Red Currants and Grey Roots

Aren't these beautiful? A friend said she was would make me some earrings, what colour would I like? I chose red - and they came, with a lovely matching necklace. Bob said that the earrings reminded him of juicy redcurrants

I said I'd wear them if I was feeling fruity. They look very good with my Joules tunic, the one from the CS with useful pockets. I may be in lockdown, but I still like to wear something smart for worship on Sunday morning.  From the front my hair looks OK, but the grey hairs are really

showing at the roots. 

Bob says I needn't worry, they are only visible to taller people [but almost everyone is taller than me!]

I shall embrace the grey- now I am officially a Little Old Granny twice over. 

And I hope people are so busy looking at my lovely jewellery that they don't notice my roots. Thank you, my friend, for sending me such a pretty distraction!

Worship With Us

Click HERE for the link   to  morning worship at United Church Ferndown 

The Great Divide (Feat. Sh'maya)

Thank you Dan Stevers for this powerful film

Miss Muffett Asks...

...How Do I Make The Spider Socially Distance?

I was an Under Eights Advisor for Bexley Social Services for a couple of years in the early 1990s. I never actually advised the under eights- just the childminders, play group workers and nursery staff. But it was an interesting job. Often they would ask us questions about Best Practice, and Good Protocols. After all, we were the important people in the fancy lanyards, who knew all about the new Children Act. I thought of those happy days this week when someone sent me this... [click on it for a larger view]

Thanks for the good wishes yesterday. It was truly wonderful to meet George. We went for a little walk, and pushed the pram. And we had lunch in the garden. All is well! George is lovely, Steph and Gaz are doing fine. 

At Last!

Today I am hoping to meet my Grandson George. 

I am so grateful that this can happen.

We will meet outside, in the open air.

Let us hope the weather stays fine!

Experimenting With A Loose Bottom

Sue in Suffolk is right, the new Blogger is proving difficult to manage. I cannot get it to reliably use Trebuchet, the font I have used for years. And also the colour of the text seems to change randomly halfway through. We will get there in the end, I am sure. Meanwhile my bread making moves on - this week I made a loaf using my small loose bottomed cake tin.

The texture and taste were good, but it was not quite the right shape for ham sandwiches. But a single slice is fine toasted, with butter and marmalade. I love these warm mornings, when I can leave the bowl of dough proving on the kitchen windowsill in the sunshine.

Where do you prove your bread? I knew a woman who always took hers upstairs and tucked it under the duvet just after her husband had got up in the morning! In wintry weather I use the airing cupboard. 

 

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

How are your sleep patterns right now? I find it hard to go to sleep when it is hot, and since I got over the virus, I have been waking earlier than usual. I tiptoe downstairs and potter about as quietly as I can in the kitchen, making bread dough or preparing the yogurt maker, and then take Bob a cup of tea around 7ish. Some people I know are struggling in similar ways - laying awake during the night, pondering on the world situation, the pandemic, whether tomorrow is Dustbin Day etc. 

Steph and Gaz are coming to terms with a little man waking them through the night needing feeds. 

After the Great Shredding exercise, I went on to Decluttering my Desk. Gentle exercise, walking to and from the recycling bin will relax me, and I hope to sleep better when evening comes. But honestly, down the back of my desk I've unearthed some fascinating items, which should have been discarded years ago. That Pilates DVD - dated 2005 - as far as I know I have never even taken it out of its sleeve. Was I hoping to start doing those exercises? The BWA bookmark, also from 2005 can go. The Waitrose vouchers expired 6 months ago, and the contents of the pack of wipes[bbe 08/14] are drier than the Sahara. 

The little clipping from a magazine - well I have no idea how old that is. It is part of an interview with PD James, and clearly from the last millennium. 

I have always enjoyed her books. Phyllis James was a lifelong member of the Church of England, and supporter of the Prayerbook Society. In my little clipping, it explains that she had been created a life peer in the 1991 New Year's Honours List. "Baroness James Of Holland Park, of Southwold in the County of Suffolk" 

Her great friend Ruth Rendell asked how she was celebrating this, and declared "Phyllis, you must have a new bed" And so this lovely lady had a four poster especially made. At each corner rose a highly polished slender pole, topped with a carved angel gazing protectively down.

"Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - bless the bed that I lie on" 

On the headboard is carved her coat of arms - I have hunted  everywhere for a picture of this. The description  from the college of Heraldry is amazing, it involves books, quill pens, tabby cats and the Southwold Lighthouse! update; thank you Pollyanna for the link!

But it also includes her motto, Gratus Erga Deum Beatitudine Vitae  - which means "Grateful to God for all the blessings of this life."

This gifted woman wrote some brilliant [and often gruesome] crime novels - but she knew that one of the best ways to get a good night's sleep is to end the day being calm, and peaceful, and counting one's blessings.

I bet she kept her desk tidier than mine though...

My Life Is In Shreds

When I began supply teaching, thirty years ago, it became apparent that I would have a lot of paperwork to manage. I was advised to keep every payslip and record of work. Then I got a car, and I had all the tax, insurance, service records, and other documentation for that. And my children had paperwork from school, and then there were the various committees I attended, so I had minutes and agendas...

I bought a small two drawer filing cabinet. And lots of extra brightly coloured suspension files. And I filed everything. On Saturday afternoon, I cleared it out completely. I shredded hundreds of documents. Records of work and pay claims for dozens of schools in Bexley and Leicestershire [and just a handful for Dorset] Lesson plans, thank you notes, agendas for committees which no longer exist, and flyers for events from the last Millennium. The shredder actually broke while Bob was operating it. I made tea whilst he dismantled and fixed it. We had to stop shredding in the end because the recycling bin was full.

It was quite an emotional business. Among the payslips and worksheets, I found the press report about my trip to Bletchley Park. And orders of services from various Thanksgivings and Funerals. Notes the girls had sent me at different times, cards from former pupils...I had to keep telling myself "You cannot keep every piece of paper, Angela" But I felt like I was discarding nearly four decades of my life. And then this morning Bob continued the shredding. 

It was hard, but it was worth it. I have let go of all sorts of stuff that was no use to me, or anyone else. By the time I had finished, I had emptied almost all the files, and reduced the amount I needed to just three folders- my car details, family records, sundries. I did begin to feel "What have I achieved, if all this is just shredded and going into recycling? The records of a lifetime of supply teaching gone, in one afternoon" But teaching is more than something you do for a payslip at the end of the month and you hope that you are making a difference, however small, to the ones you are helping.  

Over my desk is a small magnetic photo frame. Given to me by a pupil in 2003, it holds a picture of Steph - she spent a summer working with street children in the favelas of Sao Paolo. It reminds me that my vocation is to pass on skills to the next generation - who will pass them on to the next...and the next...It is far more than paperwork and box ticking.

My thoughts and prayers are with all those teachers who will be returning to their schools this week - working in a totally new way, attempting to teach 'at a distance' in an old familiar environment which has somehow become quite alien - and with their pupils, struggling to adapt to the classroom disciplines which have been put aside for three months, and now they will find new protocols about safety, hygiene and distance added to the list of rules. God bless them all

Justice And Peace

Our little Chapel in Norfolk has this motto for the year

"What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  Micah 6: 8

I have thought about this so much in the past few days, as I have watched the citizens pf the USA respond to the terrible death of George Floyd. Bless tells me that where she lives, they have had curfews imposed. One of our members here has a son who is a Pastor working in downtown Minneapolis. Racism is evil. So is violence. 

Liz sent me a quote from Ben Franklin

And I remembered another from Martin Luther King 

Let us pray for justice, kindness and humility. And may those who mourn be comforted.

Whitsun Worship

Join us for worship at United Church Ferndown on Pentecost Sunday - follow this link

Who Is My Neighbour?

That was the question which the lawyer asked Jesus in Luke chapter 10. A good friend of mine posted this story a couple of days ago, and I thought that what she has done was so lovely it was worth sharing...

"Did you know that Friday was Neighbours' Day in France - although I think they have postponed it because of the virus. They clearly make a big thing of it. I went to market this morning and the flower man was there selling cheap flowers. So I bought a load, came home, made them into small posy arrangements . 

