Sunday 27th August - singing your prayers

 I always remember things better if they are set to a tune.

Recently I bought a copy of Angela Ashwin's 'Book of a 1000 Prayers' on Kindle. I'm reading through the Morning Prayers in sequence every morning and taking a phrase to remember through the day.

It's a bit late in the say now to share a morning payer, so here's one from the evening section. The tune is callIed Tallis' Canon.

Glory to thee, my God, this night 

For all the blessings of the light;

 Keep me, O keep me, King of kings, 

Beneath thine own almighty wings. 

Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son, 

The ill that I this day have done, 

That with the world, myself, and thee, 

I, ere I sleep, at peace may be. 

Thomas Ken (1637 – 1711)

Sunday 23rd April - Night Time Liturgy

This Night-Time Prayer comes from New Zealand. 

You can read the lovely story behind the prayer here.

Lord,

it is night.

The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done;
what has not been done has not been done;
let it be.

The night is dark.
Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives
rest in you.

The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all dear to us,
and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.
Let us look expectantly to a new day,
new joys,
new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen. 

Friday 4th November - Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka

 Warning - a political rant about the immigration crisis from the comfort of my heated house, after having had a hot bath and plenty of breakfast. I add that because I KNOW I am letting off steam from my position of economic security.

Just skip this post if you don't want to be bothered with all this immigration stuff.

I re-read this recently. t was first published in 2007, fifteen years ago. The Ukraine that the main characters come from is a very different place to the Ukraine that we hear about today. 

The important recent dates are, I suppose, 1991, when it became independent from the fast dissolving Russian bloc, and then 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. The setting, in time, of the book, is squarely between the two, allowing for the several years it probably to write it and get it published. Andriy is from the industrial, mining region in the East, and still has clear sympathies with Russia, whereas Irina from Kyiv in the West and is rejoicing in Independence, although this only becomes clear as the story progresses. Other characters are from China, somewhere in Africa, and Poland if I remember rightly.

They have all come to England to earn money - and we discover, in the book, a (fictionalised) account of how they all get on. How they work! How they graft for every meal, in horrible, horrible conditions, always prey to unscrupulous exploitation by people traffickers of every description.

When I read it the first time, I absorbed just the uplifting story of people who are trying to survive while remaining essentially good people.

Doesn't it make sense that if economic survival in your own country has become impossible, or you are at risk because you are not heterosexual, or follow the wrong religion, or a member of a minority ethnic group, you would do anything to leave? I don't think that these 'young single men', like Emmanuel and the others in the story, are just here 'for a better life'. I think they have come here to have a chance to live.

The stories in the paper about how this country is dealing, or failing to deal with the needs of the people arriving on our shores are shameful. I don't know how we have got ourselves into this mess, but I pray with all my heart that we can find a humane and civilised way through, to sort out the paperwork (I will NOT call it 'processing') and integrate these people into our population in a generous and timely fashion.

Not forgetting the appalling problems that people already living in this country also experience with housing, poverty, health services... to tackle the immigration issues without also addressing the needs of long established citizens is really going to do nothing except stir up more trouble.

Rant over.

And breathe.     

I've finished with the book now, if you would like to read it, let me know in the comments (I won't print your address) and I will post it to you. 

 

Monday 28th March - Jigsaw, flowers, Noah's Ark, Prayer for peace

BB received a Wentworth jigsaw a couple of weeks ago. progress has been slow,

but then he realized that the light brown tint to his 'reactive' lenses in his glasses were not helping. Now, if it had been me in that position, removing my glasses would have made it impossible, but his eyes can still focus at that range. Short sight versus long sight, I suppose, no, don't explain it to me please. 

The tray belongs to an IKEA traytable

but short dimension of the tray was fractionally to small to accommodate a 500 piece puzzle. He dismantled the sides, removed a sliver from the long edges on the inside, and reassembled it, so that the bottom edge of the puzzle just slots in. It looks as though the completed puzzle has been framed! 

