Still Waiting for Gordo

A fb friend from Oz asked me how the book sales are going. The answer is that I am still waiting for Waiting for Gordo to become a bestseller. Which made me think I ought to try for a bit more publicity, hence the photo of the great cover they gave me for Gordo. If my publisher were big enough and rich enough to get his books into the airport bookshops that cover would sell it like hot cakes.

I have a lovely review in a dive magazine from someone who bought it to take on a dive holiday, thinking it was a book about diving. It isn't. And in his review he warned people about that, but he also said that once he started it, the book got to him and he had to finish it. And that is exactly what I aim for in all my books, to keep the reader wanting to turn the page, to immerse them in the world of the book.

The book wasn’t long enough to divert me from diving for too long, but my vaguely unreal paradise surroundings did match the atmosphere of the book nicely, and the story has an unsettling dream-like quality that gets to you.
The plot might seen quite slight, but there are hidden depths there.

https://divernet.com/scuba-diving/waiting-for-gordo-by-sue-knight/

I did work to try to convey the beauty of the Maldivian islands - while making it clear that the serpent is still in charge of the paradise garden, without any overt preaching. And without being boring! So I am very grateful for that review.

However I am not in the airport bookshops and I remain a non-best seller, but am continually grateful to be published at all. And to have some reviews - a few, but positive.

Well, it is now September so where has this year gone to? And I love Autumn by the way, my favourite season of all. It rained all day on Thursday, and the weather caused Captain B to leave The Field early! He then kindly volunteered to drive me to the meeting at the Kingdom Hall. If he hadn't, I would have attended via Zoom, as my foot while at lot better, was not up to driving.

This morning though I paid for my hobbling and zimmering of the last two days. As I tried to leap nimbly out of bed - well, when I say nimbly I mean creaking slowly and painfully - I found that my right knee had pretty much seized up. I slept well though, which I badly needed after the last two nights.

The News continues to be terrible, and I do realise this makes the Kingdom preaching work ever more urgent.

Here is the inspired definition of love, from 1 Corinthians 13: Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails. 

Suppose everyone in the world was at least trying to do their imperfect best to live up to those standards...

Pioneers - and Underwings

This splendid Clifden Nonpareil spent Saturday night in our moth hotel.  It is also known as the Blue Underwing - Captain Butterfly's photos demonstrate that well.  It is very large. You would not necessarily want to meet it down a back alley on a dark Saturday night... unless you were sure it was in a good mood.  We have had a lot of moths recently, and if anyone doubts there is a Grand Creator, please look at your local moths, the strength, the delicacy, the engineering, the artistry.

After some thought and prayer I have signed up as an auxiliary pioneer for September, which means I have to do a 15 hour minimum of the preaching work. As I can no longer go door to door - I can barely go room to room some days - I checked that there are plenty of flats available for me to write to.

And I usually try to keep a count so that I know I am roughly on the 15 hours anyway - which seems shamefully little seeing as how I am retired. But I am also so tired and sleeping so badly that everything seems such an effort. Hopefully this will kick start me a bit.

We are offering a Bible study to everyone we can contact.  I hope never ever to forget how wonderful it was to find out what the Bible really says (as opposed to what I was told it said) - and I so much want to share that knowledge.

There was a ton of activity on the Green over the weekend - people setting up football pitches, bbqs, a giant family picnic going on all afternoons, and awnings - as if people were making the last of the Summer.  I guess the schools went back on Monday...  and all these years later I can still remember that sick feeling of fear as the first day of the new school year arrived.  It is sad that many children may have been feeling that way yesterday.

Monday morning - back to school day for so many - was overcast but warm and the Channel was calm.  The day started, as so many of days in late retirement do, with one of us (Captain B in this case), trying to make a phone call to the doctor. In the end, he gave up and went up to the surgery himself - it is not far - and all is in hand.

And today starts with me having a medical appointment in the morning... mercifully it is by phone, to get the results of my scans. I say mercifully as my right foot has taken its turn to flare up and it is v.painful and, obviously, making it difficult to do even my usual hobble round the flat.

Things do not seem as bad as I feared scanwise, but I am being referred to two different hospital departments, just to make sure.  Col also had a medical appointment.  Poor old NHS, we are really using up a lot of its time.

Do You Have a Minute?

I had the one minute part in the School on Thursday night, with the following brief: to adapt to what is on the person's mind and to offer the free home Bible study. So I found it an interesting challenge to fit that into 60 seconds.