I did five. I delivered them to our immediate neighbours. One lost her husband last year and was having a low day - they put a smile on her face, One lost her sister last week and is also low, we cried and smiled. The other three were very happy to receive them. The flowers may not last long but isn't the Lord's timing great for me to knock on those doors? 

Bonne Fête des Voisins - happy Neighbours' Day everyone x"

Jesus concluded, “In your opinion, which one of these three acted like a neighbour toward the man…?” The teacher of the Law answered, “The one who was kind to him.” Jesus replied, “You go, then, and do the same.” [Luke 10: 36-38, GNT]

Robert's Radio

Except it isn't Robert's Radio, it is my radio. Bob gave it to me about 15 years ago, and I loved listening to the DAB stations, especially BBC Radio 7 [now called Radio 4 Extra] The radio was beautifully retro, and covered in a burgundy red leatherette fabric. I loved it, carting it from room to room listening to dramas, comedy, quizzes,classic books...

But then two problems developed- the surface started degrading and peeling horribly, and the sound became intermittent. Somehow plugging headphones into the socket had affected the switch. DAB radios had come right down in price- Bob bought me a DAB clock radio alarm to have by the bed - and then later a cheap Lidl radio for the kitchen.

But look at this! Bob not only fixed the inside, so it plays all the channels again - but he stripped off the tatty covering. The shell underneath is actually carved wood. He recovered this with a piece of heavy cotton from my stash, sealing it with a coat of PVA.

He replaced all the labels and trims, and the little hinge on the side.

It looks and sounds brilliant now. Thank you Bob!

Cereal Killers

We seem to have three containers of cereal 'on the go' - porridge oats, bran flakes and rice crispies. The bran stuff is mine, Bob doesn't eat that [it's "too worthy"] and the crispies were bought as an alternative to oats, for days when you don't want a big bowl of porridge. But cereals can go a bit stale after a while. I used up the flakes in my super easy Bran Loaf Cake. Mix the following in a bowl

• 1 cup bran cereal
• 1 cup dried fruit [sultanas, raisins, currants or a mixture]
• 1 cup sugar [granulated, demerara, caster or soft brown]
• 1 cup liquid [milk or cold tea]
• 1 tsp cinnamon or mixed spice

Stir well and leave for at least two hours, or overnight. Preheat your oven to 170°. Now stir into your bowl 1 cup of self raising flour and 1 beaten egg. Mix well, ensuring all the flour is incorporated. Line a loaf tin and pour in the mixture. Smooth the top. Bake for 75 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool. Serve sliced, with a cup of tea. With butter if feeling rich and decadent!

Recently, in the Guardian's Waste Not section, Tom Hunt gave this recipe for Maple and Coconut Crispies  

Prep 10 min
Freeze/chill 1 hr 10 min
Makes 12 squares

• 90g milk or dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 50g coconut butter
• 40ml maple syrup
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 75g puffed rice and other grains (millet, quinoa, etc)
• 40g mixed dried fruit and seeds, plus extra to finish 

In a heat-proof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate with the coconut butter, maple syrup and salt. Stir in the cereals until combined, then pour into a small, lined tin. Scatter dried fruit and seeds over the top, if you like, then freeze for an hour. Transfer to the fridge until fully set, cut into 12 small squares and enjoy.

I had no coconut butter, I used real butter and a heaped tsp of desiccated coconut**.

I thought mine looked OK beside his . I don't know what his red bits are though. I am mean, I cut into 16 smaller pieces!

**helpful spelling hint - if you cannot spell desiccated, remember it is just like coconuts - one S and two CC

Thank you everybody for the kind birthday wishes for Liz. We had a surprise Zoom Family Birthday Party on Wednesday afternoon - with cake!

Where'er You Walk...

