Lent reflection 2.

An Invocation for Lent.

Into the dark world

a snowdrop comes,

a blessing of hope and peace

carrying within it a green heart.

symbol of God's renewing love.

Come to inhabit our darkness, Lord Christ,

for dark and light are alike to you.

May Nature's white candles of hope

remind us of your birth

and lighten our journey

through Lent and beyond.

By Kate McIlhagga

a minister and member of

The Iona community.

Hermes........

Angela left a comment on my last post, suggesting that I create a chic look for my neck support collar with a Hermes scarf.

Well, as it happens, I do have one! I had to hunt, but here it is. I was given it about 40 years ago by a French lady whose son had been on an exchange visit to us. What a charming present!

Now it is a little worn, but still very much a Hermes design. Do you think 40 years is enough to call it vintage?

Looking at Ebay I see that it could be valued at anything between £1.40 and £226. How one can tell the value I can't imagine. I shall just bring it out of retirement and do as Ang suggested. Very chic.

Physio

This isnt my physiotherapist, but just an indication of the work they do. A physiotherapist in France is known as a Kinestherapist.

I was amazed the first time I ever went to an appointment to find there were no private rooms. Instead there are curtained areas where up to three other patients are treated at the same time....one or other of the consultants running between each. It's all very jolly and if you catch sight of someone you know it is treated as an opportunity for a nice chat.

It is a bit disconcerting to know that every squeak one makes is heard by all the other patients...and I have to admit that there were squeaks, even howls. I told my physio that he was cruel, but he only laughed. Heartily.

Despite the suffering , he is doing a good job, and going three times a week means that the pain levels are gradually diminishing. I am sure I will, eventually, regard the support collar I have to wear as the ultimate in French chic....non?

I'm out of commission for a couple of days, having painful physiotherapy on a very painful neck and shoulder.

It hurts.

Lent reflection 1.

Floss here came up with the idea of taking time during Lent for a period of reflection, time to write something every week on our thoughts about Lent.

There was a huge emphasis when I was young, on 'what should I give up for Lent'. We almost all swore to give up chocolate, sweets or other favourite things. I'm not sure how long I managed to keep it up!

Now I look at Lent in a different way. Yes, it is a period which gives us time to reflect on the sacrifice made for us by Christ.

The 40 days of Lent are the same 40 days that He spent in the desert. He gave us His life. Should I give up something in recognition of that?

This year I find the idea of giving up this or that is not what I want to do. I want to 'turn' my prayer life around. It is so easy to say 'I'll be praying for you', it's well meant, but I know how my mind can flutter off. I know that I can be guilty of saying , briefly, 'Oh and also God, please reach out to so and so in their need'.

So I'm making a list (typical teacher) of all friends and family for whom I pray, with spaces for 'emergency' prayers. I am going to stick with this and give more thought and time to each prayer. Maybe it's not sacrificial, but it will be , as Alice said, A Very Good thing.

Seed selection

This is the time of year when the seed catalogues arrive in our post box. The one we use mainly is a French one called 'Graines Baumaux'. There are various other smaller ones, but this is the best we have found, and their delivery and quality are exceptionally good..

My husband spends hours flicking through the very colourful pages, making decisions, making lists of the vegetables he wants to grow. Should it be this variety of carrot or another? Do we need extra herbs this year?

When I can get hold of the book I choose my few seeds, Cosmos, Sweet peas, Nicotiana and , yes, my herbs. Basil is a must and this year there is an interesting purple variety.....oh it's so hard not to order everything!

Have you ever seen such a selection of tomatoes? And that's only one of the three pages, showing ancient and modern varieties. some of them are not the most attractive to look at, but the taste is good.

We find every year, in our order, several free packets of flower or vegetable seeds....Baumaux know how to keep their customers!

Kathmandu

This is the kingdom of Nepal.

No, not my next holiday destination, fascinating though

that would be.

This is where my grandson (24) and his girlfriend have been travelling since January.

They saved enough money to give themselves

6 months of travel, and began with 2 weeks trekking in Nepal, using guides and

climbing up to 17 000 feet.

It seems amazing to me that we can follow their progress on Flickr

that we can see hundreds of the photos of their journey.

They have ridden on elephants,

watched Rhinos, played with monkeys, and above all

have learned so much about the hospitality and friendliness

of the Nepalese.