6. Starting a Conversation

(1 min.) HOUSE TO HOUSE. The person asks you to be brief. Offer a Bible study. (lmd lesson 2 point 5)

5. Be adaptable. A conversation may go in an unexpected direction. So be willing to share something that is relevant to the person, even if that means discussing a different Bible truth than the one you had in mind.

Sue:  Good morning. I am Sue, one of Jehovah's Witnesses...

HH:  (interrupts).  I’m sorry, I have no time this morning, I am right in the middle of cooking lunch for the kids.

Sue:  Of course, its half-term. I won’t keep you. But may I just offer you this magazine to read when you do have a moment to sit down. It is full of loving and practical advice from the Creator of the family arrangement.

(The magazine I offered was an Awake! "12 Secrets of Successful Families". You can read it here: https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/awake-no2-2018-jul-aug/)

HH: Look I admire your faith, but I do not share it, because if there is a God he would be doing something about all the awful things that are happening. Do you now watch the News?!

Sue:  That is an excellent point. Why, if there is a Creator who is all-powerful and all-loving are these terrible things happening. So may I offer you something else - a free home Bible study, for an hour a week, or even 15 minutes, at a time convenient to you, as I would love you to know what our Creator Jehovah has done about this, what he is doing now and the wonderful things he will do in the near future.

One minute. Blink, and you would have missed it.

Wednesday evening on the balcony was spent under a watercolour sunset watching a yacht race on the Channel - a lovely quiet sort of race - and a small rainbow briefly appeared among the clouds. So it must have been raining out at sea.

Col has had a lot of early starts recently, and I am not sleeping well - being in what hospitals call "discomfort" (as in The Gestapo caused "discomfort" to those they were interrogating). At least I haven't had any more stress dreams. But I guess this is all part of old age.

And, once again, I must remind myself that every day is a bonus now, and that the hope of living forever in the restored earthly paradise is a "pearl beyond price" - even if I have to get there the long way round, via the resurrection.

A Poem to Note the First Glimpses of Autumn

The geraniums on the balcony/the sound of the sea on the pebbles/seagulls gliding at eye level/or balcony level/grey sea/grey sky/a feeling of Autumn/the scent of nemesia.

It ought to be possible to turn that into a poem. I think it was the seagulls swooping at eye level in front of our balcony that were the strongest note in the symphony.

We have had some rain recently, some grey and cloudy days, and the sea has been noisy on the pebbles. I have been loving it all and wishing I could manage a poem about this moment when summer starts to tip towards Autumn.

I want to say that no matter how long I live - and how many seascapes I see - I will never see the one I saw then. I will never see the same one twice, such is the glory and variety of Jehovah's creation. 

So here goes - and I am trying not to look like "the actor Wolf Hall" in Upstart Crow, just before he auditions his very important and sensitive rendering of Thomas More.

Balconyscape   by me

It was there for a moment

cloud moving, sea so nearly still

balcony geraniums 

waving gently to the grey Channel

nemesia scenting the warm air

it was a symphony punctuated by seagulls

gliding at balcony height 

But where are our murmuring starlings? 

will they come tomorrow

and be part of the many scapes I hope to see 

as the years, the millennia go by, 

loving them - loving all of it - more and more

as they come and they go.

Well, for the moment, that is the best I can do.  

I sat out on the balcony in the sun on Monday morning, starting my study for the week, continuing in the Book of Acts, noting this week how the original Christian congregation was ordered, and how the congregation is organised in the same way today.  In fact I sat out there so long I was a bit late for our Monday Zoom, only to find that neither of my sisters had arrived, it was just John waiting - and he had only just arrived himself. Anyway, in the end we all appeared, along with the Derby family, and had a nice Zoom session.

Nute has had a swing, a proper swing, put up in the garden!   How wonderful. Exactly what I would want if we had a garden.  I would love a sunken bath too - but it is possible that the flat downstairs might not be too keen about it.

Norfolk Pines

We have been talking about our travels recently during our evenings on the balcony and we were thinking that we were glad we did our travelling when we did.  Though I guess people who did their travelling a generation before us would have said the same.

It certainly must have been something to travel in the days before passport controls, though of course only the rich could do it.

We became "rich" (travelwise) in our expat years because of the generosity of The Company.  They gave us a cheque every repat and, provided we were out of Kingdom for a minimum of 21 days, we were free to use it to go home, or elsewhere.  So we were able to visit my bro and his family in Sydney quite a few times (along with many other countries), which was wonderful. And the picture I have chosen for this blog is of the Norfolk pines you see on the seafront there.

We have a pine tree (not Norfolk) outside our balcony and sometimes when the sea is turquoise behind it, it reminds me of our days on the Northern beaches of Sydney.  