Many of my friends and family are documenting their daily walks on Facebook or in their blogs. I love their photographs - of distant views, and close-ups of blossoms and butterflies, and pictures of their happy families enjoying the sunshine and the open air. 
I'm not very good at this - I frequently take so long to get a picture that Bob is half a mile up the footpath. We are very blessed to have so many lovely areas to visit round here, on the edge of the New Forest [my friend Pauline takes wonderful pictures of the trees and the skyline] Here are a few of my attempts - and notes to explain

The highly ornate design of the Lady Wimborne Bridge at Canford Magna reflects the power of landowners over British railway companies in the 19th century. Wealthy Sir John Guest, owner of ironworks in Wales, purchased Canford Manor near Wimborne – and had the bridge built to carry the new railway over the drive to his house – so that the carriages could get to his property without interruption. It is now a Grade II listed structure

Brockenhurst is the largest village in the New Forest - the ford runs through the middle of this picturesque place. Usually heaving with tourists on a warm May afternoon, it was incredibly quiet when we visited - all the gift shops and tearooms were closed because of Covid19.

'Stephen's Castle' is an Iron Age barrow at the top of an old quarry near Verwood, a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Legend has it that Stephen was a local tribal chief of great strength. He was supposed to have hurled the 'Stephen stone' half a mile into Ringwood Forest, no mean feat as the stone weighs around 3 tonnes! The barrow was excavated in 1828, and human remains dating back to the Iron Age were found. Verwood once had a thriving pottery and brick industry which stemmed from the abundance of clay, and fuelled by the gorse and birch on the heaths. The quarry work was abandoned in Victorian Times.

Walking through these places with Bob reminded me of Handel's solo from the opera Semele. My mother was particularly fond of this piece, sung by the contralto Kathleen Ferrier.[I don't think Mum had a clue what the opera was about!]

Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade

Trees where you sit, shall crowd into a shade

Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise

And all things flourish, where'er you turn your eyes

And hello to all the new followers who have joined since Easter - I cannot keep up with you all, but it is lovely to know that you're enjoying reading this. Wherever you are, keep well, keep safe and be kind. [and Remember To Be A Lert, We Need Lerts]

Happy Birthday, Liz!

Happy birthday Liz. It is hard to believe that we haven't been together for five months. This picture of you and Rosie in the Norfolk sunshine last week is so lovely. I keep looking at it and smiling.
Your resilience through this lockdown time has been amazing. I'm in awe of all the mothers out there who are managing to work full-time from home right now, whilst still caring for lively pre-schoolers. 
You've been brilliant about keeping us in touch via WhatsApp and Zoom etc. We have enjoyed telling Rosie bedtime stories, and sharing pictures of our activities.
My breadmaking skills have developed enormously since March- and you have encouraged and helped with that, sharing tips and swapping recipes and pictures.
Despite claiming you are 'not crafty' we have seen so many pictures [and heard her reports] of Rosie's activities with paint, and recycling, and "junk modelling" as well as learning to cook. Your daughter can now prepare as many meals as the average student arriving at Uni!
And Steph has found your support and wisdom immeasurable, through the difficult end-of-pregnancy, birth, and early days of motherhood, whilst isolated in this Time Of Covid. You've always been there for her, and even at a distance you are a fantastic 'big sister'
Thank you for all the joy you have brought to us for over three decades. I miss you SO much, but I am sure Jon and Ro will fill your day with love, and cake...
God bless you today and always - we love you and cannot wait till we are all together again.

"Someone On The Phone For You, Ang"

...said Bob, entering the lounge. "Who is it?" I asked. Bob looked puzzled, put his hand over the receiver and whispered 
"It's the Hammerhead Band Woman!"
I was a little confused. I know nothing about this Rock Band - and I thought all their members were blokes anyway...
But once I took hold of the phone and spoke to the caller, everything became infinitely clearer. Nothing to do with heavy metal or ear-splitting noise. Bob's Mondegreen. He'd misunderstood what was being said - in fact it was the Hannah's Headband Woman. 
My friend helps co-ordinate the making of these headbands locally - and has some people who've made complete headbands [like me] And other people who complete one stage of the process. She telephoned on Friday evening to say that she had some packs of headbands which were all cut and prepared, ready for the machine sewing and elastic..

..and the elastic stitcher couldn't do it now, please could I help, as she was desperate. I'd only need to do machining - she has a team of ladies lined up to sew on the buttons. What could I say? I said that I had other stuff to do, but I would do a few. Which is why Friday evening and Saturday morning were spent making 150 headbands.

