Water water everywhere

This happened when we had only been in Uganda for a few weeks: we were staying in the Jacksons' house, and just down from us, our neighbours had four students staying in their converted garage - complete with lino on the floor, a table and beds, a charcoal burner to cook on. But they told us that the roof leaked when the heavy rain fell.  It was just as well that the practice was stopped not long after. Anyway, the campus is on the side of a hill which stands up above all the surrounding area, so that when the rains come, first the heavy clouds assemble, billowing and swelling over the top of the hill, and when they start to spread out over the top, the rain suddenly pours, - in bucketfuls. On this day, as the clouds began to gather and swell and the thunder began, we saw these four girls run out of their accommodation and take up stances in the road, faces pointing up towards the clouds, fists raised against them: "You shall NOT rain! In the name of Jesus, we command you, you shall not rain!" Unfortunately though the thunder growled and rumbled on, and soon the fat globs of water began to fall and splash around their feet, and then, slightly muted, "OK, you may rain, but you may not spoil our things!"

I have been saying the exact same prayer in my head over the last couple of days, even though feeling that praying against the weather is seemingly pointless. It is going to come. But England has been inundated with water again these last two weeks. There is flooding in the north, south, east and west. Hundreds of people were flooded out of their homes over Christmas. And we know from our experience in 2007, when our house in Gloucester flooded badly, that it can be up to six months before you can move back into the house, depending on builders, insurance and, the weather. So it is no small thing. 

Flooded fields just outside Gloucester today

Our area has just escaped so far although the big river Severn, in whose valley Gloucester lies, has burst its banks at several points. But the fields all around where our little house is, in Longford, are all covered with water now. A few more heavy downpours, and it seems likely that the roads will flood again. No, Lord, please! (We ourselves are living in a rented house in a safer part of town, but it is our tenant - and also our floors and walls - in the little house we let out that I am talking about.)

I have often wondered about God and the weather. I know we all ask those questions when there is a major weather-related disaster, such as the Tsunami, or the earthquake in Haiti - but also, what about just, a country getting a lot of rain? Or, a lot of sunshine, like Uganda? The weather affects everything - the economy, food production, as well as also people's mentalities, plans, and even their happiness levels. Is God involved in the weather? He must be. Yet it seems so random. And can we pray about it? I remember hearing people say, "You mustn't pray for fine weather for your wedding day/bbq/swimming party - think of the poor farmers who badly need the rain!" Annoying, but true I suppose! "Nice weather for ducks" about sums it up - the weather we want may not be what our fellow-creatures want.

What about this:

"He sends his command out to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool, he scatters hoar frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow."  Ps 147: 15-18.

As God is in charge of this world, the weather is in his remit as well, of course, as this psalm shows. But it seems clear that God normally lets the world run along in its natural course, which includes the weather as well, for good and for bad - this is the only explanation for illness, for birds being eaten by cats in the garden, for people losing their jobs, and all those things that happen that we wish didn't happen. What I hold onto is that God can and does intervene at times, but honestly, it would be ridiculous to think of him providing the exact right weather for all our requirements from one day to the next - how could he run the world like that? He also expects us to use our brains to find ways of living in the world as it is.

But anyway, I shall still pray that Gloucester doesn't get flooded, because I really don't want it to! But I have to accept that if it does, God will help us and everyone else get through it, that this is part of living in a messed-up world, that this life isn't all we have.

Days getting shorter

I am on holiday for a whole week while Abby and Alex are at school! Not that they are happy about it... But it has given me time to get my eyes checked, my hair cut, a bit of shopping done, cleaning done, and today, a beautiful walk with the Noggin (the dog).

I am still quite besotted with Frodo. And with the English countryside. And with sunshine...

As the days being to shorten, I am clingin onto any chances to be outside and not wet/freezing. I have enjoyed the apples, the blackberries, the leaves changing colour, and the chance to put on boots and scarves again. I have also welcomed back the TV programmes that come on in the autumn. I am trying to be glad of the change of seasons... to enjoy how they mark out our year and complement each other and give us a chance to see new things, to see the cycle of life...

