The new worktop

The new kitchen is nearing completion, today the granite worktop goes in and tomorrow the electrician should be here to connect up all the lights and appliances.

Sunrise over St Neots

Here's a sunrise scene from the day before yesterday. The sky was an extraordinary colour in areas near the horizon and this telephoto shot homes in on that specific part. The trees are poplars, and with their leaves gone the classic poplar upright habit and branch structure are plain to see.

Newforms Gathering 2013

Last weekend was the Newforms National Gathering for 2013. This year the gathering was at St John's College, Nottingham, an Anglican training college. The facilities were good and the staff were friendly and helpful.

Evening sky

Evening in St Neots

St Neots during the evening twilight on 22nd November.

The sky is clear with just a few grey clouds; overhead is a deep, deep blue becoming paler and brighter towards the western horizon. And the last hints of light from the setting sun provide a pinkish tinge.

This photo is taken from Cambridge Street looking towards the Market Square.

There are signs of life in this scene too. The nearly bare branches of a tree are the most obvious of these, but the lights and buildings are clear evidence to suggest that people cannot be far away. In fact, the streets were still bustling at the time the photo was taken.

What a beautiful world we live in!

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A white ceiling!

Progress in the new kitchen

The kitchen looks loads better with the new window fitted and a couple of splash coats on the ceiling. Compare this photo with the one taken on November 20th.

At last we are beginning to see things getting slowly better rather than slowly worse! And the new space is going to be really useful with several internal walls gone.

We're still hoping everything will be finished before Christmas, the critical date for that is 5th December when the worktop templating has to be done for pre-Christmas fitting.

Any later and the fitting will roll over to the end of December or even early January.

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Jupiter over St Neots

Jupiter in the eastern sky

Jupiter has been low in the eastern sky over St Neots in the early evening. It rises higher and heads south as the night draws on.

It will look much the same anywhere in mid-northern latitudes, a very bright star-like point of light to the naked eye. But steady, unlike the stars that shimmer and twinkle.

It's hard to imagine that this little point of light is actually a planet big enough to hold a thousand Earths! It is roughly ten times the Earth's diameter.

If you could visit Jupiter and look at the Earth we would appear less than one hundredth as bright and would be very hard to spot in the glare of the nearby Sun.

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Getting plastered

Plaster drying in the kitchen

Here's the current state of our kitchen.

Much of the plastering is done now and the ceiling is getting quite dry. Soon we'll be able to get on with the decorating.

As you can see, the window opening is still boarded up, but we expect the new window to be ready any day and things will look much better once it's fitted.

Donna's even starting to get a little excited about progress now. It looks like a brand new room!

Darryn has worked extremely hard; he's managing the entire job and bringing in other trades as necessary. When the work is done we will be so glad to get the house tidy and get back to normal!

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Half and half

Maple leaves falling

Right now some of the trees have half the leaves still on the tree while the other half are lying on the ground.

This sycamore in Eynesbury has deposited leaves in a circle on the grass. They are such a lovely, luminous, summery yellow.

We are at last stating to get frosty nights and it's only a matter of time before all the leaves will be on the ground.

Then winter will start in earnest. But so far it still feels like autumn, and very nice too.

This year's leaves will decay and act as a mulch for next year's spring flowers. There is absolutely no waste in the natural world. And that's more than can be said for human technology.

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Autumn colour

Glorious autumn colour

There are some lovely autumn colours around at the moment. These trees outside our local supermarket are looking really lovely. [Tweet this]

The weather has been very mild, much warmer than we expect in mid to late October, and the colours develop best when it's not too cold.

But this is nothing compared to some of the photos out there. Try this Google search to bring up some really glorious photos!

There's also a good Wikipedia article with more information on autumn colour for anyone interested.

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Three mice in one trap

Here's how to catch mice without harming them.

Three mice

We'd heard scrabbling noises above the ceiling boards and suspected mice. I bought two commercial traps, the humane kind that catch the mouse unharmed and allow you to release it into the wild. The result? The bait was taken and the traps were sprung, but the mouse was nowhere to be seen.

So I tried another way and it worked. I caught three mice on the first attempt.

Buy a cheap, plastic bin. A tall bucket would do, but bear in mind mice can jump more than 30 cm. The bin must have smooth sides that are close to vertical so the mouse can't climb out. Put some food in the bottom of the bin - cheese, chocolate, dried fruit, nuts are good choices.

