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Feather watch “Winter with her freezing air– The Redwing and the Fieldfare Will bring much needed cheer In the dark days of a dying year. It is at this time of the year that we miss our summer visitors the most, long gone to warmer parts. But it is not all one-way traffic. Often I have heard the cry of wild geese over our hills, flying down from the Artic to feed on our rivers and estuaries. Flocks of Fieldfares and Redwings can be seen in the fields and also in gardens when the weather becomes really severe. Bramblings on the Beech trees and Snow Buntings higher up on our Hills……. all these delights can be seen within easy reach of the hustle and bustle of the town. GOATS AND GOD
Some brochures appeared in church last year entitled “Christian Holidays 2008”. I took one home, fearing - rather snobbishly - that it would offer nothing more than Cocoa and Fellowship after supper in a Bournemouth guest house. To my delight, however, I discovered a retreat sailing on a gulet round the coast of Turkey in the wake of St. Paul. The retreat was based on the ideas of creation, water and boats. Each morning began with a short talk on one of these themes by Dr. Stephanie Rybak, the founder of Retreat Holidays, and in the evening we discussed the thoughts which had come to us during the day. The crew were very understanding about what we were trying to do and, unlike on most of the other boats, there was no loud music or shouted conversations. On the third day we visited the mosque in the small town of Datca. When we got back, the skipper, Mohammed, said excitedly, “There is one goad”. “Yes,” said Stephanie, anxious to build inter-faith bridges, “and He loves us all.” “No, no,” said Mohammed impatiently, ”One goat. Up there on the rock - see?” His brief was to avoid all the normal tourist areas and take us to small, secluded coves round the Bozburun peninsula. One of our group was a geologist, who revelled in the extraordinary rock formations; I enjoyed the birds; we all marvelled at the stars. Everyone discovered during the week something more of the wonder of God’s creation. Jocelyn Bailey
For those who trust Microsoft rather than their English Teachers
A Pome
I halve a spelling chequer It came with my pea sea It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye am rung or write It shows me strait a weigh
Humour in prayer
This purported to be a true story. There was a Vicar of a country parish who had a little kitten named Kitty. It climbed the tree in his garden and was then too afraid to come down. The vicar tempted it with firstly food and then a saucer of milk. Kitty would not come down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb so he decided that if he could tie a rope to his car and then the tree he would be able to bend the tree enough to allow him to reach the kitten. That is just what he did, checking all the while the progress he was making. He reckoned that he was almost there and just another little pull would do the trick. As he moved slowly forward the rope snapped the rope ‘twanged’ and the poor kitten sailed through the air and disappeared out of sight. He felt dreadful and went around the village asking if anyone had seen Kitty. Nobody had seen a stray kitten. So he went into the church and prayed, ‘Lord, I commit this kitten to your keeping .’ A few days later he was at the little shop where he met one of his congregation. He noticed that she had several tins of cat food in her basket, which surprised him as she was a known cat hater. And she let everyone know it. He asked her why she was buying cat food when she hated cats so much. “Well” she replied “ you won’t believe this.” She went on to tell him how her little girl had been pleading with her to get a kitten, but she kept refusing. A few days before the child asked yet again. Finally, fed up with the persistence, she told the girl, “Well, if God gives you a cat, I will let you keep it.” She told the Vicar, “ I watched my child go down on her knees, on the porch, and ask God to send her a kitten. And honestly, Vicar, you wont believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten suddenly came flying out of the sky, it’s paws outspread. And landed right there in front of her. This is for her.” Lesson learned, never underestimate the Power of God………...and His unique sense of humour.
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