Buy nothing Christmas

I see from my Advent Calendar that the Canadian Mennonites are credited with the initiative that put an alternative slant on the retail experience, and have started a Buy Nothing for Christmas experience. I am glad that this is now looking mainstream. It must be, as I heard a talk on Radio 4 this week about how the once wacky and goody goody Buy a Goat campaign has been seen for what it really is, a great idea.
In fact I see from the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue you can now pay to train a teacher.That does appeal,thought it wont be half as good as my years in the Nunnery of the North, The College , Ripon, whose worthy motto was
Nisi Dominus frustra (O God are we frustrated), or Psalm 127,'Unless the Lord builds the City the labourers labour in vain".
The whole of our family has pledged not to give any gifts ,except to the under 5's. This is our 3rd year. We have all found that the relief is tangible. Spouse and I do not send cards to anyone we see around in our town. Spouse has refused to allow me to concoct a Round Robin. I am enjoying putting handwritten letters with cards to friends we rarely see, and have rediscovered the joy of it. I have time of course, since I have decided to withdraw from TV more often, especially as S has discovered ITV3 and has been known to watch the same episode of Poirot 3 times in as many weeks.
I have one small niggle . What will we do when the 5 small children in the family are no longer under 5?

Survivors

I loved the last series, in the 80's and have kept a stock of candles, dried peas, water purification tablets and matches ever since.
I have been following the excellent blog of Bishop Alan and love all the images and inserts, video clips and out of the box thinking . I have wondered how he manages to overcome all the copyright issues. So I have had (helped by our new Youth Leader)a go at downloading an image from a dedicated source, in this case the BBC website .This image is not mine, I have never seen Max Beesley in the flesh,so I thank you BBC and give you all the credit for allowing me to 'copy from location' as the dialogue box on my Mac says. You have however got it wrong. He is not handsome , he has funny eyes and no one on the BBC will ever be as gorgeous as Paul Daneman. I also well remember series from the BBC in the 1960s. Mr Darcy and Captain Wentworth, were played by PD I am sure. Or was it Alan Badel...

The irony in this whole learning curve is the way our new youth leader is having to lead someone from the wrong client group.

My Dreamweaver Evening course at the Yorkshire Coast College in the summer was done at great cost. The Carpark was a nightmare . I managed to get a perfect space every week by arriving so early the other students were probably watching Neighbours. The computers were a foreign country. All the very latest Macs. Did they not even realise that when most were learning div tags this student had still not even found her personal file . I struggled, and did ask for help after that, all the time. And then there was the written work I had to do. This was an evening class for goodness sake, not the Open University. What do I want with all the university credits I now have to my name? Why cant evening classes be the way they used to be ? So I can now do Dreamweaver. I have now my very own Mini Mac, sitting next to my laptop with Vista. I suppose you would say I was bilingual . I now prefer 'move to trash' to 'delete', the Mac is so logical, and friendly.Get to the point-all this effort , and the course was not technically needed at all . The blogsite , yes you heard that correctly of our parish is now up and running . It was not done with Frontpage or Dreamweaver but simply and easily on Blogger just as I have been doing in a simple way for several years.
A happy band , lead by the Topman in the whole of the ICT world aka the H... S....t has today handed over www.fileyparish.org.uk on an unsuspecting world. And the Youth Leader and a Maths teacher in the team have been helping me to update my blog skills. No carparking, no written work , not a young person but a grateful and happy one. I am not stockpiling night lights any more. I have things to do , places to go, hyperlinks to arrange, photos to take ,following to perfect, gadgets and widgets to use.......

Sam Foster

The web advent calendar on links below is worth a look.
Picture of Sam Foster for you.Just as I was thinking no one had heard of Fresh Expressions along comes Sam Foster. My friend Alison in Harrogate has lost her church building to Redundancy, and what a blessing that has become. We are watching as a Fresh Expression movement hits Scarborough Deanery, and wait expectantly for out of the box happenings here. I wonder which churches have such small congregations they are thinking its time to regroup some where else, and not bear the cost of upkeeping unattractive and expensive buildings. Or those tiny congregations lovingly a remnant in villages , just open and expectant for the Lord to take them to a new sort of Meeting where HE is in charge.

http://www.whywearewaiting.com/

Filey Pa..... Blog

I am about to be a three blog person . I have joined a happy team preparing to launch our parish into the blogsphere. My 2000 ed Oxford English Dictionary does not even contain the word blog, and although I am no Adriana Huffington , I am setting myself up as an ecclesiastical commentator. I am going to enjoy discussing really important things. Not the colour of the carpet at St O's or who has not told who what, but really important things, the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything. I will have to have my own blog link to be a proper follower, the world does not want to read about cats and teachers, they will have to be left to amuse the Facebooking family of Bridteacher. What shall I call my new blog?I shall give it some thought. Meanwhile to keep you going, here is a picture of a happy band.( of pensioners using their free passes to take a pleasant ride to Whitby)

Bodens of Filey

According to the Sunday Times 03 08 08 , Johnnie Boden dresses Middle England, and Boden Man is now showing at (and I love this bit)-'Filey, which is more bijou than Bridlington and less scary than Scarborough'.