Stand the bin in the area where the mouse has been active and place boxes, pieces of timber, stones, or a rolled up decorating sheet against the outside of the bin. This will make it easy for a mouse to reach the top of the bin.

A hungry mouse will smell the food in the bin and will jump inside to reach it. But it won't be able to climb back out. Mice are nocturnal so check the bin every morning.

I caught three mice and released them in the garden, far enough from the house that they should not find their way back.

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Flowers in the autumn

Summer flowers cling on

Summer is over and autumn is well under way. But summer is reluctant to give up altogether.

This photo shows bedding plants in the centre of St Neots, right by the river. They're still in full bloom, looking great and promising to continue until the frost gets them, perhaps in November.

It seems the plants are reluctant to give in to shorter days and long, cold nights.

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An odd angle on rocks

The beach at Clevedon

These rocks on the beach at Clevedon were laid down hundreds of millions of years ago.

There's an old fault line just a few yards away, a discontinuity where the rocks lie at a different angle. And the rocks in the photo are tilted, you can see the layers clearly.

These layers are accumulations of mud and silt in a shallow sea, turned into relatively hard rock by heat and pressure and long millenia.

It seems extraordinary that sediment can be squished like this, and that rock layers can be upended and tilted. Nonetheless that is what happens given enough time in the churning interior of the Earth over long periods of time.

The recent earthquake in Pakistan created an island. The seabed shifted enough to raise what used to be beneath the sea so that now it's above the waterline. No doubt it may have been slightly tilted as well. Over time a series of such movements can build up significant changes of angle.

What an amazing world we live in!

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Decorated biscuits

Decorated biscuits

Young children love decorating biscuits, and this example is from my granddaughter's 5th birthday party. I'm not sure how appetising you find them, but they are certainly colourful!

Every child took to the task in a different way. Some were slow and careful, some enthusiastic and highly productive (can I decorate another one, please). Even at age five, personalities are well developed and very varied. And they all come out in biscuit decorating.

If you have a young child and haven't tried this, it's easy to set up. Buy a pack of plain biscuits along with paper plates, a set of tubes of pre-made coloured icing, a large tube of white icing, and a selection of sprinkles, sugar letters and numbers, and small sweets. Here is what you do...

1. Place the ingredients and the plates on a well-protected or wipe-clean table.
2. Make sure the table is standing on a well-protected or wipe-clean floor.
3. Release the children.
4. Stand well clear.
5. Clean up (children, table and floor).

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A Peacock

A Peacock butterfly

No, this is not a Peacock bird, it's a Peacock butterfly, a species native to the UK. I spotted it recently feeding on nectar from fragrant flowers in a garden in Fife, Scotland.

It was interesting to see a Peacock so far north. The butterfly gets its name from the eye-spots, similar to those on the tail of the bird. The butterfly probably has these spots because they increase the survival rate of the adults by scaring away predators or making them think this is an animal altogether too large to eat.

Maybe a predator would even think there are two animals as the Peacock has four 'eyes'!

Butterflies have been in very short supply this summer because of the wet summer last year. But numbers are increasing in this year's dry and warm weather. Good for the butterflies.

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A plant to remember by

Prunella grandiflora

I bought this plant at Cragside, a large house in Northumberland once the home of a famous engineer, Lord Armstrong.

We spent a while at Cragside on 17th August as we drove back south after a week in Fife with my daughters and their families.

Prunella grandiflora (Large Self-heal) likes moist conditions in partial shade and I've planted it next to our summerhouse where it will only receive late evening sunshine.

This one is a white-flowered cultivar and should be popular with bumblebees. I'm looking forward to seeing how well it grows.

It's good to collect plants from places I've been. The Self-heal will remind me of two visits to Cragside, one just recently and the first back in the mid 1980s.

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Fish and chips

Yummy fish and chips

Fish and chips is usually good, but tonight we had fish and chips that was utterly spectacular. We are on our way north for a week with the family and we stopped at Durham for the evening before driving to our motel in nearby South Shields.

We walked the city centre streets of Durham, visited Palace Green and the Cathedral, and had a look at the Lindisfarne Gospels exhibit (it's oustanding, by the way).

Then we stopped at Bells Restaurant for fish and chips. They were the best ever! Really delicious, beautifully cooked, nicely presented on fish-shaped plates, with friendly service thrown in for good measure. I thought I should share the photo.

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Hedge trimming

Belated hedge trimming

Keeping the world in order is a massive undertaking. If I wasn't here to manage my little part of it, it would manage itself - but probably not to my liking!

