Slimbridge

We spent a fabulous day yesterday at Slimbridge Waterfowl Park. We took a day excursion with South West Coaches. The weather was glorious all day - no wind, no clouds, just sunshine. We were greeted at the entrance by a heron just basking in the sun. It seemed as though he was inviting us to enjoy the day with him.

The first pool is full of swans, various kinds of ducks, geese, moorhens and coots. The great thing is that a lot of the birds are free to go where they want while the human visitors have to stay on the designated paths. The children love this part as they can get really close to the birds and enjoy feeding them.

A woman (not me) feeding the geese

Further along there are enclosures where they ask you not to feed them as they are from different parts of the world and have a more specialised diet that is catered for by the staff. There were swans, geese and ducks of all colours.




The smew

The white one is called a smew. There were ones with blue bills from South America.




Argentine Ruddy Duck



Puna Teal from the Andes

The strangest one we saw was referred to as the missing link between geese, swans, and game birds. It was called a Crested Screamer, although we didn't hear it 'scream'. 



Crested Screamer

We saw baby coots barely a few days old. There were birds that were large like the flamingoes and others that were so small and looked very delicate like the Red Shank and Avocet.



Avocet



We had quite a long conversation with another visitor who had a camera with an absolutely enormous zoom lens on it who admitted that for her watching and photographing wildlife was not a hobby but rather an obsession. Looking at some of her photographs made me feel a bit like hiding my little digital camera. She was a very interesting lady who obviously enjoyed her single life, sharing it with creation.

To crown it all, when we got back in the coach for the return journey, we discovered while chatting to the driver that he was originally from Gateshead! (for those who don't know, that is just the other side of the river from our place of origin) In July he is taking a group on a tour of the North East, spending time at Alnwick, Bamburgh, the Farne Islands and the obligatory fish and chip dinner at Seahouses. Mmm! Sounds like a good idea to me!

Memories that make you smile.

I was waiting at the bus stop in town when a fire engine passed. There was a small boy also waiting for the bus with his grandmother and he turned so excitedly to her and said, 'Look grandma, a fire engine!' My mind went back to when our boys were much younger. My younger son used to call them dee-dah lorries.

In fact all the emergency services' vehicles were known in our house as dee-dah cars or lorries. At first a neighbour thought that maybe our son had a speech impediment and couldn't say 'fire engine' or 'police car' properly and so called them dee-dah car/lorry. But then my son carefully explained that it was because these vehicles had a light on top that flashed and went dee-dah, dee-dah, dee-dah. They all have dee-dah lights on them. Hence the expression.

I smiled to myself as I remembered us all talking about the dee-dah lights while other people looked at us a little strangely!. Even now if anyone says 'dee-dah' light, to us it means one of the emergency services. Funny how you remember those little things that become part of a family's vocabulary.

What's the Point?

I have been thinking lately about the purpose of life.  Rick Warren wrote a whole book about it called The Purpose Driven Life.  Don't worry, I don't intend to be so long-winded.  It's just that in my younger years I seemed to have more of a purpose.  You know when you feel that you are actually doing something and contributing in some way.  We always talked about 'doing the Lord's work' - whatever that means.  Actually it seemed to mean doing things to do with church and getting other people to join us and come to our meetings.  Everything we did was geared to encourage people into the building and get involved with whatever projects we were doing at the time.

Now, the older I get, I find that I am no longer able to be busy doing things all the time as I was before.  I considered myself an encourager and pray-er and was happy going in prayer teams to stand alongside others in their work.  But now a sense of 'redundancy' creeps in and I ask myself 'what is the purpose of my life?'  I feel a bit like Solomon writing Ecclesiastes as he looks at life and comes to the conclusion that everything is meaningless.  It's almost like saying 'What's the point of it all? What's the purpose of life?'  It reminds me of the old sacred song ‘What is your purpose in life?’

As I get older I realise that the purpose of being a Christian is not about doing or being seen to be active but more about having a deep friendship with the Almighty.  It’s more about who we are rather than what we are doing.  The purpose of light is not to go everywhere in order to actively dispel darkness but rather to just be light.  It should fulfill the purpose of being what it is - light - and the natural consequence is that it will dispel the darkness wherever it is.  But it doesn’t set out to conquer darkness; it just is what it is.  And so my purpose in life is not to be busy trying to accomplish tasks or projects but to have such a relationship with and be so wrapped up in Him that wherever I am, He is seen; to be the person God made me; just simple being.

¿Qué es el Sentido?

