Drawing

 I've always known myself to be rubbish at drawing and painting but I've often wished I wasn't.  Wouldn't it be lovely to see something and then"see" how to record it in paints or other media!  

I don't think that will ever be, but I can still derive pleasure from copying someone else's work.  The web is fantastic for this.  So many tutorials on YouTube!  I often read Kirsten's blog and find quick sketches of tulips, an amaryllis, or amaryllis again here,   I sometimes copy them in the hope that one day I will have the courage to draw my own amaryllis.  Don't hold your breath!

But once a month the Women's Institute Learning Hub has a drawing session and last night was the night.  There is no pretence that we are fantastic artists - the instructions given are incredibly simple- but we just copy the tutor.  It's about mindfulness more than anything.  

But I make no aplogies.  Actually that's one of the rules.  We must not deprecate our own efforts, but accept them.  However, for the avoidance of doubt, I will say these are snowdrops!

Jack writes

 

It's a long time since I wrote anything so, as I am going to visit one of my long-standing friends to take her an item she couldn't carry because of the weight, I can kill two birds with one stone.  

Now, the vicar has been worrying about my sanity of late.  It all started last year when she gave me  a forty-two piece wooden jigsaw of a lot of penguins.  That blasted jigsaw just about put me in the nut-house!  It took me three hours to complete it.  Then somebody else gave me a thousand piece jigsaw.  I spent weeks and months struggling with it and if I had any hair I would have pulled it out, but then gave it up as a bad job.  Well, Christmas came again again and guess what my reverend so-called friend put among my pressies?  That's right another jigsaw.  Two hundred and fifty pieces this time and it was a map of my local area which again has me in tears.  I did tell her not to buy me a jiggie for Christmas but did she listen? NO!!!.  So, enjoy this post as it could be a long time before I get enough sanity back to write another one.

When we first started our phone calls (after I lost my wife of fifty three years)it was a ten minute chat, but sometimes now it is forty five minutes.  She will keep butting in when I am in full flow so I blame her for the length.  But we laugh a lot and I hope the vicar enjoys our morning chats as much as I do.  Some of the long words I say may not be quite right but she gets enormous pleasure when she corrects me.  

I hope you are all in he best of health and that the good Lord is taking care of you.  I hope I can write again soon (the vicar is the editor so she gets the last word.  She also gets the last word if I text.

Keep smiling

Jack

PS.  This is the vicar getting the last word.  Jack will read and enjoy your comments but cannot reply to them.

HAF

 aka How about February?  What is planned?  What is hoped for?

First of all, I shall be very busy leading worship.  My dear Friend E has gone on a cruise all around the coast of South America, lucky lady.  This means Plan B comes into operation meaning I have one Sunday "off" per month.  Unfortunately when I saw another friend M in Brigg I thought she looked rather ill, so I'm stepping in to take her service on the "spare" Sunday this month.  I've also got a funeral booked and am speaking at the funeral of someone with whom I have been friends since we met in the sixth form fifty seven years ago.  And there's a couple of midweek things I am needed for.

The Mermaids aren't swimming at the moment but we are helping to make up jigsaws ready for a special event in May.  I am useless at jigsaws.  The other Mermaids can confirm that.  

I've planned three meals out but there may be more.  One is  to celebrate the Silver Wedding Anniversary of a couple I married.  That is a very special joy.  

Jack is coming today to do a couple of small jobs.  He's threatening to write a blog post.

I'm still in my Hibernaculum Project.  My new mindset on winter has been very successful.  I won't say I will be sorry when spring comes but I won't be dreading next winter.   

Candlemas

 

Candlemas is tomorrow but many churches will mark it today.  It’s the day when we remember Jesus’s first visit to the temple when he was just forty days old. 

Candlemas marks a gentle turning point in the Christian year.  It was an end to the seclusion following his birth and the start "getting on with life".  And we see the faithfulness of  an old man and an old woman.   Simeon and Anna each saw hope fulfilled in this child.  There isn’t the noisy joy of Christmas with angels and shepherds and magi but rather a quiet joy showing their trust.

Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace:

your word has been fulfilled.

My own eyes have seen the salvation

which you have prepared in the sight of every people;

A light to reveal you to the nations

and the glory of your people Israel.

