Wednesday began with the wonderful news that the 4 year old girl, kidnapped from her tent, has been found alive and well. Cleo Smith was taken from a camping site in Western Australia where she and her parents were holidaying and was missing for 18 days. The trauma of this will not quickly fade, but she is found and back home with her parents.
If only every such case could have such a positive ending. Though I am looking forward to the earth as it will be be under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God, when there will be no-one left on the earth who would dream of hurting a child - or an animal - or anyone.
Thursday morning was spent making a chicken casserole (talking of hurting animals, though we do always try to buy free range organic... its such a difficult world at the moment). And the afternoon was my 6 monthly check up at Rheumatology. I am still clinging on to life, apparently.
Friday morning, after the meeting we had a short walk in the Wetland Trust. They have a new aviary, the Coastal Creek, that you can walk through. There are notices outside warning that these birds are new and timid and so we are not to shout loudly or run around, And there is also a notice asking us to be careful not to step on any birds. So we obediently and carefully tiptoed round all the exotic wildfowl slumbering contentedly on the paths, saying, in hushed voices, that they did not look all that timid to us.
Credit to the staff at the Wetland - that they had settled in so well.
I, on the other hand, was rather nervous of the pelicans, at loose in the smaller lake. I haven't really got over seeing one swallow a pigeon whole in St.James Park. I don't think i would risk falling asleep while they were around.
The big lake has been drained (see Col's photo) as they are working on the Arundel Lagoon project. So we had the Hide to ourselves, and saw a toad and a couple of herons. The toad, wisely, kept well out of the herons' way. Though, once paradise is restored, they will be able to be friends again.
There was sad news too, as we heard that Terry had died. We often used to see him at the Wetland Trust, have lunch with him there, and give him lifts to and fro. And in the days when they did the monthly talks, he, Jackie and the two of us used to go. Col chauffered us all, and Terry would buy us the coffee at the break.
He loved the natural world, the creation. He knew a lot about it - especially birds - and took some great photographs. And he was a genuine nice guy. So I do have hope that, when the time comes, God will wake him from the dreamless sleep of death and he will see this lovely earth again.
Its now Saturday morning and, depressingly, I am paying for that very short walk. The pain - in left leg and right hand (why hand?) - woke me up in the early hours and I am painkillered up and hoping it does not get any worse. We have the meeting this morning and I will need to find a volunteer to partner me on Thursday night, as one of the elders rang yesterday to ask if I would stand in on the third part in the School, as the assignee had had to drop out.
I will also need to be able to get myself dressed if I am to appear on the Zoom camera. Captain B left early for a days intensive SUSSAR training, looking very handsome in his rescue outfit, so I can't ask him to help. I don't think getting me dressed would warrant a SUSSAR callout.
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