Lent 2 : Rooted

Lent 1 was Reflection, Lent 2 is Rooted.  I went out last week and took the March photo for My Tree. TBH, the tree doesn't look that much different from the January and February photos. But you can see the crops in the field are lusher and greener than they were a few weeks back. I started thuinking about trees, and their impact on the environment.

They help make the air cleaner, taking in bad gases [CO2 etc] and breathing out fresh Oxygen

They provide shelter for many animals, places to live, eat and raise families
They shade the earth and keep it cool
They help prevent flooding, and their roots hold the soil in place
They help reduce climate change
They have a big impact on us all

Trees are mentioned an awful lot in the Bible - beginning with the Trees in Genesis - the Tree of Life and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - and ending in Revelation with the Tree of Life, again - whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. And "the tree" is frequently used as a description of the Cross of Jesus. Here are just a few examples...

• The cedars of Lebanon, beautiful and strong, used for building Solomon's Temple
• The oaks of Mamre, at the placed where Abraham met with three angels - sturdy and established
• The fig tree where Nathanael encountered Jesus
• The olive tree, a sign to Noah that the flood waters were receding, and its oil used for anointing, it is a symbol of peace
• The palm tree, representing success and triumph. its branches waved as Jesus entered in Jerusalem
• The almond tree, representing God's watchfulness over his people, and also resurrection, new life and growth.

If my life is to have any sort of positive impact on others, I need to have strong roots, faith is not a superficial thing. I need to be willing to 'hold out the olive branch' working for peace and reconciliation. [we so need to see 'the healing of the nations' right now]
Like the oaks and the cedars I need to be both attractive/winsome, and firmly established in my beliefs.

I must speak out the gospel, offering new life and hope.

Like the properties of trees mentioned earlier - do I help make the world a 'purer' place, by fighting against evil?

Do I offer shelter and comfort to those who need it ?

If I am secure in my faith, am I able to offer help and strength to those who are struggling?

Paul says to his friends in Ephesus " I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love," A good aim, I think

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This Blessed Plot...

 ...This Earth, This Realm, This England*
or in my case, "This blessed plot, this raised bed, this mini-greenhouse..." I have been outside, and negotiated my way round the woodstore cottage and checked on a few things outside. 

I have emptied the bottom half of my compost bin, through that flimsy little sliding door - and put a layer of compost on the raised bed.

The two troughs of tete-a-tete daffs hich were sheltering beside the oil tank are all in bloom, so they have been moved to the front, beside the door.

This is one of the four plastic supports from the old water butt. It is held in place by a large lump of concrete found when we were sorting out the patio and dead decking. I am using this contraption to force some rhubarb. I had a quick peek - a few fine bright pink stems with vivid greeny yellow curly leaves under there. Maybe when Julian comes next week I shall make a fancy pud.

Inside, the potatoes seem to be taken forever to chit, but the pepper seeds in the propagator are showing signs of growth. Sadly not the 'mild red pepper' which I could eat, but the two blistering hot chilis I planted for Bob have both developed leaves.

* This is the only bit of Richard II I can quote. Currently I am studying Romeo and Juliet in order to help a young friend with her GCSE Revision. I will close this post with a favourite Ogden Nash poem, which I dedicate to the frazzled parents of adolescent daughters

The Romantic Age

This one is entering her teens,
Ripe for sentimental scenes,
Has picked a gangling unripe male,
Sees herself in bridal veil,
Presses lips and tosses head,
Declares she's not too young to wed,
Informs you pertly you forget
Romeo and Juliet.
Do not argue, do not shout;
Remind her how that one turned out.

A String Of Pearls

I love the idea of an oyster dealing with the irritating grain of sand inside its shell by covering it with nacre, which becomes a wonderful opalescent sphere. Taking the awful thing in life and turning it into something utterly beautiful. I have four pearls set in a silver brooch, which my Uncle and Aunt in Australia sent to my grandmother many years ago, and when she died in 1975, they said i was to inherit it.

I'm old enough to remember a singer with a very powerful voice called Pearl Bailey. My Dad always called her Pearl Barley [I suspect he was not alone in that]

In the long hot summers of my childhood, I used to dream of a cool drink of fruit squash, made with Pearl Barley.[but Mum said it was too expensive] Robinson's Lemon Barley Water was synonymous with Wimbledon Fortnight. The company ended their partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis Club in 2022, the drink having been first invented to hydrate their players in 1935.

