Murder

Yes, I have to confess.

I`m a murderer.

On Saturday my friends had invited me to theirs for the day. It was a beautiful sunny morning and by mid morning I was merrily driving along the main road. Being the weekend there was quite a lot of traffic about.

The road was clear in front of me, when I saw a small animal, a little stoat I think, come running out from the verge ahead of me going straight across the road. That`s fine, I thought, there`s no traffic coming the other way at the moment, he`ll (or she`ll) get safely across. He/she looked so happy in the sun, bright, lively and young.

Then as I got probably about a yard (sorry, I don`t to metre measurements!) from him, he was by this time was on the white chevroned dividing lines in the middle or the road. He hesitated, dithered, maybe frightened, and then....... instead of continuing to run across the clear side of the road, he turned round, to return to the bank he`d come from. I`d got a string of traffic behind me, I couldn`t stop, nor slow much, and I could see what was going to happen, but I just hoped against hope that somehow he`d end up going under the middle of my car and not the wheels - but it wasn`t to be, and I felt the gentle bump as I ran over him. I looked back in my mirror and there he was, lying on the road.

It really upset me for the rest of the day. To think that I`d killed a young, vibrant, young creature who was just enjoying life, the day and the sun. It was horrible.

"Be still and know that I am God"

As I sat on that seat looking at the sea yesterday, my thoughts just followed their own paths, I wasn`t consciously thinking of anything. No list of things to be done, no thoughts of what to do next, my mind wasn`t busy whirrling round with the hundred and one things it normally is, but instead it was just content to just "be".

Some things came to my mind, from somewhere deep inside me, things I`d not thought of for months, years. Somehow sitting looking at the sea, is one place that I really feel I can relate to the bible verse "Be still and know that I am God". (Psalm 46:10).

Looking at the vastness of the sea, always seems to put any problems I may have into perspective. It is so huge, so immense, yet although it may at times be rough and at others calm, it is always there. And it`s a strong reminder to me that God is like that too, always there.

A "Holiday"

The sun shone this morning.

It was a day off work.

I needed to go into the next town along the coast to get something I couldn`t get here, so having done that, I decided on the spur of the moment to do something I`d not done before. I walked through the town and onto the sea front there. In all my years of life, living in the same town, I`d never walked along the prom in the neighbouring town!


It was beautiful there, the sun shone making the sea sparkle, it felt warm on my bare arms. As it was quite early in the day for most people, there were very few about, so I could enjoy the scene and the silence, listening to the gentle sound of the waves turning over on the sand. Wandering slowly along, I then climbed about 100 steps to the top of the cliff when I found a welcome seat to sit, get my breath back, and look at the view.

I felt as if I was on holiday, relaxed, and content. Yet, I was only 5 miles from home. I suppose it just shows that we should learn to enjoy and appreciate what`s "on our doorsteps"!

Missing Writing

A comment said to me the other day set me thinking....

.....what was said was "what lovely neat handwriting that is".... it was said by a person signing something that I had written.

Now, I`ve known the person for about eight months, and had corresponded many times over items with him, so, I wondered why he`d made that remark ...... then it dawned on me, it probably was the first time he`d actually seen my handwriting, because most of our corresponding is via email.

That set me pondering - is hand-writing eventually going to die out, as we more and more correspond by electronic means? I do hope not. I still love to get hand-written letters, they seem far more personal.

Come for a stroll

Come for a stroll with me through the beautiful gardens full of azaleas and rhododendrons which I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon admiring.... and photographing.


Along grassy paths.......

.... round ponds and streams......





I think this one has to be my favourite, for the way it was standing up so straight and tall.


From a distance they just looked like a mass of colour, but stopping to take time to stand and look closely at the blooms, I discovered that they weren`t all a single colour, (if you click on them you`ll see clearer what I mean) there were tints and shades and markings, all going to make each one an individual. ......
.........Guess that`s a bit like people too - when we take time to get to know them

A Real Treat

I`ve bought myself to a new camera today. Having not spent money on going away for a holiday, I felt I was entitled to treat myself to something.
I`d been thinking about getting one for a few weeks because the shutter button on the one I`d got has come off twice now, fortunately each time I`d found it and been able to put it back on. But I could just imagine losing it when I desperately wanted to take a photo of something.

