Folk

As the Yorkshire saying goes - there's nothing as funny as folk. Recently I came across a video on YouTube filmed inside a lift in a high rise city building. During the making of the film relationships grow between the tenants using the lift and the cameraman and there are moments of great poignancy both tragic & humorous. I was so glad that I took the 20-odd minutes to watch it through as it has stayed with me and is something to treasure here.
"Filmmaker Marc Isaacs sets himself up in a London tower block lift. The residents come to trust him and reveal the things that matter to them creating a humorous and moving portrait of a vertical community."

This and other short films can be found at Futureshorts

Flitting

It's an old-fashioned word - people used to flit and now they move house. All four of our fledglings did it this summer.

It's really interesting how words disappear & others take their place. Nothing stays the same - I'm sure that's how God intends it to be. I struggle with it at times but ......

Fusions 2 & 3

Just wanted to record DD's delight on having wheels again. A couple of weeks ago she chose a second hand Ford Fusion to reinstate her independence of public transport after living in London for three years. Not very ecologically friendly but she'll be living in York and working in Leeds so it's essential. Not that she needs an excuse - she just loves to drive.

Sadly after driving to Wales and back (via Salisbury) her pride & joy developed a put-put noise (the mechanic said it was 'chuffing' - very technical!) and is in the garage waiting for new injector seals.


Fusion 3 refers to the healing that has amazingly (to me) taken place in my wrist. The x-ray taken when I first broke it showed the bone completely broken and out of place & it was painful to touch and out of the question to move. Just 5 weeks later I can lift light things and have full use of my hand again. Considering that ....

The anatomy of the wrist joint is extremely complex, probably the most complex of all the joints in the body. The wrist is actually a collection of many joints and many bones. These joints and bones let us use our hands in many ways. The wrist must be extremely mobile to give our hands a full range of motion. At the same time, the wrist must provide the strength for heavy gripping.

The wrist is made up of eight separate small bones, called the carpal bones. The carpal bones connect the two bones of the forearm, the radius and the ulna, to the bones of the hand. The metacarpal bones are the long bones that lie mostly within the palm. The metacarpals are in turn attached to the phalanges, the bones in the fingers and thumb (see eorthopod for full text & especially if you've got arthritis in your wrist!)

..... so much could have gone wrong - I'm counting my blessings. It's so easy to take the miracle of our bodies for granted.

Fusions (1)

The main one was the Family fusion that took place on the marriage of DS on Aug 8. Our new DDIL is a beautiful Yorkshire Rose - and so is the best'man' -controversially DS chose his sister to be his best man.

The family fusion (also known as a wedding but that isn't an F-word) was followed by afternoon tea - strictly speaking an in-fusion - to which everyone was invited. The hall was transformed into an old-fashioned tea-room decked out with festive bunting (see previous post entitled 'Furlough').



Tea was served in a colourful assortment of floral china (bought from car boot sales, ebay & junk shops by bride's mother). Fresh flowers decorated the tables and cake stands held a plentiful supply of fairy cakes, flapjacks, brownies, strawberry scones and meringues filled with 'lashings' of cream.
After tea it was time for photos on the pier ....

And finally the evening reception with a banquet served by Real Meals



followed by dancing to the wonderful Jumping Jacks Ceilidh Band.
Ef-fusion - why not? It was a truly blissful, content, contented, endowed, favored, fortunate, glad, granted, joyful, joyous, occasion.

Fabulous Forties

HAPPY 42nd ANNIVERSARY B P.



You have given me all the loving f-words that are humanly possible... God bless you and keep you

I love you

Foxglove forager

At a distance a clump of foxgloves can appear a bit bland- interesting sculpturally but not particularly stunning.







If you look a little closer though they're certainly worth a second look ...

this little chap obviously thought so anyway!

Fin

I just love this photo taken by Fin last year after DD's wedding. No. she isn't going to jump off the end of the pier after a sudden change of mind nor has the groom absconded. I don't know how Fin captured this shot, it's so different from all the happy and funny ones taken throughout the day. I notice he hasn't included it in the gallery on his website - I guess it's more Zeffirelli than Hello magazine

"These sheep know which way to go"

Winner of the HSBC International Photography Competition 2009.

