Prayers

Liz Slater manages to articulate her prayers so beautifully and clearly and says everything in such a way that I feel. I wanted to share them with you here, for things to think or pray about.  

Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, you promised through your son Jesus Christ to hear us when we pray in faith. Thank you Father.

So we come to you now in faith with our requests. 

Father God,  we lift up our church, your people, to you. We pray for the clergy of all churches. bring all clergy towards you, especially those taking up new posts.. We pray your blessing on those who lead and organise services in church and those who enable services and coffee stop meetings online and those who have other responsibilities such as wardening or working in the offices during these difficult times. Give them strength and wisdom. Bless each of us, whoever we are, whether at home  watching or worshipping with others in church. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for our world. Help us to  understand learn from discoveries that are being made about links between the environment and the pandemic.  For example, where our over exploitation of the natural world has led to eco-systems being unbalanced and viruses spreading beyond their usual hosts. Where a reduction in air pollution during lock down has seen an increase in insect life. Help us to take this seriously so it does not get forgotten during the urgency seriousness of other immediate decisions needing to be made. Help us not to forget. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for our national leaders. Give them wisdom as difficult decisions need to be made. Help them to communicate with honesty and transparency.  Help them to work together with all interested parties for the common good of the four nations in the UK. We continue to pray for those who have continued to undergo anxiety about their exam results. Again,w e ask for wisdom as Sixth forms, Further Education colleges and universities struggle to honour promises of places.  Also for firms offering apprenticeships who may not themselves be sure of their own future.  Be with those those who,  in spite of everything, have missed expected places. Help those, whose remit it is, to be imaginative and creative, in their support.

We pray for the safe return to school for pupils, teaching and non-teaching staff.  Strengthen those who have responsibility for ensuring  safety on site, and trying to resolve problems like crowded lunchtimes and break times. We think of bus drivers coping with travel to school and we think of families concerned about transmission in school between adults in school and transmission from pupils into the home.  We think of parents who do not want to send their children back to school. Father there are so many anxieties and so much  stress. Father, we place all of that in your hands. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Father, in this year of bewildering disruption, disease and dismay, help us to look to you and not be overwhelmed because you are our strength, our shield, our rock.

We pray for the nations of the world. Help leaders as they cope with an increase in Covid cases again.

Help nations to work together more and to cooperate over prevention, treatment and vaccines. 

We pray for those whose future employment  and income is uncertain, those who must quarantine but who are short of income, those who will find it difficult to pay rent, landlords, whose main income is from renting accommodation and and those who rely increasingly on food banks

We continue to pray for Lebanon  for the people of Beirut, as they cope with food and power shortages as well as COVID19.

We pray for the people of Belarus as the outcome of the recent election are contested.

We pray for the rigours of North west China as people are being moved to re-education camps.

We pray for the people of Hong Kong as they seek to retain their freedoms.

For Californians as they confront hundreds of fire outbreaks.

And the preparation for fair and democratic elections in the USA

Strengthen Christians in all these situations so that they can support others. Keep us faithful in praying for then. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for all those who are sad because of family members who have died.  We pray for those who are not well....Comfort and strengthen all those we have give them your healing and your peace.  Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

And for ourselves- Lord, as we think of how you met and called your first disciples,we thank you that you meet us wherever we are and whoever we are. Help us to remember that you are the  God who notices, however ordinary or insignificant we feel. The God who meets us in our everyday lives at home, at school, at work.  Thank you that when we accept your unfailing love and amazing Grace, you become God with us, who walks with us throughout our every day lives of highs and lows, understanding everything that we feel. 

So we ask, for ourselves, that you will teach us to walk in the light of your presence,  to love with your heart of compassion, to trust in the word of your promise.  So that all of our being,  all our whole being praises you and we are able to proclaim with heartfelt joy, that HALLELUJAH!  OUR GOD reigns.

Merciful father, accept our prayers for the sake of your son, our saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Can you tell what it is yet?