Maybe this talk of past travel was why I had a very stressful dream the other night, which seemed to go on for ages. I dreamt that I had taken a job back in the Middle East with The Company and had flown out there on my own with no money, no credit cards, nothing, except for food that I had, strangely, packed in my suitcase. I was in a company house, one we used to live in apparently though I did not recognise it, but there was no salary waiting for me. The dream had all sorts of twists and turns, and it was just beginning to dawn on me that it was a very strange thing for the company to be recruiting elderly ladies, when I woke up. It was such a relief to find myself at home, in my own bed, Captain B at my side.

Interestingly, when I took my blood pressure the morning after the dream it was very high!  (Captain B and I both have to do a bp chart this week.)  Why does my subconscious do this to me?  It's bad enough my own immune system attacking me...  what next in the frightening progression of old age?  Will I start punching myself in the face?

If I do, I hope I will manage not to damage my expensive new front teeth... I do not want to go through all that dental torment again.

The gift of life still continues to feel more and more wonderful though.  What is that line from a Sinatra song - "the days dwindle down to a precious few"?  

Every day is so precious now.

And the meeting at the Kingdom Hall last night was so comforting.  The teaching from the Christian congregation is an invaluable guide. You could not put a price on it, yet it is free to all who want it.

And the spirit and the bride keep on saying, “Come!” and let anyone hearing say, “Come!” and let anyone thirsting come; let anyone who wishes take life’s water free. - Revelation 22:17

Let anyone who wishes take life's water free. Jehovah is offering everyone back the life and perfection our first parents so tragically threw away.  Why not accept?

Mrs Ravoon (and a flare-up, left foot)

 

MRS RAVOON

The ship has returned 

From the alien star

Captain and crew

Who knows where they are?

Nothing inside 

But a large silk cocoon

In which form the features of

MRS RAVOON

Sue Knight

This website explains who Mrs. Ravoon is, as she is not my creation: https://www.mrsravoon.uk/

The poem above was inspired by a competition, many years ago, I think in The Oldie (not sure, was a long time ago).  We were required to write about a poem about Mrs. R, and it inspired me to think about the origins of the fearsome lady.

I didn't win. Nor was my poem printed. But here it is, now.

I have since wondered if the receptionist, Mrs.Raven, in the comedy "My Hero" was in any way inspired by Mrs. Ravoon. She was a great character anyway.

The above photo is the only one of a raven I could find in Captain Butterfly's gallery. It is doing acrobatics, which does give me a chance to speak about how wonderful Jehovah's creation is.  We know what goes into making a plane, let alone one that does acrobatics mid-air - well scientists and engineers do.  Had it been left up to me, I fear we would still be using Shanks Pony, and only Shanks Pony.

So please think of the miracles of creation, all around us, telling us of their Grand Creator, as clearly as if they spoke. If we follow that thought and search for Him, he will let us find him, and we will also find the way to enjoy life forever on this beautiful planet.

A friend called in with Victoria plums from her garden yesterday, and she took a mango from the box Col bought. They are beginning to ripen now. And both the Captain and I had our usual Monday Zoom sessions with the family - from Oz, to Bavaria, to York, to a rambling old farmhouse in Sheffield, and my parents retirement bungalow in our Nothern hometown.

All seems well.  For which I thank God.

And I must also thank Him very much for the promise that, under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God, no-one on earth will say "I am sick".  I am in the middle of a very painful flare up - left foot - and am reduced to hobbling slowly and painfully round the flat on my Zimmer. And even Captain B is feeling his age.  It is frightening and depressing.  How do people cope without hope?

The Sandwich Fairy Panics!

The Sandwich Fairy nearly had a fail this morning.  Captain B, given his full day yesterday - marshalling at an Arun swim, and then on to the Detectorists BBQ - said he would not be going out today.  But to my surprise he was up quite early this morning.  And he suddenly mentioned that he was just about to leave - for The Field.

"You said you weren't going out!"  I panicked.  "There are no sandwiches in the fridge - and no bread unthawed!!"

"Yes, I am going. Of course. I decided last night".

Alas, he forgot to mention it to the mysterious sandwich fairy who makes sure that, no matter how early he leaves, a box of sandwiches and cake is ready in the fridge.

Anyway, she did manage. And he left with his full lunch: ham sandwiches and marmalade muffin. It was touch and go, though.

As August progresses I watch for the moments when Summer begins to tip into Autumn.  The last two Thursday nights I have had to turn my car lights on when driving back from the Kingdom Hall.  That is one sure sign. And on Saturday when I went out onto the balcony the sunlight felt so different. It was hot and calm, really hot, yet somehow the summer had gone out of it. 

