Friday 16th June - What's that noise?

Heard a strange rapid flapping noise from the other end of the room....


one of my souvenirs of Kircudbright is a helenium plant, handed to me in a small cardboard box. I'm hoping it should eventually become something like this.

https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/home-garden/gardening/plants/perennials/how-to-grow-heleniums

I've put it on the kitchen windowsill, but hadn't got round to chucking the box into the recycling bin, so it is still on the floor in the dining room.

The cats have been taking it in turns to try it for size. It does seem to be rather small for them, or maybe the cats are just a bit big for the box. Who knows.

The strange sound was Leo waking up and shaking her head, so that her ears were rattling against the sides of the box. Wouldn't you have thought that would be a bit painful?

Friday 16th June 2017 - Books I have read

I've just this minute finished



which was a tremendous read. It's a young adult book, I suppose, but not for the very young, that's for sure. I downloaded after reading a review somewhere, and set in a modern-day refugee camp and told through the eyes of a child. Once I realised that the refugee camp was in some familiar country - it is never named, and for a long time I thought it might be in the USA, but that didn't make sense I became increasingly upset at the hideous and hopeless like that was inflicted upon the inmates. Is there a happy ending? Well, there is certainly a sense that there will be a resolution, but, no, not an actual ending. of resolution - the story, like the lives of the refugees, has to just live in hope of some kind of ending. Five stars. I'll have to read it again, because the slow pace of the beginning races to a rapid and compressed finish, so I ended up reading as fast as I could see the words just becuase that was how fast everything was happening.

I didn't exactly finish



 as I couldn't wait for the story to unfold to find out how it ended. I'm no good at scary psychological. So I had to skip several chapters to make sure all the characters we ok, before going back to the bit I missed. I think I did read it all, if not in the right order.




is the latest in a series of historical fiction that I adore. Sir Robert Carey is somehow connected to the Royal family, which means Queen Elizabeth the first, and these are his adventures mostly in Carlisle and Scotland, or in London. They are full of plot and counter plot, and also details of everyday life in Tudor times. Here's hoping there's another one already on the way.    five stars

I'm glad I downloaded a free copy of



(which had a boring plain cover) because I didn't enjoy, or even finish this. I think I must have read an abridged version as a child, as this one does have long, long passages that I speed read.

I downloaded "The Daily Stoic"



after reading a a blog about a contentious secondary school in London, the Michaela Academy, where stoicism is explicitly taught to all pupils. Their teaching methods seem extraordinarily old-fashioned in today's world, and it is often getting lambasted in the press. I suppose I must be old-fashioned too, because it seems very familiar. Anyway, apart from stoical having a sense of "putting up with things without complaining" and "making the best of situations" I didn't have much of a clue. This is just a quote for the day and short thought about it - rather like Bible reading notes - and it was cheap. I dip in and out from time to time.

Rather like

 

that also sits on my Kindle. This is read daily in Benedictine monasteries, divided up into short sections so that the whole Rule is read three times a year. It deals with everything from how the young children in the monasteries should be cared for (with firmess, kindness and a consideration for their youth), to exactly which Psalms should be said when.



I re-read this - one of the most astonishing children's books I have ever read. It is in 100 chapters, none of them longer than a couple of pages, and each snippet of the story interlocking with the whole. It is like a jigsaw, or, better, a series of stained-glass windows. The story switches back and forth between "Now" - medieval England, and "Then" - the legend of King Arthur, written so vividly and with such conviction that you feel as though you are there. I've got the paperback (it's out on loan) and I downloaded it to take to Kircudbright.  .....    I have just paused briefly in between sentences of this blog post to download the next two books in the trilogy.    five stars

Sunday 11th June - Sunday in Kircudbright

I know, that was two weeks ago, but things happen and blogs don't get posted...

Church was a good way to start the day - Ascension Day. I was rather puzzled at first, until I realised that the vicar had a Northern Ireland accent instead of the the English one I was used to, or the Scottish one I was expecting. Everything else was familiar - the liturgy of the Church of Scotland is very close to that of Church of England. Singing from a Real Hymn Book (and all singing from the same page - had to put that in before anyone else did) was a blast from the past. It's all overhead projection down our way, and anyway if you are really in the groove you sing with your eyes shut.