Now they are on a two-day bus journey to India, with New Zealand and Thailand

waiting in the wings.

Isnt it wonderful to be young and able to travel the world?

Pancake Day

Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday, February 16th this year.

Why do we celebrate this?

Why do we British eat pancakes on that day?

Shrove Tuesday comes between February and March each year, depending on the date for Easter. As a child I could never understand why , if Christmas was on the same day each year, Easter couldn't also have a defined date.

The word 'shrove' comes from the old English verb 'to shrive' , meaning to confess sins. It is the day before Lent, and on that day families would eat up all the foods that would be given up for the fasting period of Lent. In the main these would be fats, milk, butter and eggs, which couldn't be eaten again till Easter.

So, the pancake, made from those three ingredients, symbolises the beginning of fasting, and the eating up of food.

Our English pancakes are very unlike the stacks of pancakes that I have eaten in Canada, brimming over with butter, maple syrup drooling down the sides. No, the British pancake is restrained, pale, thin in comparison. But delicious also, eaten with fresh lemon and a sprinkle of sugar in the traditional way.

Living in Brittany, the home of pancakes known as crepes, we could eat them all the time. Often in the supermarket I will see a shopper piling her basket with a couple of dozen ready made crepes. One of the old ways to eat them here is to break them up and float them in a bowl of butermilk. I can't imagine anything more awful!

Delia's recipe for pancakes;

For the pancake mixture:
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter
To serve:
caster sugar
lemon juice
lemon wedges

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and break the eggs into it. Whisk the eggs, gathering all the flour from around the bowl.

Gradually add small quantities of milk and water mixture, still whisking. When all the liquid has been added whisk once more for a smooth batter.

Now melt 2oz butter in a pan. Get the pan really hot and do a test pancake first. 2 tbsp of mixture should be enough, tip the pan from side to side to get it evenly coated with batter. After about half a minute flip it over, or if you are very brave, toss it! When done slide onto a plate and serve with lemon juice and sugar.

Mmmmmm!

St Valentine

Random findings about Saint Valentine.

St Valentine was, apparently, a Roman monk, who was martyred for refusing to betray his Christian faith. One of his beliefs was in the sacrament of marriage, and he loved to celebrate marriages. Emperor Claudius decreed that there would be no more marriages, but young people continued to come to Valentine to be married.

The emperor Claudius then had him thrown into jail, where he was allowed visits from friends, and from the jailer's daughter. On the day of his death , February 14th, it is said that he left the girl a note to say good bye and signed it 'From your Valentine'.

So continued the tradition of sending a card to a loved one on this date, and Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. In 496 AD the then Pope set the day aside officially to honour St Valentine.

Thak you for your comments on my post titled What is love. They were many and different, and several were read out at our Service of Prayer and Praise this morning.

One of the lovely songs we sang was 'Jesus be the Centre'.

Jesus be the centre
Be my source, be my light Jesus
Jesus be the centre
Be my song Jesus

Be the fire in my heart
Be the wind in my sails
Be the reason that I live

Jesus Jesus
Jesus be my vision
Be my help
Be my guide Jesus

© 1999 Vineyard Songs

Books, again.

The snow has given me an excuse to sit and read, not that I really needed one. The fire is on, the armchair is comfortable, who needs excuses?

These are some of the books I'm/we're reading or have read recently.It's an eclectic selection ranging from diet to prayer to fiction.

I can honestly say I have enjoyed each book in a different way. The Stieg Larssen trilogy held us both gripped to the last page. There were some hissings...'Havent you finished your book yet? I'm waiting...' Sadly no more will be written as the Swedish author died of a heart attack even before publication.

Any book by Adriana Trigiani is enjoyable. Often set in the Appalachian mountains they give a wonderful portrayal of Italian/American family life.

The GI diet? Well...sugar levels are not all they should be, so the Glycaemic index is to be followed for a while.

And my Devotions? I start every day with a reading. I find the day goes better.

Different weather......

Well, after all that twittering about Spring yesterday, this is how the weather was last night......

And this is how it is today.

Spring?

Daffodils

The daffodils in my header come from a farm on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall. Every year I used to go there to buy bulbs, and when we bought our French cottage I took a bag of 450 daffodil bulbs over to spread around the garden and the lane. They still bloom every year, even after 15 years.