 

A few weeks ago, CBC and I had my niece to stay with us for 24hours- it was beautiful weather and we camped in the garden (she's never been camping before), made up music, drew, watched TV, ate sweeties and then on the Friday morning, went to the beach in Southend.

She was super excited about this and was keen to get there early to avoid the crush.  It was great as there were hardly any people where we went.  

Alas, the tide was completely out- it seemed like about  a mile away.  There was a concrete pool to collect some water in so we went there to paddle.  Then, I had the idea, whilst waiting for the tide to come back in a bit more, that we could make a piece of beach art. 

I told CBC to collect blue shells (mussels), K to collect white oyster shells and I would collect brown pebbles to construct a piece.

Here's a series of pictures of it in pieces.  At which picture did you guess what it was going to be?

The real picture is at the end...

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. 

And here is the final picture.

Later on, a lady who was in her beach hut came over to have a look at it whilst we were swimming in the sea (the tide came in super quickly after doing this!) and she was very impressed!

Of course, it was very sad when it washed away a while later.

What picture would you have made?

Roses on the High street

Hello there!

I thought I'd share an exciting outfit today- an outfit I PERFORMED in!!

The town in which I play in an orchestra sometimes was asking for some buskers to play to liven up the high street for passers by.  The pavement has been widened and there is wide section where we could perform with a nice gap allowing for people to pass safely.

Izzie and I played flute duets for an hour- we had a sign telling people who we were and why we were collecting for the Alzheimers Society - Izzie, because her husband died from it 2 years ago and me, because my Grandma died from it.

Whilst there wasn't a vast amount of people who listened for a long time, we made £36 from the passers-by and Izzie had set up a Facebook giving page in advance and £130 was donated to that!

It was really exciting to get dressed up- we texted each other with pictures of our proposed dresses and realised we were complementary.  

My dress is from Monsoon bought a good long time ago in the sale along with a very old Primark cardie and some Lotus sandals.  My necklace and earrings were won in a competition from Esoteric London and I believe the hair grip was from Monsoon Kids also.

The two bracelets were presents from pupils and friends and the hair band was from Primark a long time ago.

It really was delightful to perform together- making music is so fulfilling with someone else and yesterday, as well as rehearsing, we went over to our other flute player's house to play trios- she'd just had a pacemaker fitted in her heart and she was so happy to play as she's said her mood has been up and down.  After playing, Izzie and I went into Cafe Nero for a hot chocolate with her daughter who I really liked.

After that, I went home on the train.  I nipped into the charity shop in town (it's a lovely spacious one) and saw lots of lovely things. I walked home via the town which was actually really nice to do.  Then tonight, we went out for a meal at a totally Vegan restaurant in a town not too far away and it was delicious! 

Hope you are well.

x

 

Butt!!!!

You know how some things change when you get older?

For instance, I used to dislike olives as a teen but in my 30's, I discovered that they are, in fact, delicious!

And, I was really not fond of vegetable soups and stews as a child, but from my 20's, loved them.

Now that I own my own garden and have water butts, every time it rains, especially in the Summer, or it looks imminent, I am cheering the rain on!  "COME ON!!! Fill the waterbutts!"

I gleefully text my Mum (noting she has done the same reciprocally) saying, "Freee water!" and "Yay, don't have to water tonight!" and we both gleefully compare waterbutt quotas.  And, when you discover that accidentally, you have left the waterbutt tap ON (because it had emptied and you can't quite remember what the 'OFF' position is when there is water to show you), and after a night of rain, you have missed the opportunity of a free 100l of water- it is quite simply, the worst thing and you feel wracked with guilt towards your poor garden!

And there, I find myself, dressed in my nightie and bare feet with a cursory raincoat thrown over the top, out in the pouring rain, filling up buckets from the connected waterbutt to the unconnected one, getting absolutely soaked in the process,  to maximize on the rainfall!  

You know you've grown up.