 But Simeon went on to say that the child would bring great change and would cause his mother to suffer. His words remind us that this light will reveal hearts and bring both joy and cost. Candlemas invites us to reflect on how we carry that light.

(If you want to read the story, it is in Luke, chapter 2, verses 22 to 38)

 

Over!

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November.

Unless a leap year is its fate,

February hath twenty-eight.

All the rest hath three days more,

excepting January,

which hath six thousand,

one hundred and eighty-four.

 Brian Bilston 

Yes, I know I've used this before but I still love it!

Oomph

Oomph, or rather the lack of it, has long been at the heart of my problem with winter.  It's the season when my when my Get-Up-and-Go goes on holiday  It's not that I have nothing to do - far from it! - but I can't work up enthusiasm for doing any of it.  

But the surprising thing is that it is all OK.  I didn't feel guilty, I just didn't do much!  I didn't worry about it, I didn't let it get me down.  I just listened to familiar audiobooks and did my knitting and enjoyed meals I had previously batch cooked.  

I think that my hibernaculum project has "given me permission" to be like this.  I don't need to judge myself.  I have time to love myself.  I can tell myself "This too shall pass" but I don't need to speed it on its way.

I don't know why I wrote about the lack of oomph in the past tense: today is another knitting and audiobook time.  Hope you too are having a contented day.

A word I knew already!

 

"The gifts of winter" by Stephanie Fitzgerald has introduced me to some wonderful new words but today I want to think about a word I knew already.  Self.

I didn't expect to find Self among her "words of winter" but there it is.  At first I just skimmed past it but I found I had to go back, re-read and think.  

Dr Fitzgerald suggests that winter is the season of the self.  She calls us to consider self-love, self-compassion, self-connection.  It's a time for us to give ourselves permission to focus on ourselves and to permit ourselves to be authentic.  We can get caught up in the busy-ness of life but the slower rhythms of winter give us the opportunity (as I mentioned yesterday) of making sure our bodies and souls are in harmony.

Father, thank you for making me just as I am.

Thank you for my uniqueness and purpose.

Help me to value who you created me to be

and to use my life to honour you.  Amen.

A word from Japan

Yutori, as "The Gifts of Winter" tells me, is a Japanese word meaning space or room to breathe.  

Winter is a good time to slow down, forget rushing (especially when Christmas has been and gone) and appreciate the world around us.  That sounds like the very essence of winter in my hibernaculum.  It's a time of very deliberate slowing down and making sure my body and soul are comfortable with each other.  

The Japanese even have the concept of yutori education, with more integrated study time and less curriculum content. The aim is to balance intellectual, moral, and physical education.  

Another word

Finding lovely new words has been one of the joys of this winter.  I wouldn't have the time (or maybe even the inclination) to relish words in the summer.  And Stephanie Fitzgerald's book "The Gifts of winter" has introduced me to another word, trygghet.

Trygghet is a Swedish word and it's about a feeling of safety and security, especially when the weather outside is "challenging".  Coming in from weather like that it's lovely to give a deep sigh and relax.  Yesterday was a miserable rainy day here and I was so glad to shut the front door and settle in front of my (electric with flame effect) fire.  

Words

 Sorry about my absence - I've been a bit short on "oomph" the last few days.

But I've been reading "The Gifts of Winter" by Stephanie Fitzgerald.  So far I have found this to be the most helpful book for me.  And she has introduced me to a new word - confelicity.  Isn't it a lovely word!

And it's a lovely concept.  It describes the joy we can feel at someone else's happiness.

I've noticed several people trying to reframe winter for themselves, rather like my hibernaculum project.  Sue from Suffolk wrote about a local hibernaculum and Sam wrote her winter thoughts.  In my quiet, rather pensive days, I have found joy in their explorations too.

Deliberately seeking joy in someone else's happiness is a delightful thing to do  so I shall cultivate confelicity.  

It's Winnie the Pooh Day!

That's what Alexa told me when I wished her Good Morning today.

A A Milne was born on this day in 1882.  He was already an established writer for "Punch" and as a playwright when a teddy bear appeared in poetry from the early 1920's.  The bear's name didn't appear until 1925 and was the used in the "Winnie the Pooh" collection of stories published in 1926.  Winnie was named after the female black bear called Winnipeg who lived in London Zoo.  