This photo of my garden hedge illustrates the problem perfectly. On the right is the part I've just trimmed. On the left is the part that I have still to do.

You wouldn't believe it, but earlier in the year it was all trimmed. However, hedges have a habit of growing and growing, and this year's warmth and rainfall has provided perfect growing conditions.

If only someone would breed a hedging plant that would grow to a designated height and width and would then just stop. That would be perfect.

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Jim and Pam's 25th

Party at Jim and Pam's

Tonight was Jim and Pam's 25th wedding anniversary.

Jim had prepared a big party for over a hundred guests, hosted in their house and garden. A marquee filled much of the garden with the rest of it pressed into service as a kitchen and serving area.

In one corner of the marquee was a disco. People congregated in the house itself as well as in the front and back gardens.

Children were happy to play on the bouncy castle in the front garden.

Many of the guests already knew one another, a reflection of Jim and Pam's widespread circles of friends, both church based and in the wider community.

Donna and I knew many of the people there through one route or another. It was a truly great evening and everyone had a lot of fun.

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Gibbous coffee

This cup of coffee is partly shaded, like a half moon. When a moon or planet is more than half illuminated it is said to be gibbous, hence a cup of gibbous coffee.

Coffee half shaded

Gibbous is astronomical jargon, a useful term with a precise meaning.

The coffee was part of our breakfast this morning at 'The Ambiance Cafe' in the Riverside Park in St Neots.

It's a popular place for people wanting a snack, a drink, an ice cream, or a simple meal, neatly and conveniently positioned between the car parking spaces and the grass and trees of the park itself.

After our breakfast and coffee/tea we headed off for a bench under a shady tree for the next part of 'The Forgotten Ways' by Alan Hirsch, a workbook we've been studying. This time we completed the section on the 'Missional-incarnational impulse' so we're ready next time to begin 'Apostolic environment'.

If this all sounds double-Dutch, please be reassured that it's most certainly not. It's actually a very interesting study on how church works and what makes it really fly. In a sense this book is telling us that we need to be fully in the light and not half in the dark, like the gibbous coffee.

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A new path

We had a new greenhouse recently; building it was all a bit of a saga - but that's another story...

New path in the garden

The area between the old greenhouse and the fence had always been something of a nightmare.

It was overgrown, the hedge that preceded the fence was wide and left little room, and the ground was full of broken glass, old concrete posts, rusted bits of ironwork, you name it!

But now it all looks a lot more promising. I've built a new path with a rustic stone step where the levels change. I also added a narrow border beside the greenhouse base.

The new path makes it easy to get from the back door to the summerhouse. It's been fun to do despite the hot weather.

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Sunshades on a hot day

We had a very hot day today and there are heatwave warnings that the next few days will be even hotter still.

A hot day in St Neots

The photo shows people at the Bridge Inn. They are sitting on the river terrace relaxing. This was earlier in the day but by mid afternoon most people were looking for shade or (even better) air conditioning.

The temperatures in the shade topped 28 C today, not high by some standards, but pretty good for northerly lands like the UK.

I did some work in the garden and made quite a bit of progress, but it felt better to work in the shade and not to be too active!

Days like this are really very welcome in Britain because we don't get that many of them. On the other hand we we start to grumble about a drought if weather like this went on for several more weeks.

You just can't please the Brits when it comes to weather!

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Duckweed collector

This rather odd photo uses flash at night to image duckweed on our indoor pond (an Affinity Pool).

Duckweed on our pond

The water fountains up through the grey pipe and shoots out into a thin, hemispherical sheet of  water.

Oddly, this water action seems to collect the duckweed inside the falling water. It's trapped there, it can't escape, but sometimes more duckweed gets sucked inside.

Duckweed normally floats on the water surface as a single layer. But with this collection action it soon becomes two, three or more layers deep inside the water envelope.

Duckweed is a flowering plant, surely one of the smallest possible such plants. It's not usually part of the life in our pond, but today I added some water lily plants to the mix and there was pondweed stuck to the lily roots.

Duckweed is another example of viriditas - see yesterday's post.

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Viriditas

Viriditas is a Latin word that means 'greenness'. The English equivalent is viridity.

Rapidly growing plants

Down the ages the Latin word has been used in a religious context to mean spiritual and physical health, but Kim Stanley Robinson used it in a different way in his Mars trilogy. By viriditas he meant the ability of living things to prosper and grow in rich abundance.