You know you've turned into your Mother!!!

TARDIS Tuesday - Clara Oswald from The Snowmen

Hello there!

It feels weird to be on my computer today after 2 weeks away in Northumberland.  I didn't use it in all that time and it was good to be away from it!

I hope to catch up on blogs soon!

Today's TARDIS Tuesday features an outfit I last did on here back in April 2018 and not much (if anything) has changed about it except for the fact I forgot to wear a belt!)

https://claraoswaldcosplay.dreamconnect.de/?p=1852

It features a black silk polka dot blouse from Jigsaw, a pair of navy shorts from Whistles, a red Urban Outfitters satchel and a tan belt.  We aren't really sure what shoes she wears.

Here's my version:

I am wearing all charity shopped and second hand items- my polka dot silk blouse is from Whistles (where the real shorts are from!) and was charity-shopped along with these navy linen shorts and a red satchel. 

I wore these today for a visit to my Mum's house. It was overcast but not cold.

Look how massive my Mum's sweet potato plants are behind me to the right!

I also added an Aztec eagle necklace which features in another Clara outfit.

Before I went home, my Mum plaited my hair into a 5-strand plait- my hair is so long! It was really nice to have my hair brushed and plaited by my Mum! There's something super nostalgic about your Mother doing your hair!  She even brushed my ears like she used to. I suddenly went back to my young self asking her not to brush my ears!!!

Hope you are well. 

xx

From the Archives- My Ivy heart

Here is another post from 2014.  I haven't been able to go to my regular music camp this year for obvious reasons but it was lovely to see this post from 2014 which was a post about creating my own unique art piece.

My ivy heart

At my annual summer music camp last week, we had a fun fete which we put together ourselves to emulate the usual village fete that we attend. For some reason, this year, it was not held on the usual date which means we usually provide a windband, buy lots of items and win prizes in the local competitions much to the chagrin of local people!

The classes you could enter included Handicrafts, vegetables and fruit, wellies (!), flower/plant arrangement, original art-work, jams and preserves and a few others. Originally, I considered bringing along some of my cards but then chicked out of it.  Instead, on the Friday night, the day before the fete, I was luckily not involved in the rehearsals or performance of Mendohlssohn's St John, so I decided to see if I could create some original artwork for that discipline thinking that I'd make use of what I could find around camp in hope people would appreciate the innovation.

I found an old cardboard tomato crate, some old, old sheet music that was going to be chucked out for recycling and prised some ivy leaves off one of the many covered walls and happily remembered that one of the clarinettists had won a pritt-stick in a 'guess the music score' competition, that very afternoon. Finally, I purloined some scissors from the kitchen and set myself up.

After cutting the base of the tomato crate to free it of its sides, I sat and ripped the manuscript paper into jagged pieces and began sticking them onto the tomato crate base. I ensured they overlapped and covered the entire box in them, cutting at the edges to try and make sure it roughly met with the edges.  Lastly, I arranged the ivy leaves into a heart shape and overlapped these and piled them on top.

Here's what I ended up with:



Alas, I did not win first prize (that honour went to some beautiful close up photos of bees) but second prize and sadly, there were only 3 entries into that class. Very disappointing that no-one else bothered to try and do something, even something silly like mine.  Never mind.

I was rather pleased that this was all made from found materials and all the more pleased when my friend asked if she could buy it. I laughed lots and just gave it to her. She's going to frame it and put it up with all the other artwork in her new house.  It's nice to think that in a little corner in Liverpool, my memory of this camp will hold its place.

Linking up to Creative Mondays with Claire Justine.

TARDIS Tuesday- The Seeds of Doom

 hjgjhj

This week for TARDIS Tuesday, I thought I'd take a more creative approach to my outfit.  Some cosplayers go to amazing lengths for their costumes- the background, the hair, the makeup, the face paints, they construct their costumes painstakingly from scratch.   I don't do all that, mainly because of time, cost, inclination and lack of motivation but this week, I thought I'd have a go at dressing as one of the Doctor Who villains. 