The buds on the Mother's Day flowers are opening now; it is just SO pretty.

Here are yesterday and today's Noah's Ark pictures;

Moles and bats

For today, one very fierce bear;

Today's seems appropriate in the light of the recent news both at home and in the rest of the world.

If you are joining in with taking a minute to pray for peace at 8pm every evening, you could do worse than just listen to the Cape Town Youth Choir singing 'Ukuthula', one of the most moving songs I have heard for a while.  

Here are the words;

Ukuthula - Peace Kulumhlaba we zono - In this (broken) world of trouble Igazi like Jesu lin yenyez' - The blood of Jesus flowed (so that you could have:) Ukuthula - Peace Usindiso - Redemption Ukubonga - Praise Ukutholwa - Faith Ukunqoba - Victory Induduzo - Comfort

Lent Reflection 3 - Hear, Listen, Obey

I was wondering what to write today - quite often I know early in the week and spend several days reflecting on the reflection, as it were.

The leader at today's church service (what a blessing it is that our church does a livestream for a number of the congregation who, like me, can't get to the services) is a man who has spent a lot of time studying what life was life in Biblical times, and how the words in the written scriptures were interpreted in those days.

He says that Biblical Hebrew has only about 7,000 words, compared to the 100,000 plus words in modern English, so the Hebrew words had many meanings.

So the word for 'hear', also means to listen, and to obey. 

This brings a whole new dimension to what Jesus means whenever he is says 'he who has ears to hear, let him hear' .

The familiar phrases and stories suddenly take on a new urgency - it is not enough to let the words flow through the air, towards our ears, but we need to act upon what we hear.

I've joined in the international movement to stop and pray for a minute, every day, for peace, an end to all conflicts, for people to turn to God. The time for the UK is 8pm. It's a drop in the ocean. It's a start, a step.

(I haven't worked out if it will still be 8pm when the clocks change - I'm guessing it will!) 

More reflections over at Tracing Rainbows

Friday 11th March - End of the Week

 Getting the blog written yesterday was quite a challenge. A whole load of windows updates went through, and Blogger was cranky for a while; photographs on my main page not loaded, and the icons all disappeared on the 'new post' page so there was a fair bit of guesswork and a number of deep sighs.

Reloading the pages seemed to work, without my losing anything I had already types in, so all ended well and without tears.

Today - everything seems normal - what passes for normal - maybe I shouldn't speak/type too soon.

After yesterday's full day, with almost everything getting done, today, as I rather thought it would be - was a rather different story!  

First thing, the weather looked promising, but even as I looked out of the window the clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and a sharp draught found its way through the windows on the North edge of the bay.

I put away all thoughts of going out!

It was an opportunity to catch up with my 'Commonplace Book'

I've been keeping these for some years now, and every so often go back and discover what was attracting my interest back then.

  I haven't made a good job of copying Harry the Cat's tail; it looks more like he is sitting on an earthworm. It will be enough of a clue.

I tend to take screenshots of things I trip across on the internet, and then transfer them to notebooks.

I opened today's Noah's Ark window. I have at last sorted out the connection between the scripture quotation revealed in the window, and the Biblical commentary in the booklet. It's quite simple - there isn't one.  Luke chapter 18 v 25 is about it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The commentary was about Abraham. I can't remember if Abraham had an camels; I remember the sheep and goats and donkeys.

I've made progress on the felted tea cosy; I was delighted to find that the cut edges showed no desire to fray. Even so, I thought a line of blanket stitch would not come amiss   

Which is when I discovered that the blue embroidery thread was a skein that had no paper loops to hold it in shape, and showed every desire to unravel into a horrid tangle. That was soon sorted.

I've only done one side; the tea pot was carried off to the kitchen before I could check the other side before cutting the slit. I'm not sorry - it can be a job for another day.

I've started a trial on the cat embroidery on a spare piece of fabric. Then I had a panic - what if Ang hates cats? Then a remembered, this is MY piece, so I get to keep the cat! Sewing with pale grey thread on pale cream fabric is definitely an eye-watering activity. I've also decided to make the whole picture a bit smaller, and do some practice tulip embroideries. Satin stitch is SO not a strong point! 

