Changing Attitude Chester

I've forgotten to log here that the Changing Attitude Group in the Chester diocese have a new web pages location. Some local and UK events are listed. If you know of local events let me know and I'll add them to the news pages!

More alps

Here's the latest render from the current project.

A bit bare but with the colours layers I've set up I don't think there's likely to be a lot growing? I think the snow could do with being a bit chunkier? Looks like talcum power?

Mutterings - Jan 25

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

1. Woke :: Pillow (I usually wake in the night due to sleeping on my arm trapped under the pillow!)
2. Postcard :: Poetic (I used to write these in my weirder days)
3. Blizzard :: Whiteout
4. Pooch :: Collar
5. Constipated :: Discomfort
6. Pastel :: Blue
7. Edge :: Postcards (.. from the .. again!)
8. Mother :: Oedipus
9. Linger :: Longer
10. Header :: Byte

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 20

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!

A little late again!

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Anne Bradstreet 'To My Dear and Loving Husband' from Poems to Learn by Heart - Ana Sampson. Here's a piece on the Bradstreet poem. The Sampson anthology is our book group book of the month, it contains a lot that's very familiar but also some rarer items. Here's an interview with Sampson.

Mutterings - Jan 19

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

1. Holiday :: Period
2. Timeframe :: Business
3. Initiative :: Risk
4. Grinding :: Teeth
5. Shouting :: Help!
6. Liver :: Disease
7. Extension :: File
8. Taxes :: Death
9. Obnoxious :: Meddling
10. Ten minutes :: Appointment (I have one tomorrow!)

Mutterings - Jan 11

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

1. Harbor :: Cold (no idea why - I had to lookup the connection!)
2. Mattress :: Spring
3. Experience :: Life
4. Seminar :: Education
5. 2 million :: Dollars
6. Scarf :: College
7. Stacked :: Theatre (something about boxes?)
8. Flowers :: Vase
9. Bowling :: Alley
10. Husband :: House

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 5

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 leadership of the Western Church went on to build on that memory or claimed memory over a thousand years, to create one of Christianity's most noble and dangerous visions, the Roman papacy. Their building was literal, in the massive shape of the Basilica of St Peter above Peter's supposed grave site, a building which we will repeatedly encounter in Christian history.

I had to choose that teaser rather selectively the author indulges in some rather long sentences! The author is Diarmaid MacCulloch and this is 'A History of Christianity' - a substantial tome I got for Christmas and am currently enjoying even before we get to some of the lesser known and maybe more informative parts of the book. Here's Rowan WIlliams review laying out its strengths and shortcomings, I wouldn't want to meet Rowan in a supervision on the topic! (and an interesting typo in the author's name in the linked URL - blame the Guardian!

Mutterings - Jan 4

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

1. Spending :: Money (or 'Hey big')
2. Question :: Open to
3. Drip :: Allegations
4. Episodes :: Lucid
5. Faking :: It
6. Draining :: Energy (must be the new year or Christmas)
7. Bangs :: Fuse
8. Fifty :: Middle age
9. Magazine :: Explosion (from the gun part)
10. Fabulous :: Absolutely!

Raisin Spice Cookies

I did these for after church coffee this morning, as I commented at the foot of this post my recipe book has for method - ' rub in marg' and that's it! I've attempted to add a few more hints..

Ingredients

1. 8 oz self raising flour
2. 1 tsp cinnamon
3. 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4. 8 oz fine semoline
5. 8 oz marg
6. 8 oz caster sugar
7. 2 eggs
8. milk (!)
9. 3 oz raisins

Method

Mix dry ingredients, add (beaten) eggs and rub in marg, add milk if it's too dry - I hardly needed any when I made it yesterday.
Place in small balls (c. 1 raisin per ball) widely spaced on a baking tray and cook in 170deg C oven for c 15 minutes, let cool slightly before on a cooling rack otherwise the biscuits will sag! (Makes around 60)