In Tom Baker's era, the Krynoids were a form of plants which expanded rapidly and became carnivorous, eating humans and animals alike- very John Wyndham!  

Here's a couple of pictures of them in their extreme forms:

IMage borrowed from The Warped Factor

Image borrowed from The Doctor Who group

No expense has been spared this week in the making of this costume:

Here is my costume:

The Passiflora, Jasmine and Clematis needed a prune so I decided to make use of the large pile of foliage which CBC had left on the patio to 'construct' my costume.

What do you think of my very expensive, very time-consuming costume?

x

What is it? #73- Clouds

Today is my first 'What is it?' post since February!  

We have the ubiquitous cloud-scape today which made me see a picture beyond the literal cloud...what do you see?

If you see something, leave a comment below and join in the fun! 

What about last time?

I saw a dolphin leaping out of the water in the middle.

The commenters were scarce but appreciated...what did they see?

3 comments:

1. 
   Sophie in the Sticks7:43 am

   It's a dolphin, leaping back into the water. For sure!

   ReplyDelete
2. 
   Polyester Princess6:17 pm

   I see the head of a mouse, in the upper left corner! xxx

   ReplyDelete
3. 
   Confuzzled Bev9:31 am

   I see a dolphin on the left (well, half of one). It appears to be chasing whatever is in the middle - some kind of large, flat fish.

   ReplyDelete

Well, 2 dolphins were also spotted and I can also see that little mousie, now I look!

Do leave a comment below! They really are my favourite comments to receive!

xx

Cherry Tree Lane

 Hi there!

Hope you are well!

I went into the monster suitcase of doom in my spare room wardrobe (actually, monster suitcase of doom x2) to look for Summery items of clothing that live in there and found this lovely dress from Tu at Sainsbury's.  I really like Tu at Sainsbury's items- well, certain ones- most of my Tu items have actually come second-hand from Charity shops because I don't usually find them in my size in store, when there is something I want to buy, rather than just admiring.   It's cotton and fitted and even though it is a fitted 8, I can get it over my head to wear, without claustrophobic panics when I can't find the 'exit'!  

The good thing  about dresses is that you can pretty much just wear them as they are- you don't have to worry about matching components- I struggle when packing skirts and tops when I go away anywhere summery, as I can't seem to find things to match as I am a pattern-o-holic!  This one was styled with a simple straw hat (charity-shopped), my second-hand Birkenstock sandals and some acrylic jewellery that has no particular link to cherries...can you make a link between daisies, lobsters and cherries?

Hope you are well!
x

TARDIS Tuesday- Amy Pond in the Impossible Astronault

Hi there!

Hope you are well.

Today, I am sharing a costume from Doctor Who series 6 worn by red-headed, feisty companion, Amy Pond.  She wears this in the first episode of the series called The Impossible Astronault in a very strange episode in which the Doctor is killed and then is seen alive later! It ended up being a brilliant finale to the season!

• She is hiking so wears a practical outfit for it:
• Reddish orange and white checked shirt
• Cropped jeans
• Brown hiking boots
• Hair pinned to the side.

Image borrrowed from
 https://www.pinterest.ca/KittyLeeSpencer/cosplays/

I last attempted this back in 2016 or 2017 I believe.  Here is my interpretation:

You may recognise the shirt as I wore it last week for my Jo Grant outfit.  Here, it is more visible.  The check colours are reversed from Amy's shirt but other than that, I think my charity-shopped shirt is a good match.

I added cropped jeans in a lighter shade of blue (second hand) and then my Mountain Warehouse walking shoes.

I'm missing the American flag!  This is a comfy outfit- one I wore for walking in though I think cropped jeans are an odd choice for walking, even though my ones are very soft material!

What do you think?

Would you wear this outfit? 

What do you wear for walking?

x

Apples

 Hello there!