Now it so happens that I know for once what the ST is talking about. I listen to my progeny discussing catalogue shopping , Primark, Millets , striped and cotton garments, fairtrade,organic and option excess. I know that one set of progeny's progeny have a resplendent set of garments from the Boden Catalogue for their Filey Beach Holiday, this is the set from beneath what Samson calls the 'great divide'. Scarborough set of progeny's progeny mostly wear Tesco or Sainsbury stripes, differing from the Boden stripes by approx 3mm and £25.

When I was a slummy (ST) mummy beneath the great divide, we didn't have Bodens but we had its forerunner, Clothkits. They dressed Middle England then.

And as for Bodens seen in Filey, the ST is right and wrong: they were here long before Johnnie.

Facebook 3 or 4

I do not have to apply for a job again. I am the satisfied recipient of a S.... P......, and a T....... P........, and those letters are red letter days now on my St. Catherines Hospice calendar after my birthday and Ascension Day (my favourite RLD).

I do not have to think up clever things to appeal to prospective employers looking at my Facebook page. I have been investigating, and have come to some conclusions, Facebook is not the Truth. The real people behind the profiles are rare, and all over 60. We do not have to impress, we can be ourselves.

Florida revival

Went to Christchurch Bridlington tonight to their weekly impartation meeting. It is such a shame to get an impression of what is going on in Florida and thence the UK from looking at the Dudley website. Christchurch have got it just right, and even the excellent teaching from Todd Bentley, mostly about Jehovah-Ropheka, was sound only, the worship was as good as it always is in Christchurch, and the ministry ordered and Biblical. No one asked for money, and Chris did a great sign off at the end. I have been keen on re- visiting the hebrew 'Names of God'as my prayer card is too small to read, and had just downloaded some from a website 'Character building for Families', which has 625 names for God.

The evening ended beautifully as when I got home and realised I had missed the First night of the Proms, but thanks to BBC iplayer have just heard the sublime 'Four Last songs ' by Strauss and know that all good things come from God.

Lakeside

Has a whole new meaning now. However, I think 'Ship of Fools' is worth a look. The Henry VIII lookalike is rather alarming.

Firestarter

Who says young people of today have lost the plot; not here anyway, what encouragement some of them give to retired educators.

I wonder what happened to this class of 67?

40 Camel Girl

40 Camel Girl (Letters from Turkey) is the name of a book by E.Grace Beyler going round my family. The letters were written between 1969 and 1971, from an American girl to living in Turkey with the family of her fiance,back to her parents in USA.

This was a good time for me, my liberation in London, my first job in Battersea, shopping in the Kings Road on Saturdays, concerts several nights a week, Gauloise and David Clulows , Kaftans and old fur coats gleaned from ancient aunts.

Grace Beyler stayed with PTB(Poor Turkish Boy) and his parents in Kavakli after an amazing overland trip from London in a VW called Dagmar. It reminded me that my flatmates travelled to Istambul and back ,in 1970 ,in a group from London in a Transit , for a holiday. I thought it was such an exciting thing to do , but did not have the courage to join them.

Grace remained en famille whilst PTB did his National Service. The letters were so funny, details of all the intimate family members, and extended family;the moslem conventions for the role of women in Society were so alien to me from those of the west. I learned more about Turkey in this book than I have ever before, it is a compelling read. I am trying to get some more copies of this OP book, and have e-mailed the author who is sending me some. Sometimes a book is so good you want all A level students to read it or all teenagers, this one should be read by all moaning women.

Adult Baptism

I had the privilege of being at an adult baptism on Fathers Day, albeit by sprinkling. P is the father of two teenage daughters who became Christians at a Pathfinder camp(or the like) at Criccieth in North Wales. The place is well known to Bridteacher Emeritus as it is the place where her own mother became a Christian in the 1930s at a CSSM meeting on the beach.
Anyway, P became a Christian just after his eldest daughter left to go to a Scottish University. He prayed the prayer,took the small step , made a commitment and then decided he ought to tell his Away daughter. She told him to look underneath her sister's bed. Explain here that Away daughter had slept in a bottom bunk bed. When P looked under the bed he found his name DAD writ large. Away daughter had prayed for him every night before she went to sleep, after becoming a Christian herself. I love this true story.

Echiums 2

Is ours Echium Pininana or is it Echium wildpretii xE.pininana ? The ones in the Chelsea Physic Gardens have long been the inspiration for spouse and I, every year we look hopefully at the 'For Sale Table' by the shop, longing for a tiny seedling of a different variety from our familiar friend. Our original one was bought at Burton Agnes gardens near Bridlington about six years ago: they have a formidable grove of them by the gate to the Potager Garden. I have just sent off to Chiltern Seeds for E.boissieri, and we have six seedlings of E.russicum in the greenhouse.
http://www.edirectory.co.uk/chilternseeds/
I see sadly they are out of stock. This is becoming a search for treasure.

