The Beatitudes for a Global Pandemic

I was listening to a broadcast on Facebook by Chris Packham. At one point mid-sentence he said “Buzzard”, pointed off to his right and then carried on where he had left off. Later he did it again when a greenfinch landed on his bird feeder, except of course this time he shouted “Greenfinch” He later…

Discouragement. Apparently renowned church leader John Stott admitted this was one of his greatest challenges. Everyone, even the most saintly and godly of people can suffer with this. Discouragement. Many things fuel discouragement, and different people find different things discouraging. And this is in normal times; and we all know these aren’t normal times. This…

This sculpture is designed to show how nature is holding people up during the pandemic. There is lots of evidence that being out in nature, even if that is only a garden, can help with mental health not only during a pandemic but always. It’s a good sculpture, I like it because I understand what…

When I was at school studying for O level English I was made to read 2 poems. The first one was Alexander Pope’s “Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot”, and it shows how much I enjoyed it that I can only remember the first line. Even in the exam I could only quote that first line and…

As I sat for my quiet time this morning I felt the quietness closing in. It’s never that quiet. There are always the distant sounds of cars taking people to work or children to school, usually there are birds in the garden chirruping as they settle on the feeders; but this morning there was nothing….

I’m suffering from empty nest syndrome. All the nests in my garden or which I can see from the windows are empty. The last ones to go were the house martins and I suddenly realised last night as I went to bed that I couldn’t hear the chicks in the nest above the bedroom window….