The Wedding Orchid

The orchid that Gabi and Dan gave us after their wedding has just started to flower.  Its flowers had been cut for the bouquet and now it has produced 4 tranches (?) of flower stalk - with one beautiful white flower already out.  I will ask Col to photo it for one of our blogs.

Jean and I were out on the doors this morning - doing Not at Homes from last week.  We were rained off after 45 minutes. It was an odd morning - rain clouds, beautiful saturated light shining on the red leaves, and a rainbow in the distance.  We both had two very nice calls we can go back on and hope to call at the other doors during the week.

Mick, who was taking the group, reminded us once again of the vital importance of getting the Bible's message to people.   

Captain B had his fossil head on and was off fossilising.  We are getting ready for Jill, Tom, Linda and Nick for the bonfire and fireworks tonight.   As a JW I don't celebrate the night itself, but the bonfire and fireworks all happen right outside our window so we do share the view.  I shall be providing hot sausage rolls, garlic bread, that sort of thing.

Took Audrey shopping yesterday morning, and also did my marathon shop for the weekend.

Giselle

Flitting across the stage like a piece of fairy thistledown  in my sparkly white frock, I leap into the arms of Loys, the disguised Duke.    Ooops... poor chap.    Still, never mind, who comes to see him?    On I dance twirling gracefully across the stage to rapturous applause from an admiring audience.

Yes, we went to see The Welsh Ballet's Giselle last night - every little girl's dream.

Apart from a whole lot of wonderful dancing, it has a good message and a bad message.

The good is that Giselle knows that, as Jehovah has told us, love "does not keep account of the injury" - and she does not revenge herself on her betrayer, but saves his life.

But the bad thing about it is that is is based on the idea that we have an immortal soul.   Giselle lives on after her death and is able to save the Duke from the spirits of other jilted lovers, who too live on in ghostly form.  

So if and when  you go to see it,  please remember that in Eden, Jehovah told Adam and Eve that they would die if they disobeyed him.  In other words, they were not immortal.  

They disobeyed, cut themselves off from their Creator, their source of life,  and from that moment they began to die,  And eventually they stopped existing and returned to the dust of the ground from which they were created.

It was Satan who said that Eve would not die if she disobeyed, who told her that there was something immortal about her.

Her Creator said the exact opposite.

We, as Adam and Eve's children, are all born dying - through no fault of our own.   Jehovah knows that, and he can reclaim us from death.  But, while we are dead, we are, as the Bible assures us 'conscious of nothing at all'.  We aren't hanging round dancing at people who have annoyed us.

Red sky in the morning

The sunrise was so wonderful this morning that I got Captain Butterfly out of bed - and he was out on the balcony in his jim jams photographing it.  It was, as the rhyme says, a 'shepherds' warning', as we have had a rainy and a stormy day.  Very cold too. But lovely, with the Autumn leaves rustling everywhere.

It is easy to see the holiness of the creation in the very early morning.

Audrey and I managed an hour on the doors this morning, trying to tell people about their Creator. We met Jackie, who was driving off to a meeting, and said Hello.

I shopped after dropping off Audrey - and made the food for tomorrow night.

The Gang of Four Plus One are coming by tomorrow morning for another watch of the new DVD : Jehovah's Witnesses, Faith in Action. Part 1 : Out of Darkness.

Sundays

Retirement Sundays - how are they different from the Sundays of working life, and from schoolday Sundays?

In my schooldays, it was a happy day - church in the morning early (I was a Catholic then), home for a lovely roast dinner courtesy of that brilliant cook, my mother - playing with my siblings and friends after lunch.  In summer the aged parents would often take us out for a picnic on the moors - by bus in the early days.  And on a rainy day daddy would take us to Western Park museum.  In Winter we sometimes used to play Noah's Ark, with our china animal collections and shoeboxes for the Ark.  I kept my collection of animals for years, until they went 'missing' in one our moves.  And for many Winters, Jen and Catherine used to come round after lunch and spend the afternoon with us. We used to huddle round the gas fire in the dining room and make ourselves cheese on toast.

But - and there was a but - I can still remember that dread of school on Monday beginning mid afternoon and getting worse and worse.

When we were a young married couple, both working we often used to visit or entertain family and friends on a Sunday, or go out for the day... I used to cook a roast dinner.

In our Expat days, Sunday was the second day of the working week.
 
As this is a diary, what happened yesterday, on a retirement Sunday?   Think, think...   Col was off birdwatching all day, with sandwiches.  I was at the Kingdom Hall in the morning, and did some ironing and stuff in the afternoon, and we ate together in the evening.   I made an apple crumble from the cooking apples some kind person at Arundel had left outside their house for anyone passing by.  They were lovely apples - not windfalls.  So it was a good crumble.

Pat emailed to say she loved the Thomas Hardy poem, so I must find more - the ones that aren't usually anthologised - that will fit the blog.

He is very suitable poet for the Autumn of the year - and the Autumn of my life.

Once again I have to ask: How did this happen? Just yesterday we were a young married couple.

Maurice at Sunset

The beautiful home of Maurice the Mussel.

A quiet day - I couldn't go out as I was not well due to having to take painkillers.   I did totter out to Tesco's with Col this afternoon for a brief shop.  I hope I have bought in all the ingredients for our pre-Theatre supper on Wednesday night.

We had a lovely walk by the River Arun yesterday - I sat for ages  watching the castle through the Autumn leaves - it is a fairytale castle - one that looks like it has grown there.   We watched a water rat scurrying about and there were ducks galore.

Jackie cooked us a lovely dinner last night - not roast duck!

The English Channel

is suddenly a sparkling turquoise.  El Capitano is out on the balcony now trying to capture the colour in his camera lens.   For a few moments there we could have been in the Maldive Islands looking out across the Indian Ocean.  Its a bit colder though - them sitting on the Equator as they do, and it being October here.
Its so wonderful to live right by the sea.  Which is now the palest of blues. 
I must get back down to the beach and to Maurice the mussel. I have a plotline for him, so I had better get on with it.   
We swam this morning - remembering too late we should have rung Jacks and see if she wanted to come!
We will apologise tonight as she is cooking for us.  We haven't had much of a routine though, and have tended to swim separately this week.

Its a Right Hand Turn,,,

...not a roundabout!   Captain B solved the puzzle for me by googling Google Earth and showed me exactly what it was.  I have driven along that road the other way with no problem, but my Aspergeriness had obviously clicked in again and a connection failed to be made between the two halves of the road.  Anyway, its all connected up now.

Audrey and I did the rest of my October magazine route yesterday.   I  found three people in, and the guy I usually get out of the shower said he would like me to deliver the magazines every month.   I had to stop myself saying: Fine, but in that case I want you to move somewhere where the parking is easier.  

Col was off on a Butterfly Work Detail all day - with a sandwich lunch - so I had some crisps and an ice lolly, did my studying and took myself off for a swim.

We had a great meeting at the Kingdom Hall tonight - although I am not enjoying having to drive there and back in the dark.  However, the years go racing by and it will probably be Spring again before I know it.

Someone is shortening these years.  They just don't last the way they used to.