Summer evening from Rainow

Sunset - ii, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

We seem to be fortunate in our walks from Rainow. Last year we caught a lovely sunset from the Robin Hood pub in Rainow and this year again the evening was beautiful

Teaser Tuesday - 26th 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!

Within this space are silence, stillness and waiting. Discretion is what Aristotle referred to as the space where virtue is found.

from Maggie Ross's Writing the Icon of the Heart - In Silence Beholding some good thoughts on discretion in that chapter - I read it last night and there was a lot of pausing for reflection. I heard Maggie Ross at the Manchester Theological Society last month - was a bit heavy - though the Q&A afterwards were far more helpful! I intended to blog on it but seem to have forgotten...

Mutterings - 24th June

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

1. Salon :: Hair
2. Tag :: HTML
3. Hawk :: Buckler (I think 'hawk and buckler' is a phrase from an Ivor Gurney song)
4. Continuous :: function
5. Sparkly :: Effect
6. Foam :: Kay-Metzeler - a company making foam products whose base I used to pass every day on the way to school.
7. Lovely :: Day
8. Jokes :: Humour
9. Shenanigans :: Dishonest
10. Bear :: Brown

Nat West!

The Nat West bank (in the UK ) has been having software problems and with apologies to the Pet Show Boys:

I do hope they don't get a take-down order! Lots of f-words in the above!
(h/t Jackschofield)

Greening the economy

Rowan Williams' message for the Rio+20 conference

If the world is a gift how to hand it on to future generations?

Teaser Tuesday - 19 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!

As a matter of fact I do know a man who might fit the bill, but I'm not sure if he's available. I'll find out and give you a call back.

More from Jeffrey Archer's Only Time Will Tell.

Mutterings - 17th June

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

1. Deep end :: Off the
2. Complications :: Medical
3. Silver :: Badge
4. Bridge :: Club
5. Delete :: Key
6. Spying :: Covert
7. Ripped :: Silk
8. Tunnel :: Channel
9. Pillow fight :: Children
10. Useful :: Hint

Teaser Tuesday - 12th 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!

Should the pace prove to be too demanding, one or two of you may fall by the wayside,' he warned, staring down at the front three rows.' St Bede's is not a school for the faint heated. So be sure never to forget the words of the great Cecil Rhodes: If you are lucky enough to have been born an Englishman, you have won the first prize in the lottery of life.

A headmasters pep-talk for the new prep-school intake in Jeffrey Archer's Only Time will tell (by the international best selling author of that name) - I couldn't resist including that extra sentence! The latest BATS (book group) book - it has beenj an interesting transition moving from Emma Donoghue's The Room - told in the voice of a five year old to this through the eyes of a youngster and with also a pared down vocabulary - nothing to frighten the masses! Here's John Crace's digested read on the book. I went to a prep school where I boarded for a term...

The Church of England lies!

Or at least a committee drafting documents in its name does! From today's document about the same-sex marriage consultation:

We have supported various legal changes in recent years to remove unjustified discrimination and create greater legal rights for same sex couples and we welcome that fact that previous legal and material inequities between heterosexual and same-sex partnerships have now been satisfactorily
addressed.

So far and no further hey? But that statement is manifestly untrue - the majority of Bishops in the House of Lords voted against those changes - historical revisionism rules!
[Updated 13 June] The Church of England has now put up a document here giving the contributions made by the bishops in the Lords during the debates on the civil partnerships bill, it says:

The bishops, consistent with their place as independent and non-whipped members neither spoke nor voted as a bloc on these issues when they were before the House.

So some bishops spoke in favour and some opposed - that still means a line 'We have supported various legal changes..' is misleading - none of the bishops who voted 5-1 for the wrecking amendment eventually voted for the passing of the bill.

Mutterings - 10th June

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

1. Stitches :: Hospital
2. Reckless :: Behaviour
3. Wealth :: Riches
4. Tenant :: Sitting
5. Recognize :: Features (as in face)
6. Hospital :: Medicine
7. Bangs :: Fireworks
8. Hello :: Goodbye
9. Folder :: Paper
10. Glamour :: Puss

Teaser Tuesday - 5th 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!

My favorite bit of Outside is the window. It's different every time. A bird goes right by zoom, I don't know what it was. The shadows are all long again now, mine waves right across our room on the green wall. I watch God's face falling slow slow, even orangier and the clouds are all colors, then after there's streaks and dark coming up so bit-at-a-time I don't see it till it's done.

Last week I wrote that this was a very dark book, maybe here with another extract redressing the balance! From Emma Donoghue's Room I'm cheating here as I wanted to quote this passage and it is far more than 2 sentences - here we have Jack seeing the world outside and a sunset (God's face is the sun) before there was only a skylight and getting used to the Outside, to freedom.

An African Elegy

We are the miracles that God made
To taste the bitter fruit of Time.
We are precious.
And one day our suffering
Will turn into the wonders of the earth.

There are things that burn me now
Which turn golden when I am happy.
Do you see the mystery of our pain?
That we bear the poverty
And are able to sing and dream sweet things.

And that we never curse the air when it is warm
Or the fruit when it tastes so good
Or the lights that bounce gently on the waters?
We bless the things even in our pain.
We bless them in silence.

That is why our music is so sweet.
It makes the air remember.
There are secret miracles at work
That only Time will bring forth.
I too have heard the dead singing.

And they tell me that
This life is good
They tell me to live it gently
With fire, and always with hope.
There is wonder here

And there is surprise
In everything the unseen moves.
The ocean is full of songs.
The sky is not an enemy.
Destiny is our friend.

Ben Okri

A clipped out copy of this poem has been around my work room for a few years, I found an electronic copy here together with other examples of his work.

Mutterings - 3rd June

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

1. Model :: Aircraft
2. Clash :: of Cultures
3. Frightening :: Vision
4. Instinct :: Animal
5. Award show :: Crufts
6. Editing :: Care
7. Frumpy :: Baggy
8. Everyone :: All
9. Lifting :: Gear
10. Agencies :: Government