Next week I may start my own heavy metal group, it will probably be less stressful

Oh Crumbs!

Bob found a flour mill in Northampton which would deliver bread flour in 16kg sacks at an extremely reasonable price. So he ordered one. It has meant that I can continue to bake our own loaves, usually on alternate days. I'm not sure that once the lockdown etc is over, I shall want to go back to buying bread in a supermarket! I have been experimenting, and have made rolls, burger buns and bagels, as well as ordinary loaves. However we do seem to eat more bread when it comes as a bagel or a bun...I made the rolls quite small as we were using those in our YouTube Communion service. Here is some of my recent output

Sunday Worship In Ferndown

This morning's half-hour service includes one of my favourite songs [Vagabonds] and a feature on The Bus Stop Club [one of the two food charities we are supporting each week through the lockdown] and a great sermon from Bob [OK I am biased, but I found it really challenging]

It's Wesley Day

Methodists the world over call this day, 24th  May"Wesley Day" - it marks the day in 1738 when John Wesley became a Christian. Wesley Day 1959 was the day on which another great Methodist, Dr William Sangster died.
I'm not a Methodist, but in 1970, I was given this book - the biography written by the man's son, published just a few months before.
I found it challenging and encouraging. Sangster was a good man, and a gifted preacher. He became the Pastor of "Westminster Central Hall" - that large place of worship close to the Houses of Parliament. During the War Years, the basement was a huge air-raid shelter, where he and his wife led a team of volunteers who looked after those who took refuge there. He was an inspiration to many Christians, of all denominations, during the war years, and afterwards. 
There are lots of brilliant stories in this little book - he had a great sense of fun [a quality sadly lacking in some members of the clergy] and his loving family showed care and hospitality to so many.
But in his fifties he became very ill, with progressive muscular atrophy, a form of motor neurone disease. He knew it was incurable, he knew he would gradually lose all his faculties, until he would be unable to breathe. His life would become locked down, more and more limited in what he could do. His attitude to this was amazing. 
He kept a diary for as long as he was able to write, and in this he spoke of his reaction to the diagnosis. He says "I made some resolutions...

• I will never complain
• I will keep the home bright
• I will count my blessings
• I will try to turn it to gain

And he did all those things - until the very end, his home was a place of joy, and there were many positive things which came out of his illness, which blessed many other people. The excerpts from the diary, and details in the book, show that he did keep his resolve. And I keep thinking of this brave man, whose unshakeable trust in God helped him through all his suffering, until he peacefully departed this life.

Perhaps during this time of lockdown I should copy out Sangster's Resolutions, and postthem on the fridge, to remind myself. My situation is easy compared to his - but these four simple statements will still be something of a challenge for me. [Especially the first one]

Bee Thoughtful

I love bees! They are utterly fascinating I had planned to do a post for World Bee Day on Wednesday and then forgot until the evening when a friend mentioned it on Facebook and reminded me of Brian Bilston's great poem
The Last Bee
After the last ee
had uzzed its last uzz
the irds and the utterflies
did what they could.
ut soon the fields lay are
few flowers were left
nature was roken
and the planet ereft
rian ilston
Country Living magazine has a helpful piece about Bee First Aid. Honeybees and wild bees are usually left to their own device, but there are three specific situations where human intervention can help
Rescuing a drowning bee - If a bee is in water, use anything flat [large leaf, lid, trowel] to life it out. Leave the bee in full sun and offer a little sugar water
Reviving an exhausted bee - Bees affected by bad weather can be helped by a sugar water solution [ratio of 1:1] Do not offer supermarket honey, it can pass on diseases into the bee population [although not harmful to humans] And do not leave out sugar solution at other times - it may prevent bees looking for the nectar in the flowers.
Rescuing a bee from a house or car -  firstly do not waft!  Bees will see rapid arm movements as a threat. Just leave window or door open and the bee will find its own way out. Alternatively [as with spiders] Put a glass over the insect, slide a piece of card underneath. Carry the glass outside and release the bee to fly away.

Then Philip alerted me to a great little clip on the BBC news website about our ingenious  apian friends. 

Bee Thoughtful, and Bee Blessed!

.