07:00 Lois and I are lying in bed when I see a social media post from our daughter Alison, who lives in Headley, Hampshire with Ed and their 3 teenage children, plus two cats (one Danish, one British) and one dog (Danish) - some of the pets are left-overs from the family's 6 years in Denmark 2012-2018.
flashback to December 2022: Lois and I with Alison
in her kitchen, during our Christmas visit to the family
Alison is saying in her post that the family are now perhaps planning to keep chickens (British ones, I assume) in their so-called "kitchen garden", part of the extensive 7.5 acre grounds of their crumbling Victorian mansion.
the so-called "kitchen garden" where our daughter
Alison plans maybe to site a heavily-fortified chicken coop
This is a brave move, because the grounds already need constant attention and they have a number of other projects already going on their land - not only that, but their grounds, which are more woodland than anything else, are teeming with potential predators - deer, foxes, rats, cats etc - who I'm sure would like nothing better than a nice raw chicken for their Sunday lunch.
Lois and I say, "Why can't all these predators find some vegetables for their lunch instead?"
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
11:15 I drive Lois over to Ashchurch, a suburb of Tewkesbury, so that Lois can attend her church's communion service today. When we arrive, we slip in at the back, where there's a vacant table.
The Bible Hour, which precedes the communion service, is just finishing up, as we arrive. I notice the slide on the screen features a display illustrating the growth of the Roman Empire between 30 BC and 476 AD. Several of the congregation are Iranian immigrant refugees, some of whom have only a basic knowledge of English, so a Google-translate app runs a simultaneous Farsi translation of the speaker's remarks across the top of the screen. It's amazing what modern technology can do nowadays, isn't it - my goodness.
as Lois and I arrive, the Bible Hour is just finishing up with a slide
illustrating the growth of the Roman Empire between 30BC and 476AD
Note the simultaneous Farsi translation running across the top of the screen
- amazing !!!!
We don't know what Richard's talk, was about, because we only come in at the end, but it may well have been about an interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the Book of Daniel, all about a statue with a head of gold, a chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and feet of iron mixed with clay. These are traditionally said to foretell the 4 great empires of the ancient world: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
Although the date of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar would place the story in the 6th century BC, the consensus of modern scholars is that it was written later, in the 160's BC: the ideas in the book reflect later religious ideas, it's said, and it was written partly in the Aramaic of the 2nd century, rather than in the Jewish language of Nebuchadnezzar's time. So the jury's still out on that one. The dream ends with the statue being shattered by a stone, which grows to fill the entire earth, something which has traditionally been held to foretell an apocalyptic event.
The talk comes to an end, and the session breaks for lunch. Lois has made 2 packed lunches for us, and has baked a banana cake for the Iranians. However, there aren't as many Iranians as usual in attendance today - some have got colds apparently, so unexpectedly there's a couple of slices of the banana cake left over at the end, which we can take home with us, and have with our 4 o'clock cup of Earl Grey tea. Nice one!
the lunch break: Janet (right) sitting with her
enormous dog, chats with her husband Alan: in the distance
and to the left, Lois can just be seen in red dress at the "drinks table"
making 2 cups of decaf coffee for us - what a woman !!!!!
Phil, the rat-catcher and his wife Rebecca, both seated,
have an animated discussion with Stephen and Lucy (standing),
overlooked by the portrait of our late Queen Elizabeth on the wall
20:00 We wind down on the couch with this week's edition of national treasure David Attenborough's new series "Wild Isles" about the wild life of Britain and Ireland, progressing habitat by habitat. Tonight's programme focusses on our fresh water environments, sadly much polluted these days, thanks to modern agriculture and the unscrupulous activities of our water companies, which the Government has finally now pledged to do something about.
Who knew that salmon arriving from the ocean change colour when they start their arduous journey upstream on one Scottish river or another - from a sparkly bling-style "silver" to a blander "grey", the idea being that they'll be less conspicuous, when seen against the river bed.
[I expect a lot of people knew that! - Ed]
It's not surprisingly uphill all the way, from this point on, for these plucky little salmon, but fortunately they're the best leapers in the world, according to David. Even so, a lot of them still don't make it to the top of the river - and what happens to the "failures" after that? Do they say to each other, "Oh sod it, let's just go back to the ocean and try again next year!" David doesn't say, and I think we should definitely be told.
a plucky little salmon making its way up a Scottish river,
sometimes having to leap up to 10 feet high, which is around the limit
for these poor little buggers! Awwww, poor little salmon!!!
Sadly, due to pollution, plus climate change or something like that, there are 70% fewer salmon trying this upstream struggle than there were 25 years ago, and David says that the whole event could disappear from the schedules within 20 years or so.
Poor salmon!!!!!!
21:00 We decide to go to bed on the second episode of the BBC's new "jazzed-up" version of Charles Dickens' classic novel, Great Expectations.
This proves to be a massive disappointment - despite the original sensationalist advance publicity in Radio Times, last week's opening episode proved to be reasonably faithful to the story. Unfortunately that's no longer true by Episode 2, and any connection between this version and Charles Dickens' original plot proves to be no more than coincidental. Oh dear!
Wake up, BBC !!!!!
In this "daft" version of the novel, tor Pip's 18th birthday, Miss Havisham and Estelle arrange a special treat for him.
Pip's 18th birthday "date" with local resident Mrs Gibbons - what utter madness!
Summary (and warning): by Episode 2 the plot has become completely daft and totally unbelievable, and the writer is clearly just making it up as he goes along!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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