How quickly the seasons fly past now. When I was a child they seemed to last forever.

Bede’s famous parable of the sparrow is a common text in many introductory courses of Old English. It is found in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731), when he discusses how King Edwin of Northumbria was converted to Christianity in the year 627. In Bede’s story, one of Edwin’s counsellors compares the life of a pagan to the flight of a sparrow through the king’s warm hall.
https://thijsporck.com/2020/07/27/from-bede-731-to-bone-1991-2004-a-sparrows-flight-through-the-ages/

However, both the life of a pagan and the life of a believer is so short - just the flight of the sparrow through the lighted mead hall - from darkness into darkness.

The Bible tells us this: "For there is an outcome for humans and an outcome for animals; they all have the same outcome. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit. So man has no superiority over animals, for everything is futile. All are going to the same place. They all come from the dust, and they all are returning to the dust." - Ecclesiastes 3:19,20

The life of both man and animal - and we are all souls - is short.  But the Bible teaches us that there can be an awakening from the dreamless sleep of death. Jesus spoke of the coming resurrection of the dead, and Daniel tells us that "many of those asleep in the dust of the ground will wake up".

Our first parents were made to live forever, so we feel the tragedy of the shortness of our lives now. Poets have lamented it down the ages.

The photo is of a Rufus Sparrow, not the sort of sparrows that we used to see in flocks everywhere in my childhood.  And that reminds me that I once saw a bright yellow canary living happily with a vast flock of sparrows in a London square  they were feeding together and flying together in harmony. That would have been in the 1960s. Both sparrows and their yellow companion will be long gone, but they were all known by Jehovah, and loved by Him.

Scanning

This is a heads-up for the Ultrasound staff at Southlands on Monday. I had an unpleasant and intrusive procedure but it was done with sensitivity and made as painless as it could possibly be.   I am very grateful to them.

Only two problems:

Firstly, it showed I do have another problem.  I hope hope hope this will not mean any more operations and will not mean that I have to return to the horror of the wards.

But I won't find out for about 3 weeks which is when I am scheduled to see the doctor.  I guess he needs to be sure he has the results of both scans in - and time to scan them himself - before he talks to me.  And hopefully talks to me, not "breaks it" to me.

It is all putting me in mind of that brilliant comic line by Victoria Wood "As the doctor said to me when I had my tubes tilted..." so I will leave it there.  

Tuesday started off very hot here on the South Coast - and apparently there were heavy thunderstorms in the North - or was that Monday?  I felt a bit washed out and am still in some pain from the procedure, but I managed to catch up with my studying, re-fill the freezer with cake for Col's packed lunches, and make a veggie chile using up the cauliflower.

Wednesday was my afternoon double Zoom session with a friend, and continuing my studies for the week, plus some witnessing letters.  The congregations are in the middle of a study of the Book of Acts at the moment, plus the Psalms.  Hence the photo - Palm trees (not Psalm trees though) from a visit to NZ, in our expat years.

We were out on the balcony last night - with a cloud-barred half moon peeping out from a slot in the sky - and were reminiscing about our travelling days.  When we were young students could we have imagined ourselves, well into our seventies, in a balcony on a sleepy little town on the South Coast loving being retired?

The answer clearly is No, we could not have.  But would I have been so happy if I had not talked to those two Jehovah's Witnesses who called at my door all those years ago - and listened to them?  No. No way.  Which is something I hope never to forget.

Travellers

The recent visits we have had from our travellers and their caravans has reminded me of a Keats poem, a favourite from childhood.

Meg Merrilies
BY JOHN KEATS

Old Meg she was a Gipsy,
And liv'd upon the Moors:
Her bed it was the brown heath turf,
And her house was out of doors.

Her apples were swart blackberries,
Her currants pods o' broom;
Her wine was dew of the wild white rose,
Her book a churchyard tomb.

Her Brothers were the craggy hills,
Her Sisters larchen trees—
Alone with her great family
She liv'd as she did please.

No breakfast had she many a morn,
No dinner many a noon,
And 'stead of supper she would stare
Full hard against the Moon.

But every morn of woodbine fresh
She made her garlanding,
And every night the dark glen Yew
She wove, and she would sing.

And with her fingers old and brown
She plaited Mats o' Rushes,
And gave them to the Cottagers
She met among the Bushes.

Old Meg was brave as Margaret Queen
And tall as Amazon:
An old red blanket cloak she wore;
A chip hat had she on.

God rest her aged bones somewhere—
She died full long agone!

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47348/meg-merrilies

The cones in the photo above are Larch cones (European larch) in honour of Meg's "sisters".