The family at`Fentongollan farm have been there since 1883, and have been growing daffodils on 160 acres for at least the last fifty years. They sell cut flowers and bulbs, though many of their bulbs are exported to Holland. They also send flowers by post, and I imagine that to open a box of ready to bloom daffodils would make anyone's day brighter! When interviewed on the Westcountry news yesterday, one of the family said that they were at least a month behind with the picking due to the bad weather. I notice that mine in the garden are very slow to come up....but can't blame them. I'd rather stay in a comfortable bed!

School meals.

When you were at school, did you have chefs fighting for ways to please your delicate little palates?

No, nor did I.

I saw on the news tonight that there was an annual competition in UK to make a two course meal that 'would appeal to 11 year olds in school'.

The competition was open to kitchen-based staff who are involved with the daily preparation of school meals.

Presentation, creativity and preparation are all taken into account, and a maximum of £1.25 per head is allowed. One hour and a half is allowed for the competition, and dishes must conform to National Food Based Nutritional Standards.

I think back to my primary school days, in a small Cornish village, not long after the war. We walked the two or three miles to school. There were to begin with, no school meals as such. In my bag I took an egg in a small tin , and a box of brown bread and butter slices, and some fruit.

The egg was solemnly given to my teacher, who at lunchtime would boil it in a pan on the old Tortoise stove in the classroom.

I think I was one of the few' incomers', non Cornish, and can vividly remember desperately wanting a big Cornish pasty for lunch.....like the others!

But no one competed to bring us Cordon bleu meals. We just ate what we were given.

What is love??

At our church Prayer and Praise service this coming

week, we are presenting the theme, 'Love', highly

appropriate for St Valentine's Day.

I'd love some ideas from you as to what 'love' means to you.

Good bye, Peter Wimsey

I was sad to see that Ian Carmichael died yesterday at the age of 89.

He was well known for his portrayal of the affable Bertie Wooster, playing with

Dennis Price as Jeeves. But I liked him as Lord Peter Wimsey, (1972 - 5).

He was able to adopt that manner, slightly removed, aristocratic and polite

that , for me, just was the hero of the Dorothy Sayers detective novels.

He made many films. including 'Private's Progress '

and 'I'm all right, Jack', with Peter Sellers.

The photo shows him receiving the O.B.E in 2003.

Always charming, never relying for laughs on swear words or rudeness; the epitome of
the English gentleman.

First signs of Spring

At last! Very slowly things are beginning to peer carefully out of the earth.

Hellebores, always the first to show their buds, are opening stealthily.

I get the feeling that they will go back in again if the weather gets worse

This pinky one is a delight every year, but seems to have been attacked by couch grass,

so I'll have to weed her very carefully.

I always take the old leaves off when the plant begins to shoot and

the weather isnt so cold. They act as protection up till then.

I have a beautiful double Hellebore which is still sleeping.

At last a sign of life from my little Daffodil bulbs planted last November.

they are small ones and the pots will look so pretty on my front doorstep.

So, maybe Spring isnt too far away?

More answers.

I'm answering questions from yesterday's post about my sitting room.

Heidi........we have lived in this house for 3 years, but in France for 10 years permanently.

Angie.........you asked if we used this room mainly. We do. It lets all the sun in

and is warm and light. the French doors open onto the terrace as you

can see in the photo. We do have a study but that is mainly for my sewing

and computer.

Tricia..............the bookshelves are built into the wall, and are always too full!

Miriam.............on a summer day we take tea out on the terrace, but in winter

we are in the sitting room with the fire on!

Carolien............I'm rather fond of my cat too! His name is Velvet.

The photo is of the terrace. We can step right out of the door

and sit out in the sun.

I hope that's given you a look into my home and garden!

Connie asked.....

Connie asked me to find some photos of our house. The house is newish, and was built 3 years ago so not a typical French cottage, Connie!

Our first house was very Breton, a stone farmhouse which needed

renovation. We had it as a holiday house for several years,

and then on retirement lived there permanently.

This house was built to suit our advancing age retirement years and

is all on one floor.

This is the sitting room, or as the French term it..'le salon'.

The photo was taken two years ago, and since then I've made one or two changes.

Maybe some more photos another time.

White Monday

Here we go again!

There was a weather warning on the English news last night, but I wasnt expecting the snow to arrive here.