But really, I would like it to be spring and then summer all year round. OK, a sunny autumn like this one is actually fine, even lovely. But, I don't want the Winter!!! I am dreading the dark, cold afternoons.  
Perhaps I need to learn to live each day in all its beauty, and not think ahead so much to what is coming. And this autumn is really beautiful.

Castles in the air

We have had a crazy few days in Northumberland, visiting a part of England none of us really knew before. We were staying with a friend, who kindly gave us use of their house for our holiday. It was only five days altogether, but with the journey each way taking the whole day, we had three days only to see everything - so we basically made six day trips in the space of the three days, and went out each evening as well. I have been reminded that while my idea of a holiday is to relax in a beautiful place, eat well, and see some of the local sights, (without stretching yourself) Dan's idea is to rest for not one single moment, but to go go go go go and see everything there is to be seen, and eat if there's time on the way...

If I show you in pictures what we saw, you will get an idea of the amount of ground we covered...

Northumberland is the north east corner of England, with huge sandy beaches, rolling farmland, moorland including the Pennines, Hadrian's Wall built by the Romans to keep the Scottish hordes out, and many many castles, built over the centuries to protect this exposed coastline from the Scots, the Vikings, and the French in turn... It has so much going for it, including the lovely seafood literally jumping out of the sea into your frying pan (lobsters, kippers, prawns, salmon and much more). Its islands have some of England's beautiful but rare wildlife: seals and puffins. You will know how excited I was to see them, the puffins especially. 

A medieval gateway in Alnwick - the road drives right under it.

Alnwick Castle, home of the Nevilles if you read Tudor historical fiction! Also used as Hogwarts ...

Lindisfarne Priory, built in 635 AD as one of the first Christian sites in England, it was raided so often by Vikings that in 875 AD the monks fled from it with the coffin containing the bones of St Cuthbert and the famous Lindisfarne Gospels (which we saw in Durham). Although the priory was later restored, it was closed by Henry VIII as part of the dissolution of the monasteries, and the roof was ripped off then.

Lindisfarne Castle - built by Henry VIII to protect the coast from French and Scottish invaders.

Called Holy Island, it is joined to the mainland by a causeway so you have to choose your time to drive over. and back, or you'll get stuck... The islands around are the home of seals, who make an eery high-pitched moaning sound which we could hear the whole time.

Bamborough Castle, a Norman castle right above the beach.

a chance to swim in the sea.

A boat trip to see the puffins, at Coquet Island off Amble. Frodo was allowed on the boat and found his sea legs!!

A puffin??!!!

Our photos were hopeless, so this one is from Google... but they really do look like this, they are beautiful and funny!

Again a lifted photo as it was quite dark when we were there... but this is the Tree in the Gap on Hadrian's Wall,  - you might recognise this from the Robin Hood film Prince of Thieves. It is a beautiful spot.

Our family at Hadrian's Wall, including Canis Canis Frodoensis.

Frodo visiting Durham Cathedral.

Another "borrowed" picture, of the Lindisfarne Gospels, made on Lindisfarne in the 700s AD. When the monks fled with it and Cuthbert's coffin, it fell into the sea, but was undamaged. They all ended up at Durham Cathedral, (as did the tomb of the Venerable Bede.) It was trimmed and re-covered by the Victorians. But the illuminations are incredible, original and unspoiled. 

Durham

A medieval street in York. With quite a few tourists in it...

... and a ghost

 I actually feel as though we did "English History 101". It was amazing. And slightly exhausting...

Rookie Gardener

So I have tried to "put my money where my mouth is," inspired by Barbara Kingsolver, and started growing vegetables! (One of the Great British Traditions...) Our kind friends Simon and Andrea have two allotments just near our house, and they gave me some space in one of them to have a go. It has been so fun. I am growing tomatoes, peas, carrots, courgettes, squash, spinach, red peppers, herbs and lettuce. Well, so far they are all just babies, but I am quite optimistic.

Allotments are large spaces given over to strips of plots for growing stuff. They are owned and rented out by the local council, and if you rent one, it is a serious business - you have to keep it cultivated and tidy, and not be noisy and so on. Each person has their own shed complete with tea kettle and tools (I'm guessing), and they do take it quite seriously.



This is my little section. OK it looks a bit messy, but, they all do:

My courgettes, so far, my proteges.

My peas, small but perfect...

