Congratulations!

Three of yesterday's flowers are already on greetings cards, winging their way to friends and family.

• One is a thankyou card to some friends for their recent kindness to me
• One is a wedding anniversary card – congratulations to my brother Adrian and wife Marion – celebrating TWENTY YEARS together. Where has the time gone?
• One is a birthday card for my best friend Christine, whose birthday is TODAY.

The present is also for Christine – but you’ll just have to wait till I come to Cornerstones again, Chris, as I cannot post it!

What I Did Yesterday…

Life is never dull round here! Last week I had a phone call from a friend asking me if I could take over from her on a Committee of which she has been a member for nine years. Jacqui is a good friend, and an extremely capable lady – so I thought and prayed about it – and said yes I would.

So I went up to London and went to the meeting. I’m now the person representing the Baptist Family on the National Committee of the Women’s World Day of Prayer. Which is both scary, exciting, and a great privilege.

I have been attending WWDP services since…well, since I was in mother’s womb [literally] as she was on her local planning committee in Essex when I was born. At grammar school. we persuaded the Head that any girls who belonged to the Christian Union should be allowed the first Friday afternoon in March off school, to attend the service. At University, my landlady was a member of her local planning committee. And since I have been a pastor’s wife, I have attended every year, and frequently been a speaker at the service.

If you don’t know about WWDP check out the website, or my annual posts [here, here, here]

WWDP is a great thing, and I am fully committed to it – it is a great example of Christian women of all denominations working and praying together at grass-roots level.

I have always known there was a national committee. But I hadn’t really taken on board till yesterday just how much work goes on all through the year in order for there to be a service each March.

Next Year [March 1st] the service is coming from the women of France, and the theme is “I was a stranger and you welcomed me”

The ladies of the committee certainly made me very welcome yesterday!

And another knitted hat for the Sailors’ Society was completed on the train too. Now I have post-committee tasks to sort out…

Blooming Marvellous!

This is how to make flowers  like the ones we produced at our Connexion Group last week.

First of all you need to cut out nine circles of paper or thin card. I used an old magazine and chose a full page advertisement which was in reds and whites.

Cut out your circles with a punch, or a circle cutter- or draw round a small lid or cup and cut with scissors.

 

Now fold all your circles into quarters and crease firmly. Then open out EIGHT of them and turn over so that your chosen colour is face down.

Fold back two equal segments at the bottom of each circle. These should be at right angles, using the chords which join the points where the folds meet the edge.

I hope that makes sense – here are two I folded to show you.

Do this with all eight circles then turn them over again.

Now fold those two wings back so the folds you just made lie along the centre crease.

Here you see one circle, two completed ‘petals’ and two petals where I have only folded in one side.

Repeat this till all eight petals have been folded.

Now on your ninth circle, put a piece of double sided sticky tape and peel off the backing

Using the folds as a guide, stick four petals on in a cross shape

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now tuck the other four petals in to make a complete flower. Put half a Sticky Foam pad in the centre

#

Stick on a button or sequin to finish off your flower…

[You can see this one is not quite perfect – there is a tiny gap between two pairs of petals] Use them to decorate cards or presents

A whole bouquet of blossoms, ready to be stuck onto some cards

I’m On The Train!

!!!

Off down to London – for a meeting I knew nothing about this time last week! I will explain more when I am back home again. I do not expect to meet any of the above characters on my journey though.

I plan to get lots of knitting done on my travels!

One Hundred And Sixty - And Counting…

What does 160 represent?

could be Fairtrade teabags

could be the bus from Sidcup to Catford

could be a Honda Motorbike

but for me it’s now the number of people signed up to follow my blog

I know there are still other people who read the blog who haven’t publicly signed up – but whoever you are, thanks for being there, and thank you for all your encouraging comments.

Some bloggers are very diligent and note the name of every new person who signs up and says “Welcome to new follower X” – I have left it too late to start that game – I usually have no idea who is a new reader! But you are all welcome – and I hope you find something here to interest, challenge, inform or amuse you.

One Hundred, And Counting

Numbers fascinate me- and today I am thinking about 100.

There are 100 pennies in every pound – I must be a good steward and spend, save and give as responsibly as I can with each one.

There are 100 tiles in a Scrabble Set. Do I think about the words and sentences I use everyday? Life is not about scoring points, but about showing love, building others up, speaking words to help, not to hurt.

 

Bible Gateway [ a programme I use lots] has compiled a list of the 100 most read Bible verses on their website [here] I admit I am not quite sure how #17 [Acts 18:11] and #66 [Acts 17:11] got to be quite so popular – but all the others are verses I know and love.

And finally today marks 100 days till Christmas!

Have you started making any Christmas plans yet?

Flower Power!

At our Connexion group this week, we did two floral related crafts. First Janet taught us to make carnations from red paper napkins [and then we made arrangements using round Activia yogurt pots]

Janet is brilliant at these – and made 80 carnations in assorted colours for our Women’s World Day of Prayer event last March.

