COP28 starts in 10 days’ time in Dubai. The lectionary reading yesterday was the parable of the talents, where a slave owner gives each of his slaves 10 talents, before going away for some time. 10 talents was a considerable sum of money, even one talent was more than any employee or slave could expect…
Our Messy Church was held on Friday 10th November, so it felt right to think about Remembrance and Peace. We have a new member on our “Messy Planning” Team and she always comes with something useful whatever our theme. Sure enough, I received an email from her telling me she had found this poem in…
A couple of weeks ago I played in “The last Night of the Proms.” Not THE last night of the Proms, but our local small town variety. Members of our local town orchestra with a few guests brought the old favourites as well as a stunning performance of Greig’s Piano Concerto, with the soloist from…
Many of us will have experienced some amount of flooding as a result of storm Babet. Where I live, apart from the inconvenience of not having easy access into town, there was not much damage. There was a slightly anxious moment when water was flowing from our pond (drainage ditch off the fields) across the…
Did you know that this well-known proverb, originates from the book of Proverbs chapter 26 verse 17 “Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own.” Last weekend my son came to stay as our other son was over briefly from Australia. It also…
My aunt recently died at the wonderful age of 97. She had no children of her own but was devoted to her various nephews, nieces, great nephews and nieces, great- great nephews and nieces. It fell to me to work with my sister and cousins to put together thoughts for part of her funeral service.…
I have been asked to save beer bottles by my son and his girlfriend. The idea is to use them as wedding decorations. The plan is to hang them around the walls, and if we get enough (?!) to use them as table decorations with wildflower displays. My husband was somewhat bemused, as he couldn’t…
One morning a week or so ago I woke with a headache that despite paracetamol got worse as the morning progressed. It was a blustery day, with rain clouds scudding across the sky. Nevertheless, I decided what I needed to do was to go out for a walk and see if the wind could blow…
I recently had to go to Llandudno in north Wales. It wasn’t a holiday, but to visit an elderly aunt who is in hospital. Having sat with her for several hours, on the hottest day of the year, I decided to try and get some fresh air, so went for a walk along the west…
Last week I was out in my garden tidying up – weeding and lawn-mowing amongst other things. I cam across this tiny oak tree sapling that was growing in the middle of the lawn. When I pulled it up, it still had the acorn shell attached and a long tap root, that had been attempting…