Green Patches

Pop!

" ‘Whizz pop whizz pop pop pop poppety pop pop,’ faster and ever so much faster flew the pancakes. Thicker and thicker. Bigger and bigger. They came out flatways and edgeways. They shot high in the air and stuck to the ceiling. One sailed across the room and hit the Vicar in the waistcoat, where it may or may not have reminded him of the ironholders for the South Crashbania natives. Pop poppety, pop pop pop. It was like a machine gun but much more sploshy. The Professor struggled out of his pancake just in time for another one to drop over him. Two pancakes were on the clock, four were draped over the light. The Mayor was eating his way through a complete set of pancakes of varying sizes that had fallen in front of him. The four firemen put their helmets on and brandished their axes, but only succeeded in smashing two cups, one saucer and the sugar basin. Mrs Flittersnoop put her head gingerly out from under the table and was immediately gummed to the carpet by a three-foot pancake two inches thick that had just shot out.”
From The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter

 

 My favourite pancake-making scenario: A recycled recycled recycled blog for Shrove Tuesday.

 

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! 

Blog of The Week - Franciscan Associates and The Water Walker's Apprentice

image: freeimages.co.uk

 

Favourites in my googlereader this week: Franciscan Associates and Steve Tilley both write on Welcoming The Stranger. 

Dorothy Parker, the author who was famous for her dark wit, used to answer her telephone with this greeting:  “What fresh hell is this?”  

What do you think when someone knocks on your door?  Is it closer to “What fresh hell is this?” or is it closer to, “Thanks be to God?”

 - Martin B Copenhaver Who's That Knocking at My Door? in Francisan Associates.

 

You can find Steve's Show em yer warts over on The Water Walker's Apprentice.

In case my two prayer partners - due here in just over an hour's time should chance upon this blog, my response is always  the second one. As for warts, after nearly four years, they're used to being a) ambushed by the dog b) stared down by the cat c) tripping over aforementioned dog's bone in the hallway d) having to remove pet hairs from their person and e) being nearly knocked out by my over enthusiastic use of pot-pourri essential oils and scented candles. This last isn't  as much an indicator of my journey further Up The Candle; as an honest, if misguided attempt to disguise the fact that the cat has carefully timed her evening toilet visit to coincide with the arrival of visitors. 

Never mind. My view is  that there's nothing a Nice Cup Of Tea can't put right. 

 

 

 

 

Cabbages and Kings - frugal living

Image by Dan at freegdigitalPhotos.net.

Newly launched ; if you like savoy cabbages, and even if the very smell of them reminds you of old school dinners, you'll love Fran's new blog: The Year of Living Frugally.

Green groceries - unpackaged

A Green find from Ms GP this week: 'Unpackaged,' an organic grocery   where customers bring their own reusable containers.  Catherine Conway's shop began as a market stall in 2006. It's since developed into a shop where you can buy everything from fruit and veg, dairy goods,  to household products and toiletries.  Watch this CNN  video: 'Shoppers weigh up green premium', to find out more.

Poultices and sticking plaster

 

Another thought-provoking post today from Franciscan Ponderings. I love his likening the healing power of Christ in the Eucharist to a poultice, quoting from the medieval  The Epistle of Privy Counsel.

 

'Take good and gracious God, just as he is,

and without further ado

lay him on your sick self  just as you are,

for all the world as if he were a poultice.

For touching God is eternal health.

You are touching his very being,

his own dear self, no more, no less.'

 

 Thanks to the vagaries of the sacristy rota, I seem to have spent a fair amount of time over the last weeks counting out communion wafers - an activity which oddly enough, I find to be very  calming and conducive to reflection. 

 When I left my previous church a few years ago, and went searching for a new 'home,' one of the first things I was looked  for was a place where celebration of the Eucharist was central - weekly,if not daily.  As  this coincided with my journey into TheThird Order, where the Eucharist is the focus of our prayer and way of life, it became even more of an imperative. At least the field was narrowed - if I'd ever harboured thoughts of changing denomination, this was a staying point.

The heart of our prayer is the Eucharist, in which we share with other Christians the renewal of our union with our Lord and Saviour in his sacrifice, remembering his death and receiving his spiritual food.

-       From the Principles  of the Third Order, Society of St Francis

Already -  as I began the slow process of personalising the order's rule  to fit my circumstances  - I could see it shaping my decisions and way of life.  This is where the poultice image really speaks to me, I think.  During the last  months or so at Oldchurch, that limbo time where I withdrew from all that I'd been involved in in that community, piece by painful piece, both mentally and in actuality, the one straw I clung to, if you like, was Holy Communion.  It was the one constant, a place where I could try, at least to simply 'be' with God.  To let God draw out the poison.  It's an apt analogy. Funnily enough, in some writing I did for 'Newchurch' I've likened them to a sticking plaster - a giant one; a reference to the space I've been given to just 'be' without too many (or any!) demands or expectations.  A place where we embody the love of  Christ. Well, most of the time, anyway! And yes, the Eucharist is celebrated. 

 

 

 

 

 

Greenbelt 2010

 

 Better late than never. Cold Nights, Green Fields and Windy Interludes -  some thoughts on Greenbelt.

Cycles, cider and circle dancing

A few  idle thoughts for a Tuesday morning. It does make me smile to see how many readers arrive on Greenpatches via searches for cycling events, notably La Marmotte, and Circle Dancing.  If I remember rightly, I've used the latter while pondering on matters of discernment, Dancing ( in my case suffering   umpteen corns and bunions  in the process) to the Music of The Spirit. No matter, it's nothing if not gratifying, in a modest, Greenpatch kind of way, of course. Even if the blogosphere now counts various puzzled folk dancers and cycle fans who're wondering just what they've stumbled upon.

Cider? Nothing whatsoever to do with this blog,other than  it begins with 'C'  plus Mr GP and friend have plans to embark on cider-making this year. Hmmm.

Battery farmed milk?

Abel and Cole have highlighted a worrying development  in dairy farming.  Read about it on their blog.

Organic elite?

"People buy organic food for status. It’s too elite. It’s for posh people with lots of money. There have been some rumblings in the press lately of this nature. Gabriel David from Luscombe drinks takes it all with a large pinch of salt. “The press love to bash the organic movement,” he said. You’re a fan of organic food. What do you think? "

Is organic food "Posh nosh?"  Join in the debate over on the Abel and Cole blog.