January with Music and the Written Word

January is here again, the time when I start thinking about going through all my cupboards, shelves, wardrobes, drawers and anywhere else that I could possibly
de-clutter. My computer needs de-cluttering too. Also the time when I make my first efforts at spring cleaning. Where do I start I ask myself.

I have decided to make a start by cataloguing and sorting all our videos and DVDs. We also plan to transfer the videos that I want to keep on to DVD discs,(sometime?).

I have archives of videos (bought and/or copied from TV) of the Royal Family as I am an ardent Royalist it would take up a lot less room if I did this.

Also apart from the many DVDs I have bought or had for gifts we have dozens and dozens (no, the number is in the hundreds) of free ones given as supplements in our weekend newspaper. At the rate that I sit and watch these they could, and probably will, last me for many years.

I do enjoy my travel sets(Michael Palin particularly) and wildlife (Richard Attenborough) and the numerous costume dramas and Classics. I may at the end of the task confess to how many I find - we'll see!

C.D.'s. Tapes and books need to be gone through too.

Before I begin this afternoon (hopefully) I'll just show you my latest acquisitions in this department.

I love these 2 new C.D.'s. The Priests I bought for myself and Katherine Jenkins was part of my Christmas present from Alan. 'The Priests' - 3 Irish Priests who recorded an album of sacred music and suddenly found themselves famous. I watched a TV programme of their rise to fame and they came over as 3 very intelligent and charismatic priests who were very caring and compassionate towards those in their care. They turned down a tour of the States because of their priestly commitments and were donating any profits to charity. All this apart I think they make a lovely sound.

Katherine Jenkins is a Welsh Mezzo Soprano and sings popular Sacred Arias on this C.D.




This book, Tales from Walnut Tree Farm,I bought for myself with a token I received from the makers of my favourite cereal when I made a complaint, because I found an inch long piece of sharp wood in my cereal.

Roger Deakin, the author kept notebooks of his daily thoughts, feelings, impressions and observations. Discursive, personal and often impassioned, they reveal the way he saw the world. He had an extraordinary and restless curiosity about both the natural and human worlds. This coupled with his love of literature and music and his sense of humour make it interesting reading.

Then we come to Michael Palin's latest. We are watching his latest travel series on TV so Alan bought me the book. He is revisiting some of the places and people that made a lasting impression on him during his 'Around the World in 80 Days' travels 20 years ago.

These 4 novels were bought for me by my daughter Jane. Susan Sallis and Anita Shreve are two of my favourite contemporary authors.

Lastly, this particular set of 10 books, which I also put in Jane's Christmas stocking, I bought for myself. They do stand on their own but together they make for a long saga. They are about a village in England set in the 1990's. They are not 'idealistic' like the Miss Read books on village life earlier in the last century, but every aspect of modern contemporary life takes place in this village. I picked the first one up over Christmas and thinking I would maybe just occasionally read one in between my other reading, I find it hard to put them down. In one sense they are very easy reading but also the tension is quite consuming. I am about to start on the 4th one, as is Jane.

OK there is still an hour before dinner preparation to begin my new task!

We Move From 2008 into 2009

Moving from 2008 to 2009 was a very special time. I never take these times for granted, I know I am truly blessed.

We began at 7.0 pm in the home of my next door neighbour (about 35 of us) where we tucked into a delicious home cooked meal of Salmon en Croute (or chicken) with new potatoes and accompanied by various salads. This was followed by a number of delicious home made deserts. I chose cooked Cheesecake topped with a large spoonful of hot blueberries and blackcurrants. All cooked by my next door neighbour - thank you Julie.

This was followed by a time of fun games and charades. I got just a little too enthusiastic when during charades I was to act out a plane crash. Having flown through the air I then crashed to the floor, literally, and my elbows and knees certainly know about it today. If I play games, I play to win - maybe one day I will have to learn to 'grow old gracefully!'

We then went into a time of praise and worship and the person leading this time talked of the number 9 being the number of the Holy Spirit. (8 is the time of new beginnings and it was certainly that for us). This was very appropriate as the vision was to know the life of the Holy Spirit living out through all of us this coming year.

To add to that I shared that the only block to this was unbelief. Like we take Salvation by faith, we also take the indwelling Life of God within us by faith. We do not look for the evidence in order to believe, but believe in order to see the evidence. Nothing we can do, we believe and God does it.

The breaking of bread together came next.

Our evening then continued with a time of praying for each other in small groups and for 10 minutes before and after midnight all voices in unison sang Holy,Holy,Holy - Show us Your Glory. We were only aware of midnight when we heard the fireworks going off in the neighbourhood.

It then takes quite a while for everyone to hug every single person and wish them a happy new year with a word in season for each. Thank you Lord for the priviledge.

