I have a question...

Sometimes you get a line from a song or a poem stuck in your head and you just can't remember where it comes from [in my case it is usually a bit of an old hymn]

Last week Liz and I were talking about a stanza - we think it is a children's story, or a poem - but we cannot place it. Can anyone out there help us, please? [ I have done every permutation I can think of on Google and got nowhere] It's this...

How does he do it?

How does he do it?

        How does he do it?

                 I'd like to know

Somebody out there must recognise this one!

Come Ye Thankful People, Come...

Yesterday was our Harvest Thanksgiving and we had a very full Family Service. Thinking about God's blessings great and small, Bob had provided paper and pens round the chapel, and the children went and drew pictures

We were also following the BMS World Mission material, Seeds of Hope, about the Lebanon and how missionaries are helping farmers in war-torn areas to rebuild their livelihoods - especially when fields have been made unusable because of landmines or unexploded cluster bombs.

Two weeks ago, we took a load of plastic weapons - guns, pistols and swords and dismantled them - and used them as containers for planting cress

 

The children had brought back their successful crops to show us

 

 

 

 

 

Another thing we all did was take a piece of black card with a small gold star on it, representing the magnificence of the night sky, and we wrote a prayer of thanks to God for the splendour of his Creation - and were encouraged to take it home and use it!

Here's the one the little girl sitting next to me wrote out - Thank you God for this world, Amen

 

We collected dozens of tins of food for the Centre Project in Leicester - these are just some of them!

And I forgot to mention - the whole place looked beautiful, filled with baskets of flowers - they have all gone now, and been distributed to sick or housebound members of our village community

 

Maybe not the Traditional Harvest Festival of fifty or sixty years ago, with the building full of sheaves of wheat and giant marrows and bowls of prize tomatoes and shiny red apples - but still an acknowledgement of God's faithfulness through another year - and our desire to share His Bounty with those less fortunate.

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown, unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day all offences purge away,
Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.

M&M

No, not the delicious chocolate candies from the USA [although I do like them]

This is just a couple of items of news/prayer requests to share

 

First M is Michael Card

He is coming to do a concert for us at KMFC on October 9th.

Unfortunately I shall be away that night so can't be there.

But if you want more details [and as he is doing only about 9 concerts in the UK this year, we are quite excited to be on his itinerary] please check out Bob's blog here.

Pray that we sell all the tickets!

Second M is Matt Baggott

Matt is a lovely man, whom I've met on a number of occasions. He has been until recently, our local Chief Constable. On Tuesday he becomes CC in Northern Ireland, and there are concerns that this may cause a surge in dissident unrest.

Matt is a gracious man of faith and peace. Pray for him, that he will have God-given wisdom and strength for this new role.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

I drove up to Cornerstones after our Tea Party, and went to bed [exhausted] almost straightaway. Up early this morning and re-arranged furniture - all the chairs came into the dining room from garage, bedrooms etc.

I prepared a tray of cups for tea & coffee on the sideboard...

...hung the banner...

...got out the little tea-light holder...

...stuck candles in the cake...

[I did not put the full number of candles on, in consideration of global warming.  And no I didn't make it, it came from Tesco]

I prepared cold meats, cheeses, salads, bread rolls, desserts, drinks and glasses, crockery and cutlery.

..and then I sat and waited...

Between 12.35 and 12.45, as invited, eight guests turned up, bearing salads, puddings, flowers, gifts etc [Sorry everyone, I somehow never got any photos of the great food or the charming company. Too busy eating, drinking and talking]

At 12.55, my best friend Chris arrived- expecting a quiet lunch with just me -  instead she was confronted with a surprise birthday buffet!

I think she was somewhat startled [and possibly slightly annoyed with me for keeping it secret!]

After the meal, we had coffee, tea and The Cake, and Chris opened her gifts

Thank you Sarah -you were definitely in the best seat for taking these pictures of the chief guest!

 

 

Not sure what Lyn was saying at this point, but Chris looks somewhat bemused.

This is the only photo which proves anyone else was present!

 

The Actual Birthday is Sunday, but as I had to return to Kirby tonight [Harvest Festival tomorrow] and all the other pastors, deacons and spouses present have a busy Sunday at Dereham, today was the best day to spring the surprise.

Allan and Heather stayed behind with Chris and myself to help clear up [A is a brilliant washer-upper] And by 4.45 everyone had gone, the car was loaded and I drove back to Leicestershire. I had a lovely drive home in the setting sun, and saw one biplane, two parachutists and four hot air balloons en route!

