Hotpool, farewell

Last session of Hydrotherapy today.  Feel a bit achey.  We looked for the waxwings on the way back, but didn't find them. Pity as the light was wonderful. We also shopped at Lidls and Col kindly drove me up to my furthest magazine route drop.  I am not finding this lady at home, but at least I can leave the magazines...

I have no idea if the hotpool has helped, but it was lovely to be in. I am hatching a plan to fill the flat up to chest height with really warm water so I can swim everywhere.  But I fear there might be a snagette or two which will prevent me from actually carrying out my plan.   The two flats below us for a start.

Got back to find the news that George is in hospital.

What is happening to us all?

I think its called: We are not as young as we were.

And yet we are not old. Any of us. We have only lived a few decades, and its no time at all.  It goes so quickly.  And how grateful I am for all Jehovah's promises that we can have the life "to time indefinite" that our first parents so tragically threw away.

Such a lovely meeting at the Kingdom Hall last night.  They are encouraging all who can to do the reduced pioneering hours in March.  We will be bringing the invitations to the Memorial of Jesus' death to your doors from the 1st of March on. And I hope my knees will permit me to have a part in delivering them.

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The past is closer than we think

Here is an interesting quote from The Spectator this week - from Charles Moore's "The Spectator's Notes". He and his wife have just got to know a Jim Smith, who used to do building work for Rudyard Kipling! 

"In "Puck's Song", Kipling speaks of the mill at Bateman's: "See you that little mill that clacks/so busy by the brook?/She has ground her corn and paid her tax/Ever since Domesday Book". But in fact one of Kipling's first acts when he bought the place in 1903 was to stop the mill and convert it to a turbine. In the 1970's, the National Trust decided to restore the mill. It was Jim Smith who did the work himself, building the new hursting, cutting the 200 teeth, and making the bearings for the shaft. So the mill clacked once more. Only nine Jim Smiths, laid end to end, if you see what I mean, and you get back to Domesday Book."

Batemans is well worth a visit. It is as if the Kipling family have gone out for a few hours and will be turning up any moment to be amazed by all the people wandering round their house.  And you can visit the mill of the poem, clacking away.

Audrey and I got out on the doors yesterday though only for half an hour, as I had to take her for her big supermarket shop.  The sister who usually takes her is on her holidays, in Devon. And I hope she won't be snowed in. They forecast snow nationwide today, but it hasn't arrived at our bit of the English Channel as yet.

Had the worst arthritis attack of my life (so far) last week and am so glad to be over it.

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A landscape

The world by the sea is all moody greys and greens this morning, with lots of white waves and a line of deep turquoise where Channel and sky meet.  Our balcony tiles are shining with rain.

I am hoping to get to the meeting this morning.  It will be my first time out since Wednesday.  We have a lovely Watchtower study - all about the stewardship that every Christian has. We have been given the treasure of the good news of the Kingdom, and we must share it.

I am in an internet correspondence with a Christian academic in the U.S.A.   We are talking about evolution - in which he is a believer.  I wrote to him yesterday, apologising for taking so long in replying and got an email straight back, saying he was enjoying our discussion. So I must respond today.  And Dorothy of South Island has been in touch.

It is afternoon now, and still raining  Sea and sky are a pretty uniform grey - the water a bit darker than the sky.  Captain B was not able to go out so he kindly gave me a lift to the Kingdom Hall and when he picked me up, he gave Joyce, a sister visiting from Worthing, a lift to the Tamarisk.

It was an afternoon of  butterfly paperwork.

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The Envoy from Zimmer City

Thursday was a day from hell - that is to say, the hell taught by Christendom - a place of torment - which is a teaching that put me off the whole idea of God and the Bible for many years.   Whereas, the Biblical hell - "Sheol" in the Hebrew Scriptures, "Hades" in the Christian Greek - is simply the ground, the grave, where the dead sleep "conscious of nothing at all",  awaiting a resurrection.

It would have saved Hamlet an awful lot of soliloquizing if he had only known that there are no dreams in the sleep of death.

Anyway, I had such a terrible attack of arthritis - or I assume arthritis - that I couldn't move. So painful - no sleep  - didn't know what to do with myself - couldn't stand up - couldn't lie down - in the end Col propped me up in a chair in a tower of cushions and during the day I managed occasionally to doze for a few minutes before being jerked awake as I started to topple off.   I have now graduated to a zimmer frame, and a different type of painkiller has been prescribed.

