The Zimmer Twins Ride Again

We managed an hour on the doors today - but only half an hour going door to door.  My twin (Audrey) had had enough by then, so we did some return visits.  I managed to place all my invitations to The Memorial on the 5th, which is a relief, as given the way my knees are seizing up I don't know if I will get out again this week.

Apart from the Memorial of course!  I must not miss that.  But my better half, Captain Butterfly, will be there to help me.

Col has been out all day taking photos of orange tips, which will soon be appearing on his blog.  Apparently there was a tiny sprinkling of rain over Arundel during the afternoon.  Either we didn't get it here, or it was too tiny for me to notice.   Its snowing in Scotland though.

Do I feel a snow poem coming on?

A JANUARY WASHDAY IN SHEFFIELD

 by me

Black trees rattle in the icy wind

Through gale-smashed panes the greenhouse sings

Tights, shirts, tea-towels, bras and knicks

Dance to welcome eighty-six!

As you see this was written a long long time ago, in the days when my parents lived at the bungalow, and my mother hung her washing out in all weathers.

Now they are sleeping in death, knowing nothing of the years going by over their heads.  But I hope that they are safe in "the everlasting arms" and have a wonderful awakening ahead of them into the restored earthly Paradise.

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In Arundel Woods

Captain and Mrs Butterfly were photographing orange tips in the woods near Arundel this afternoon.  Lovely fresh perfect orange tips.

male Orange-tip

I was wondering if, say, fifty years ago, the woods would have been ablaze with them?

The white something - I thought it was stitchwort, but in fact it is... wood anenome was blooming everywhere and the bluebells are just starting.  Horrendous traffic due to the roadworks.   It is a lovely day - perfect blue skies - not a rain cloud in sight (though we desperately need some rain) - but coldish.  Perfect walking weather really, if only I could walk.

Bea emailed to say she had got safely back home, and Audrey rang re our field service tomorrow.

I am trying to remember what happened at the weekend.  Captain B was in London on Saturday - wearing his dive hat.   I didn't get to the morning field service - too zapped by the new meds - but did get out for an hour in the afternoon.

Sunday was the meeting, with a lovely talk that I wish everyone in the world could have heard.   And at some stage I polished and dusted everything - and did four loads of washing.  The Captain did the ironing which was very noble.

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Visitors

Bea left yesterday.  It feels quite strange without her.  I took her to the Station at lunchtime, after a long session with the Injection Nurse (who was very nice and reassuring).   She stayed with me a long time after the injection, just to be sure that there wasn't going to be a severe reaction.

Apart from the fact that I got the injection capsule upside down and tried to inject myself with the button end, the mechanics of it all went smoothly.   But that is the story of my life really.  If there is a stick lying around somewhere, that is sure to be me holding firmly on to the wrong end of it.

Today I am reminded why I am trying this drastic medication, as it is back to the painful struggle to stand up once again. The nurse said it will take about three months to know if the injections are working.

The Thai branch of the family and his sister came over for lunch on Wednesday.  Chicken salad, with hot bread, and some rather nice coconut and lime ice cream bought with my own fair hands (from Waitrose).  We caught up on the Thai news and the Home County news.  It is much harder to keep in touch since the mothers - the twins - died, as we used to all meet up regularly when visiting the maternal home bases.

Jackie had us over for supper on Tuesday night.  Prawn cocktail, pork, and meringue with ice cream. Delicious, and a fun evening with lots of laughter.

I won't make it to the group tomorrow morning, but I do hope to be able to get out and call on some not homes and return visits - and deliver that magazine for Maggie.  It depends on whether or not my knees will let me drive.

There seems to be a manufactured petrol crisis on at the moment.  One poor woman has had her life totally changed because of it, as she got badly burnt trying to fill up jerrycans of petrol.

What next?

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A Bigger Dandelion

We - The Captain, Jackie, Bea and me - went up to London on Monday to the Hockney "Bigger Picture" Exhibition. It was a difficult journey, coming and going, and everything was so crowded.  But it was more than well worth it.  I thought it would be fun, but wasn't prepared for how beautiful it was.  He has found Yorkshire such an inspiring subject - not surprisingly.  Well, he has found the beauty of the creation so inspiring - which is even less surprising.