I was brought up on the two Pooh Bear collections ("Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner") with the charming illustrations by E H Shepard which I still prefer to the rather garish Disney jobbies.  These days I still enjoy Alan Bennet's slightly lugubrious readings as an audiobook.  I think my favourite story is "In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast" which Alexa often reads to me at bedtime.  Not that I am a big kid, though!

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.

“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

“My favourite day,” said Pooh.

Waste Not!

 I'm doing a low spend January and trying to eat some of the stuff squirrelled away in my freezer and cupboards, but today I felt I had to get some bits and pieces.

While I was in Lidl I got one of their Waste Not! boxes.  For as long as I can remember these boxes have been £1.50 but they've recently gone up to £2.  Two Whole Pounds.  Anyway, I bought one and this is what I got.  

That's a bag of potatoes

One avocado,

Net of satsumas.

Three leeks

One cauliflower

One bag of carrots

Two different varieties of tomatoes

Bunch bananas.

 The bananas need to be eaten soon and one of the tomatoes has gone into the bin but still pretty good.   January continues low spend!

Update.  I have costed this at around £12 for full price vegetables.  

 

The (Indoor!) Tree in January

 

It was only when I started to write this post that I realised that I have two "monthly" trees.  There's the tree at Holly Dog's house and the tree in my sitting room.  

Several years ago I bought the tree in the sitting room as a Christmas decoration but it got left out so I decided it could be a seasonal tree with (I hope) something different each month.  In August it was bees.  September I moved on to squirrels, pumpkins and hedgehogs.  They were a bit late up so they stayed for October too but in November I went for a Scottish theme of thistles in honour of St Andrew's Day.   December I didn't show you but it was just baubles as part of the general Christmas decorations.  

But in my stocking I got some little hats to hang on my Christmas tree.  I thought they would be just the job for January.  

An Inspection!

 

As I've said many times, I have a wonderful landlord.  It's a charity which lets houses only to retired Anglican clergy so tenants are very well vetted before they move in!

Anyway, one of the ways they are wonderful is that all houses are inspected regularly so they can plan maintenance and improvements.  Personally I think my house is fantastic anyway: occasionally I have minor niggles but when I complain everything gets sorted.

But yesterday was The Inspection.  It happens about every five years.  I don't have to do anything other than make sure the surveyor can access everywhere he wants to access.  And I make him a cup of tea.  And feel slightly embarrassed as Annie-the-home-enhancer hasn't been since before Christmas.  

For me one of the joys of getting older has been that the world actually feels less critical – or maybe I no longer care so much!  Even when my house is inspected I can’t get terribly worried about it.

Half time in the hibernaculum

 I started my hibernaculum project on my birthday, back in October, and plan to finish on Easter Sunday.  That's a total of 165 days.  Today is the halfway point and seems like a good time for a review.

First things first.  Why did I start this project?  What do I want from it?  Well it seemed to me that I have spent the last few years wishing several months of each year would get out of the way so I could enjoy the summer.  I wouldn't say I have seasonal affective disorder, but I definitely get the winter blues.  I decided I had to change my expectations of winter.  I didn't want to dread it, feeling that I wanted it over.  I wanted to make it a good time, maybe as good as summer, but in a different way.

I'm not alone in feeling this way.  Since I started to make an effort to think differently about winter I have found quite a lot of books and newspaper articles on how to winter.  The main thrust seems to be to get out into nature, enjoy time with friends, and be cosy at home.  Getting out is a bit tricky as I increase my pain levels if I get cold but I do my best.  I make sure I have meet-ups with friends at least once a week in person and I use video calling a lot.  I have definitely made my home much cosier with a new fire and lots of LED candles (which I have kept out even though I have put the Christmas stuff away)  as well as throws for when I am sitting down.

But it was the discovery of the word "hibernaculum" which has had the most unexpected effect.  It has helped with my mindset and made this into a very positive period.  I'm not using it in its usual modern sense of a place where animals hibernate (humans can't hibernate) but rather its original sense of winter quarters for soldiers.  It was where they took time out from looting and pillaging and instead trained, maintained their equipment, did a bit of socialising and probably a bit of thinking while they relaxed.  I'm never into looting and pillaging but I have a home to maintain, things to learn and a social life to pursue. 

