters any more.  So I decided to send him one of the ones I am sending out - and invitation to join us at JW.org for the Annual Convention.  But I sent it by email.

And I especially recommended the Bible drams, which is about the prophet Daniel this year.

We also talked to Jacks, who is no better and no worse.  Which at our age is probably something of a plus.

Then the two little girls rang from the bungalow - and were thrilled to that Uncle Colin was at home and available for a chat.

A Flare Up, Left Foot

 I have been laid low for a couple of days by a violent flare up in my left foot - it was agony to even touch it to the ground.  The severe pain faded during Monday, thank Goodness, but it has left me feeling tired and washed out.  And Tuesday finds me still tired and washed out.  Captain Butterfly is in the kitchen even now making the soup for our lunch.  He usually makes breakfast, flying the coffee machine, and I get lunch and supper. But I am having to rest my foot as much as possible.  I hovered anxiously for a while, back seat driving ("Mind that pedestrian Richard!") , till I was firmly expelled from the kitchen.  

This morning was the short Field Service Zoom meeting, followed by a sibling get together (in Team).  Last week Nute and Pen were here with me; today we are all back in our respective homes, but still able to see each other and talk.  Young Harry appeared briefly to say Hello.

We are enjoying watching the Olympics together, usually in the morning, having recorded it overnight.  I find myself wondering what will happen when the earth is paradise again. There will be no separate nations, so no nationalism.  We will all be one family - united in love for our Creator and each other.  But maybe we will compete athletically...?  Or perhaps there will be so many wonderful things to do that we won't have any time for that.   In the meantime, of course, how much better for nations to compete at the Olympics instead of going to war.