The plants in this pot have grown vigorously and are flowering abundantly so they are displaying considerable viriditas. Compare this post with the earlier one I posted on 9th June.

The idea of viriditas can be used to describe anything that is full of life. Flowers in the garden, trees and forests, fish in the sea, children, good ideas, successful companies, and successful churches.

So what are the underlying causes of viriditas?  Understanding that is the key to success. One important cause is organic growth, growth that feeds on its own success.

The more a child learns the more potential he or she has for further learning. Just think of the opportunities for learning that open up when a child learns to read.

The more a plant spreads this year, the more seeds there will be next year. How do you think this principle applies to a company or a church?

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A third place

Here I am at McDonald's on the A1 just south of St Neots. We had eaten at home but wanted a dessert and we also wanted to continue working through 'The Forgotten Ways Handbook' together.

Working in a third place

So Donna and I took our notebooks and pens and our copies of the Handbook and headed a couple of miles down the A1 to McDonald's where Donna had a flake McFlurry and I chose a banana shake.

Then we got stuck into Session 1 of 'The Missional-Incarnational Impulse'.

The book calls places like McDonald's 'third places'. They are not home, they are not the workplace (or in our case church), but they are places where the community gathers. They are therefore good places to go if we want to connect with the community in a real and natural way.

It was interesting to look at it in this way, and I was able to have a friendly chat with a family in the queue just ahead of us. Small children are great conversation starters, and this group's three-year-old was no exception!

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At the seaside?

You might be forgiven for thinking this photo was taken at the coast. Today was a glorious, hot summer day and people were out looking for shady, cool spots. But we live a long way from the sea here in St Neots; it takes several hours to get there by road.

A day at the seaside?

So where do people go to walk by a large expanse of water?

The little harbour in the photo is in the village of Perry on the south shore of Grafham Water, a large reservoir supplying water to the region.

It's about fifteen minutes from our house by car and Donna and I drove over to sit on the grass and read and chat. The harbour has a club house and cafe nearby so we ate a light lunch there.

Grafham is used for sailing, fishing, walking and cycling. There are several car parks and areas of grass and trees for picnics and ball games.

Grafham Water was built in 1965 and is the third largest reservoir in the UK in terms of surface area. Not only does it supply drinking water, a system of pumps and pipes enables it to reduce risk of flooding of the River Great Ouse.

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Chestnut leaf miner

Until a few years ago, horse chestnut trees in Britain had lovely glossy leaves that stayed healthy and green right through the summer months, turning brown and falling in the autumn.

Damaged chestnut leaves

But then the chestnut leaf miner came to Britain and everything changed. The leaf miner is a small moth, only 5 mm long.

The adult females lay their eggs on the chestnut leaves and the young caterpillars burrow inside and feed on the sap from a leaf vein. The chestnut leaves develop dead, brown patches as a result.

The caterpillars pupate and mature moths emerge and lay more eggs. There are between three and five generations each summer and the leaves become severely damaged.

When the leaves fall in the autumn, the pupae hibernate through the winter and emerge as adults the following year to repeat the process.

It's a real shame that the trees are spoiled in this way. The moth originated in Macedonia but has spread rapidly throughout most of Europe in the last twenty years.

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The River Great Ouse

It's lovely to have the river passing through the town. Of course, towns often developed at river crossings and St Neots was no exception. In mediaeval times there was a ford here; it was controlled by the monks at the local priory and the Market Square grew up immediately outside the priory walls.

The River Great Ouse in St Neots

On a fine day like today the river reflects the blue sky and that really enhances the view. On an overcast day the river looks grey and dull. It's amazing what a clear sky and a bit of sunshine do to liven things up!

There's a lot of life on and in our river. Along with moorhens, ducks, geese and swans, the river is full of fish and other water life.

Water lilies grow in the shallow parts along the banks in certain places where the flow is weak, and other kinds of waterweed are visible too.

Boat traffic is entirely pleasure craft, although in past years boats were used to carry goods to and from nearby towns - Bedford, Huntingdon and St Ives.

I'm glad the river is there. I like to walk to the River Mill Tavern in the evening or into town for shopping; and the paths along the river are by far the best way to do it. It avoids the noise and fumes of the road traffic and it's peaceful when the world is frantic and busy.

The river is a great asset.

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Clay bricks and living stones

Walking to our Co-Op supermarket this afternoon I spotted this house extension going up. I've been watching it over the last few weeks as it's grown from the foundations to the point where the roof timbers are being put in place.

