Monday 30 May 2011

Family catch up

I have realised that most of my news recently has been about ducks. Well, they are very entertaining...I love looking out of the window to see the ducks staring back at me, demanding food, while the rabbit snoozes in the grass and a mallard and his bride nestle in the flowerbed...well, the last isn't too great as I survey the flattened flowers. Oh well.

Yet there is considerably more in my life than ducks. School, for one.  Lots of paper work - reports, reviews, reorganisation, replanning...even redistributing the contents of my classroom cupboard (I can now see the floor - hallelujah!).

Church, for another. Thinking about dear friends who have been spiritual mentors for years (I cried when they told me they were moving back to Africa - and, at the time, they weren't even living in the same country as us! It was just that Europe seemed so much closer...), I realised that, unbelievably, I now - in a small, small, way - mentor others. How did that happen? (Not sure.)  And what do I know? (Not much.)
At the same time, friendship groups are tightening, growing, including others more and more...New Wine a few weeks ago was a wonderful shared experience.

Socially - well, lots of coffees and dinners, barbecues, bike rides and kayaking...wonderful to have light mornings and long evenings. Summer.

As for Jonny and Cat: well, both are nearing the end of their intern years. Cat blogs a little, Jonny is still serving at Proclaimers church in Norwich.  Both face changes and challenges.

Last month brought visits from old and dear friends, all a wonderful encouragement. Sometimes I even remember to ring friends for a chat and catch up. Still more visits planned for the summer.

And there is always reading: latterly, Tim Keller's The Prodigal God; Becky Manley Pippert's Out of the Saltshaker; and John Ortberg's The Me I Want to Be. Much food for thought.

Sunday 22 May 2011

Ducks growing up


 The ducks are an endless source of amusement. They now mob us whenever we set foot outside the house. When inside, they lurk under windows, or tap on the glass of the conservatory door with their beaks.

These permanent residents needed names. Apple, orange, peach and plum. Yum.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Education

No time to write much recently - one of those times, as Fiona Castle said when she spoke at a ladies' breakfast I went to on Saturday, when I seemed to be having little bits of me broken off in all directions. Not bad, just busy.

But my friend Martyn found this clip about education. I'm fascinated as much by the way it is presented, as what it says...So I've archived it here!  Here is the link to other talks...

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Ducks, and how they live.

With friend...previously, Mama Duck would chase him away. One time he fell in the pond...
Beginning to fledge...


The ducks are becoming more amusing by the day. They demand food, rushing up whenever we appear - whether outside or even near a window. They dog - or is that 'duck' - my very footsteps, following so closely at my heels that I dare not make any impulsive movement lest I tread on them. Like the baby birds they are, they start screaming for feed, imperatively demanding: cheeping and chirruping, apart from one, the largest, whose plumage is beginning to darken and change colour - along with his voice. It must be somewhat disconcerting to discover that your cheep now resembles a quack.

So the four musketeers spend their days huddled in a group, or rushing across the lawn, or in frantic activity in the pond: ducking and diving, or skeetering across the surface as they chase insects.

They spend their days making me smile.