The competition received over 1,700 entries from 52 countries worldwide.

The theme for the competition was ' A Sense of Security' and Finlay's image of sheep crossing the snow was deemed by the judges to capture the essence of the theme perfectly.

Congratulations, Fin!

Futility

(lyrics from Ecclesiastes 3)

One of the few activities I can do one-armed, besides typing this with one finger, is to read. Today I've revisited wonderful Philip Yancey's brilliant chapter on Ecclesiastes in his book 'The Bible Jesus Read'. In it he highlights the similarity between Existentialism (so popular in the 1960's) and the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes.
This book in the bible and the philosophy of the absurdity of life & general meaninglessness (also the theme of Albert Camus' book 'The Outsider') really spoke to me as a teenager and Ecclesiastes still does, so I felt reassured by Yancey saying it was an issue that would bother all fair-minded people!
He goes on to point out that despair arises out of circumstances of plenty quoting Philip Roth, "In the West anything goes and nothing matters. In the East nothing goes and everything matters." Why do comfort and prosperity not breed satisfaction? Because we discover that they don't give meaning and purpose to our lives. By becoming self-sufficient we take on the burden of God but don't have the key of "WHY?" "What's it for?", "Where's the fulfillment?"
Peggy Lee's 60's hit "Is that all there is?" and sung here beautifully by Bette Midler touches on it

“I don't know Who, or what, put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone, or Something,and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”

Dag Hammarskjold

Fall & fracture folly

I think it must be the broken-wrist season: since falling and breaking my right wrist on Thursday 16th I keep hearing of others - a friend's neighbour, someone else's grandmother. Even the pope joined in.

According to press reports, Pope Benedict XIV sat & waited his turn for an x-ray in the casualty dept at the Umberto Parini hospital, in Ivrea where he was taking a mountain holiday. He was then given a 20 minute op - straight away! (I suppose there have to be some perks.)

As for me I've had to sit out a painful two weeks in the temporary pot that was slapped on after a tortuous (or torturous!) manipulation. I have no complaints at all though about my treatment at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. The staff in A & E were efficient & very pleasant. I'll know on Monday 3rd August whether the bones have stayed in the right places and will then hopefully get a bright new pot in a colour of my choice. DH suggested I took my wedding outfit to ensure a good match - DS3 gets married on 8th August!
It was certainly folly to attempt to walk down subsiding concrete steps on a wet day .....and the site of the offending steps? Saltburn's Folly ( seen here along with many more beautiful & interesting photos of Saltburn taken by flamelillyfox & displayed on flickr)
Just for the record, the dangerous steps aren't those leading directly from the folly but are just to the side - and I'm not going to report the subsidence to the council because a) I don't want to risk the path being closed for the next year and b) I don't believe in a 'nanny-state', & take full responsibility for my actions - anyone fit enough to walk that far into the woods can look after themselves.

Furlough

Had leave of absence granted from duties & rotas to spend June visiting friends & family......

Flat-hunting with DS in Budapest. A reasonable one bedroom apartment in a central location can be found for £50,000 but there are so many factors to consider. He hasn't yet found the perfect one but we enjoyed looking.

Finished off streams of wedding bunting with DF(of Frippery fame). In her Hastings studio overlooking fishing boats we pinned & sewed the floral flags to tape. The effect at the wedding teaparty should be stunning.

I could have just sat and stared at the iew from her studio window....

And finally - just for fun - with DH & faithful pup I enjoyed the fresh air of the fells with their summer covering of fabulous ferns & foxgloves. Stayed at LongByres, Talkin Head again and enjoyed Harriet's delicious food.

Feet feat

Not just any feet.... feet modelling my first attempts at knitting socks.

I used Regia 4 ply sock yarn -Kaffe Fasset (above) & silk (below) - on 4 x 2.5mm short double-pointed bamboo needles.

I couldn't possibly have learned how without following the 4-part Masterclss by Dorret Conway on You Tube

Flowers flowers flowers

That's what I thought my blog was going to be about when I decided to redeem the f-word. I imagined that all I'd want to do would be to share my passion for flowers and post loads of photos of them. That it'd be like a flower catalogue. I'm really surprised that this is the first post devoted to them.
So here are some of my favourite flower photos:

There are just too many to chose from so I'll devote this first flower post to cut flowers that have been bought by friends. These are special not only because of their beauty but because of the memories they evoke.