I used to worry about Meg, and how hungry she often was - always was? - as the post-war (WW2) was a hungry time, a time of food rationing. I don't mean we were deprived, we had enough, and in many ways it was probably a more healthy diet than many children in the West have now. But we were always really hungry for our meals, which were not lavish.  So I could imagine her hunger.

I now wonder about how she survived, homeless, living outside, no caravan, no nothing. 

Our current travellers, who are Irish Catholics, seem prosperous enough, thank goodness. Their cars, caravans and vans are all smart and new.  But I am guessing that Meg was a Roma gypsy, like the little lady who used to call at my parents many years ago. They are a different people, with a different culture and customs.

She would always have a cup of tea with us in the garden, but would never come in to the house. She said that gypsies were always accused of stealing, which is why she wouldn't. And, sadly, she is right. I once worked on a building site with a lad from a gypsy background and he was accused of stealing. Yet the stealing on the site was going on before he arrived, and continued after he left, and I don't think it had anything to do with him. So it was just prejudice.

Saturday, as I start this blog, is promising to be really sunny. Apparently we are in for an incredibly hot weekend. I am hoping for a good sea breeze, but time will tell. And hopefully this blogpost will too. I am not a fan of hot summers, though I know most people love them. Spring and Autumn are my favourite seasons.

We woke up on Sunday to a sea-fret  - the Channel and most of the Green had disappeared.  But once the mist had gone it was a very hot day - thankfully with a lovely sea breeze here.  Col said it was stifling further inland. where he was detecting with the lads.

I had a long chat with Bea on Sunday - phone chat - mainly about our mutual health issues, neither of us being young any more.

John Keats re-creates Meg so vividly in the poem, that I do believe she was a real person, she did live. And if so, and if she sleeps safe in Jehovah's memory, safe in "the everlasting arms", then she will live again one day. She will be able to live on this lovely planet, but without hunger or suffering. And she will have a home.  No-one will be homeless then.  The Kingdom of God will do what no human government can do, provide lovingly for every one of its subjects, worldwide.

The Oak Eggar

 

"There is an exquisite creature on our balcony!"

"I know", I said with a modest smile, "I like to sit out here and do my studying."

"Not YOU. THIS lovely creature."  (See photo above of the Oak Eggar moth that graced our balcony for a while.)

How perfect Jehovah's creation is.  And I hope that, one day, I will be just as exquisite. 

We are still having a lot of sunshine, but the other day it actually rained for a bit - a light rain, but much needed. As our balcony is a sheltered one, I was sitting out in it, studying, watching the rain, and enjoying the calm beauty.  The moody cloudy sky and grey sea seemed to make the Green ever greener in contrast, and the balcony geraniums even brighter.

It was wonderful to sit there with the beauty all around me.  It made me so happy in the midst of all my medical troubles.  And it made it very easy to thank Jehovah for the precious gift of life.

We got out early on Thursday and did our fruit and veg shopping. Weather nice, sunny, with a light breeze, and not humid. The windsurfers were out on a calm Channel. Col did not go metal detecting on Thursday.  That should be a HOLD THE PRESSES moment of course - but it is actually something of a sad one in that even Captain B is having to pace himself these days.

The two caravans - travellers - that re-appeared outside our window a couple of days ago had gone by this morning.  I did see a Police car turn up there yesterday.  Once again I noticed what quiet neighbours they are, evening and night wise.

And I got back to the Hall for the Thursday night meeting. The congregations worldwide are studying the Book of Acts at the moment.

This morning I zoomed with a friend and made some veggie soup - and we watched the Olympics.  It was bouldering today, won by a young lad from Northern Ireland.  Amazing to watch.

From The Field

Captain B phoned me from The Field on Saturday morning, to tell me it was freshly ploughed, which is excellent for detecting, and he sent me this photo.

I was thinking how hard farmers work. The fields change all the time. I managed to do a bit of work myself, changed the bed, got sheets, duvet cover etc washed - its great drying weather at the moment, being so hot and sunny. And I made an apple crumble for himself. I also caught up with my studying and did some witnessing letters. Though I did not get to the Hall in person on Sunday, but attended in pixel form. Not too well, adjusting to the new medicine.

We had our usual Monday Zoom sessions - all seem OK, though one of my siblings is facing an operation. We are all getting so old - well not so much our bro who is the youngest... 

If we had ever taken our series Wuthering Frights to its intended conclusion, our bro, who features as Branston, would have emerged as the best selling author, completely surpassing his feckless sisters, who continually failed to write their best seller. But we only got a few episodes written. And it was a long time ago - when we all lived in the same Northern town.