I don't know if they will help. I don't know that much is effective against the pain of an arthritis attack.

Captain B was wonderful.  Rallying round all day, and going out in the evening to get the new painkillers.

Obviously I did not get to the meeting last night, and I have had to cancel the physio today.

It is a beautiful sunny day, and a charming present from Bea just arrived in the post - some beautiful butterfly bookplates.

Stephanie came for supper on Wednesday night, before she and the Captain set off for the Detectors meeting.  I provided quiche and salad, followed by trifle.

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The wrong Geranium

After managing over an hour on the doors - in the cold, which Audrey does not like - we tottered back to my little geranium red car.  But we couldn't get in.   "What's wrong with this key!?" I angsted, "It's not working."

Then we realised it was the car that was wrong, not the key. It was a red car, right enough, but not my red car.

We found a lot of people in and had some good conversations.  And we now have some more magazine route calls.  We must ask and ask for Jehovah's spirit, so that they will become Bible students.

More harrowing news from America about the death of an ex-expatriate friend. The only good thing that has come out of it is that Anne of the Cape and I are back in regular email conversation.

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The Anti-Pollyanna

I had a bit of a meltdown after my knee diagnosis, followed by a gym lesson, which revived all the horrors of schooldays - though only because I was in something of a state of shock.  Anyway, I sobbed all the way home in the car.

Captain B came back from his outing with a present for me.  My tears dried as if by magic, as I pulled the wrappings off to reveal a lovely little cup with a pretty golden chaffinch on an autumn branch.  It said:
"Chaffinch's tufty peachy feathers, they are happy in all weathers."

"Chaffinch that!" I shrieked making headbutting movements,  "I'll give him happy in all weathers."

However, now I come to think of it, its amazing how Jehovah and the Christian message always do give you something to be happy about.  At the moment I am absorbed in replying to a nice American Academic, about evolution and such things. So the chaffinch and I are both perched prettily on our branches, singing away happily, in harmony.  

And I have to admit that we can learn so much from the creation.

Captain B is out, a'twitching, so I can sing. Otherwise he keeps looking pained and handing me the indigestion tablets, as my singing is nowhere near as harmonious as the chaffinch's.  

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The good news and the bad news

The good news being that the fearsome new medication is working - and the bad is that in the interim my knees have reached their sell by date ahead of me.  They are gone.  My only option medically is two knee replacement operations.  And as I won't be seeing the surgeon for 3 months, I have plenty of time to think it over.   And, of course, he may not be prepared to operate. For one thing, I can't have a blood transfusion.

But I feel as if I am too old and ill to be able to cope with hospital.

Its all a bit of a shock.   And my computer has died, taking all my info with it.   I am hoping the stork will bring me a new one tomorrow.  Captain B has been arranging things.  I can only compute at the moment when El Capitano is busy, as I have to use his machine. He is watching the Rugby just now, so I can do a hasty blog.

Some sad things happening with friends and with some on my magazine route too.

On the plus side... I was hobbling back from the meeting this morning, a slightly longer walk than usual as roadworks had eaten up my customary space, when Malcolm and Steve sped along, rescued me and drove me to my car.  It is true what Jesus said, that when you become a member of the Christian congregation you join a loving family, made up of people from every tribe and nation and tongue.

And I found this in our Watchtower study very comforting.   "Faithfulness to God is not dependent on intelligence, talent or ability".    As I don't feel at the moment I have any of those things, (going back to Gym lessons is proving very demoralising) it is wonderful to think that it doesn't matter to Jehovah, as long as I go on doing my best to listen and obey. What is important is keeping my heart full of love for my Creator, for his creation, and for his law. Everything else good will follow from that.

Jackie, Tom and Jill came over for lunch yesterday which cheered us up.  I was all at sixes and sevens doing my shopping, not knowing what i was going to give them, but we ended up with a plate of sandwiches (tuna pate and egg mayonnaise), a hot plate of sausages, Thai spring rolls and suchlike, and a cheeseboard. Followed by lemon drizzle cake (step forward Waitrose and take a bow) with my three favourite ice-cream flavours - lime & coconut, mango sorbet (take another bow, Waitrose) and some salted caramel ice-cream from Cooks.

Col was a hero and rushed out Saturday morning to get a few minor things I had forgotten (bread, eggs, mayonnaise) and did his usual superb clearing up job afterwards.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and we laughed a lot.

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