The Butterfly from Mars

Blue fur!

Captain B had a very successful butterfly day.   I studied and did housework - dusting, polishing, washing clothes - the Monday routine.

It was the Meeting at the Kingdom Hall yesterday morning.   And I am feeling very guilty as I did not go on the work afterwards as I intended.   There was a lot of business to see to after the meeting - and Joyce was visiting again.  So I drove her back to her sister's flat.

And somehow after i had done all that it was lunchtime and I went home. And I think I slept quite a lot in the afternoon.

I should be able to get out more this weekend though as Capt B will hardly be around he has so much in his calendar.

Jean rang re our plans for the Brighton Convention - Ken is going to take us on the Friday.  Jacks rang re meeting up for supper, but we can't at the moment synchronise our calendars - this week is so full.

Life as you get older...  there was an article in ...(?) The Mail online (possibly) about the diffculties of dating when you are over fifty.  I am wondering if you should want to be dating - even if you are single.  It sounds so teenage, and was rather a fraught business as i remember it.

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Baking - and a request to Captain B

We worked on the doors this morning - over and over with two brothers.  We had one interesting conversation and can go back.   It is our month to clean the Hall again!  Time is hurtling along, faster and faster.   Ronald and I will do the cleaning on Thursday after the Field Service group, with Captain Butterfly, IF he is free and agreeable to help.

It will be a busy week.  Jan and I meet up Tuesday to practise our part in the school on Thursday - my first appearance in the school since I left the land of expats.  Plus the field service - I have to remind myself to pick up Audrey.  And it seems as if I will hardly see Captain B - his week is stuffed to the gills.  

Aunt Margaret's funeral is this week.

Got an email from Peter thanking me for the crit of the first Chapter of his memoirs, which re-creates the world of our Fifties childhood with startling vividness.

I made a cake this afternoon as a present for El Capitano.  It was our 38th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday and we weren't able to celebrate as we were at the hospital all morning and I was at the Hall in the evening.   It is a date cake - a Delia Smith recipe - so a reminder of all our years in Expatland too.

The deeper and deeper levels of corruption being revealed in "the world" every day are shocking.  And frightening.   But not surprising to anyone who has paid attention to the warning from our Creator that, for the moment, "the whole world" is lying in the power of "the wicked one" - Satan the devil.

And he is also called "the father of the lie".

But not for too much longer. We are heading towards "the land of straightforwardness".

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For Free Chocolate Cake...

Now that you have been tempted into my blog I can reveal:
(a) that the doors are now locked
and
(b) that the full title of this blog is "For Free Chocolate Cake Look Somewhere Else".

Sorry.  But I need an audience for my poem. Its quite short so don't panic.

I sent it off (many years ago) to a competition run by a magazine that was being edited by Auberon Waugh.  I suppose it could have been The Oldie.   He wanted some more Mrs.Ravoon adventures - see:
http://adjectivemarcus.livejournal.com/294239.html

So I wondered where the scary lady had come from.  And wrote this:

MRS RAVOON

The ship has returned
From the alien star
Captain and crew
Who knows where they are?
Nothing inside
But a large silk cocoon
In which form the features of
MRS RAVOON


I didn't win.

It is a wild and stormy morning with waves building up on The Channel.  It should be a quiet day today  - study - paperwork - housework - telly watching.

Second day into new medicine... strong stuff... apprehensive... will it turn me into  MRS RAVOON!  

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Walking with The Captain

We have had two walks this week - Iping Common and Pagham Harbour.

Iping Common is a lovely bit of heathland - reminding me of how much of my childhood was spent on the Yorkshire and Derbyshire Moorland.  And I am always wuthering on about it.

It was a perfect summer afternoon at Pagham with a wonderful light on everything.  Captain Camera took a shot of the water for my blog.

Today it was a hospital appointment for me, and a start on my new arthritis medicine. I am now waiting for the side effects to hit.

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Aunts

We got the sad news yesterday that Aunt Margaret has died.   Soon there will be no-one left who remembers the wonderful Grannyworld of Nabbs cottage.  When I was a child it seemed as if it had always been there, and always would be there.

But, one by one, we are all going over the edge.

Captain B has taken a wonderful outer space shot in the Downland.  It looks like at any moment Dr.Who and team will turn up to save the caterpillars from the crab spider.

But who knows, perhaps in outer space, its the other way round.  Though I think those caterpillars will be alright either way, as their coats signal like mad "I'm poisonous, don't eat me!!"

Audrey and I were out this morning. We started my magazine route calls and delivered most of my invitations to the upcoming Convention in Brighton.  It was very hot in the car, but there was a refreshing sea breeze outside.

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The Men's Final and a perfect summer evening

We watched Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal, in four sets.  Which is amazing. Two great players.  And, at moments, possibly some of the best tennis ever seen in a Wimbledon final?

We used to watch Wimbledon when I was a child.  My mother loved it. We would come home from school and there would be a salad tea ready, with strawberries and cream, or more usually milk, which was fine.  I still prefer my strawberries with milk or yoghourt.

And we would all watch the current match.   It seemed more magical then.  I don't know whether that is simply because I am older and tireder, or because there is so much money in the game now - money and fame.

It had a charm about it too that it doesn't seem to have now.  

Col was off butterflying (see The Captain's Log), while I went to the meeting at the Kingdom Hall - being taught the word of Jehovah - and then went on to visit Maggie who is still convalescing.  Jen was there.  Then I rushed back, via the supermarket - for the obligatory strawberries - to watch the Final.

We - Capt.B, Jacks and myself - went to Tom and Jill's for supper on Saturday.   Roast lamb and a strawberry pastry.  Jill is a wonderful cook.  And we had champagne - before supper - in their walled garden.  A perfect summer evening.  Or as perfect as you can get until the earth is transformed under the rulership of the Kingdom of God.

And I got a lovely email from a guy on my magazine route.

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A July day in retirement.

The 1st of July already.  And a sunny one too.   It was always such a happy month when I was a child as it was almost school-free - and it seemed to last forever - with August - also school-free - to come.

I hope it will be a happy month now, but this time I know it won't last very long.

Anne of the Cape rang me yesterday and we had a long chat. She is full of interesting questions as ever, which I am in the process of trying to answer by email.

Captain B left on butterfly safari but came back in time to watch Our Gallant Scottish Lad Andy Murray being beaten in the semi-finals at Wimbledon by Rafael Nadal.   Rafael Nadal played better than him - a cunning tactic that was shockingly successful.

I shopped, posted the June Watchtower to the guy at the fortress flats.  Unless I catch him at home (and he works shifts) I can't get in, or anywhere near his letter box. And I got chicken and salad and strawberries so we could lunch in front of the box.  Jean rang to update me on the mysterious lady who asked us to call and to make arrangements for us to work together tomorrow.

And we got a postcard from Linda and Nick in France.

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