I still feel much more lethargic than in summer.  I sometimes look at cold drizzly days and long for June.  So many things need to be done!  However, so far, I think the hibernaculum project is a success.  I think that I may even be enjoying the winter.  

Normanby le Wold

I go to Normanby quite often as that is where Holly Dog lives.  Although my little canine friend doesn't come to church, a lot of people do.  There's just one service each month and people from other villages without a service that day make their way to St Peter's.  This means that we have 20-30 people worshipping in a village with a population of about 50.

Other people also come to Normanby.  It's on The Viking Way (a long distance footpath) and the church is open every day.  There are bottles of spring water provided for walkers to take if they need it.  

This Sunday I sat in a pew but for the next few months I shall be in the vicar's stall.  They always make me very welcome at Normanby.  

Like many old churches Normanby has a few "gems".  Somebody's toothache was recorded for posterity!

O Almighty God, who through Jesus Christ gave Saint Peter many excellent gifts, and commanded him to feed your flock: help all ministers preach your holy word truly and all your people to follow it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Happy to be indoors!

 

I hadn't planned on going out today which is fortunate as we have a covering of the white stuff and a not-very-hot forecast.  The covering is very light but it's still snowing now.  Lincolnshire has escaped the harsh weather which has affected so many areas but, even so, I am happy to stay in my hibernaculum.

As a child I used to long for snowy days.  I don't remember our school ever being closed because of bad weather.  We weren't allowed to play snowballs in the playground but sometimes we could build snowmen.  The school rule was that we had to have indoor shoes whatever the weather, so our wet shoes would be abandoned in the cloakroom.  The minimum heating would be 60F or 15.6C which would be reckoned as rather cold today.  

The first winter I lived in Caistor (2010/11) we had very heavy snow and delivery services didn't come into our little cul de sac.  I had lived in a village which had problems every time we had snow, so I have always had a good pantry, but after three weeks the menu had become "unusual".  Even today I have a very good supply of tinned food and a picnic stove in case we have power cuts.  I would hate to have to open the freezer and let the cold air out!

Planning on being Plan B

I consider that my ministry these days is to be Plan B.  I don't want to lead worship every week but I want to lead occasionally.  I want to make sure that other clergy can have the occasional break and that they don't have to worry when they are ill.  I've been leading worship for nearly forty years so I can take a service at the drop of a hat.

But sometimes things are better planned than that.  At the end of this month my friend E is going on an eleven week cruise so I will be on duty quite  a few Sundays.  E is also a volunteer: she was a divisional highways engineer in her "working" life but is now almost full time in ministry.  When she's away I step into the breach for quite a lot of the worship leadership and pastoral care.  

I will not be alone.  This group of churches has a newly accredited lay minister who will be sharing services with me.  

And no minister is ever alone.  The One in whose name we minister is always alongside us

Learning

One of the things those Roman soldiers of old did in their hibernaculum was to train.  My equivalent is to learn.

I'm a member of the Women's Institute and the National Federation of Women's Institutes has a great learning hub.  Anyone can do their courses but if you are a WI member, most courses are free.  Most weeks I do at least one session and in the winter I do far more.  yesterday I excelled myself and did two in one day.  

The first was on odes by Keats.  I've got to admit that my knowledge of Keats doesn't go much beyond "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness".  I can't say I will be buying myself a new book of poems as a result of listening to this talk but I certainly feel more interested and may check out a few more writings by Keats. 

Yesterday evening I joined in the monthly drawing session.  We are not talking detailed masterpieces here: it's more about getting a sheet of paper and your felt tip pens and doing a bit of mindfulness.  I quite like the class as each of us is in our own homes.  There's no comparison with anyone else, we each do our own thing with the instructor's help.  Yesterday she had prepared a picture of part of a crab apple hedge for us to copy.  

Calling all maulifuffs!

 

Back in October I called all maulifuffs* to stand proudly together.  A few of you took time out from being busy doing nothing and signed up. 

December is not a good month to be a maulifuff but if you managed it, have a gold star.  For myself, I am quite proud of how little I achieved, but I have no partner, children or grandchildren.  I took a couple of services though which reduces my maulifuffing score which I am far too lazy to calculate anyway.  By the way, if there are men in your life, I have discovered they can be maulibums (or so Susie Dent from Dictionary Corner says).

