I am very excited today as in the mail I received a First Day Cover of this year’s Royal Mail Christmas Stamps.  For the first time in a number of years the stamps all feature either the Madonna & Child or a Nativity scene.   All the stamps take their inspiration from various stained-glass windows up…

God loves his people. It’s worth repeating that ;  God LOVES his people! If you ever doubt this just remember how Jesus wept for his friend Lazarus.  Consider how Jesus reminds us of how we are valued alongside all of Creation when he speaks of the sparrows and the lilies of the field.  When people…

One of the delights of the last few weeks has been Friday evenings on the One Show on BBC1 when the show goes to a street in Leeds where the residents bring their garden chairs out onto the pavement and they chat about topical issues, I love it and it is well worth five minutes…

I came late to the idea of the Advent wreath.  The church I went to when I was young had no wreath and very few candles over Advent.  Like Lent, everything was kept very sombre till the days immediately before Christmas.  I discovered Advent wreaths with  joy.  I  love having red candles amongst the greenery…

We have had some beautiful sunny autumn days recently. On one such day I cycled to Ipswich and came across these two murals on the walls along the Ipswich waterfront. The top mural was inspired by artist EVEWRIGHT as part of the Arts Eat Festival. It was hoped that it could be part of the…

When I was a little boy I got into trouble for writing on my bedroom wall. The writing was a record of the time I awoke each morning; I learned to tell the time at a younger age than all my peers thus buying myself the chance to read during ‘telling the time’ lessons at…

I’m  experimenting with sourdough.  Getting the “starter” going was interesting and rather messy  and took  a lot of time and a lot of patience.  At every stage there is a long wait, and I mean hours.  Because the yeast has to grow naturally you can’t rush it.  I’ve graduated to actually making sourdough bread now…

Today I nearly cried.  A television programme took my breath away.  It is rare for any programme to make be even consider becoming tearful; even ‘War Horse’ did not make me cry, (well not much). Probably if I had not walked past the DIY shop, I would not have come close to tears.  Today I…

If you start to make a list of all the things for which you want to thank God, then you will need a very large sheet of paper – a roll of backing paper used in decorating would do – for starters, anyway ! It’s almost certain that one of the items on your list…

This picture appeared on Facebook earlier this week and appeared to attract quite a bit of attention, my first reaction was one of amazement that in the knarled roots of an old tree, new life is sprouting forth and at face value, the picture is quite amazing and a wonder to behold.  Next week we…