Ten Reasons To Take Up Vegetable Gardening:
1. Producing some food (even if only a bit), as well as just consuming, seems to be a good thing to do. Makes me feel I am doing my tiny bit.
2. It it is great excuse to be out of doors in the fresh air for a couple of hours.
3. It is a great way to be on my own for a while, in the peace and quiet, but not "inside my head," as it is physically busy and requires some thought but not too much. ie, it is the perfect escape!
4. It is exercise. I need it.
5. I can grow my favourite veggies.
6. It will save me money, a bit, when I actually harvest something.
7. Working with the earth to make it produce green shoots, leaves, flowers and fruit, being part of creation, working with the creator, is all just very satisfying.
8. Having young plants to tend is like having a hundred beautiful babies to look after, although thankfully different, as they don't cry, and they don't have names. But going to check on them, water them, remove insects and encroaching weeds, and look for their new leaves, does satisfy that nurturing impulse.
9. For me, it is a new thing to learn, a new if small challenge, which I enjoy.
10. It is great to take the children there and let them learn about growing things. They enjoy it too, so far!

I really can't recommend it enough...

The beautiful world

These are some photos we took at the weekend, which we spent in Devon staying with my parents, with my sister-in-law Charlotte and their children, cousins to Abby and Alex. We went on a walk by the River Teign, on a beautiful day - it could have almost been Spring! Alex and April Grace especially get on like a house on fire, partners in crime and all that.

According to Abby Bartels, I love nature because I love perfection,
and nature is pretty much perfect without my intervention. I also love the peace, how undemanding, and pleasing and gentle it all is on the eyes. Give me fields, trees and streams, sheep, flowers and birdsong, any day.

Small, step-wise changes

"How do you encourage people to keep their hope," Joan (Kingsolver's friend) asked, "but not their complacency?"She was involved that spring in producing a film about global climate change, and preoccupied with striking this balance. The truth is so horrific: we are marching ourselves to the maw of our own extinction. An audience that doesn't really get that will amble out of the theatre unmoved, go home and change nothing. But an audience that does get it may be so terrified they'll feel doomed already. They might walk out looking paler, but still do nothing. How is it possible to inspire an appropriately repentant attitude towards a planet that is really, really upset? ...

We cherish our fossil-fuel driven conveniences, such as the computer I am using to write these words. We can't exactly name-call this problem, or vote it away. The cure involves reaching down into ourselves and pulling out a new kind of person. The practical problem is, of course, how to do that. It's impossible to become a fuel purist, and it seems like failure to change our ways only halfway, or a pathetic ten per cent. So why even try? When the scope of the problem seems insuperable, isn't it reasonable just to call this one, give up, and get on with life as we know it?

... This is a now or never kind of project. But a project, none-the-less. Global-scale alteration from pollution didn't happen when human societies started using a little bit of fossil fuel. It happened after unrestrained growth, irresponsible management, and a cultural refusal to assign any moral value to excessive consumption. Those habits can be reformed. They have been reformed several times in the past. In the last century we've learned that some of our favourite things like DDT and the propellants in aerosol cans were rapidly unraveling the structure and substance of our biosphere. We gave them up, and reversed the threats. Now the reforms required are more systemic, and nobody seems to want to go first...

I share with almost every adult I know this crazy quilt of optimism and worries, feeling locked into certain habits but keen to change them in the right direction. And the tendency to feel like a jerk for falling short of absolute conversion I'm not sure why. If a friend had a coronary scare and started exercising three times a week, who would hound him about the other four days? These earnest efforts might just get us past the train-wreck of the daily news... searching out redemption where we can find it: recycling or car-pooling or growing a garden, or saving a species or something. Small, step-wise changes in personal habits aren't trivial. Ultimately they will, or won't, add up to having been the thing that mattered.

Barbara Kingsolver,  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, (London, Faber and Faber Ltd, 2007) pp 345-6.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver

Two of my favourite topics combined - yay! Food and the environment. So now I have another hero, Barbara Kingsolver. Actually, I have loved her books for years - you all know The Poisonwood Bible which stands out from the rest. If you haven't read it, you must. Just recently I read her latest book, Flight Behaviour, which is a wonderful read, and I think second best to Poisonwood Bible. Talking to a friend about that book, she asked me if I had read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and raved about it - so I got hold of a copy, and it is so far amazing.