A bunch of flowers cannot fail to please - unless of course they're 'c' flowers, a.k.a chrysanthamums or carnations on their own. They are just too sensible and don't smell nice. I remember a friend who was experiencing hard times saying that she just couldn't afford not to buy herself flowers every week just to keep her spirits up.
So why not give someone a surprise gift of flowers today?

Fabulous Fungus

The Trees
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
 by Philip Larkin

Yesterday I went walking in the woods with DS & DH & Ralph, the
black lab., me clutching my camera to capture some of the new
growth. We take the dog into the woods most days and I love
to see the changes to trees and plant life. The flowers of the wild
garlic have taken over from the violets, primroses and bluebells
and the trees are bright with new leaves, the ground overgrown
with ferns and greenery I couldn't put a name to.
I was intent on capturing the beauty of the new growth when DS
suggested I took a picture of some fungus growing on a rotting log.
My first reaction was to object  -it reminded me of death and was
the opposite of what attracted me but he pointed out that new life
depended on that death. It's Nature's way, God's way, Jesus' way.

 It was an interesting thought so I was soon looking out for more fungus
and have had great fun learning more about it on the wonderful 'net'
As in all creation there's not  just one kind of the species but thousands 
and there are appreciation groups all over the  country. The
Bracket Fungus  below was my prettiest find but  is just one of them:
click on the link to see many more beauties.

So now, far from seeing the dead wood as an eyesore I am eager
that it is allowed to stay on the forest floor. I found this article
that says Life-giving dead wood 'at risk' 
Happy Fungus hunting!

Postscript: A few hours after posting the above I was woken by a
familiar but unwelcome itchiness & tingling in my foot - between the 4th &
 little toes to be precise. It could only by foot fungus!  I've not suffered from
it for ages & it seemed such a coincidence that I looked for a meaning from it.
Am I dead wood? Not quite perhaps but like the dead wood I will have to die
 in order to live again. 

Found

On Thursday evening my glasses went AWOL so I spent yesterday searching for them. I went from the sensible places - on surfaces, under cushions, in pockets - and then widening the search to telephoning & visiting places I'd visited recently and eventually in desperation I emptied the rubbish bin and revisited all the aforesaid in triple. I admit it, I'm obsessive but they are my only prescription pair - not one of the many £1- off- the- peg pairs that litter the house.
As the day wore on, the parable of the woman & the lost coin kept coming to mind more and more vividly. Coincidentally I had already decided that my next F-word would be FOUND. I was thinking of it in a spiritual context and had chosen Johnny Cash's version of Amazing Grace - I once was lost but now am found.


To that I would now add the lost coin parable. This morning as I looked for it in my bible the telephone rang & on answering it DH noticed a message was waiting on the answer m/c. It was a friend from my Thursday knitting group: she had picked up my glasses by mistake and taken them home with her!

If only I was organised I'd have picked that up yesterday afternoon & saved myself a great deal of aggravation. But then I wouldn't have had the Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin & the Lost Son staring me in the face when the story of the lost glasses was so happily resolved. We're off to celebrate.

Fishy stories

Glass fish made from the offcuts/scraps dropped on the floor of the glassblowers' workshops in Murano. They have been sold to tourists for over 100 years as cheap souvenirs and can now be found in charity & vintage shops and car-boots as they've become less collectable. I love finding them & have a small collection 'swimming' around the kitchen shelving.
My first find was the one with the red kissy lips which I bought from a Russian market-stall holder in Tallin, Estonia. The largest fish in the picture is my most recent: I bought it here in Saltburn at our new and fabulous Vintage shop on Milton street.

Another fish found in Saltburn is this Atlantic Pomfret which was washed up earlier this year. When I googled it there are lots of references to them being found for a short period in January along this part of the East coast. They're a deep water fish whose natural habitat is an ocean - Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. It's quite rare but occasionally when migrating they take a wrong turn & this is what happened in January this year with disastrous results. Apparently the North Sea just isn't deep enough for them to survive in.