My beautiful variegated threads arrived. I have a feeling that each one will need to be wound on to a piece of card before I use them.

The first Lent resolution has been - bent? Can I call it a greenstick fracture rather than a break? Quite a few 'older ladies', and I suspect I fall into that category every so slightly, are following a course in a book called 'Strong women stay young'. Exercising every day is one of my Lent activities, and I have bought a copy to get more ideas.

I shall have to make good by keeping to the resolution.

Finally, Ukraine. If you would like to join in, a prayer collective is organising that, as in World War 2, we stop whatever we are doing for one minute tor 

pray for world peace, for an end to conflict and for the restoration of tranquillity to all people on the earth, and for families to look to God for their safety and to see their salvation.  

The time for the United Kingdom is 8pm. Just one minute. Peace on Earth, and Goodwill to all peoples.

Thursday 3rd March - Locusts and Snakes

 I thought that title might get your attention!

Those were the pictures inside the first two windows of my Noah's Ark Lent calendar.

Two locusts; 'what the cutting locusts have left, the swarming locusts have eaten; Joel 1;4 ' for Ash Wednesday

'Be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves, Matt 10;16 ' for today.

Not exactly cheerful, but somehow fitting in with the times. One normally thinks of snakes as cunning and evil, but in the context of the rest of the paragraph, I think wisdom is what is meant. Unfortunately it is all too easy to use one's intelligence to twist and turn the truth. 

I shall be opening tomorrow's window with some trepidation...

I was very pleased with myself at how I was getting on with sticking to Lent yesterday - but when I looked at the clock it was still only 11am. I was reminded of this;

Morning Prayer

---

Dear Lord,
So far I've done all right.
I haven't gossipped,
haven't lost my temper,
haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent.
I'm really glad about that.

But in a few minutes, God,
I'm going to get out of bed.
And from then on,
I'm going to need a lot more help.

Who said religion had to be a serious business!

Knitting and sewing;

I have started the felted tea cosy after spending some time on research. I found a pattern for a felted children's hat, and from that was able to discover how much this yarn is likely to shring when it felts up. 

Currently my pattern looks like this;

but I don't advise you to attempt to understand or copy it. The only thing I am certain of at this stage is the picture of the teapot.

I'm using the same yarn that I used for these potholders; hmm, mine didn't come out exactly as this picture on the pattern, as I recall. Maybe I should have been a bit more heavy-handed when I ironed them! The website is a treasure trove of free patterns, by the way.

The sock continues, the wrist-warmers have been posted off, and I know that Ang has received my sewing on the postcard swap project so I can reveal the labyrinth I did;

French knots are a new skill; you have to know the magic words and say them with exactly the right intonation; 'twisty twisty french knot'. If you say it wrong it turns out as 'twisty twisty french no' which isn't too bad, but if you are really unlucky it becomes 'twisty twisty french oh bother' and now you are in trouble. The red blob in the middle does look like a heart from a different angle, I assure you.

Sunday 19th December - Pause in Advent 4

 

Is this a prayer?

Vespers

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.
Wasn't it fun in the bath to-night?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

© by owner. provided at no charge for educational 

A A Milne https://allpoetry.com/poem/8518995-Vespers-by-A.A.-Milne

It is certainly how my prayers tend to go. I'll start with good intentions, I'll try and follow a plan such as 

'T S P' - thanks, sorry, please 

'ACTS' - adoration, confession, thanks, supplication (a bit more grown up, maybe)

but quite soon I'm watching the birds gather on the TV aerial outside my window and wonder how they all know to meet up here today, instead of further down the road, and laugh at the way they jostle for the best position - clearly there is some kind of hierarchy, even for starlings. 

I'll pull myself up and try and get back on track... but that first cup of coffee was so good, I still have the taste in my mouth, shall I have a second, maybe later... oh no, I'm off again... 