Building an extension

Like any building it consists of a number of components that have to be planned in advance and put together in the correct sequence.

The foundations are dug, filled with concrete, and the blocks and bricks laid. Frames for doors and windows are fitted. Steel joists go in to support wide openings and lintels support brickwork over smaller openings. Roof timbers will be followed by felt and tiles.

It would be no good starting with the roof!

The foundations are hidden when the work is finished, but they are essential because they transmit the weight of the remaining structure into the ground in a safe way.

The same is true for organisations such as businesses, schools, and governments. The essentials are often hidden but safely support a massive superstructure. You can't just start operating, first you need the legal framework, the physical infrastructure, training programmes, governing bodies and so forth.

It's also true in biology, a tree can't have branches without a supporting trunk and anchoring roots and the necessary flows of water and nutrients through the entire structure.

And in the spiritual realm it's just the same. Jesus rightly said that a firm foundation is essential if storms are to be weathered (Matthew 7:24-27). He himself is the foundation and there is no other up to the task. Only he can support the building. Church is a temple built of living stones. Jesus is not only the foundation, but he is also the builder. He builds on himself and requires us to do the same.

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The River Mill

We walked to the River Mill Tavern in Eaton Socon for an evening drink, then home along the river bank to make our evening meal.

The River Mill, Eaton Socon

The River Mill is a popular spot. It's an easy walk from the caravan park so holiday visitors sometimes come here to drink or eat. The food is good, not cordon bleu by any means but adequate and nicely prepared and presented.

Once a week they have live music, and the tables outside overlook the canal basin with it's range of pleasure craft, many of them narrowboats.

I suspect there's a regular local clientele too, and others like us who live locally but only pop in for a meal once in a while.

I suspect that if I came here regularly I begin to recognise faces and learn some names. Most British pubs have a community atmosphere of some kind and I imagine the River Mill will be no exception.

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All the tea in China

This was different. Someone gave Donna a specialist presentation box of China tea. She brought it home and it had remained in the cupboard, overlooked. We hadn't tried it.

Chinese green tea with a difference

Just today, she was tidying the kitchen and found the box of tea. The tea is formed into a hard, dried ball (front left in the photo). The foil packet that held it is in the background.

I dropped one of these balls into a mug and added boiling water, gradually the ball started to unroll, green leaves appeared first and then a pale 'flower' in the centre.

We transferred the tea 'plant' into a glass of cold water so that we could look at it more easily. It's very ingenious, extremely clever tea 'engineering'.

I drank the green tea infusion in the mug and it tasted good, lightly flavoured green tea, in fact!

And of course I had to take a photo for the daily toast. It's the finest thing to post that I could have imagined, and it was completely unexpected! Amazing that you can do this with tea. Bet there's nothing like this for coffee.

Unless, of course, you know different...

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Andy Murray!

After 77 years with no British Wimbledon champion, Andy Murray has finally made it all the way. We have a British Wimbledon champion again at long last!

Andy Murray and the cup

The entire country will be celebrating! I pointed my camera at the TV so you can all see what you've probably already seen on the news - a picture of Andy holding the champion's cup.

Perhaps the longer a person (or a nation) struggles to win something, the more significant it seems when success is finally achieved.

Andy Murray is not English, he's a Scot. The entire UK will celebrate wildly, and his win is richly deserved. I hope he will savour it and go on to win again and again.

Andy Murray has done it! Ivan Lendl has clearly been an excellent coach, but it was all down to Andy on the day and he didn't falter.

A great day in British tennis history!

But I also wonder how much longer it might be before that cup rests in English hands? Tim Henman tried hard, but didn't quite get there. Are there promising young English players coming along? If so, do they include some who might stand a real chance of emulating Andy Murray and doing for England what he has done so magnificently today for Scotland?

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Fish, flower, tree

It's our first day back from the holiday, and we did some jobs around the house and garden to catch up after our week away. So I took the photo at home too.

Goldfish, orchids and a weeping fig

In our conservatory we have a pond with goldfish in it, an orchid on the window ledge is in flower and we have a potted weeping fig standing on the floor.

It struck me that the grouping would make a good photo and two fish obliged by swimming into the field of view at just the right moment.

The orchid is a Phalaenopsis, a slow growing plant with rather dull leaves and large aerial roots that has amazing flowers a couple of times each year. Like most orchids it's easy to grow and the flowers last for many weeks.