The caravans, or two of them, returned to the Green this afternoon.  As before, they are beside the playground.  Each caravan seems to hold a lot of small children, so I understand why they want to be near the playground.

There are riots in the UK at the moment. People are getting more and more angry and frightened. These rioters will be clamped down on very hard and many will end up in our horrendous prison system, which is already so overcrowded it is bursting at the seams. So I suspect it will lead to more anger, more bitterness, and more violence on our streets.

Psalm 37 provides the perfect antidote. It shows us that our Creator, Jehovah, knows how the cruelties and injustices of the current system of things on the earth are going to make us feel; it teaches us how to deal with them without being shaped by them. And it assures us our Creator has not abandoned us to this.

Let go of anger and abandon rage;
Do not become upset and turn to doing evil.
For evil men will be done away with,
But those hoping in Jehovah will possess the earth.
Just a little while longer, and the wicked will be no more;
You will look at where they were,
And they will not be there.
But the meek will possess the earth,
And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.

- Psalm 37:8-11

So how important is the field service, the Kingdom preaching work?  Everyone needs to know this, urgently. We all need to know about the Kingdom of God and need to start learning to live by its kind and perfect standards. Those standards protect us from letting "the world" shape us in its violent image.

And there will be exquisite delight in the abundance of peace for all who will do so.

Dressage

Can I find any poems regarding medical scans? Can I write one, given that I have just had one and am facing a second?  One would think I could but... 

Is there a moth somewhere with "scan" in its name?  The Scandalwood moth maybe?  If not, I will pick out a recent mothy visitor to the balcony to head the blog. The one above is a Common Marble.  Tenuous connection? Scans are a common thing these days.

It's the best  I can do.

Anyway, scan No.1 went much better than expected - I got there early and was seen straight away.  It has shown up one problem though.  What will the second - and more drastic - scan show?  

Our family visitors have been for the traditional summer visits - and gone.  They are all now safely back home.  They picked the sunniest week of the year so far for the visit, which included lots of trips to: beach, playground, funfair - all within walking distance - and two longer excursions to Brighton and to Butlins (Bognor).  And of course we had our evening out at the Arun View.

According to granddaugher Mark 1 the sea was actually warm!  Not bad for the UK.

During the visited we hosted a sandwich, salad and cake lunch for the York branch of the family, a friend of theirs, and cousin Elizabeth. So it was a bit of a family reunion. We don't have many of those these days.

And of course the Olympics are on, and we have been watching some of it.  Apparently it had a strange Bacchanalian opening ceremony, which I didn't see, though I saw a bit of the boats and the horseman on the Seine. 

But what a cruel world system it is.  And maybe the pagan nature of the opening ceremony was appropriate.  because now we have seen the cruelty involved in "training" the horses for the Dressage event. And that made me notice, for the first time (I am ashamed to say), that all the riders at the equestrienne events carry whips.  So what do all those horses go through in training?  They are not volunteers.

I will not watch the equestrienne events anymore. Is an Olympic Gold Medal worth even one moment of cruelty?

How much we, and the animal creation, and the whole earth, need the loving, perfect rule of the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government for whose coming Jesus taught us, and teaches us, to pray.

When we are living under the rule of that Kingdom, we will no longer need to pray for its coming, but I am sure we will thank Jehovah from our heart every single day.

Arrivals

This lovely moth - a Jersey Tiger - arrived briefly on our balcony - just long enough for Col to get this photo.

And the caravans arrived on the Green on Sunday night - only a few though. A whole procession drove past, then after a while some came back and drove onto the Green in front of our balcony, where we were having a glass of wine before watching the swimming (Olympics).  So I wondered if there was not enough room wherever it was they were going, which cannot have been far, as they came back quite quickly.

It turned out that most of them parked in the car park of the local swimming pool, and by this morning they were all gone. The Council must have been swamped with complaints as it's just about impossible to find anywhere else to park on the seafront in a sunny July.  Our caravaners are still outside. The Police were round yesterday, but if I remember from last time, they get two weeks before they have to leave.

They are quiet enough neighbours really.

The weather is so hot - and beach and Green are full up with holidaymakers. It would have been a perfect day for swimming, if I were only able to go in. But, alas, I can't. If only we had sea pools like they do in Oz - I could get safely in and out of them.

Anyway, I must always remember that every day is a bonus now - and that if we are in the restored earthly paradise, we will be able to swim all we want, in sea, lake and river. The earth will be under perfect management then, and we will swim in the clear, sparkling waters of paradise.

