Green Patches

Blog of The Week - Dave Walker's teapots

 Tea drinking is a serious business and should be undertaken with all due solemnity.  So with that in mind, who could resist Dave Walker's cartoon teapots! 

Lent approacheth

 

 - Bruce Munro's 'Light Shower' at Salisbury Cathedral, January 2011

 

 When Classic FM begins to slip  Gregorio Allegri's Miserere mei Deus  into their playlist, you know that Lent can't be far behind.  So continuing the theme of my last post, here's another Lenten themed recycled Greenpatch: my account of a Grand Day Out a year ago to see artist Bruce Munro's Light Shower and Water Tower's installations at Salisbury Cathedral.

Recycled Greenpatches - Psalm 51

 

From February 2008 - Psalm 51.

Sustainable Smellies - the return

Update on the hair situation over on my Musings blog. Mr GP demonstrates commendable tact, given that it's Valentine's Day and all.

Sustainable Smellies - the sequel

I'm not too sure about this smellie business, you know.  Gory details over on my Musings blog.

Sustainable Smellies - Make Your Place

Just been leafing through another Christmas pressie, Raleigh Brigg's charmingly illustrated and handwritten guide to making your own all -natural  lotions and potions. Everything from household cleaners, bug busters, face cleansers to gardening basics is there.  Ms GP bought it for me; we're both trying to phase out sundry 'nasties' like parabens and petrochemicals in the  bathing and cosmetic areas as much as possible - with varying success. We're pleased to have found a few brands worth giving a look in the High Street as well as the health stores. Though to be honest, it still is a bit of a lottery, labour intensive: entailing much peering short-sightedly (for me at least)  at labels and to-in and fro-ing to different stores. And don't talk about expense...ouch!  For us unscientific types, figuring out these ingredients lists can be like struggling to crack a code. Not all items with long, complicated names are necessarily harmful, conversely it seems as if every five minutes somebody somewhere is putting about scare stories about something which up to now we'd thought innocuous enough. 

Not easy to judge Creatvity is needed, hence my categorisation of this post. Simplicity? Hmm, not sure about that one. 

The biggie for me at least just now is hair colouring. It's only over the last couple of years that I've been using safer  - note not 'safe' dyes; they're something I've always been wary of, but vanity will out plus Mr GP is not happy with a greying Greenpatch. However,  as these days even my health store safer veg coluring irritates my scalp, I'm wondering if the dread day has come when I'll need to go grey gracefully. Strand tests with Henna have worked out okish though horror stories about hair falling out after treatment when it comes into contact with chemicals (I've my hair waved a couple of times a year) are putting me off. And it's so fiddly! Simplicity it ain't. Plus I don't fancy  spending my   evenings with my head  wrapped in clingfilm with what smells like a decomposing compost heap on my hair.

Ah, 'vanity, all is vanity.' Now please excuse me whilst I go off and dunk my crowning glory in a gallon of strong tea..

Blog of The Week - Goodgoat - Spirituality as a garden

What type of garden are you?

Goodgoat spotted this reflection on a church notice board. For reasons which I can't begin to fathom, this four year-old blog post only appeared in my reader last week.  Odd ? Never mind, it's not lost in the waiting. Thanks for this, Goodgoat. Oh, and congratulations...

A Chance to Reflect

No matter what we believe in, we are all spiritual beings. We all have our own unique “spirituality”

• our sense of the divine, of beauty
• of what lies beyond and is unseen

But how can we understand our spirituality?

Think of your spirituality as a garden and ask…what makes a garden? You can’t buy them – garden centres don’t sell them ready-made! You have to grow them…

Three Ways of Making a Rule of Life

With Francistide and review of my TSSF Rule of Life still fresh in my mind,  here's some advice on the process applicable to anybody looking to live life more intentionally and holistically:

 

A rule is a document embodying the values which are central to your life, and the praxis which allows you to live this out with genuine integrity. 

 - Hermit Sr Laurel from notes from stillsong.

Developing a Rule of Life 13 Tips - from soulgardeners

 

and

Balancing Life by The Rule by Debra Farrington

I came across a wonderful piece of advice yesterday -  that  rule of life should not be a list of 'to do (s)' but of 'to be (s).'

Words, words, words...Over on the Franciscan Support Thread on Shipoffools posters are asking - Is it possible to make a rule of life without using them ? It's been suggested for the TSSF Principles in the past. Could you sign it? Paint, sing or dance it? Any other medium? Suggestions please...

For Franciscans I"d have thought creative ways like these would be spot on, given their sprituality and the famous "Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words," saying popularly attributed to our founder.

Granted we might have problems at annual renewal presenting them all at the altar - still I'm sure there are ways and means of getting over that one!

Useful and Acceptable Gifts

I was puffing my way up the hill to church last Sunday; at the last minute as usual, but I just had to stop and pick up these conkers.  I dithered for a nanosecond (I mean, a fifty-something year-old woman getting all excited over something like this - honestly!), but my inner five year-old won in the end, you'll be glad to hear.  The same inner five-year old that I remember popping out during my first retreat seven years ago now, as I wandered round the wild garden at CSF Compton Durville.   It was like exploring a jungle! I was  so thrilled! By the time I went home I must have gathered half of the Somerset countryside on my windowsill - plus any number of creepy-crawlies besides.

To return to last week,  off I hopped to church where I arranged my treasure carefully on the pew in front of me, and, I regret to say, didn't really take in very much of the service at all that morning. Never mind, for once I've managed to get ahead of myself, what with Harvest Festival coming up and all. I came out of the sacristy this afternoon to see one of the flower ladies busy decorating the place with a lovely collection of leaves, conkers and other autumal goodies. Somebody is going to find it rather difficult to concentrate this Sunday as well, and we're not just talking about the children. My inner Busy Fauve is dying to go for a run. As I'd suspect too,  the insect life that might have come into church with the decorations. Who knows? If they hang around for long enough, they'll be able to take part in the pet blessing service the following weekend!

 The beech husks in the photo are another 'treasure' unearthed by my resident Fauve and I on our walks which make me smile.  Do any bloggers remember the classic Joyce Grenfell monologue Useful And Acceptable Gifts where she plays a (Very Buckinghamshire) countrywoman giving a lecture to a Women's Institute on how to make a 'boutoniere' out of beech husks?  Wonderful. Any road, I'm not able to pass a beech tree at this time of year now without giggling quietly to myself. 

So, I'll be up there this Sunday, ploughing the fields and scattering away. And I'll be thinking about boutonieres, earwigs and the gifts of laughter and wonder.

 

 

 

For the bookworms - Teaser Tuesdays

From my Musings  blog.