The fish are common red goldfish. At least, they were sold as red goldfish but I think one is actually something else. It is larger, faster growing, and has changed from red when it was young to mostly silver now.

The weeping fig grows in warmer climates than ours, in places like the Canary Islands it forms medium size trees but in the UK it is an indoor pot plant. Ours is a silver variegated form, 'Starlight'.

It seems to me that these three juxtaposed in the photo have an oriental feel to them. The picture makes me think of Japan or China or Thailand.

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Mosaic and Lego

Friday 5th July - We spent our last morning exploring Bucklers Hard and having a farewell lunch at Steff's Kitchen, then we headed for Winchester, avoiding the motorway to dodge the weekend traffic.

Lego table and meal on a Roman mosaic

We soon decided that Winchester is a lovely old city. Neither of us knows it well.

In Saxon times Winchester was the capital of Wessex after about 686 AD. Later it became the capital of the whole of England until the Normans moved the capital to London where it has remained to this day.

While Donna went shopping, I took half an hour for a quick tour of the City Museum. While there I was amused by this Lego table loaded with Lego food, standing on a Roman mosaic floor excavated in the city.

The museum has a set of four magnificent models showing Roman Venta Belgarum (Winchester) in its heyday, the early Saxon first minster built among the Roman ruins but on a new alignment, and two more recent states of the city's development.

After an evening meal in the city, we finally left Winchester to head back home to St Neots. It had been an excellent holiday!

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Our holiday home

Thursday 4th July - We've been staying in a converted yachtsman's shelter at Baileys Hard in Hampshire. The land slopes down to the Beaulieu River (you can see it in the background) and our holiday home is one of eight built in woodland.

Our holiday home at Bailey's Hard

Baileys Hard is within easy walking distance of Beaulieu (up river) and Bucklers Hard (down river, not far from where the river meets the sea.

Inside, the house is lovely. It's small, with just one double bedroom. There's a loo, a bathroom with an excellent shower, a well-equipped kitchen, and a moderate sized lounge with a TV.

Boadband and Wi-Fi is included although it was poor throughput and the Wi-Fi seemed patchy. I think it's a difficult area of the coast for networks and poorly served by broadband.

We put out some bird seed and suet the first day we were here and have been rewarded with a lot of activity and a chance to see some birds that are, for us, rather special. A jay and two greater spotted woodpeckers have visited us daily, and there's been an assortment of finches and tits as well as a blackbird and a nuthatch.

It was fun to live upstairs in a stilt house, it felt rather like a very well-appointed tree house.

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Flowers on a building

Wednesday 3rd July - Donna's Mum and Dad were with us today. We ate at 'The Pig' and then returned to our holiday home at Bailey's Hard and watched the birds on the veranda for a while. Then we walked to Beaulieu and back along the footpath, stopping at Steff's Kitchen for coffee.

Flowers in Lymington

After waving goodbye and watching her parents drive away, Donna and I drove the short distance to Lymington, bought fish and chips, and ate them near the yacht club in Milford-on-Sea.

Just before buying our fish and chips we spotted this fish restaurant in the old part of town near the harbour. It had a glorious show of flowers.

Isn't it amazing how a bunch of plants in flower can brighten up any building? Adding a bit of living material to some bricks and mortar brings the entire place to life. Suddenly it's more than a building. It's a structure supporting life in all its crazy mix of tumbling colours and fragrances.

It's the same with people, I think. Inject some real life into a person and suddenly they blossom. Smile wherever you go, laugh with people, give gifts, encourage everyone you meet, help those in trouble, listen attentively, be sympathetic. If you do these things, those around you will come alive and will blossom and flourish like plants in a well-tended window box.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Getting up close

Today's outing was just a short walk away, the Beaulieu estate with its famous National Motor Museum. We had a lot of fun at the 'Top Gear' exhibition, every bit as crazy and funny as the TV show!

Close-up of a waterlilly

There's a lot to see. We walked through the Motor Museum, rode on the monorail, visited the remains of the 13th century Abbey, and explored the gardens.

I like nothing better than to take images that are close up and personal. It comes from several decades of microscopical research in the 1970s and 1980s. I studied flower development and pollination in fruit trees.

I can't get quite that close, of course, with my trusty old Canon G12. But I thought you might like this shot of a water lily in the rain.

The water drops bead up because of the water-repellent properties of the petal surface. The cells are coated in wax, often in the form of fine fibres and the water sits on top of these, barely touching the epidermal cells beneath and rolling off with ease.