Echiums

Just incase I have not laboured this enough,

I am delighted that my Echiums have got through the winter.

Facebook again

I had meant update the blog with details of my wonderful pilgrimage to Israel. I have hundreds of photos to upload, pithy comments to make, observations worthy of Lady Hester Stanhope, and much enthusiasm and a renewed interest in the Bible BUT I have just discovered Visual Bookshelf on Facebook so all will have to wait.

A study of Shellfish by Chantal Scott Anderton

'Shellfish' is the picture hanging in our cottage kitchen

Master of the Robarts

Introducing to the world again the noble visage of my ancestor Benjamin John Elder who died in 1856. Master of the sailing ships the 'Lady Susan 'and the 'Robarts' he is resplendant in plaster on our hall table. A forerunner of the digital photograph a plaster bust was the resort of the not so rich ,who wanted posterity without notoriety. At the moment I am using his face for my profile on Facebook where I hope every one of my five friends will appreciate him. I am hoping for notoriety for posterity.

Upstairs Downstairs

Spouse has borrowed the whole set from a friend. We have done Series 1 and Series 2. We have re-aquainted ourselves with Mrs Bridges, Ruby and Sarah. Lady Marjory has gone down on the Titanic and we await the first World War. I dont know how much more I can stand.

I thought I would add my own picture from 1972, better than Upstairs Downstairs, no 3 or 4 court Wimbledon , think its Fred Stolle.

Facebook 2

I have got the hang of the Photo Album thing now. It took 50 minutes to upload a few pictures without the benefit of Broadband, so had a trip to the Library , what a difference, minute or so to load 17.

Broadband next - Waitrose is my preferred option but everyone seems to have BT. Perhaps I 'll just wait another 10 years and go to Filey Library.

The piece of elegant red metal street furniture is a VR postbox, splendid and proud in China town ,Newcastle, just along from the Red gate which is the piece of street furniture people everyone goes to see.

Gypsey Race

I have noticed with delight that for the last week the Gypsey race has been flowing through Burton Fleming. Whether or not the good people of that post office and publess village , not a hamlet, thanks to the church, share my delight is debatable. I recall that the last time it flowed about four or five years ago it flooded across the road.
Part of my weekly pilgrimages to Beverley to live bones of Saint MVB always include the slowdown into second at the Burton Fleming crossroads and past the butcher and the bridge to view the water or lack of it. I am a fishermans daughter. Looking at the water is ingrained. Further along the flow of the Race is always visible, though sometimes only just, at the road to Woldgate a few miles from Bridlington. One could even fancy a rod and fly at some times as it wends to the sea. Further downstream , next to Bridlington Hospital , onwards to Tesco's one could only catch shopping trollies and bicycle wheels, laced with non recyclable plastic bags.
I love the name Gypsey race, I love all that is written about it in that wonderful bed side book of Topography, 'The landscape of the East Riding of Yorkshire' by K Allison. All Three sentences, and one map. Why did he write so little about it , and yet pages on Sunk Island. I am going to find out more.
Meanwhile , I persuaded to spouse to let us come home from Scarborough Hospital the scenic way today in the interests of didactic driving.
So our route was thus:
Brompton by Sawdon, a stop to look at the Derwent, sandy roadsides to Sherburn,West Heslerton and the pretty drive up to West Lutton, Weaverthorpe merely damp Gypsey race, Boythorpe , past the Burtons farm where I saw my first ever Combine Harvester, indeed it was one of the first in the East Riding. On to Wold Newton, Oh! good! water in the Gypsey Race, watch it Colin , watch it ,I have to drive, Is it still there and full . The anticipation builds- wait till you see it at Burton Fleming. Amenable spouse is trying to get enthusiastic by now. An hour after leaving the hospital, he wants to get home but is trying to be kind ,he suggests a charming divertion.Lets drive to Rudston and see how the race is doing there. I dont hesitate, this is a field trip ,not the ride home. Rudston does not disappoint, quite full past the Recycling bins. Drive straight across and through a narrow lane he says there it is , and there it is , a charming stream , a beck ,always there he says, always got water in it and I never knew. Me the East Yorkshire girl , he the London boy. He knows about the Fleet though.

Facebook or 'On a bandwaggon'

Cant decide about this one. Young people seem to leave such rude comments on the walls of their friends. Was I like this? I need to decide what I actually gain from this networking site. Understanding another generation is a start. I did the Movie Quiz Ok. Looking for a clever picture now.

Laterooms

My latest discovery is 'Laterooms'. I have been directed to this site by well travelled partner of less well travelled son. I need to find a comfortable, clean and convenient double bedded ensuite in the same spot as Malmaison, Newcastle , but for a quarter of the price and the same view of the Millenium Bridge and the Sage. I am hopeful that the price of somewhere wonderful will go down to £50 with breakfast. Will keep you posted. I am having much pleasure choosing wonderful suites, reading the reviews and deciding if 0.3km is too far. It is called Virtual holidaying or maybe Virtual booking would be better.