Pearl Barley is a tasty grain which features in many national cuisines [cholent], the slow simmered Jewish Sabbath stew, and krupnik a rich Polish soup] My Flemish MIL often added it to her casseroles. I bought a packet last year. And forgot about it, until last Monday. I'd put a curry in the slocooker in the morning, then in the evening I could not find any rice to serve with it [all my cans and packets are in boxes in the back bedroom]

I measured out some pearl barley, and used my microwave rice cooker to produce a delicious accompaniment. This is a brilliant Joseph Joseph gadget which I found for a fiver in a CS, and use regularly to make perfect rice.

Do you ever use Pearl Barley in your cooking?

How do you cook your rice? 

As Nice As Pi

 Tomorrow is Pi Day aka World Mathematics Day.

We may or may not eat pie. Last week was British Pie Week, and we had Chicken Pie on Friday, and Steak Pie at my bro's on Sunday. There will be maths today, because there is maths every day in this house.

Also there's going to be a Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse. 

Hopefully it will be red and glorious to see.

A partial eclipse here in the UK,  but total across the pond. I may possibly set the alarm and get up to watch it! Details HERE

A day of pies, maths, and moonlight...what more could you want?

You Be Fred, And I'll Be Ginger!

This is one of our family phrases being said a lot at Cornerstones lately. Specifically when two people have to pick up a heavy item and carry it together through the home, or outside to the garden or workshop. It all goes back to this wonderful 1982 carton by Bob Thaves. Ms Rogers was a very gifted woman!

Health And Safety Notice #1 I must stress that neither I nor Bob wear high heels when moving heavy stuff, we always don appropriate footwear for the task! But one of us will often have to go backwards as we carry a cupboard out onto the patio, and it is helpful to decide that before you pick something up.

Dismantling the cupboards has not proved too difficult. Many units are going to be repurposed - one length of worktop is going to make a new bench for my garden workshop [ie the old garage] at a height which I can reach. Other units are to be rebuilt at the end of the coach-house for storing 'car' stuff. Some will becoming shelving in the loft. There is very little going to the tip! We are recycling as much as we can. Much is currently under a tarp, looking like a little house.

Bob reminded me of four years ago, when we had a 'dragon' on the patio, storing the leftover wood from the Lathe Palace construction

Stripping out a kitchen reveals so much. The walls were initially magnolia, then salmon pink, then magnolia again, then we added a blue feature wall. This will be the third set of cupboards in 50 years, and the many holes and rawlplugs bear witness to previous fittings. And why are the pitifully few electric sockets all different styles and at different heights? [and apparently fitted without the use of spirit levels!] I thought the contorted plumbing under the sink was bad enough - the stuff behind the cupboards is like some sort of copper and plastic macramé work. 
Before anything new goes in, there will be much "making good" of the walls, and tidying up of pipes and cables [and installing good quality matching power sockets]

Things are mostly relocated to the back bedroom - no chance of granddaughter sleepovers for a while! A friend asked if we were living on 'sandwiches in the lounge' for the duration. I was able to reassure her we were managing to eat 'proper' meals, using the Futility Room Mini-Kitchen.[more on that later] And Adrian and Marion kindly invited us for Sunday lunch, which was absolutely splendid.
I am very conscious that if we were using a firm of Kitchen Fitters, they might have taken one look at what has been revealed in the stripping out, and declared that there's Lots More To Be Done than originally envisaged, and extra £££s would have been added to labour costs.
Health And Safety Notice #2 We are paying due care and attention to energy levels. Regular breaks for a sit down and a cuppa. Bob sits on the Dalek when working low down, better for his back than bending. Heavy loads are either divided into two smaller ones, or we work together to shift things. And we have a calendar charting the days when we have other commitments, so we are not working too many hours.
Fortunately we are able to laugh at ourselves, and have fun as we work, which makes the task so much easier.

 

Venerable Beads

Rosie had such fun during half term, using Hama beads for the first time. But first we had to sort the colours into plastic bowls to facilitate her design work.

This meant the task took longer than I'd expected. I remembered that when we were in Kirby Muxloe, I had them all sorted into glass jars - but when we moved, I emptied them all into two big tubs, and recycled the jars, to make packing easier [and lighter]

But last week, whilst watching TV in the evening, I sat with a tray on my lap, and Bob's sharp needle-nose tweezers, and sorted the lot. It took hours

I haven't many spare jars at the minute, but this is what 10,000+ beads look like all neatly separated by colour [I gave up with black, white grey, and stuck those all in together]

Despite declaring last year that we had finished doing Holiday Clubs, we are going to run a One Day Event in the Easter Holidays. As I was sorting, a craft idea involving threading the beads occurred to me [but nothing with hot irons, when you have a crowd of youngsters to contend with!] 