The yellow structures you can see are the anthers that will produce pollen in the next day or two. Bees and other insects will come for nectar and pollen and will also carry away a dusting of pollen on their bodies, transferring it to other nearby water lily flowers. In this complex way, the life cycle of the water lily is completed and seeds are formed.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Japanese maple

Somewhere we wanted to visit was Exbury Gardens, and today we had the opportunity to do it. We drove through Beaulieu and crossed the river, then headed south to Exbury, found the gardens, and left the car in the car park.

Acer palmatum atropurpureum

We bought tickets for the gardens and for the little railway that runs around parts of the garden.

Although the rhododendrons were mostly over, it's true to say there are other things worth seeing here. Most of the garden is woodland with extensive pathways and exploring was fun.

We interrupted our walk to take a train ride, but returning to the walks later, we spotted this lovely Japanese maple.

It goes by the grand Latin name 'Acer palmatum atropurpureum' which means it's a maple (Acer) with 'hand' shaped leaves (palmatum) that are a purple-red colour (atropurpureum).

As the sunlight filtered through these lovely, purple leaves, it made them glow a delicate luminous colour. It's almost a deep, autumnal amber, even though autumn is still far off. Just beautiful!

How amazing that a little corner of a garden in a tiny area of a little country on a small planet around an average star can be so beautiful. And when you think how fragile this beauty is and how it will all be gone forever by the time winter arrives, it's even more poignant and significant. And it would be here even if nobody saw it!

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Appalachian clogging

We were in Poole today, visiting Donna's Mum and Dad, after a light lunch we all headed down to the quayside where there was some folk dancing going on.

Appalachian clog dancing in Poole

On a previous visit a few years ago, Donna had been impressed by a local group of Appalachian clog dancers. They were performing in Wimborne last time, and we were delighted to see them again in Poole.

There were only a few groups active at a time along the quay so we had no reason to expect to see the clogging, we didn't even know the group would be there.

However, they were, and we enjoyed watching them.

The cloggers were wearing a kind of tap shoe, presumably the dance style originated with wooden clogs that were the standard farming footwear in many parts of Europe in mediaeval times. No doubt leather shoes with steel taps are much more comfortable and controllable.

Donna is interested enough to wonder if there is a clog dance group anywhere near St Neots. I'm not sure she'd actually find the time to learn these dances, but it would certainly be fun to go and watch now and again.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Beaulieu village

We visited a community vegetable garden in Beaulieu today. And there, in amongst the cabbages and beetroots was a scarecrow all kitted out for Wimbledon!

Scarecrow at Wimbledon?

Wimbledon is proving to be a bit of an upset this year with several of the top seeds knocked out in the earliest stages. It opens the field for lower ranking players - but surely not for scarecrows?

Although he may be good at chasing away the birds, he doesn't seem to have a great action. In fact I'd say his performance is a bit wooden.

Beaulieu itself is a pretty little place, there's a small garden centre (Fairweather's) with a great restaurant attached called 'Steff's Kitchen'. They serve tea, coffee and good food, and they use fresh ingredients. from the community garden with the raquet-wielding scarecrow.

There's a teddy-bear shop and other small businesses focussing on the tourist trade. But the main claim to fame by this little village is the well-known motor museum, the Palace House, the old abbey and the nearby coast and the New Forest.

We haven't visited most of these sites yet, but I was very impressed with the work Fairweather's are doing in Steff's Kitchen and (particularly) Patrick's Patch. Not only is it good for the tourists like Donna and me, it's good for the local community involving schools, volunteers and more. Every small town and village needs projects like these. Well done Fairweather's and the good folk of Beaulieu.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Water for life

Today I set up the automatic watering system for the tomatoes in our small greenhouse. The water trickles into each pot, providing the water the plants need to grow and produce a crop.

Watering nozzles for tomatoes

Without water, plants die. They also need light, temperatures within a certain range, and sufficient mineral nutrients.

But because I was setting up the watering system, I was thinking about their need for water more than anything else.

How long would a person live without water? Just a few days. Dehydration would set in and death would surely follow. Water is essential for life.

Jesus had a conversation about this with a woman who'd come from a village to draw water at a well. She knew how much she needed water, it was worth a journey, the weight of a heavy container, and facing the heat of the day. Jesus told her he could provide a flow of water that would rise up inside her and keep her refreshed without visiting the well. She was very keen to receive this water.