I would like to thank every person that visits my blog for the comments and encouragement that you leave here. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you to those where we have met up in person, for those many E-mails, gifts and cards over the year.

I leave you with this fun card (origin not known to me) and wish everyone
A Very Blessed and fruitful 2009. Love Barbara

2008 has gone

Now we need to face 2009


There may be risks involved

We may need to face road blocks

So stay alert

Share time with friends

Jump over obstacles

With care

and caution

Face challenges

Remember to laugh

Co-operate

Discover

Make new friends

Be ready for adventure

Stick together

and you will be able to go far

Very far

Well, not quite that far

Always take time to smell the flowers

Don't forget to rest and relax

And don't forget those close to you

Life Isn't/Life Is!

Machu Pichu

photo by the daughter of a friend

I just finished reading a novel recently "Addition" by Tony Jordan. As well as being an authoress she is also a molecular biologist. However that's nothing to do with the story. It's not the story that I wanted to post about but the last paragraph.

"Many people miss their whole lives you know. Listen,life isn't when you are standing on top of a mountain looking at the sunset. Life isn't waiting at the alter or the moment your child is born or that time you were swimming in deep water and a dolphin came up alongside you. These are fragments. Ten or twelve grains of sand spread throughout your entire existence. These are not life. Life is brushing your teeth or making a sandwich or watching the news or waiting for the bus. Or walking. Every day, thousands of tiny events happen and if you're not watching, if you're not careful, if you don't capture them and make them count, you could miss it.

You could miss your whole life.

I like this and I am sure everyone has their own interpretation.

A very Happy and Blessed New Year to all. Barbara

The Secret Nuclear Bunker

Secret no more! The week before Christmas we made our second visit to this once secret place. I did not have a camera on my first visit as I was not blogging at that time and it is only about 20 minutes drive from home so thought you might like to come and visit with me.

That Pylon on the horizon is all that one can see from above ground. I think the stark Wintry day adds to the mystery, don't you.

We have parked the car and are walking through the woods

And here we are. This tiny anonymous bungalow is all that one would have seen when it was still a secret place.

Through the door of this rural bungalow nestling in the Essex countryside we discover the twilight world of the government of the Cold War built in 1952.

Behind the blast screens that protect this bungalow is the entrance to an amazing labyrinth of rooms, on three levels, built into a hillside, encased in 10 feet thick reinforced concrete and 100 feet underground.

This is where devolved central government and military commanders would have run the region had the UK been attacked and nuclear war broken out.

Built in great secrecy and under strict, military security the local villagers and contractors alike knew nothing of what was concealed in this hillside or how it would be used.

There could have been up to 600 personnel, possibly including the Prime Minister, organising the survival of the civilian population in the aftermath of nuclear war.

It is now a museum and privately owned.

Here near to the entrance we see a German Doodlebug. This was an unmanned flying bomb that was rocket propelled and kept flying until it ran out of fuel. Nobody therefore knew where it would land. Alan who remembers these says it was real scary when you heard one overhead and then, when the sound stopped, you knew it was about to drop.

We entered the bungalow noting a screen that told us we were being watched and as there was nobody around we picked up an audio wand (this is not an escorted tour) and made our way through the 18" steel door and began to make our way down this sloping corridor.

Passing gas Masks hanging on the wall

We pass a communications room

And the BBC broadcasting centre and notice that everywhere is in darkness.

We will be seeing lots of wax works type 'models' as we go through which really does add to the eeriness of the place.

As we go through a door and walk through a very dark corridor we come to an area with several doors and are wondering which will be the best way to go when a guy comes down a staircase and informs us that the place is closed! Restricted opening in the Winter apparently. He was a maintenance guy and was on site working on something. Seeing my dissapointment he said we could stay and continue our tour and began switching on lights for us (Memories of our trip down the caves in Yorkshire - people can be kind) and disappeared again.

Some serious communications

And the telephone exchange

Part of the Scientific Advisors room

Military Operations Command centre where as we will see in the next photo they slept on the job

Life support systems, air conditioning (always kept at 60f) and water treatment plants

One of the senior staff bedrooms

The Prime Ministers bedroom where we see a John Major lookalike in bed!

Nuclear suits

Civilian Operations Room

Each government department had their own little space within the larger room

The Sick Bay - this body groans as we walk past

No privacy in the sick bay

The operating theatre

Body bags and coffins - what would they do with the bodies I wonder!

A dormitory, one of five built to house up to 600 personnel on constant "hot bed shifts".

The tour ends in the canteen which is now used as a cafe for visitors and where we meet the maintenance man again.

We were not interested in staying for tea, as Pilgrims Hall is nearby and we planned to take tea there, so here we are making our way out through the exit tunnel.

I hope you found this in teresting and not too scary.