Today, you get an outfit post of the old school, with lots of photos! Despite the fact I've been wearing lots of pretty outfits, motivation for taking photos is fairly low.

Yesterday, we headed over to my Dad's for the day where we ate lots of food, chatted lots, had an epic water fight and badminton was played until 10pm!  It was really lovely and the waterfight was excellent for a roasting hot day!

I decided to wear this lovely Bernie Dexter dress which I bought secondhand a couple of years ago and wore last on here in September 2 years ago for a trip to Audley End house and gardens, appropriately, also featuring apples.The print is based on poppies in the Essex countryside so it is one I love a lot and I really liked this dress when I first saw it on a blogger about 8 years ago! 

I tied my hair in plaits and then my sister pinned them up for me at the back of my head to keep it out the way for the waterfight and also to avoid hot neck!I love the apple trees in my Dad's garden as they are pruned to make everything a height to be pickable.  They are so densely covered but I am told that the magpies keep knocking apples off!

I wore earrings from Hollyhocks jewellery from Etsy and a necklace from the crafter previously known as Ladybird likes.

Add my charity-shopped straw hat, second-hand Saltwater sandals and Tiger sunglasses and I was good to go.

I did change for the waterfight as this would not feel nice to be wet in!I came home from Dad's with some apples, a glut of green beans and a bag of Perpetual Spinach!

It was so lovely to have so much space for running around, playing, socialising and relaxing.  My Dad and I were talking and he is so grateful for their space.  He was saying that if only the government had asked people who have outdoor space to please try to use their own outdoor space and not to go to beaches and parks so much, perhaps, more people with cramped conditions would have been able to get out earlier which is a good point and might have made things easier for those with cramped conditions at the beginning.
Hope you are well.xxP.S. I have no idea how to get rid of these underlines! I don't like the new Blogger!!

From the archives: Geocaching

Since many people may not be having a holiday this year, I wondered if you have tried Geocaching?  It's great fun and a good way to explore somewhere.
Here, I'm linking to a blog post from 2014 here, where I allowed my readers to join me on a Geocaching adventure in Northumberland!
Enjoy!

Searching for treasure: the joy of geocaching!

Our first full day in Northumberland began not so well as I had an awful headache which had carried on over a full 24 hours from the previous day. We stayed in bed quite late until WOMOTM  gave me a combo of Codeine and Paracetamol which thankfully did the trick eventually.   I finished up a book that Char sent me, walked through Haltwhistle to the Post Office before meeting up with CBC and his brother WKWTTG to go in search of a Geocache.  A geocache is a bit like a treasure hunt but it’s based on using a GPS signal and some clues to locate a hidden box/item with a log-book and tracking signal and some ‘treasure’ that people who have previously located the geocache have left.   I first heard about these from my brother-in-law at Christmas when we went for a walk along Haltwhistle Burn in search of a Geocache. He had found one and taken a little wooden fellow named Woody almost a year ago and was trying to find a new place to put him. We failed to find the Christmas Cache (there were about a thousand rocks and tree roots to look under).  Today, we headed out towards Allen Banks.  We parked up by the former Staward Station which used to be part of the now-deceased Allendale line (it is now a holiday home) and after one false-start, headed down a very,very overgrown public footpath down towards the Staward Gorge.  I and WKWTTG were wearing shorts so weren’t too fond of this.  As we walked, I thought of adders and broken ankles and had in mind writing this up as one of those Choose your own adventure stories based on which path you take- hey that would be fun- I could create hyperlinks to different blogposts based on what happens next based on your decision. Thankfully for your sake, I am too lazy to do this. If you (reading this),decide to use the idea, please give me acknowledgement.