Another stranded 'fish' found when cleaning my sitting room floor. It was just a piece of yarn that had dropped so perfectly into the ichthus symbol that I couldn't resist catching it.

And finally this fishy entry ends with a confession. I recently left church still clutching one of the kneelers that I'd been admiring. Only when I got to the car did I realise & decided to take it home & bring it back next time. So I'm a church-lifter. Returning it has almost arrived at the top of my to-do list. This picture will always be a reminder of that senior moment and also of a great miracle Jesus did in producing an unplanned feast for thousands.

Fidelity & Felicity

Fidelity & Felicity - loyalty & happiness - a great combination in friendship - and so stylishly dressed by DF Barbara ( if you'd like to see more of her work or to contact her go to Frippery )

I was surprised to find that these two girls are not among the maids of the House Beautiful in Bunyan's, Pilgrims Progress because Christian met an amazing number of aptly named characters during his pilgrimage.
As a child I was fascinated with this genre and still have a soft spot for the allegorical.

Footlights & first nights

We open tonight at the Community Theatre playing 'Saving Ardley'. It's a play commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness of the charity. We'll do our best but are still fumbling for words & bumping into each other onstage.
Here's an entertaining advert for WWF by way of compensation .....



Thanks to all those involved! LOL xxxxxxxxx

Fidoes past, present & future

Dougal & Posie, our beloved Westies who lived with us for nearly 16 years. R.I.P.1990-2006

Ralph, our current Fido. Collected in May 2008

He was very nearly sent back after 3 days of ransacking & chewing. The garden was a favourite site for his vandalism.

But a year later he has come good. He & DH are practically inseparable. Exercising Ralph is as good as joining the gym and living next to a long beach with woods nearby is ideal.



So DH has his ideal breed but I'm still looking for mine....... a small lap-dog. Favourites at the moment are a Miniature Schnauzer or a Scottie. Sometime in August?



Watch this space

Fog & Fortune

Yesterday I was reading Brother David's blog and relating to his observation that "Most of my musings escape before I can rope them, lost in the mystical ether (just thought I would call it that, sounds better than fog) "
Well this morning the fog lifted temporarily.

As Fortune or God would have it I decided to switch the radio on half-way through Salman Rushdie's examination of 'The Wizard of Oz' http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g3xq8
Judy Garland's rendition of 'Over the Rainbow' is magical .....

but I couldn't manage to download it so here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKIjsWUbhVM
Rushdie says that the song is a search for a place "where nothing was deemed more important than the loves, cares & needs of human beings". He describes it as a Utopian dream and "joyfully secular" - but to me it's just the Kingdom of God or the Garden of Eden.

C S Lewis talks about our search for it in 'Mere Christianity' when he says, "I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."
Mack, the main character in the 'The Shack' by William P Young (which I'm 3/4 of way through & enjoying),finds such a place.

Films, legends & books are full of the search. It's a universal human longing for God. Well that's my own worldview/faith. We can be happy in the here & now though once we've found faith, just as Dorothy was able to be happy being home in Kansas once she'd visited the Wizard of Oz, and that's what the pictures are about (as well as making it more interesting LOL X)

Flights of Fancy

I love 'em. You often keep them to yourself and they stay in your head. Some, like the unusual arrangement of scarves that a friend has up her staircase are merely fancy and going up a flight of stairs - but enough to put me in mind of the phrase.

Monty Python specialised in flights of fancy and this is one of their best .........


My own latest flight of fancy was to dye my hair red but it's very tame beside this lady who I caught on camera in a park in Budapest. Her flight of fancy reflected God's own seen in the glowing colours of the trees behind. Life would be dull without them.

Fortitude

I came across the above when googling 'Fortitude' and whilst it's not what I had in mind, being warlike and all, I had to include it for the passion & the films it reminded me of.

I was thinking more of the staying-power sort of fortitude that enables people to finish what they started or not give in when difficulties arise. It might be finishing a half-marathon like Winona did on Sunday....

or finishing a beautiful piece of patchwork like the
bedspread on our bed in Marple, made by Nadine.
Both showing incredible fortitude.