I immediately stopped sorting, and grabbed my tin of mini Tiptree jars.

It didn't take long to put a scoop of mixed beads into each of 30 jars all ready for April!

Have you ever done any crafting with Hama beads? 

They are fine until you catch the edge of the jar with your elbow, and sprinkle them in a rainbow all over the carpet!

Eureka Spiritsis

I have never lived in my own house before - most of my 70 years have been spent in Manses, with kitchens of varying quality. I was so thrilled that the new families following us to both Kirby and Ferndown had lovely new kitchens to go to. But here we are at Cornerstones [and here we will stay, I hope] Over the past 16 years we have redecorated most of the rooms, and in 2021, we did a minor kitchen refurb, replacing the horrid stained white sink with a new double sink and drainer, and new taps. At that point, Bob rehung 3 of the upper cupboards to make them more useful.

But the cupboards are around 20 years old, and very poor quality. Shelves and drawers kept collapsing, and needing repair,  their plastic fixings crumbling. The cooker hood no longer works properly. The plumbing under the sink is abysmal, and there are not many electric sockets. And the floor is really hard to keep clean, it has a weird textured surface. So we have been planning and saving for a Whole New Kitchen.

Friends and family warned us this was not a straightforward project. Almost everyone has a 'New Kitchen Horror Story. it seems. 

We decided to go slowly, thinking and planning carefully. We are blessed with a Futility Room - and the dishwasher, washing machine and fridge freezer are in there- along with a sink. So we knew we could use that as a temporary kitchen instead [obviously the range cooker will be out of action for the duration of The Works]

2025 has been designated Year Of The Kitchen.

We were recommended a planning guy from Norwich. He came with his door and handle samples, and lots of ideas. He didn't really listen to what we said [two essentials; keep the electric box accessible, leave a space for my Dalek, used daily] He ignored those two points completely, and suggested a kitchen costing £30K+ [not including flooring, plumbing or electrics] Thanks but no thanks. We looked at another company, but their pricing policy seems decidedly iffy.

Then we found a kitchen company we did like - units with good strong internal fixings, accessible corner cupboards which do not waste space, and intelligent designs. We debated fitting it ourselves, and my brother, and one of Bob's Shedmates have kindly offered their help. So after a few minor hiccups. we have planned and ordered our new kitchen. One which is guaranteed and should last many many years. At a fraction of the cost we were quoted from Norwich Guy. Watch this space...

Lent 1: Reflection

Today marks the National Day of Covid Reflection - five years since the Pandemic.

Covid had an impact on all of us, across the globe. 

Rev Steve Finamore, the current President of the Baptist Union, has written this prayer for today. I find it to be a helpful reflection, and reminder to pray for those who are still struggling

Our loving and gracious God,
As we look back on the pandemic and the lockdown
We each have our own thoughts and memories
And we all carry the sense of disruption we experienced
And are conscious of the things we learned
about You and about ourselves
 As we pause to reflect
Help us to consider the people and places where the scars are deepest
Those who lost loved ones without a goodbye hug
Or a final conversation, or a fitting farewell service
With the comfort of friends and family
 Those who live with long covid, who feel constant tiredness
 And who cannot escape the brain fog that looms over everything
 The young people whose education was disturbed
 So that significant learning and important life experiences
 Were lost forever
We think of those whose sense of confinement
And feelings of dislocation
Have brought lasting anxiety and depression
 We recall the people whose businesses were lost
 or have never truly recovered
 And whose livelihoods are damaged
 Or who lost their job and cannot find another
We remember all the people whose roles were deemed essential
But who now feel forgotten and even betrayed
As the rest of the world has moved on
 And in the midst of all that, we are grateful too
 For the acts of kindness of neighbours
 And the bravery of health workers
 And the brilliance of scientists
 And the organisational skills of the vaccination teams
 And the resilience of communities
 All signs of your presence with us
 In the midst of such great suffering and difficulty
May we, great God, as we reflect, learn a deeper trust in you
May we learn compassion,
May we learn love for you and love for neighbour,
May we use the lessons of adversity
To become more and more the people you call us to be
Though Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
 

Booked!