January is a month which can make or break us.  New Year resolutions and all that.   For maulifuffs it is fine to make them, better to break 'em.  

*If you haven't a clue what I am on about you may like to know that maulifuff is an old Scottish word for a woman devoid of energy, who would happily do nothing for hours on end.

Chalking the door

The magi have, at last, found their way to the stable to worship the Christ child.  It's a bit crowded around there now.  Sorry you haven't had much in the way of travel reports this year - doing the Advent alphabet was quite demanding!

The Bible doesn't tell us the names of the magi.  It doesn't even say how many they were.  Tradition says there were three because three gifts are named but it ain't necessarily so.  Tradition also names them Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, CMB.  

Each year at Epiphany I take down my Christmas wreath and chalk the door.  That isn't easy on a modern UPVC door so I have a chalk label for the purpose.  On it I have written 20 C + M + B 26 in honour of all who seek Christ wherever he is to be found.  And I pray Christus Mansionem Benedicat (May Christ bless this house) using the traditional initials in a different way.

 May all who come to my home this year rejoice to find Christ living with me; and may I seek and serve, in everyone I meet, that same Jesus who is your incarnate Word, now and forever. Amen.

How's the hibernaculum?

 After a few days away it's lovely to come back to my own home.  Holly Dog makes me very welcome but I still like my hibernaculum best.    

Today is the day I take down the Christmas decorations and reclaim normality for my home.  It's lovely when they first go up and it's lovely when they first go down.  The door wreath will stay until tomorrow to be taken down when I chalk the door for 2026.  

The weather doesn't look encouraging for trips out but I have brilliant stores and have no intention of going anywhere.

I've got books (especially audiobooks), lots of knitting wool, lovely things to do.

How's the hibernaculum?  It's great!

So be it.

I trained for ministry on a course which was run not just by The Church of England but the United Reformed and Methodist churches too, and we shared in the glories of all three traditions  At the beginning of each year we used this prayer from the Methodist Covenant Service.  I still use it now.  

A Tree

 

I think it could be beech!

I've enjoyed watching various bloggers post about trees, (or rather an individual tree) through the seasons and I've decided to do the same this year.   I will photograph the tree opposite Holly Dog's front door.  I'm not doing monthly pictures but rather I'll get the camera out each time Holly Dog invites me to her home.  There aren't many months when she doesn't favour me with an invitation.  

This month she's got in very early, as G (her regular human) has gone on her travels just for three nights.  So, I reported for duty yesterday, armed with the required "dietary supplements" (chicken etc).  I also brought the heated throw so maybe I will get the odd Brownie point.  I can but live in hope.  Holly has her standards.

I've taken my first photo of the tree.  I think it is beech but I'm not sure - at the moment I can't get close enough to se the bark.  I'll do better next time.

New Year in my childhood

 

When I was a child I loved New Year.  My parents were definitely party animals, and unless they hosted a party on New Year's Eve they invariably went to one.

If they were the hosts I was ushered off to bed before the guests arrived but all the ladies used to come up to visit me.  Some of them kept coming back during the evening with delicious plates of party food.  I was also a keen reader so with ladies making a fuss of me and bringing goodies up to me whilst I read one of my Christmas books, I was one happy bunny.

If they were going out I would be sent to my grandparents for a couple of days.  They lived in a big old-fashioned farmhouse on the Lincolnshire Wolds.  It kept out the worst of the weather but it was damp and had very little in the way of insulation.  It was not unknown for there to be frost on the counterpane and it was rarely known for there not to be thick frost on the windows on those cold January mornings.  But what the house lacked in warmth didn't matter - it is the warmth of my grandmother's heart that I remember most. 

There was a small ritual on New Year's Eve.  My grandfather would give me a shilling and the three of us would go out into the yard and each of us would hide our shillings.  The next morning we would go out and "find" our money - the idea being that if you brought money into the house on New Year's Day money would continue to come into the house throughout the year.  However, I would have watched where grandad hid his shilling and, with grandma egging me on, I would  retrieve it for myself.

My grandparents were both wonderful.