Re-Wilding the Balcony

DAISIES AND DANDELIONS

by me

Daisies and dandelions

Rush from the meadow

Trembling willow herb 

Hides in the hollow

In the next field is penned up

A herd of tame buttercup

Burst through your fence

Don’t you stop!

Spraying will follow.

Col has been rewilding the balcony - see his photo above. Its taken at an odd angle to get in the large wildflower - whose name I have forgotten - that is flourishing there.  We also had some Rosebay Willow Herb, but it has disappeared.

I wrote the above poem many years ago. I was on the train thinking how bare the fields were of wild flowers but how occasionally they tumbled down the unsprayed banks of the fields as if they were escaping from it.  And there was one field that was full of buttercups.  So I was warning them to escape while they could.

I used to write poems to catch the moments as they flew past my increasingly middle-aged self and it began to come home to me just how short our lives are.  Now, of course, I am hoping to live forever on this lovely planet. But I may have to get there the long way round, by the resurrection.

And while it is only the Kingdom of God that can "bring to ruin those ruining the earth", I think we have become more sensitive to the value of it all - many of the roadside verges are left to grow wild now, and the wild flowers are flourishing within them.

But there has been a shortage of butterflies this year - and we no longer get as many moths on our balcony overnight.  Those of us who have been around since the 1960s (and the rest!) will know that there was a time when, after a car journey, the windscreen would be horribly covered in smashed insects.

No longer. I would like to think it is because they have learned about the danger of cars - and never ever underestimate the intelligence in the creation, as the Creator, Jehovah, is the very Source of wisdom. But it does seem more likely that everything we are doing is causing insect populations to continue to reduce.

Which brings me back to the need for a perfect, loving government, the heavenly one.

Moon Compasses

Moon Compasses
By Robert Frost

I stole forth dimly in the dripping pause
Between two downpours to see what there was.
And a masked moon had spread down compass rays
To a cone mountain in the midnight haze,
As if the final estimate were hers;
And as it measured in her calipers,
The mountain stood exalted in its place.
So love will take between the hands a face

https://www.babelmatrix.org/works/en/Frost%2C_Robert-1874/Moon_Compasses/it


The moon photo was taken by Captain Butterfly of course. We sit out a lot this time of year watching the moon on the waters of the English Channel. The sea always makes me think of eternity, the endless waves - and when I picture myself in the restored earthly paradise (it is an undeserved kindness, we can all hope), I often imagine myself beside the sea at sunset, watching the sun set, from the cliffs of Cornwall maybe, my childhood seaside paradise. I hope Captain B will be there beside me - I hope we will all be there, enjoying "the glorious freedom of the children of God".

In the meantime, I am between scans.  First scan done, all went well - we got there early and I got in early.  I now have the appointment for the next one, which will not be nice and may not go so well, as it has been triggered by a problem found in my latest blood test.

Today I must make the cakes for the brothers and sisters who will be at the school next week.  Two batches of marmalade muffins, and hopefully - if  my foot holds up - a trip to Waitrose to supplement it, as I haven't got the time to do any more.  Nor am I able to stand for all that long.  I am baking these muffins with pauses.

Dusk

 

She Sweeps with Many Coloured Brooms

by Emily Dickinson

She sweeps with many-colored brooms,
And leaves the shreds behind;
Oh, housewife in the evening west,
Come back, and dust the pond!

You dropped a purple ravelling in,
You dropped an amber thread;
And now you've littered all the East
With duds of emerald!

And still she plies her spotted brooms,
And still the aprons fly,
Till brooms fade softly into stars —
And then I come away.

https://allpoetry.com/She-sweeps-with-many-colored-brooms,

Col's photo and the poem seem to go together well.  And the poem reminds me of how my parents wouldn't draw the curtains until the very last of the sunset had disappeared - till brooms fade softly into stars, as Emily has it.

And I hope so much that one day we will all sit together again, watching the sun set.  And that we will see sunsets without number - and every one of them will be different, such is the variety and immensity of Jehovah's creation.

It is being a busy weekend, for me, these days.  I was actually out on the doors yesterday, doing three return visits, courtesy of a brother and sister who picked me up and chauffered me and came with me to the doors - my voice is not too good, due to this lingering cold.  But it did make me realise that my days of going door to door really may be numbered, in that after being kept quite a long time at one door talking - or being talked to - I nearly fell over when I tried to move again. My legs and back just can't take it.

Then we went to a garden party in the afternoon - nice group of friends, all ages, including a tiny of one year old, crawling happily round the garden.  And Col and I sat out on the balcony later, over a glass of red wine, until it got dark. We talked a bit about old times and all our memories, but also about what we are doing now - for example, Col's latest find, what he calls a "hammy", a silver hammered coin, many hundreds of years old.