Afterwards, the weather cleared, and they had a Sunday Farmers Market as part of the festival - great! I munched my way around the locally produced sausages, pickles, cakes, jams, mustards, ending up at the cheese stall. I would dearly have loved to bring some back as a present, but didn't think it would stand up to the journey in a hot train.

After lunch we set out to a beautiful beach, called Carrick Beach. More disorientation for people more used to the Carrick Roads down in Cornwall.

We wanted to investigate an art installation called "The Edge", part of the art trail. This was delightful; we picked our was along a line of realistic looking driftwood and salvage, all connected to local stories and myths from the villages round about. The start of the trail was marked by a working harmonium, apparently washed up by the sea. This related to a story where the church organ disappeared overnight; apparently it was thrown over a cliff by some of the congregation during some kind of dispute... really?

 
Along the bits of wood and junk were suitcases and boxes and containers

 with letters, photographs, recipe books, dolls, scientific instruments, messages in bottles, clothes, shoes - every one contained a marvel.

I might try and make the Kirk Pudding some day...

The next hour or so consisted of a series of failures to find anywhere that would serve us an early high tea, before the start of a Male Voice Choir concert in Newton Stewart. Never mind. The COOP was still open, and had six packets of sandwiches left. I got bacon lettuce and tomato - not an occasion for pickiness. We sat in the back row of the Presbyterian Church surreptitiously munching - we'd thought the concert began at 7:30 (so did the choir, I overheard) but kick-off was at 7pm.

They were a great choir, all the way from Stoke-on-Trent (award yourself a prize if you saw that coming) and were justly proud of having won the North Wales Choir Competition twice in a row, and being politely asked to enter a different festival next time round. They shared their concert with a very talented young Traditional Scottish Singer, and a local bagpiper to open and close each half.

Long drive home, watching an amazing sunset develop as the day darkened.

Sunday 11th June - Unusual Authenticity

Church today was a joint service - the " 9 o'clockers" and the "10:30" congregation all together. This was because our curate was "priested" yesterday, so this was the first time she had officiated at a Holy Communion.

We had service sheets - now there's a novelty. We only bother with them on special occasions. Ah but yes, this was a special occasion, and very joyful and cheerful it was too.

I hugely enjoyed the way the Confession prayer was printed;

All those question marks kind of mirror the thoughts I have in my mind sometimes. Saying the prayers cann be a bit like making promises with your fingers crossed. I'm often NOT truly sorry. The only bits of which I can be certain are that I will have sinned against God, and I would like to be forgiven. No question (marks) about that.

Later on, at the beginning of the Communion prayer, more queries;

It may well be "our duty and our joy, at all times and in all places to give you thanks and praise, holy Father" but you know as well as I do that this just doesn't happen.

Heigh ho. To err is human, to forgive is divine.

Monday 5th June 2017 - Rain

It's pouring outside. The sound of the rain rattling against the windows is music to my ears. He managed to get the grass cut before it started, and there's no need to water all the vegetable containers.

I may have a different opinion about the weather if it is still like this in the morning.

Sunday 4th June - The Vegetable Garden

Who would ever have thought that this, back at the beginning of April,

would become this?

The brown and black square tubs with sticks in them are now overflowing with broad bean plants, and the huge leaves belong to the nearly invisible brussel sprout seedlings in the first picture. We've eaten all the first batch of lettuces and pak choi and radishes and spring onions, and very good they were too. The spinach was well worth growing; I pick a handful of leaves most days which I store until we have enough for a meal - more like a garnish, perhaps?

Apart from the early days, slugs haven't been a real problem. We started with the extremely smelly wool pellets (made of scraps of wool and sheep-poo, according to one source) called "Slug Gone". I guess it is one of those products which tells it like it is on the packaging.

Here it is, doing a good job of protecting the peas I bought in the market yesterday.

Many years ago I had a few lettuces, bought from a school fete, growing in a trough. I used some plant containers made of tinselly wire mesh that had been used for poinsettias at Christmas, and discovered that slugs and snails can't climb them. The tinsel has worn off, but the pests are just as reluctant to climb up the rust. So, using the same principle, He has made me some chicken wire mats which I am hoping will save his spring onions from destruction.

The spare hanging basket frame seems to be thwarting any attacks on the young lettuces;

We watered them all thoroughly, which means that it is sure to rain tonight. Now that we have all these containers that need watering, I take quite a different view of rainy days.