Anyone who read The Dirty Life, about a couple who take up farming, will love this one as well.

Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from Tucson, Arizona, to southern Appalacia to farm their land there, because of the realisation that living in the middle of the desert means that every drop of food and water that crosses their lips has been driven, trucked or flown a very long way to sustain them there. The cost in energy and the damage to the planet for humans to live in Tucson is massive (there are some statistics) and they made a decision as a family to live where their food can be and is grown.

The book tells how they spent a year trying to live on food that is grown around them - food that they know exactly where it comes from and who grew it. They have their own farm and they grew a lot themselves; the book has seasonal recipes for cooking when you have a glut - though I wish there were more recipes in it.

Among the points the author makes in the introductory chapters are two that struck me. One is that by eating locally-produced food you are saving so much of the energy that goes into transporting it (she refers to "oily food.") Another is that regions where people have a strong food culture depending on local produce usually have the most delicious diets, and are the healthiest. She mentions Italy, France, Japan, among others. So she sees a need for the US to develop its own new culture of food based on traditional and local foods. Of course Britain does not get a mention - we do have traditional foods but I am not sure they live up to France and Italy's...! But nor has our diet become as badly commercialised as in the US, yet (thinking of portion size and additives).

I am enthusiastic about the idea of becoming a "locavore". I even talked with a friend about sharing their communal allotment this year!! It makes so much sense. However there are a lot of problems associated with it and I have some reservations. One is, growing your own food, canning food, and cooking everything from scratch is very time-consuming. Two, buying vegetable and meat from farmers' markets (which are everywhere now) is extremely expensive and we are living on a limited budget. Three, so many things have to be imported - can I manage without not only coffee but tea as well? Chocolate? Bananas? Wine? Pasta? Rice? Will potatoes be enough?? And a related point, don't countries depend to some extent on other countries buying their produce? If the UK stopped importing tea, wouldn't India have a financial crisis? So how can this theory be completely right? Of course Fair Trade is a good way to go and might be the answer to that. But it is complex: the carbon footprint is still there.

So, I will end up with some compromise version as usual and maybe just make myself feel a bit better... But, it will be a way to make myself try some new recipes and lose some weight... and, every little helps, right? And maybe if everyone did that little bit, it would make a difference.

As usual, I'd love to know anyone's thoughts...

Nature In Art in Gloucester

Two of the very best things in life, I'm sure you'll agree, are nature and art. So when you come across a place that combines the two, a gallery called Nature In Art, you have to love it. And, take out an annual family membership, right?

Nature in Art is set in an interesting Victorian mansion, in beautiful wild gardens just a couple of miles outside Gloucester.

As well as having a permanent collection of some outstanding art, including one of the well-known elephant paintings by the British artist David Shepherd, they have temporary exhibitions, and also an artist in residence for a week at a time, whom you can watch at work in a studio and talk to for however long you want. Also in the wild and ranging gardens there are all kinds of sculptures, some modern, some "junk metal", some more traditional, which you literally stumble upon as you wander. And a cute and arty shop as well as a cafe, of course. And they run occasional art courses there and one-day activities for children. 

We have been there several times before (I found it in my first ever week in Gloucester). But we went again this week because they were displaying the British Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition entries and winners - which meant we saw some incredible photographs, including a cricket in mid-jump, a melee of gannets diving underwater surrounded by bubbles, and many more. Abby and Alex weren't at all sure that photography could be called art - until they saw the photographs. 

A Gorgeous, Sunshiny November Afternoon

Today there was time for my favourite walk of all with Frodo...

We started off at Over Farm (owned by distant cousins of mine),

... passing the now wild strawberry fields, leaves turned autumn red...

... up the lane towards the scary oak...

...  furry Old Man's Beard in the hedge...

... and, unexpectedly, masses of spindle berries, (I had to look them up)...

Naughty, waggy-tailed Frodo ran ahead into the woods, only stopping to look back and then run on...

... loving the sun shining onto a maple tree...

... and highlighting Gloucester Cathedral, a heavenly building pointing up to heaven ...

We were ten minutes late picking up Alex from school, but, it was worth it.