They look amazingly realistic [cutting the napkins with pinking shears makes a real difference to the final appearance]

Then we made flowers using buttons and paper circles. I’d found this idea in various places on the internet, but adapted it to recycle old magazines rather than use fancy ‘craft’ papers.

These can be used to decorate a card or a gift – or threaded and hung on a Christmas tree. There are online tutorials here & here.

The verb ‘pink’ dates back over 600 years and means ‘to decorate with a perforated or zigzagged edge’ - it is believed that these flowers were therefore called ‘pinks’ because of the edges of their petals – then eventually ‘pink’ came to mean the colour!

The Shirt I Hate Most, On The Man I Love Most!

Here is Bob in that hideous Hawaiian shirt [which he has even been been known to wear to conduct worship on a Sunday morning] and his very baggy black trousers. I am very proud of my man, who hast lost well over 1½ stone in weight since May 2011. But I am struggling with his wardrobe. It’s all too big, and his trousers will fall down, unless he wears a belt, and bunches the fabric round his waist, like Santa’s Sack. I’m a competent needlewoman, but alterations of this magnitude defeat me.
The very helpful man in our local M&S said they could alter suits to fit – but only up to a 4” waist reduction, and Bob has slimmed way beyond that. IMHO Bob needs a dark suit for conducting funerals and looking like a Proper Minister.

Above is one of the lovely new Savile Row inspired suits from M&S [click here to see the full range] Bob is a very smart guy, and I think he deserves to look good when he turns up at Church Events to represent the Nonconformist Clergy  [his Anglican mates can wear what they like under their fancy embroidered vestments] I’d choose this suit below for Bob  - it is in the big & Tall range [he is 6’4” tall] so I know it would fit him properly, and suit his new trimmer figure.

So please, St Michael and all the angels at M&S, would you consider Rev Bob for your man-over challenge blog competition, and kit him out with some gear that actually fits? Thank you.
[and I know that Bible verse about the attitude of the heart is of more importance than a man’s outward appearance. I can assure you that my beloved’s heart is in the right place – but his wardrobe isn’t. And right now I am as poor as a church mouse. Help!]
UPDATE - WE DID NOT WIN. WELL DONE CHLOE http://chloewitters.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/sam-style/

An Unexpected Harvest

I was in the garden looking at the fuchsia bush. One of my daughters does not like fuchsias. She encountered the word in a passage she was reading aloud in class, and she applied the phonics rules she had been taught and ended up very embarrassed! But nonetheless, I love our plant – our friend Ellen gave it to us back in 2000 and it has flourished despite our total lack of gardening skills.

This summer it has looked beautiful, and I noticed it had berries. I didn’t know that fuchsias produced berries [why haven’t I seen these before?] I looked in this book for advice

Alys says that she loves eating fuchsia berries –in fact she regards them as a good snack when she is walking to the shops!

So I picked one, ate it, and thought it was quite pleasant- vaguely blackberry-like in flavour. Alys says they can be peppery, and others liken them to pomegranates.

But you don’t get many, even on a big bush like ours – Alys says they are good as a garnish, e.g. on vanilla ice cream. She also says do not pick them till the are dark and squishy. I got about 16 – so I served them in dishes of greek yogurt [with a honey heart]

They were very sweet and  tasty – and there’s another dozen or so berries yet to ripen. Fuchsias are named after Leonard Fuchs, the German botanist born around 500 years ago.

Fuchsia berries- a delicious fruit growing in my very own back garden – who knew!

Must take Ms Fowler’s book outside and see what else is edible out there.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones…

Oooh! It’s all getting Very Exciting round here. I was fascinated by yesterday’s live press conference from the Richard III dig site – check out what they said here. The key thing is that they have found the bones of someone who had scoliosis – i.e. he would have probably walked with one shoulder higher than the other, and been termed a ‘hunchback’ or ‘crookback’
The team are being cautious about what they are saying – and insist that DNA tests etc. must be carried out next before they can make any claims about whose bones they have dug up.
I queued [along with hundreds of others] on Saturday morning in order to see the dig. I was extremely impressed by the way the crowds were managed – we were taken round in groups of 30, each group having an archaeologist acting as guide, to point out what we needed to see and answer our questions.
Trench Two – showing what are assumed to be the foundations of cloister walls – and the pattern of diamond shaped floor tiles

Trench One – more walls – and behind is what was formerly part of Leicester Grammar School [and before that this building was the Alderman Newton School] The medieval church was believed to be somewhere around here – Trench Three is the other side of this wall


Here you can see some of the stonework which has been uncovered – believed to be part of the window tracery from the Greyfriars Abbey.
For many years this site was a garden, which has helped to preserve it from being built upon [which would have made the whole excavation process more complex]



More of the bits and pieces they have excavated. Well done to all of those involved in the project - and I do hope that they are Richard’s bones!
There is more information here. The team have employed Emma Viecili, a comics artist to illustrate the dig – here’s one of her pieces.

update - check out this link on the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-19575558

I Wonder If Anyone New Will Turn Up?