I wonder if David Hockney is taking time out to think about how short a time we have to see this lovely world, and to spend with the people we love.  I hope so, because then he might start to search for the Creator.

My two favourite pictures - picking ones of a reasonable size, some were enormous and only for display in galleries - were a cornfield and a swathe of dandelions, some in flower and some in seed.

I hadn't yet seen an artist paint hay as its now - not gathered into haystacks, but into those discs.

Anyway, this seems like an opportunity to put my dandelion poem into the blog.  

THE DANDELION MOTHER

by me 

She doesn’t let

Her children fly

With any wind

She holds them in

White spiky babes

Until

The wind she knows

The wind she wants

Rushes past her

“Go, children, now”

she says

“and leave me to

 my mid-life crisis.”

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Tired

Tried - but can't sleep.  One of the downsides of old age.  Might as well do quick blog.  Hall cleaning yesterday.  Apparently we have a good report from the brothers whose Hall we are using at the moment - so I hope we can keep up the standard.  Only one more clean to go, then its another group's turn.  The next time we clean ought to be in our new Kingdom Hall.  Gave the young Ghanaian brother in charge of the Cleaners a lift home.

Jackie, Tom and Jill were over on Saturday night to join the three of us in a Thai takeaway, plus a smoked salmon starter from Lidls.

Weather - hot and summery - however, we desperately need rain, as a hosepipe ban starts next week.

Was asked, on FB, what my favourite Spring poem is.  And realised it is definitely "Four Ducks on a Pond" by William Allingham.  It is about one of those moments when you see the Paradise earth.  My first such moment came at the age of 4 (perhaps early 5) when I was playing shop with a little friend in a soot-blackened stone garden in Sheffield.  It was late Spring and blossom petals were lying all around us.

I knew i was in Paradise - though I couldn't define the feeling of course.  I knew even then that "the original serpent" was still in the garden - also without being able to define it.

But now i know I did see Paradise, albeit a spoilt one.  And I also know that it will be restored. All those years at school saying the Lord's Prayer over and over - and I never realised what i was praying for, or how it connected with that childhood memory.

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Identifying Butterflies

Orange-barred Sulphur

Captain Butterfly is at the other side of the table looking very fierce which means he is busy identifying the tropical butterflies he photographed yesterday at Earnley.  We - him, Bea and me - spent the day there, and Mark joined us in the morning.  The butterfly house is so small that you have to dodge the butterflies, and they are quite likely to land on you.  You have to be careful where you step too as there are a lot sitting on the floor. Amazing variety.  Great for photographers.  I would like to go there one day with Richard Dawkins and ask him how we can fail to see our Grand Creator in the artistry and engineering that goes into a butterfly.

Beautiful little gardens too - lots of garden rooms - all glass roofed but open to the air.  Bea and I sat in one of them for ages after lunch (while Col photographed more and more and more butterflies).  The air was full of perfume from the... jasmine (I forget)... and we could hear the fountain playing.  I hope to go there again.

The Thai branch of the family is in the UK on business and he is coming for lunch next week.

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The House of Three Milks Rides Again

It will ride again, that is, as soon as I have done my supermarket shop and got in the soya milk for Bea who is arriving this week.  Yesterday was my first drive to the new (temporary) Kingdom Hall and back.  With a lot of praying, I managed it, and also found the road I could park the car on.  One of the brothers had given me directions - they are obviously desperate to keep me out of the Hall carpark. And who could blame them?

It was quite a long session for the elders as they had to stay on for another meeting connected with the Hall building afterwards.  It is the turn of our field service group to clean, so two of us were vacuuming, and I was darting in and out of the toilets trying to clean them, hampered by lots of siblings still in the building, and not finding out where the cleaning supplies are kept until I had nearly finished (I had bought a few basic supplies from home).

Today, the Captain is tropical butterflying - and I have been spring cleaning, ironing, studying and catching up on my emails.  A nice quiet day in.

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