Patience

I sat in the garden the other day watching this spider build a web. I wish I had a fraction of the patience and perseverance of a spider...

Acorns and ladybirds

I managed to get out into the garden on my own with my camera this week, the first time for ages.

Autumn is really beginning to arrive here. Many of the acorns on the oak tree have dropped & the "hats" are left hanging. The squirrels have been having a feast with them...






The leaves are starting to turn...



There are loads of ladybirds around, all sorts of combinations of markings (I found even more in the car park but didn't have my camera with me!)





The tomatoes are still ripening but I think I may need to find a recipe for green tomato chutney.



Elliot’s Oak

Thou ancient oak! whose myriad leaves are loud
With sounds of unintelligible speech,
Sounds as of surges on a shingly beach,
Or multitudinous murmurs of a crowd;
With some mysterious gift of tongues endowed,
Thou speakest a different dialect to each;
To me a language that no man can teach,
Of a lost race, long vanished like a cloud.
For underneath thy shade, in days remote,
Seated like Abraham at eventide
Beneath the oaks of Mamre, the unknown
Apostle of the Indians, Eliot, wrote
His Bible in a language that hath died
And is forgotten, save by thee alone.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Greenbelt Communion

The lengths people will go to get to Communion at Greenbelt is amazing...



The crowd gathered as 10.00am came and went...





we couldn't get our paper strips to stick together but were sitting next to someone who was well prepared and had a pritt stick. We managed to make a chain, only to find we had to tear it apart!











The clouds started to part

Inner Wellies

True to tradition, Richard and I found ourselves browsing in the booktent whilst at Greenbelt. In bought a book (ok several books) and one was a series of poems and reflections by Jane Upchurch. I think there are some brilliant, well thought through poems which I can relate to. The title poem is Inner wellies



Inner wellies

Each morning
I'm going to put on
my inner wellies
so I can splosh and slop
through all the floods and mud
life sends me
instead of tiptoeing round the edge
or getting stuck in the muck.

Jane Upchurch

uses for a wheelchair (4)

a nifty hat stand

uses for a wheelchair (3)

an alternative to a clothes dryer when camping

Greenbelt 2011

There's always a sense of having arrived at Greenbelt once the tent is pitched and the kettle is on. Camping was a different experience this year as we were in the disabled camping area, the biggest plus was it was so much nearer the venues.



Tent up
Kettle on
Music play
Happy day

uses for a wheelchair (2)

a climbing frame for Lemurs.

uses for a wheelchair (1)

A handy stand to keep your drink on in the park.

last month's view

I hope to restart blogging soon but have been somewhat incapacitated for the last month.

 

A broken ankle has made taking photos rather difficult, it's hard enough to walk with crutches without trying to balance to take photos too. The painkillers have addled my brain which has made thinking hard...

depth of field

orchid



Six-Spot Burnet Moth

On Saturday I had the opportunity to participate in a wildlife photography course for beginners. It was arranged by the suffolk wildlife trust and held at their Carlton Marshes site. We were gently guided through the day by Kevin who encouraged us to be brave and not use the automatic settings on our cameras but to experiment with different appertures and shutter speeds.

 

As you adjust the apperture and shutter speed you change the depth of field, the amount that will be in focus is changed. This was particularly noticeble with the background when I was taking macro photos - how "blurry" it was.

 

It led me to think about how we as humans respond to situations. Do we have a tendancy to switch on to automatic settings and respond in a way we "know" works, our safety blanket if you like? Are we brave enough to adjust our apperture and shutter speed, to take account of everthing else that is happening? Perhaps if we did this more often we would be surprised at some of the results.

longhorn beetle



drinker moth caterpillar

Trinity Sunday

Today was Trinity Sunday. I often wish that the Trinity was easy to understand and to explain.

I came across this quote from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity “If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with fact. Of course, anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about.”



The Commissioning of the Disciples

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Matthew 28.16-20

Pentecost

On Sunday we celebrated Pentecost in church.

 

 

Be still for the presence of the Lord
The Holy One is here
Come bow before Him now
With reverence and fear
In Him no sin is found
We stand on holy ground
Be still for the presence of the Lord
The Holy One is here

Be still for the glory of the Lord
Is shining all around
He burns with holy fire
With splendor He is crowned
How awesome is the sight
Our radiant King of light
Be still for the glory of the Lord
Is shining all around

Be still for the power of the Lord
Is moving in this place
He comes to cleanse and heal
To minister His grace
No work too hard for Him
In faith receive from Him
Be still for the power of the Lord
Is moving in this place

Copyright © 1986 Thankyou Music

The Shepherd

The Gospel reading this morning reminded me of these photos I took last year in Nazareth.





'Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.' Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, 'Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10.1-10