Jane and Prudence - and prudence

 

"She went up to the chestnut tree and leaned her head against its trunk. Perhaps she could hear the sap rising and the flowers preparing to burst out of the buds. Not one of all those ravenous hours, but thee devours?  Well, yes, that was true still, but it mattered less on a spring morning."

A quote from "Jane and Prudence", which quotes one of the metaphysical poets, John Cleveland.

I have been re-reading Barbara Pym's "Jane and Prudence". And it is so funny - seems to get funnier on every reading, as the author applies her experience in the field of archeology to examining with a beady (but not unkind) eye, the various tribes around her - the High Churchers, the Low Churchers, the Chapel attendees, etc. And the Class/Castes system is well observed too - once again sharply, but not unkindly. 

But she is as conscious of our mortality, of the shortness of our lives, as Philip Larkin is - hence the quote from John Cleveland, about the ravenous hours.

The main event of my week so far is that I was suddenly removed from facebook, and after an appeal, suddenly reinstated!  I have no idea why. But what was lovely is that a long time facebook friend managed to find me via this blog and so we were still able to be in communication.

Facebook - that somewhat faceless entity - seemed to want me to prove that I am who I say I am. Which is odd, as I am transparent in cyberspace. I post under my own name, I blog our retirement, and my books have their own Amazon pages. And I write under my own name.  Anyway, clearly they were reasonable enough to accept that once I did appeal. And I thank them for it.

It seems likely that someone complained about me.  I do witness online when I can and I had just posted replies to two posts, one of which I maybe should not have.  But it is very difficult when you see someone refusing to accept what the Bible says, when they clearly do not know what it says - and might welcome it if they did.  

Anyway, I must try to be more prudent.  But it is not easy.  Once you know what the Bible actually says, you so much want everyone to know it too.

Storm Chandra is raging and has caused a lot of flooding.

The pic above is a photo of a chestnut flower from Col's photo gallery.