Teaser Tuesday - 28 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

There was rain later in the day, but we made our objective, and it was well worth the long's day travel. The plain on which we were walking ended suddenly.

as does the teaser! This is from Sebastian Faulks' Human Traces - I've nested back to complete this book I see I was reading and teasing from it last summer! I'm regretting the long break I really was enjoying it and the gap has made some of the plot lines a little less clear in my mind - the teaser is from an exploration of the African plains in the early 1900's. That's a very odd apostrophe in the teaser, I assume it is displaced from the next word I've left it as it is for the sake of pedantry!

Mutterings - 26 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Familiar :: Places (old, familiar.. not sure that I even know the song)
2. Park :: West
3. Bank balance :: dodgy
4. Ducks :: in a row
5. Relationship :: close
6. Ruminate :: cows
7. Humanity :: mass of
8. Baking soda :: scones
9. Angela :: Eagle - she was on the Any Questions I went to in Macclesfield a week ago
10. Bastards :: Them (unnamed)

Busy Lizzy

Busy Lizzy, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

On Sunday I got to steward the green room in St Michael's for the street performers. it was the Barnaby festival this year celebrating its 750th anniversary, unfortunately I didn't see what they went and did but this little old lady left tweets and clouds of scent in her wake! Here she is enjoying herself at the RHS Show.

Teaser Tuesday - 21 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The soul is, in any case, in shadow in this life because it is 'covered' by the body. The overall sense of this richly allusive passage seems to be that, since knowledge in this life is necessarily of shadows and images only, God's grace has set in the world of shadows the shadow of his own truth, so that human beings may know him, even if only indirectly, in this 'mirror and enigma' which is Christ.

Rowan Williams musing on Origen in The Wound of Knowledge there, that (quoting Williams) ought to annoy the good folk heading over here from OCICBW - this was the book I was going to use anyway - I didn't change it! This is a re-re-read (or maybe a re-re-re-read) it was initially recommended to me by Denise on the Scargill community who had spent time as a novice with the Sisters of the Love of God and presumably she got the original talks. Everyone quotes this summary, so I shall be no different:

The goal of a Christian life, according to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is not enlightenment but wholeness

maybe the Anglican Church could use a little wholeness rather than speeding off in the vain pursuit of certainties!

Mutterings - 19 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Diligence :: Due
2. Volume :: Sphere
3. Hospital :: Ward
4. Binge :: Drinking
5. Loyalty :: Card
6. Pediatrics :: Medicine
7. Authorize :: Allow
8. Cage :: John
9. Studious :: Learned
10. Transfer :: Flight

Water butt kitty

Water butt kitty, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Sid likes to keep above any possible floods - advisable considering the downpour we had at lunch time.

White Nancy

White Nancy, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

..but black against the sunset!
Last night we did a short circular walk in the Rainow area - the disused factory we usually walk through is being demolished and flats being created so part of the walk was avoided. After a drink in the Robin Hood we were heading home when I suddenly noticed this view, so I stopped and took a couple of photos.

Looks like our fridge!

Simon's cat demonstrates his retrieval technique.

Teaser Tuesday - 14 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Why do you draw these things? And he pointts at drawing after drawing, careful, shaded, exact, attentive to the details of nodes and stipules.

Clare being interrogated by D H Lawrence in Helen Dunmore's Zennor in Darkness - our current book group read - another Cornish tale - we had Patrick Gale's Notes from an Exhibition back in March, though, in this case, the book is set in first world war Cornwall where the locals view the two interlopers (the Lawrences) with suspicion!

Long Time Travelling

I picked up Cath and Phil Tyler's Farewell My Friends off a free cd in The Wire (that makes it sound like an infectious disease) and its quirkyness appealed, here they are playing in the Sotto Voce Festival in London last year.

There's a performance of Farewell my Friends available, but there's far too much echo in that acoustic for me! I like to be able to hear some of the words....

but after a listen I couldn't resist embedding this one too.
Their website is here and here's a audio only version of the track

Find more artists like cath and phil tyler at Myspace Music

'Earthiness and grit' from Fiona Talkington has it about right..only around 40 viewers so far on the first of the youtubes!

Mutterings - 12 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Adventure :: Story
2. Truth :: or dare (Significant?)
3. Expose :: Flesh
4. Applause :: Rapturous
5. Hostility :: concealed
6. Sauce :: HP (eugh!)
7. Constipation :: Food
8. Explore :: Caves
9. Senator :: Politician
10. Children :: Joy

Macclesfield's Hope Centre

Ribbon snipped, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Over the past few week's I've been doing some volunteer work at the ex-Wesley Owen bookshop in Macclesfield in preparation for its reopening as a cafe/bookshop resource centre for the town's churches. On Wednesday we had the official opening by the Mayor. There'll eventually be some coverage on the official website (which I need to do) - the site needs a revamp - or is that an init-vamp to make it a little more friendly and maintainable!

Gun Hill

Gun Hill, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Yesterday was the evening for the Gun Hill walk. Again a lovely sunny evening with views over Leek and as far as the Wrekin. This was a photo from the same walk last year. Other photos from yesterday evening are also, as usual on flickr.

Teaser Tuesday - 7 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The television may be going, but we don't have to watch it. In this way distractions cases to be so distracting. If we let them be, we can see that they appear in something deeper: the vastness of our own awareness. This vastness is God's cloak, what the author calls the cloud of unknowing, "the dark cloud where God was" (Ex 20:21)

.. taking a few extra sentences, this is from Martin Laird's Into the Silent Land a book on contemplative prayer which our study group is currently reading, I've found it pretty helpful. Here's a review of the book.

Argerich is 70!

Yesterday marked the Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich's 70th birthday. Here she is at a rather younger age with Chailly playing part of the Rachmaninov 3rd concerto.
This is the slow movement (technically though the speed that the pianist has to go through notes makes it far from a rest for the soloist!). Then watch (at around 7:10) the speed and ferocity with which she attacks the last movement. Alas she has tended to stay away from the virtuosic parts of the repertory for many years - except for a small number of exceptions.
You'll find the other parts of the concerto in the associated items on youtube though getting them in hte right order is tricky - start here!

Mutterings - 5 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Circles :: Stone
2. Born :: Free
3. Teddy :: Bears (picnic)
4. Comfortable :: Numb (Pink Floyd
)
5. Chaste :: Young
6. Burned :: Stake
7. Blouse :: Silk
8. Threats :: Emailed
9. Cuddly :: Bear
10. Condemned :: Cell

Bridge..and its reflection

Bridge..and its reflection, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

This weeks walk began and ended at the Robin Hood in Buglawton. The light was bright so that the reflection of this bridge in the canal was nearly as clear as the original. We walked along the canal and then looped back along side roads back to the pub. As usual, I've added the evening photos to the end of this flickr set.