So of course I had to go and try it out this afternoon - here are a few of the pictures I took with it. I`m pleased with the results of my first photos with it.

The Gardening Bug!

I`ve had the gardening bug today. No, don`t worry, its not catching - or at least I don`t think it is!

Something, and I don`t know what, has rekindled my interest in growing things. Maybe it was those lemon pips which I set on Shrove Tuesday and which are growing nicely into 4 plants which started it off.

Today, starting a weeks holiday from work - but unable to go away, (more on that another day), I spent all the morning out in the garden. I`d had a gardener dig up some old shrubs last week and prepare my raised vegetable patch, so out I went with my seeds - carrots, beetroot, some onion sets, and a few lettuce seeds(for my little bird, I`m not a salad fan!), and spent a pleasurable time setting them into the soil.

Then, I set my runner bean seeds, which I`d had soaking in water since yesterday, into pots ready to grow into plants to set into the ground. But, I found I had too many seeds for the little pots so also set some in some big containers where I`ll leave them to grow. Sort of an experiment in a way to see if I get a better crop from the ground or by growing them in pots. They`re my favourite veg, so I hope to get a good harvest of them.

After getting all the eatables sown, I then set some lavendar seeds into a tray, so hopefully will get some nice plants to then go in the border. If they grow as well as they did when I grew some many years ago I may have some plants to spare if anyone fancies any Norfolk lavendar later in the year. The ones I grew from seed many,many years ago I had as plants in the garden for about 10 or 12 years until they got very woody and so I had them dug up.

I`m still always fascinated by the way in which such a tiny little thing that looks dead can come to life and produce wonderful vegetables or flowers.

Nature is so amazing.

A Walk in the Sun

Come, enjoy the views and flowers I saw on my walk in the sun today.







Through a local National Trust park where the azaleas and rhododendrons were bursting into flower.















What a variety of different ones there were, in various colours and sizes, all giving such joy to behold.

And various view points giving such vistas across to the sea in the distance made me just stand and stare, enjoying the feel of the warmth of the sun and I took in the sheer beauty of what was before me.

Start of the season ....

It seems to be the start of the Flower Festival season, and I`ve been to see one today. My friends invited me to theirs for the day and then after lunch we went on to Long Sutton to see this beautiful flower festival. The theme was The Streets of London, and here are a few of my favourite displays....

The Old Curiosity Shop

Lost Property Office
(we had to smile, when we saw the "top secret" document in the briefcase!)

The Gerkin

The Fish Market

Fleet Street.

There were many other beautiful display - maybe I share a few more tomorrow

Twenty six.... or more?

Watching the start of the London Marathon yesterday, seeing the amazing sight of the thousands of people running for charity I got to thinking.......

.....Surely, a lot of those runners actually do far more than the 26 miles of the marathon, after all, only a few of them start off on the actual start line, those further back have a much longer to run, as they all have to go to the same finishing line.

I wonder what distance those at the very back of the crowd that set off actually cover??

Perhaps someone who has run it can tell me the answer to that?

Wild flowers

Looking out of my dining room window earlier this week, instead of seeing the normal dreary lawn full of weeds - I saw this - almost a wildflower meadow!



I went out to have a closer look. Tucked away, hidden from the view from the window in the depths of the grass, I discovered these tiny, dainty violets amongst the daisies, dandelions and primroses.



Even looking at the "weeds" - the daisies and dandelions - there was great beauty in the flowers when looked at closely, and the words "a weed is only a plant in the wrong place" came to my mind. And I realised the truth in that.

Yes, this really is a dandelion - it looks quite similiar in this close up to a chrysanthemum doesn`t it.

What are these birds flying in for?.......



Here`s the answer.... Driving along the coast this afternoon we stopped by the sea wall at Walcott. It was a breezy afternoon, and gulls were soaring over the waves as they broke.
I remembered that I`d got a few bread crusts in the car, so got out to throw them for the gulls, but the wind being strong blew the bread back onto the seawall and pavement. The gulls seemed too timid to come and take the bread from there, so I got back into the car (I didn`t want to be had up for dropping litter! - can one, I wonder, be charged for bread thrown and not eaten by the birds??)


I`d not been back in the car many seconds when I spotted one of these smaller wading birds land on the sea wall, then two, then three and very quickly about a dozen or more of them appeared. They really seemed to enjoy the treat they`d found.