Chris has been my best friend since I was a teenager, and is always thinking of others and generous in giving practical help [like three weeks ago when she took me to catch my coach] She works extremely hard in the Church. I've really valued her love and friendship down the years. We have had some good laughs together- and she's been a listening ear when I have needed one. I am really glad her home is so close to Cornerstones so we can see more of each other again.

Thank you to Alan & Barbara, Lyn & Chris, Allan & Heather, Marion & Sarah for coming to Cornerstones today, and for all your contributions to the Party.

And especially thank you to Chris for your friendship, and for giving us a reason to celebrate - God bless you today and always

Which Doctor?

For you Who fans, and D'Oyly Devotees. A bit of fun sent to me by my friend Andy [who I suspect may really live on another planet!]

Stands The Church Clock At Ten To Three?

...and are there lots of cakes for tea?

Yes- dozens

I can recommend the coffee sponge on the picture below.

Today was the Christian Aid Tea Party.

This year it was the turn of the Anglicans to host it in the Parish Hall.

Along with cakes, there were drinks

...and Fairtrade Produce

Everyone seemed to be having a great time

Village events like this on a sunny afternoon are lovely! A great opportunity to catch up with old friends and chat to new ones - and all in a very good cause too.

Well done Mary and Sue for your great organisation - and to all your team from the various congregations who worked together to make it possible

The Long And The Short Of It!

It is so satisfying to do a little bit of sewing and achieve something that is really useful!

Yesterday I was asked if I knew what an overlocker was - and replied yes, I'd got one, why? My friend's son is visiting from New Zealand- purchased a Leicester Tigers Rugby Shirt, had it personalised- and then realised it was way too big! Ben is 6'7" tall - and needed a large size to get the length. - but that ended up being massive round the chest and waist- he has a long, but slim frame. He came round last night and I measured where it needed altering [yes I did have to stand on a stool!] and sewed it this morning. It was a bit of a rush job - he flies back to NZ on Monday! The school sweatshirt is for a friend's very little 4 year old - who is swamped by even the smallest of the school tops. So that had to be taken in and shortened as well. I altered them, and was able to deliver them to school at Morning Break.

Then post arrived- more goodies from Catriona who is still packing up to move.

I am very impressed by her ruthless determination to clear the clutter before she hits Caledonia. The rusty red fabric underneath was part of the gift too- it is beautiful - but inspiration has yet to strike as to what I shall do with it!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

...make lemonade. On the other hand, when it is damsons

Quick Damson Loaf

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1lb damsons, stoned removed

1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil, eggs, milk, lemon juice, oats and chopped plums in a bowl; stir until blended. Pour into a greased loaf pan.
2. Bake in a 170*C oven for 50 minutes, or until the centre is set. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out on the wire rack and cool completely.

[turned out quite dense- best served warm with custard!]

Getting ready for Christmas, here's some damson gin. [Oh dear, my teetotal Grandmother would be spinning in her grave] and there is still another bag of fruit in the freezer ready to go into a crumble next week.

What a kind friend Lesley is, to share the bounty of her orchard!

Reminds me of an old joke - the local Methodist Minister was leaving, and his other clergy colleagues wanted to mark this with a present. They knew he loved peaches in brandy - but that his congregation would be shocked if they knew he drank alcohol. So the ministers gave him the present, but said he could only keep it if he thanked them publicly for it. After a little thought, the Reverend Gentleman put an announcement in the local paper "I wish to thank the other ministers for their generous gift of fruit, and the spirit in which it was sent"

Recursive*

I mentioned that Liz gave me a small gift on Monday. It was this...

On the can of baking powder is a picture of a can of baking powder, and on that can of baking powder is a picture of a can of baking powder and on that can of baking powder ...

Jon has named it "the Baking Powder of Infinity"

Ooh! a cooking ingredient for maths geeks!

How wonderful is this? almost as wonderful as realising how much your children love you, and that they know such simple things can make their aged parents happy!

[* recursive - of, or relating to a procedure that can repeat itself indefinitely]

Resisting Temptation!