He estado pensando últimamente acerca del propósito de la vida.  Rick Warren escribió un libro entero en eso llamado La Vida Llevado Por un Propósito.  No se afligen, no voy a escribir tanto.  Es que cuando fui más joven, mi vida parecía tener más propósito; cuando uno siente que en verdad está haciendo algo y contribuyendo en alguna forma.  Siempre hablábamos de 'hacer la obra del Señor' - sea lo que fuera el significado de eso.  En verdad, parece que significa que estás haciendo cosas perteneciendo a la iglesia y persuadiendo que otros se unen con nosotros y que vengan a los cultos.  Todo lo que hacíamos era para animar que otros vengan al edificio y estar envueltos en cualquier proyecto que estábamos haciendo en el  momento.

Ahora, al tener más años, me doy cuenta que no puedo estar tan activa haciendo cosas todo el tiempo como antes.  Me consideraba una persona que animaba a otros y una guerrera de oración y estaba muy feliz ir con otros en grupos de oración para estar al lado de otros en su trabajo.  Pero ahora tengo un sentido de redundancia y me pregunto '¿cuál es el propósito de mi vida?'  Me siento como Salomón escribiendo el libro de Eclesiastés cuando mira a la vida y llega a la conclusión que 'todo es vanidad'.  Es como decir '¿Cuál es el significado de todo? '¿Qué es el sentido de la vida?  Me hace recordar la canción sagrada vieja que decía '¿Cuál es el propósito de tu vida?

Como voy con más edad me doy cuenta que el propósito de ser cristiana no es acerca de lo que hago o siendo activa pero más acerca de tener una amistad profunda con el Todopoderoso.  Es más acerca de quienes somos que lo que hacemos.  El propósito de luz no es ir a todas partes para activamente disipar la oscuridad pero más bien simplemente ser luz.  Debe cumplir con el propósito de ser lo que es - luz- y la consecuencia natural de eso será que disipará las tinieblas dondequiera que esté.  Pero no busca a dominar la oscuridad; simplemente es lo que es.  Y así mi propósito en la vida no es estar muy ocupada tratando a cumplir con trabajo o proyectos sino a tener tal relación con y estar tan envuelto en Él que dondequiera este yo, Él se hace ver; a ser la persona que Dios me hizo para ser; simplemente ser.

Ser

All Is Not Lost

In the springtime I planted quite a few seeds.  As I no longer do the heavy digging in the garden I figured that I could at least have a few vegetables in pots.  I could manage that and so I planted some seeds and put them on the windowsill while the weather was still cold.  They were growing well and I was really pleased with the result.  They kept growing but the weather outside was still cold, windy and very, very wet! 

At the weekend we had three whole days without rain and so I decided to repot the seedlings into larger pots and put them outside.  I also found the old pots I had put strawberry plants in last year.  I had just left them - dead - as I thought.  But to my pleasant surprise there were about 10 plants struggling for survival in the abandoned pots.  So I carefully took them out and replanted them in the garden - not much digging for those, just the small trowel.

Since the weekend however we have had more rain and cold nights.  Oh dear, I thought, maybe I should have waited a bit longer.  This morning I went out to see how they were all doing and was very pleased to see them thriving.  Plants that had seemed so fragile and quite droopy yesterday were now perking up and apparently doing well.

New tomato plants

Another of nature's lessons!  Never give up hope.  All is not lost.  God created a wonderful world (including us) with an amazing ability to bounce back from adversity and withstand the rigours of life.

Todo no está perdido

En la primavera sembré unas semillas. Como ya no hago trabajo fuerte en el jardín pensé que por lo menos podría tener unas verduras en macetas.  Eso podría hacer asique sembré unas semillas y les puse al lado de la ventana mientras el tiempo estaba todavía frío.  Crecían bien y me gustó mucho el resultado.  Seguían creciendo pero el tiempo afuera seguía frío, ventoso y muy, muy mojado.

Al fin de semana tuvimos tres días enteros sin lluvia asique decidí ponerlos en macetas más grandes y sacarles afuera.  También encontré unas macetas viejas con frutillas del año pasado.  Lo había dejado - muertos- como pensé yo.  Pero que sorpresa linda a encontrar que había como 10 plantas luchando a sobrevivir en las macetas abandonadas.  Con cuidado, los saqué de ahí y los planté de nuevo en el jardín - no mucho trabajo ni fuerza necesario.

Desde entonces hemos tenido aún más lluvia y noches frías.  Empecé a pensar que a lo mejor hubiese sido mejor esperar un poco más antes de sacarles afuera.  Esta mañana fui para ver como andaban y me agradó mucho ver que estaban bien.  Plantas que ayer parecían tan frágiles y decaídas, ahora estaban mejor y aparentemente haciendo bien.