Here is the poem set to music on youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_YWl68in0

not the tune I was expecting, but somehow haunting and true... a lullaby...

Sunday 29th August - Walking and walking and walking

Every day since Monday I have been out walking around the streets nearby. I have a new gadget - I keep calling it a 'fitbit' but that's like calling your Miele vacuum cleaner a Hoover. It's a Garmin something or other, all connected up to my mobile phone by some kind of telepathy.

In some ways it is a ridiculous extravagance, and in others a brilliant purchase, as I am very motivated now to clock up the steps and go out for a walk - oh I'm bored, I'll just walk a little way up the road and take my mind off that packet of crisps which keeps singing out 'eat me, eat mee' 

I set low goals to begin with - 2000 steps, and increased it little by little to 3500. I'm moving up to 4000 this week!

It also measures heart rate, and attempts to measure Oxygen sats but that last seems very optimistic - I will be gasping like a landed fish, and the finger monitor say 77% (which is very very low!) and the wrist band reads 92%. No, I don't think so!

The point is though, walking everyday has completely revitalised me - I feel less 'bleah', no longer stuck in a sort of foggy misty doldrum. I've also been focusing on how I breathe, as the oxygen machine is only effective if I breathe through my nose.

 

We've done tests over the same route - me on my own, me carrying the oxygen machine, me with Best Beloved carrying the machine, and I've been keeping records. It is abundantly clear to me that I am improving in how far I can go, with and without the machine, in just one week. So exciting!

What else...

I have the most perfect morning schedule going at the moment; first of all a tray with breakfast and my mobile phone arrives; 

and I look through the news on my phone while listening to BBC Radio 3. 

Then I do the Bible reading for the day - don't know how long that will last - I have a track record going back many decades of starting a 'daily this' or 'daily that' and giving it up after a couple of months. It does give me an opportunity to ponder and pray for things - family, church, and the unimaginable disaster in Afghanistan, and not only Afghanistan but in other areas of the world. I am astonished that people are still behaving like barbarians everywhere in the world - well, no, I'm not astonished. Just deeply, deeply sad. A mixture of prayer, and donating to various organisations, is all I can offer. Today's reading were a Psalm, and a couple of chapters of Ecclesiastes which kind of summed things up. 

.............

Then I do a quick drawing. Here is the view out of the bedroom window of the birds gathering on the TV aerials for their morning briefing. 

At some stage the cat will join me; 

And then I will get up. This is a great start to the day!

I've finished knitting the greeny-blue vest, or sleeveless top, or slipover, or whatever it is going to turn into, and yesterday I cut and sewed the armhole steek on one side. I have practiced steeks on the teacosies, and also on a swatch of the sleeveless top, so I felt fairly confident.

I did two lines of sewing either side of the cutting line (marked in white) 

Then came the scary part; this wool is a lot more unravel-ry than proper shetland wool.

sewing down the cut edged was finicky work, so I paused in the middle for a mini croissant or two

Sewing and croissants were finished at about the same time.

    

It's looking pretty good. I am waiting for the exact combination of time, mood, light and inclination to all come together to tackle the other armhole. Then I have to do something about the weird bits around the neck where some stitches have become very loose, and it is all finished. No seaming, as I did a clever 3-needle bind-off for the shoulder seams. Hooray!

Lastly, I've been living dangerously by doing some watercolour thumbnails while sitting on the sofa;

 I'm using a waterbrush rather than pot of water which keeps things slightly under control!

Now, it's time to assemble a pot of tea...

Friday 20th - Thursday 26th August - And Breathe...

I'm definitely going to have to learn Italian. We are watching all the episodes of Montalbano, and Young Montalbano, from the beginning - how have we missed these until now? We ration ourselves to one at lunchtime, and maybe another in the late afternoon or early evening if we NEEEEEED a distraction because it is too hot, or too wet, or we are just too bleah to consider any other activity.