Rachel very kindly invited me to have coffee-and-a-cob with her at a local Garden Centre this lunchtime whilst Bob was at a meeting. Here in Leicestershire, a cob is a large bread roll [in other parts of the UK it can refer to a loaf, a nut, a horse, a swan or a building]

Garden Centres fascinate me - at least 75% of their merchandise appears to have very little to do with gardening! I mean, say "Gardening" and you may think of Alan Titchmarsh, trowels, herbacious borders, compost, chitting potatoes and a fine tilth - but not monogrammed spectacle cases, Earl Grey Tea in fancy caddies, birthday cards with dubious inscriptions, and ugly plastic figurines of drunken grannies. But there they all were today, on sale - not that the punters appeared to be buying.

I am currently struggling to grow cress on a flannel [but that's another story you will hear after the weekend] so made sure we stayed in the non-horticultural areas of the complex today.

I was very taken with a display of resin letters -but at £6.49 each decided £38.94 was a bit much to display ANGELA on the mantelpiece [let alone almost eighty quid for CORNERSTONES]

Then I noticed the letters on the display were just held up with blu-tac. I was SO tempted to make anagrams and re-arrange them.

The original display said this

Bearing in mind we were standing near to the Cafe, I debated something relating to the Soup of The Day

• GRUEL? POKE IT!
• OL' TIGER PUKE
• OK, TRIPE GLUE
• EEK! I GULP ROT

Fortunately sanity prevailed and I didn't move the letters at all, just left them where they were, before I fell into a ROGUE ELK PIT. Furthermore, such anagrams recall required punctuation, which was not available . Being a bit of a pedant, I couldn't leave such phrases incorrectly punctuated [cf Eats, Shoots, and Leaves] Rachel was amused - but in the end I simply took a photo of the display and we left the shop giggling!

Goosefoot, Fat Hen and Good King Henry!

I had fun yesterday afternoon briefly visiting two of my very good friends. First, Elisabeth, in order to return her wedding fascinators. E was taking a great looking birthday cake from the oven - hope Mark enjoys it! Then on to Lesley, who has generously given me loads of damsons from her tree, which has had a stupendous crop this summer. L is a quilter par excellence [and also an expert on the Dewey Decimal System] and her children are two of the most pleasant teenagers you could ever wish to meet.

These two friends both work really hard combining family life, career, and church commitments, and they are such generous women, always thinking of other people. But all three of us are so busy, we never get as much time as we would like to spend together. And it occurs to me that Elisabeth and Lesley have never actually met, as the three of us move in different circles - although I am sure the pair of them would get on really well!

The Superfood Salad I enjoyed at Leon on Monday was so good, I tried to replicate it yesterday evening. However I did modify Bob's and he had tomato in place of beetroot. But it was incredibly delicious and amazingly healthy.

Quinoa is a strange grain. Popular among the Incas, who called it 'Mother of All Grains', it is related to a European crop known as Fat Hen, Goosefoot or Good King Henry - but Europeans ate the leaves rather than the seeds of this chenopod. The early Catholic  Conquistadors resisted eating quinoa in Peru, when they noticed that the natives made food for their pagan rituals with it! But just lately it has become a very trendy substitute for rice and pasta. I must check with the Williamsons as to whether missionaries in Peru eat it these days!

This is the first time I have used quinoa [pronounced keen-wah apparently] I suspect that once I have used up this packet I probably won't buy any more though! The quantity suggested for 2 on the packet was way more than we needed, so I now have a tub of the stuff in the fridge to put in today's salad!

Quinoa - rinse 3½oz of grains in a sieve and place in a pan with 1 pint of water. Bring to boil then simmer for 10 minutes till grains are clear and the germ has separated [you end up with a frog spawn like mass with odd little white spirals in it! not the most visually appetising food] Drain and allow to cool while you prepare everything else.

Edamame - I bought a bag of Birds Eye frozen soybeans, and cooked half a cup of these for 2 mins in the microwave.

Dressing - simply wine vinegar, olive oil and seasonings.

Combine in a large bowl

• quinoa [about ¼ quantity above]
• 1 tbsp edamame beans
• handful baby spinach leaves
• handful beansprouts
• one pear, diced
• one large cooked beetroot, diced [or a plum tomato!]
• one fillet of smoked mackerel, flaked into largish chunks
• dressing [as above]

All very colourful, and I am sure it is packed with all sorts of antioxidants and vitamins and things to provide vitality. I was quite tired by 6pm having had a very busy day- but didn't fall asleep during House Group, so maybe it did re-energise me a bit!

Now to hunt out some damson recipes!