Jesus was talking about something that brings spiritual life, not just ordinary well water. What would you be prepared to do to obtain an inner source of spiritual refreshment that would never run out?

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

A busy day ahead

I took a friend to Hinchingbrooke Hospital this morning. He needs special shoes and had to visit for some measurements.

The foyer at Hinchingbrooke Hospital

There's no hospital in St Neots, our nearest one is Hinchingbrooke on the edge of Huntingdon, a twenty minute car journey if the roads are clear, a bit longer at times of peak traffic.

Back at home I need to get the automatic watering system working and replace some broken glass. As I was mowing the grass yesterday evening a stone flew up and took out a large pane.

Then there's some weeding to keep me busy and I have to make a trip to town for food shopping and to drop in some paperwork at the Open Door office.

I also need to visit the tip, clean the car, pay in some cheques and finish a blog post on Journeys of Heart and Mind, so it seems like a busy day. Enough writing about what has to be done, it's time to get stuck in to all those tasks!

This evening I plan to be doing a Lyfe study at The Bridge House pub with a few friends. It's been good so far, this will be our third meeting.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Life of the river

St Neots is built on the River Great Ouse with its source near Banbury and mouth at King's Lynn. As you can see from the photo, it's a wide river here in the town. The narrowboat with the man at the stern give some idea of scale (click the photo for a larger view).

A narrowboat on the River Great Ouse

Because of the River, the town has an excellent rowing club, some of the members compete at high levels of the sport.

After taking the photo this afternoon I was thinking about the life of the river. It seems to be unchanging (although the course of the river does change slowly over the centuries).

But if you follow the river from source to mouth it parallels a person's life from birth to death. The river starts off young, just a tiny brook in a deep-cut channel. It flows quickly, is active and uncontrolled.

As it matures it passes through teenage where it looks much more like a full-grown river but is still quite unpredictable and has changing moods.

In maturity it begins to wander across the landscape, full-grown, mostly placid, and able to cause serious damage if it floods out beyond its banks.

And in old age it is slow moving, set in its ways, and finally comes to the end of its course where it dissipates itself into the brackish waters of The Wash. Finally it is totally lost to view, even at low tide, and spreads itself out imperceptibly into the great North Sea.

What happens to a person when they die? Like the river they vanish from this world. Are they lost (just as the river vanishes) or do they become part of something greater (as the water of the river becomes part of the vastness of the ocean).

What do you think?

I think people become part of something infinite, not only physically but spiritually too. Visit Spiritual Journeys for more on this.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Abandoning the washing up

Today was Tuesday, and that means Small Group. Donna helps our friends Roger and Carolyn run an Open Door Small Group and tonight we were meeting at our house.

The washing up

We begin with a meal together, then we decamp from the dining room clutching mugs of coffee (or tea) and head to the lounge to share in singing, prayer, Bible reading and discussion.

We just abandon the washing up in the kitchen. Everyone helps clear the table and stack the dirty plates, cups and cutlery around the sink.

When everyone has gone home I usually load up the dishwasher and set it going, often a second load is needed in the morning.

We only host the meeting once every couple of months, mostly it circulates around from house to house so everyone gets a turn at washing up - it's good for the soul!

Even washing up can make a good photo. Look at the range of colours in this image, some vivid, others subdued. Then see how many different textures you can find, and the reflections. There are transparent objects, translucent ones, metallic ones. An astonishingly rich scene.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Feedly and Clover

Feedly and Clover are both worth checking out, but the Clover video shared by Feedly is amazing. I'll explain...

My laptop screen

Feedly is a software tool, a feed reader. Clover is a food truck and restaurant company. You can see references to both in the photo of my laptop.

Feedly provides me with all the information I need from all the websites I follow. I used to read this stuff in Google Reader, but like many users of Google Reader I transferred to Feedly when I heard Google were closing down their reader.

Feedly is awesome. However, on their blog, they shared a seminar given by the head of Clover, a small food startup in the Boston (Massachusetts) area.

Clover and Feedly have something important in common - they listen to their customers in radical, intentional ways. It's good for them and it's good for us.

The video is really great, please don't miss it. It's full of very important ideas. If you are running a business or service, just starting one, planning a project, working for yourself or for someone else, part of a club or interest group, planting a church, doing research, writing a book... whatever, do not miss the video! :-)

How can you apply these powerful ideas?

Oh... I'd better give you the link, then. Here's the video....



(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)