Using the OS map as guidance, we reached a very, very steep path downwards through woodland. When I get to places like this, I sometimes wonder why I go on these adventurous walks because I really, really hate steep downwards paths, especially through soft, moving matter and if you saw me, you would think I was in my 90’s, not my 30’s.  I grumped and grumped to myself as I descended slowly. CBC burst out laughing when he saw me virtually crawling on my bottom down a path at about 1metre per hour, saying I looked like I needed the loo or had wet myself.  Thanks, kind husband.  Eventually, the path levelled out and became less extreme.  We followed the GPS signal until we reached a stone kiln. A handy-hint from a previous finder of this Geocache had told us we didn't need to climb the kiln.  WKWTTG and I searched the wall carefully as CBC skipped ahead.  CBC triumphantly called out, "Found it!" and produced a Locknlock box.


Inside, we found various weathered items including the Logbook, Geocache instructions and various treasures. WKWTTG logged our finding in the book and we decided to take a Frog-keyring which had come from some Scouts who wanted to be returned to Berkshire which we thought we could do.  Success!  We placed Woody in the box and hid it back where it came from.


Next,we headed down through the woods to the banks of the river Allen.  It was beautiful- stepping stones and fresh flowing water- it was quite shallow due to less rain.  We washed our muddy hands in the river and decided, rather than heading back up again to the footpath, to try and forge our own path along the banks of the Allen.  It was a little precarious with slippy rocks and fallen logs but much more preferable to climbing back up.






We headed onwards, with one or two hilarious- "How am I going to get there?" moments.  One part, we feared we would have to cross the river on some precarious rock stepping stones (not really stepping stones but that's what they'd have to be) due to a massive fallen tree or two on our bank but luckily we managed to clamber through the gaps.

As always, I was bringing up the rear and when I had to clamber  between the two fallen trees, I got stuck by my rucksack to the log above at the same moment as impaling my hand on a thorn with both my feet on the same tiny,slippery foothold. I was in a bit of a panic for the moment as I couldn't move any part of my body without slipping- eventually, standing with feet on top of each other, I climbed out of my rucksack which fell to the ground. I chucked it in front of me and somehow managed to clamber through the gap! Phew!




We reached one point where luck was really on our side. Had it been a wet summer, we would have been totally stuck- rockface on our right- deeper river on the right, but the lack of rain had led to a series of rocky platforms we could walk alongside the gorge rockface.








We came at last to a place where we could climb up to try and reach the path and, according to the GPS, we were near to another Geocache.


Clues and signs including looking for trees that were carved by forestry workers during WW2 about PoWs from the nearby PoW camp and  a tower of sorts. CBC set off further along the path and WKWWTG and I searched all the probable hollows of trees and holes in the stones, natural walls. We searched for a LONG time and frustratingly found nothing.  A ping from the phone told us we were near and a clue told us to look at the base of a yew tree but we weren't sure what that looks like.  I vaguely recalled that Louise told me I was standing by an old Yew tree in a previous blogpost and tried to look for a slightly reddy, spongy tree but apart from that, wasn't sure what to look for.  I saw a sort of conifer-looking  tree which I searched around but to no avail. Finally, CBC returned and we told him the Yew clue.  He headed down below a tree I'd searched around and suddenly called out, "Found it!" and he'd gone right to the base and located another plastic box!  Again, we signed the log book but in this case, as we'd forgotten to bring some alternative treasure to replace, didn't take anything.

It really was time to return to the car so we did just that, via several very grassy fields and slopes.



We noticed that the phone GPS told us that there was another treasure just near where we'd parked the car with the clue, "STOP and enjoy the view"- can you guess where the treasure was hidden?
Once again, WKWTTG and I searched around and then CBC located the treasure. Each Geocache lists its size on the website and this was a 'very tiny' one.  Blimey- yes, it really was that small! I can't believe we found it!!!! There was no treasure but a titchy rolled up log-paper!

It was a relief to get back to the car and go home but what an adventure! We'd had a marvellous time and definitely want to go in search of more Geocaches!

Have you heard of Geocaches? Would you like a go?  It appeals to my inner Famous Five.  Go to www.geocaching.com for more information.  It appears there are LOADS near where I live!!!


xxx