Picture from www.sicilytourguides.net

Picture from discoveringscicily.com

We watch it for the stories, the characters, and above all, the scenery. The dialogue is all in Italian, with English subtitles, and the sound of the language, especially when Commissar Salvo Montalbano gets worked up about something is wonderful to hear.

After watching an episode I have to resist the urge to reply 'Certo' in the same tone of voice, instead of 'sure' or 'okay' or 'fine'.

This past week I have been reining myself in from giving way to full-throttled frustrazione e furia as I battled my way through labyrinthine switchboards and websites to deal with problems with the supply of an essential medication (sorted - a prescription had got 'lost' somehow, and stayed 'lost' in spite of arranging for it to be redelivered). Also a complete farce with appointments at one of the London hospitals which decided I MUST come in for routine face-2-face tests and appointments, no, I didn't need to, yes I did after all, and could I come up three days in advance for a PCR test... Oh my word. I think this is sorted, forse; one more phone call to check whether the letter cancelling a 12 o'clock appointment or the one booking me in for a 12 o'clock appointment (what happened to the 11.10 appointment then?) is the real one. And I am now the local expert on where and how and when you can get PCR test appointments locally, rather than visiting the hospital three days in advance.

Going up to London seems such a big thing - I have been quite distracted by the idea - not in the least because I had a blood test recently so check on my Covid antibodies level. Result; 'non detected'.

A friend has offered to drive us in her camper van! Providing us with somewhere to eat, a personal loo, and a rescue from travelling up by train and bus/two tubes or taxi. A friend indeed - it's at least a two-hour journey by car, with no certainty of where to park when you get there. Driving back after Lung Function tests, a Rheumatology consultation and a Cardiology consultation - all tiring in their own way - would have been really exhausting. Che grande amica!

Has this been all my life since last Friday? Well, pretty much so. I have come completely unravelled a couple of times (there was also an appointment on Friday 20th at a local hospital to investigate what, if any, portable oxygen supply I need for walking around, but more on that another time). Somehow, at each crucial moment, something has happened to stave off total collapse - a friend and colleague turning up with a pot of flowers; 

  The first blooms on a dark blue buddleia that I asked another friend to get for me 

and these utterly charming metal birds appearing on the top of the fence between us and our neighbours

The sight of any one of these, and many other things that have come my way over; a chunk of a Psalm,  verse of a hymn, and even this whacky chorus from a children's song about praying to God when things are getting heavy. 

This prayer thing. Seems to work pretty well, I've found. Even when my prayer seems to come out all 'AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH' skipping out all the Thee, Thine, Thy and Thou bits and getting straight to the point.

And Breathe.... 

Wednesday 29th July - Coffee mug update

Well, this is just an update of all the sketches of coffee mugs I've done since the last time I posted them.

On Sunday 26th I was a bit bored with coffee mugs, and spent an afternoon happily watching and following a youtube tutorial on painting leaves. I did shove a coffee mug into the bottom corner!

It seemed to me that the paintings were all looking a bit samey, so I started being more experimental with using colour. Monday and Tuesday's mugs were just an excuse to watch all the colours running in and around each other, although today's picture is a return to realism.

I'm ridiculously excited because my new tubes of water colour have arrived, and a box with empty 'pans' to fill is coming tomorrow. I watched a youtube of an artist explaining why he chose these shades, and demonstrating how they work together and I was HOOKED. My current box of watercolours is in the bottom of the picture.

I've also ordered a new sketchbook, as this one will be more of less filled by the 'month of mugs' project.

The Bible quotes are all taken from the morning prayers in the Franciscan Daily Office Book, called 'Celebrating Common Prayer' which I've been following for a couple of weeks. 

Anyway, here are all the paintings so far!

Monday 20th July

Tuesday 21st July

Wednesday 22nd July

Thursday 23rd July

Friday 24th July

Saturday 25th July

Sunday 26th July

Monday 27th July

Tuesday 28th July - actually I cheated; I did this today, Wednesday 29th July - but I started the page yesterday

Today 29th July

Two more days of July, and already I'm pondering the next project...