Plantitas de tomates

Otra lección de la naturaleza.  Nunca abandone la esperanza.  Todo no está perdido.  Dios creó un mundo maravilloso (incluyendo a nosotros) con una habilidad sombrosa a rebotar de las adversidades y soportar los rigores de la vida.

All in it Together

I normally try to steer clear of controversial issues.  Everyone has their own opinion and I try to respect that even though sometimes I feel and think quite the opposite.  Each has a right to their own ideas and thinking.  But today on the news my attention was caught by the news that another highly paid boss has resigned from his post as shareholders at the AGM showed their disapproval at his large increase in salary and bonus.  It is not my intention to go into long discussion about CEOs high salaries or whether or not they should receive such enormous bonuses.  What really caught my attention was the BBC's Business Editor, Robert Peston when he said that the average increase in salary of the CEOs of top firms in the past year was 11% (even though they already receive a 7 figure salary).  This is in stark contrast to the shareholders income from shares over the same length of time that is actually down 7% while the average wage increase for an ordinary worker was only 1%. 

Robert Peston

The government keeps insisting that we're all in it together!  But somehow people aren't convinced when many workers have lost their jobs because of firms cutting back, others have had a pay freeze for a few years with no seeming improvement in the foreseeable future and very few others have received an increase beyond 1or 2%.  Somehow when the big boss gets 11% it doesn't seem as though we really are all in it together.  However you try to reconcile the numbers, unless Maths has changed drastically from when I went to school, 11% is an awful lot more than 1% or even -7%!  And try telling someone who is now unemployed because of the financial crisis that 11% increase is a fair price to pay for a CEO.

Recent unrest in Spain

We are certainly living in interesting times when you see in many countries how the ordinary men and women are rising up to let their opinions be heard.  It is not just the Arab Spring that happened but now we are seeing the European countries of Greece, France and Spain showing their disapproval of their leaders and here in the UK people are letting their voices be heard about what they think of the decisions of those in power.

Thank You

I got off the bus at my stop on the way home.  Just ahead of me was a group of about 6 teenagers talking and joking together ... and filling the pavement.  As I got nearer, one young man stepped to one side to let me past.  I smiled at him and said 'Thank you'.  I passed them and went on my way but the youth, almost as an afterthought said in a loud voice 'Thank you for saying 'thank you''.  That was nice, I thought. 

As I walked on I began to think about the small incident.  First of all I was reminded that not all teenagers are a problem and just because they enjoy hanging out together does not mean that they are up to no good.  Just because a few give problems doesn't mean that I should distrust all of them.  A timely lesson for me.

Saying 'thank you' is something I do almost automatically - it's the way we were brought up.  And then I thought of the fact that the young man thanked me for thanking him as though he didn't expect it.  Is that a sad reflection, I wondered, on the fact that many people nowadays never think to say 'thank you' for a small kindness?  I have heard it said in assertiveness training courses that we shouldn't keep saying things like 'thank you' and 'sorry' as this shows submissiveness rather than assertiveness.  I just call it good manners and respect for others.  Or maybe I'm just old fashioned and a bit behind the times. 

Gracias

Bajé del ómnibus a la parada cerca de casa.  Adelante había un grupo de como seis jóvenes charlando y contando chistes ... y llenando la vereda.  Al acercarme, uno de los jóvenes movió a un lado para dejarme pasar.  Sonreí y le dije 'Gracias'.  Seguí en mi camino pero el joven, casi como una idea tardía dijo en alta voz 'Gracias por decir 'gracias''.  Que lindo, pensé

Al caminar seguí pensando en la ocurrencia pequeña.  Primeramente que no todos los jóvenes son un problema y simplemente porque les gusta juntarse no quiere decir que son malos.  Porque algunos nos dan problemas, no significa que tenemos que desconfiar en todos ellos.  Una lección para mí.

Decir 'gracias' es algo que hago casi automáticamente - es como fui criado.  Y luego pensé en como el joven me agradeció por agradecerle como si no lo esperaba.  ¿Es eso una reflexión triste, pensé, en el hecho que hoy en día mucha gente nunca piensa en decir 'gracias' por un favor pequeño?  He oído dicho en cursos de aserto que no debemos decir tanto, cosas como 'gracias' y 'disculpe' porque eso demuestra sumisión y no aserto.  Para mí simplemente es un caso de ser bien educado y tener respeto para los demás.  O tal vez soy anticuada y un poco pasada de moda.