World Book Day Costumes

In London Princess Pearl  [Zog and the Flying Doctors] and Peanut Jones, in costumes which Grandma made earlier. I am not sure why Jess looks so fed up - maybe it is because she hasn't got her stethoscope

In Manchester, George scooted off to school as Kai [The fiercely determined Fire Ninja! Self-confident, impulsive, determined and brave ]

Kai is a strong character among the LEGO® NINJAGO® ninja heroes.]

I do think his scooter should have been made of Lego too

Jacob is currently obsessed with Old MacDonald, and sings the song morning, noon and night - so he went off dressed like the farmer in his book

Well done all families who managed to produce costumes for the children. And well done all  who make books a part of family life every day, not just on one day in March.

World Day Of Prayer 2025

 It is the first Friday in March and therefore the World Day of Prayer. 

 

This year's theme is "I made you wonderful" and the service has been prepared by the women of the beautiful Cook Islands. You can find more information here.

Flippin' Brilliant!

Bob got to church early and set up for the Pancake Party. He had a stool in the kitchen so he could sit down 

when he needed to. Dan brought along two more gas rings, the pancakes were being fried and flipped with great speed 

We had a variety of toppings, fruit sauces, nutella,  lemon and sugar - also tea, coffee, squash and biscuits.

There were activity sheets on the tables, and the families got involved in word searches and pancake puzzles.
After an hour, Bob announced he was running out of batter, so Jacob dashed up to the shop and got more ingredients. Over the 2½ hours, the two

cooks reckoned they produced well in excess of 100 pancakes - last year it was around 70

Richard, the new vicar at the local Parish Church dropped in too with his children [which was lovely because his vicarage is in another village]

All in all a lovely community event, with more than £50 raised for Hope Now, a charity helping people in Ukraine for over 30 years.

Did you have pancakes on Tuesday?

What's your favourite topping?

[I am aware that today is World Book Day - that will get mentioned later!]

Dyeing For A Living

We left Flatford at 10.40 Sunday and drove on through the beautiful countryside to Dedham. More spring blooms here than we had seen in Norfolk last week, but I expect our village will catch up very soon, with all this sunshine. Beautiful blue skies. I need to look up Alice Lee - I am embarrassed that I had not heard of her before. The properties, from different centuries, appeared well maintained. An attractive place. That's the house of Alfred Munnings, painter, bottom left. My great grandparents were his housekeeper and handyman for a while. But I'm not sure if they lived in that house!

On to Lavenham, a fantastic place, full of amazing half timbered Tudor houses. Including the Guildhall, another NT property. We enjoyed delicious red pepper and tomato soup in the garden, then looked round the house. Many relatively wealthy people lived here through the centuries, including dyers and weavers. There were lots of examples of their crafts displayed in the upstairs rooms. Look at the gorgeous smocking on this garment!

During lockdown, one of the NT volunteers spent her time researching the dyeing methods which might have been used by the previous residents. She produced a lovely sample book listing all the dyes used, and knitted triangles of bunting in all these various colours. Onion skin, turmeric, carrot tops, woad, ivy leaves, copper, iron, walnut shells...Quote fascinating. I said to the chap on reception "perhaps I should try growing woad..." But he warned me off, apparently it's very invasive!

We walked slowly back to car and drove home. It had been a brilliant break together, and the glitches at the hotel didn't spoil that.  We were home by 5pm. Early to bed, a busy week ahead.

Neither King Arthur, Nor King Cole, But Definitely King Charles [And Some Other Little Stars]

We had a fabulous mini-break in Essex, with a few little hiccups, but a lot of laughs. We knew we needed a couple of days 'away from it all', so at the start of January, I booked two nights b&b in a Hotel on the edge of Colchester. Following our Airbed Adventures in 2019, the girls suggested maybe we ought to relax the thriftiness a bit, and pay for a proper bed to sleep in. I chose a hotel which not only had decent looking bedrooms, but also a swimming pool and sauna on site - which I thought would be excellent relaxation for us both. "I may not leave the site" I said beforehand, "I will just swim, sauna, sleep, eat and lie on my bed with a book all weekend" 

Unfortunately this was not to be. The pool was out of order, and had been for more than a week. I suggested to the receptionist that had we been informed of this, we would have cancelled and gone elsewhere as the pool was the main reason we chose them. She said that a lot of the families who were booked in for half term had said the same thing!