New Life

A Happy Easter to You All

I always thrill to see the shoots of new life, and these come from something I set on Shrove Tuesday - can you guess what they are?

A Miracle of Life

I was always under the impression that bulbs needed soil and water to grow, but just look at this.

I was given this daffodil bulb after I`d planted all my others and kept forgetting to set it. It just sat in a saucer on my kitchen windowsill. Then I spotted a few weeks ago that it was beginning to grow. I left it as it was to see what would happen- and this was the result - a beautiful flower.

Good Friday

I`ll let the picture speak for itself today.

Progress??

Are we really living in a more advanced world?

A shop in the town where I live, this week, had only one of its five tills working for two days, and then closed for a time - why? - because the computer had a virus and the tills had to be disconnected from the internet.
The same thing happens if there`s a power cut - tills and other devices cease to work and there`s no fall back solution.

So, are we really living in a more advanced world?

Working in a shop in the 1960`s & 1970`s, if the power went off, one just inserted a handle into the side of the till, cranked it round for each item the customer purchased and continued working and serving, keeping the shop open and business flowing.

Surely, with all today`s technology someone, somewhere can invent a back up system so as to not inconvenience us shoppers!

Shells

As I walked along the beach the other day, found myself resorting to a childhood pastime - picking up and collecting shells




But, I did more than just pick them up, I began looking closely at them, and feeling their texture. Some, like this delicately shaded pink one, were so smooth to the touch whilst others, like this collection of them, had a ridged feel, and a crinkly edge.

And, what struck me even more, was the fact that they were all different. No two were alike.

A bit futher along the sand, I came across these larger shells. At first I thought they were pebbles, but they caught my eye because they were almost glittering as the sunlight caught them. I picked one up and studied it. It was quite thick and heavy and you could almost see the age of it, but the layers of the shell.

And, it set me thinking - how like the shells we are - all different, all with our own characteristics, yet all part of the community and the world.


How many grains of sand were there on that beach? Far too many to even begin to count, and a verse of one of my favourite hymns came to me

We thank thee Lord, for sunshine, dew and rain,
Broadcast from heaven by think almighty hand
Source of all life, unnumbered as the sand,
bird, beast and fish, herb, fruit and golden grain.

Peace & Tranquility

The sun shone.... it felt like spring in the air.... so I went to one of my favourite places for a walk



It`s so hard to capture in a single photo the feeling of the vastness and beauty of the miles and miles of golden sand.



It`s one place where I feel really close to God. There is just such a "special atmosphere" there to me. I find as I saunter slowly along taking in the sight and vastness of it, thoughts come up from deep inside me - some from times past, some current, some sad, some happy, some problems, some worries, but there they seem to be put into perspective. And I come back refreshed.

Sheer Peace & Tranquility

Successful Surprise

The event I`d been planning in secret for over two months now, took place today.

During those weeks over 50 people had been sworn to secrecy. I was rather doubtful whether the secret could be kept from the one person I didn`t want to know about it until today, but it had.

Today was my Mum`s 90th. birthday, and to celebrate it, I`d planned a surprise party. Invitations had been sent out in January and responses received, the church catering ladies had been consulted and liaised with, a friend had been briefed to bring a camera..... and now today was the day.

After taking my Mum out to dinner and for a ride along the coast in the afternoon, I manage to time it perfectly to get her back to our church where I`d arranged for the party to be held, having asked all the guests to be there before that time.

Once at the church, on the pretext of collecting some mail, I got the wheelchair out of the car and asked Mum if she would like to come in with me. She still seemed not to suspect anything. I wheeled her through into the hall and everyone started singing "Happy Birthday" to her, and then she realised that the group of people were there for her.


I think at times she was quite overwhelmed by the amount of love she was shown, and though the 70 birthday cards she received and all the presents too. People were so kind and generous, and it really "made the day". The surprise party ended with some entertainment of sketches and songs by some of the church members.

I thinks its a day she will long remember - I know I will too!

Sunny

As promised a few weeks ago, here is a picture of my pet.

Unfortunately the angle of the photo makes him look a lot fatter than he actually is - guess that`s true for a lot of us at times!!

Why have I called him Sunny?..... well for two reasons, obviously his colour and secondly because he brings a ray of sunshine into my home every single day.