True forgiveness

Most of us, even if we are not Christians, are aware of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:43-44
'You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.'
 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,'
but we are seldom in a situation of real emnity to put this into practise. Yes, of course, we have our petty situations, such as work colleagues 'backstabbing' their way to promotion but, praise God, most of us in the West are not being actually persecuted.

I was perusing the Norwich cathedral website, with a view to taking a visit this week, when I came across this page showing the Chapel of Holy Innocents. Here, it says, 'prayers are said for victims of cruelty, persecution, and intolerance.' But just look at the prayer found at Ravensbruck concentration camp during the second world war:

O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us; remember the fruits we have bought, thanks to this suffering, our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of this; and when they come to judgement, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen.’

Wow! Now that's what I call forgiveness!!! What a saint! But it made me think....I've been through some awful times these last few years due to my husband's descent into alcoholism (though not even on the same scale as the suffering of concentration camp detainees, of course) and I can certainly see positive things, 'fruits', in myself that have come from it, such as greater self-confidence and the boldness and daring to do things instead of shrinking from them. I don't know that I'm quite ready yet to say 'do not remember all the suffering they inflicted upon us', I still need to deal with the remnants of anger and resentment, but I can certainly thank God for the good that has come from it, and for the wonderful people in Al-Anon that He has used to bring this about. Forgiveness will come...

Second blog!!

I've always found writing to be a good way to explore and let out my thoughts and feelings, and have done just that for many years. Thought I'd set up a second blog to share some of these!

To find it you could click on the title of this post, go to my profile, or click the link below - hope you enjoy it.

http://patchworkmusings.blogspot.com/2012/01/welcome.html

More Thursford Wood photos

My daughter is a much better photographer than me, so I feel privileged to share these piccies from our recent visit to Thursford Wood, Norfolk. She has such an artist's eye for lighting and subject and other things that are a mystery to me! I have not put in pictures similar to the ones I posted earlier, but have picked out the ones showing details she spots - enjoy!

Ladybirds clustered together to hibernate.

Beautiful detail of gills.

The lichen on this fallen stick looks like seaweed.

Shiny holly.

Winter pond at the end of the walk, before turning back.



A time for reflection....    ;-)

If you look hard you can find little clusters of fungi in all sorts of nooks and crannies.



These were tiny.

Very spooky faces!!! Glad it wasn't dark!



Some mad lady enjoying her day out......

A bit of tree love......

Benedictus

Just had to share this beautiful, beautiful song by Simon and Garfunkel. It's like plainsong with acoustic guitar......simply gorgeous!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne-DXzlnw-8

Christmas heart for Keith

Final post of the day!

I wanted to use some evergreens from my garden to make a wreath for Keith for Christmas.

Here we have ivy, rosemary, snowberries, holly and a variegated leafed plant that pokes through the fence from next door.

I was originally going to make a circle with the ivy and then add bits to it, but I found this lovely heart shaped base in Next. All i did was cut small pieces of ivy and tuck them in.

The finished piece. I went for simplicity in the end, adding a small sprig of mistletoe (bought) in the middle.

I feel really pleased with the finished thing. Keith loved flower arrangements - he was much better at it than me, having his family's artistic flair - and would have loved the home-madeness of this. We also joked every Christmas about me chasing him for a kiss under the mistletoe, so I just had to add some. Don't think you're getting away with it this year my love!!  ;-)   x x x

A walk in Thursford Woods

Had a day out with Daughter at Thursford Wood, which is owned by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. I chose this particular one because there is a position for Volunteer Warden going there, and it sounds just the sort of thing I'd enjoy. I've been a Primary School Teacher for over 25 years now and would like to have a complete change of job. I would love to work with nature in some capacity, or maybe with local history. Consequently I've joined several local support groups and aim to begin by volunteering.

So, back to Thursford....   It was very difficult to find as the opening off the main road is tiny. Once there, it has a clearly marked path and info board. As you can see from the pictures, there was a wide variety of trees of different ages, with some spectacular old oaks. I'd love to help take care of it - and the first thing I'd campaign for would be a big signpost to show where it is!!!  ;-)

Christmas puddings

Last week I attempted to make some mini Christmas puddings. I know they should have been made by/on Stir Up Sunday (end of November; week before Advent begins) but didn't get round to it. I found the recipe online at

http://www.allaboutyou.com/food/recipefinder/mini-christmas-puddings-recipe-9214

There were LOTS of ingredients, which seemed to take forever to prepare! Here are some piccies....

Soak the dried fruit and orange zest in orange juice and alcohol.

Chop the pecans, mix with the already chopped almonds, then toast. I burnt the first batch and had to do it again!

Beat the eggs.

Flour and mixed spice.



Fresh breadcrumbs.

The recipe said 'molasses sugar'. Wasn't sure I knew what that was so used black treacle instead.



Add grated carrot to the dried fruit mix.

Now the fun begins! Cream butter and treacle then add eggs, flour and mixed spice. Mix all the rest in and hope your bowl is big enough!!

Spoon into your prepared basins.

Place in baking tray and pour boiling water in, then cover all with foil and into the oven for 2 and a half hours.

All done. Now take out of basins, wrap in foil, and store till Christmas. They smelled delicious while cooking. Hope they taste good!