Meanwhile Bob was trying to establish where the blue badge parking spaces were. There were three - this is the one with the clearest marking. The others just had vague yellow splashes. Despite the website saying "There is a hotel carpark" it did not make it clear that there was a daily charge for this. The two receptionists decided to waive the parking fees because of our disappointment re the pool.

But we decided not to let these things get us down. We settled in on Friday night and found the bed very comfortable, and the shower was lovely.  Saturday morning we set off to explore the Colchester, using our bus passes to get us right into the centre without worrying about parking.

Lots of history - the Romans came in 20BC, and Camulodonum is the oldest recorded town in the UK. Despite some people's hopeful theories, there is no evidence that Camulodonum has anything to do with Camelot, or that Colchester gets its name from Old King Cole. But Queen Elizabeth did grant the place city status as part of the Platinum Jubilee Honours, signing the letters patent on 5th September 2022, just days before her death - and King Charles III visited on 7th March 2023.

Colchester has a long and intriguing history. The High Street is full of some splendid architecture, and behind it is the Castle Museum. And an intriguing statue of two sisters, Anne and Jane Taylor, who wrote a lullaby in 1806 which is known and loved the world over - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

We strolled slowly in the sunshine, visiting bookshops and charity shops, and a delightful coffee shop opposite the Castle. In the afternoon we relaxed at the hotel - briefly using the gym, then having a sauna. In the evening we went out to a Carvery.

On Sunday, after another delightful breakfast, we checked out* and drove up to Constable Country. I have always wanted to go to Flatford Mill, and was not disappointed.

It is managed by the National Trust - and we sat by the water chatting to a pair of kayakkers [is that a word?] The young woman offered to take our photo. Then we went to look round the Bridge Cottage museum. I loved the little family on the mantelpiece, and wondered how the mice are doing in Dereham Museum

But the ceilings in the back room were awfully low - Bob really had to bend over to walk through. I picked up a few gifts in the shop.

It was only 10.30, and the NT coffeeshop had been open since 10 - but the queue was already round the block! We returned to the car to continue our journey. Part Two tomorrow...

* I am sorry to report that as well as the pool and the parking, there were a number of other things we felt unhappy about. We mentioned them at the time. I am not naming the hotel here, but I have emailed my concerns to them.

A Significant Milestone

I began this blog on March 29th 2008,  my first post was entitled A Lovely Day and here we are approaching the 17th anniversary. Over 7300 posts, and more than 53000 comments from so many lovely people. On Thursday night I finished packing for our trip, then was putting my tablet on charge when I decided to look at my blog stats. I do that about once a month. I'm flabbergasted. At some point on Thursday, the blog notched up it's 6 millionth view. I can never get to know you all, but thank you for bothering to look in regularly. My blog strapline has always been "Experiencing God's Geace In The Everyday"

May you too know love, grace and peace wherever you are today...

Sabbath Rest

I am looking forward to a peaceful day, resting and 'recharging' - I hope your Sabbath is blessed too

March Forward...

We live in a rapidly changing world. Sometimes we all need to step away and seek a moment of peace. Bob and I are spending three days down in Colchester on the southern edge of Constable Country. We are glad to be able to 'get away from it all' just for a little while.
We have been extremely busy since Christmas, and will have even more going on through the next couple of months. A weekend in Essex may not seem the height of glamour and luxury - but it will suit us just fine!

 

Stash Busting

In 1986, I knitted Liz a "robot jumper" using odd balls of wool from my stash. She loved it, and later Steph wore it. Back in February 2016, Ros
 came into our lives. I'd bought some blue wool in a sale, and knitted a jumper for the teddy bear Liz had when she was born, and a jumper for Rosie (9-12 months rather than newborn) The spare blue wool went in my stash

When George was two, in 2022 I used that leftover blue wool and some other random red and black yarns to knit him a robot jumper.

For Christmas 2023, I bought a lot of yarn from Wool Warehouse and knitted 4 Safari sweaters, for George, Jacob, Jess, and great-nephew Arthur [a similar blue background)

The leftover wool went into the Stash. Christmas 2024 I knitted Rosie a jumper, using a pattern I'd knitted for somebody else forty years ago and wool from the Safari Stash

She loves her horse jumper. Then Steph and I were on a WhatsApp call. Jacob was in the Robot Jumper, as George has sadly grown out of it.

So I've used more of the Safari Stash (lots of ochre) plus some green, to knit a new Robot Jumper for George!

I'm not sure what I shall knit next, but it may involve stripes!!