We both agree that it all underlines how short our lives are now, how quickly they go. But he is not yet ready to think about what the Bible has to say about it.  One day...?

And he supports me in being a witness in every way - even donating his last big container of milk from the freezer so I won't have to stop off at the Supermarket on the way to the Kingdom Hall - as today I am on Tea and Coffee Duty.  These days I am so feeble that even doing that seems like climbing Everest.  But I will have support, and my kind chauffeurs of yesterday even offered to take over and do it. But I think its best I do what I can for the congregation now, as it is not much these days.

Maggie on the Balcony

 

I found this photo, of Maggie on the balcony, from their recent visit.  Maggie, NOT a magpie.  We do have a lovely view of the English Channel - and plenty of tasty moths. But fortunately Maggie had no predatory intentions towards them.  She and Dave once lived in a flat in the city of Melbourne, the gateway to Tasmania.  We visited once. I don't remember that they had a balcony, though it was a lovely flat, very spacious.

She is a movie star now, or at least has starred in one movie. And she is also in some rock star videos!  It is amazing what some of us ex-Expats are getting up to in our retirement.

We have more family visits coming up at the end of the month.  And it reminds me of our first summers here, when we had visitors non-stop.  It was fun, but the truth is that we could not cope now.  We may be seeing Roger again, before the end of the year though, and if so, that would be lovely.

I just got some more territory to work - via letter. Some local flats, so I hope and pray I can reach someone there.  Surely what is happening in the world is making more and more people stop and think.  And I have to think and pray how to help them to do so in my letters.

Col rang from The Field - not yet open, he got there early. 

Today is yet another blood test, followed by the dreaded scan next week.  Then I have an audiologist appointment. Then I am hoping for a few weeks minus medical appointments, but of course a lot will be dependent on the result of the scan.

I walked to my blood test today - HOLD THE PRESSES!!!  It is hardly a long way, in fact I did the whole thing there and back in about 35 minutes - got there early, was seen early.  But it's my back, so painful. However the last time I drove, it was so difficult to find anywhere to park.

The problem is that the building work has not yet started at the Clinic - everything awaits on the Insurance Claim I guess  - so there are a few less parking spaces and it makes all the difference.  Anyway, I can now sleep the rest of the day away if I want to - apart from getting Col's tea and getting to the Kingdom Hall tonight.  Oh and we have a box of peaches and nectarines arriving at some stage, so I must stay awake for that.

Talking of Insurance Claims reminds me of an excellent cartoon I saw years ago, either in The Spectator, or Private Eye.  A broker is on the phone to his client, he is holding an enormous document with gallons of small print, and he is saying excitedly:  "You're in luck! Being attacked by a hippopotamus while riding your bike underwater is the one thing your policy does cover you for."

A Poem for July, a Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

A BOAT BENEATH A SUNNY SKY

Lewis Carroll

A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July —

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear —

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?


https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43907/a-boat-beneath-a-sunny-sky

This poem has such a haunting quality. And I too was a child who was entranced by the Alice books - they helped to influence my own writing.

This is a quote from a review of "Till They Dropped" on my Amazon page:  A very dark Alice in Wonderland reimagined through a dystopian lens of corporate greed, consumerism, killer robots, and out-of-control technology. Intelligent literature for grown-ups - highly recommended!

I hope my writing has something of the beauty and power of Lewis Carroll's - just something.  And I hope I have created a world as believably as he did in the Alice books.  Or almost.  I am not the writer he was, but I would love to be.

And aren't we, the damaged children of disobedient Adam, as insubstantial as a dream?  We, who were supposed to be perfect and living, are dying from the moment we are born.  Our lives are over before we know it - even if we make our threescore years and ten.  Given my age, I am thinking about this rather a lot.

And one day I hope we will all, right here on this lovely earth, know what it is to be living, not dying. I doubt we can imagine the happiness of it.  And of course I hope that Lewis Carroll and Alice and her siblings will be there too.

Till They Dropped also appears in my short story collection The Umbrellas of Hamelin, a collection of stories I wrote over many years.

It has been sunny - but I have been so full of this cold I have actually felt a bit shivery.  I feel like Vera in the Giles cartoons of old, all bundled up on the beach among the sunbathers.  My field service group is doing hall cleaning and hospitality this month, so I did stay on to help a bit with the clearing up, and volunteered for tea and coffee service next Sunday.

I have some medical stuff coming up, we have an invite to a BBQ on Saturday, and an invite to do a couple of return visits with some siblings also on Saturday. If I can only get rid of this cold...