Monday 26 April 2010

In Abstract

I've been playing around with paint and board and some more abstract images and this cross is the first to be completed.

More wildlife

Alongside the badgers and woodpeckers there has been another form of wildlife that is emerging with the rising light and temperatures in a particular part of the woods - a part I now avoid. Running long the top of Kingscliffe early on a Saturday morning I heard a something big crashing through the woods and looked up to see a bare bottomed man sprinting towards his car, jumping in and driving off. When I had jogged to the parking space, I found a pair of discarded pants, I ignored them. When I told Jane she just commented, 'Where did he have his car keys?'

Friday 23 April 2010

Changing Light

Squirrels missing their footing and falling within a foot of my head have replaced badgers head-butting my shins, I've heard my first woodpecker of the year and a heron wound me up and was wound up by me as I ran and he flew north along the canal. The heron could not quite absorb the fact that all he needed to do was fly south to avoid me. [Actually there was only one squirrel and one head-butting badger, but somehow each time I tell the story it multiplies; and it was thissss big!

It is amazing running into the rising sun, even more amazing to be painting in decent light.

Saturday 17 April 2010

Exmoor

It's been a good week on Exmoor, early morning runs up and down the cliffs with the deer and the ponies; scrambling over the rocks [that are actually pirate ships] on Lee Bay [pictured] and dipping our toes in the very cold seas; ice creams and cream teas and fish and chips; crazy golf and not so crazy parks.

And then there was the election debate that, for once lived up to expectations, even if we avoided the really big arguements [government vs small state, individual vs society etc] and seems to have got the political establishment into an over excited frenzy - but as a self confessed sad political geek, I enjoyed watching it.

Just after dawn on Bossington Beach I decided not to swim [what is happening to me] but did collect a load of drift wood that I will hopefully turn into something - watch this space. I also hope to do something with all of the photos of the coast that I took.

Sunday 11 April 2010

Politics 2

I came across a farewell article by Chris Mullin in the Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7090921.ece

One sentence particularly stood out:
It is a great privilege (and one that is sometimes taken for granted) to have been born in a democracy and to serve in a political system where, although harsh things are sometimes said, we are not actually trying to kill each other. Where differences are ultimately resolved at the ballot box. Where one side wins, one side loses and the loser lives to fight another day.

If you want to hear from a fine, honourable politician [however old fashioned that sounds, it's true], read his diaries 'A view from the Foothills'.

Saturday 10 April 2010

Politics

Through the first really warm days of the year the world seems to be spiralling down. And yet for us it has been a fantastic few days. Our garden continues to surprise me and soak up time without limit and provide a wonderful setting for family birthday parties. I ran up Cothlestone Hill at dawn [pictured]; and we discovered how amazing Lyme Regis 'go there, take my car' [apologies to Bill Bryson] where I not only swam but also got buried [also pictured].

The best day described by the retiring MP Chris Mullin in his diaries is not meeting Presidents or working with Prime Ministers but building a stone house with his daughters on the Shetland Islands - I'm nowhere near his league, but I agree that it is the small things, which are also the big things, which are so wonderful.

The murder of Eugene Terreblanche in South Africa raised questions yet again about race relations. Yet the responses of President Jacob Zuma, and even those of former members of the AWB and of the ANC youth league have all seemed so relatively rational and measured that, while only a fool would say that everything was well in SA or that race relations were good and easy, it once again gave me hope. Or perhaps it is just another reflection about how, in SA, the lack of armed uprising is counted as a peaceful resolution. The bar isn't always set high and the country doesn't always clear it; although there are also times when the country can still not only reach for but also achieve the skies.

Meanwhile the Westminster soap opera [of which I am a somewhat guilty fan] has finally moved to another stumbling high [aka a general election]. The politicans are, on the whole being as tedious as ever. I was astonished when I heard that the Tories had complained that in the Channel 4 Chancellors Debate Vince Cable got more applause than George Osborne. It didn't seem to appear to to them that Cable gave a better performance and was/is the only senior MP to even begin to predict the banking crisis.

But what I have found so profoundly depressing have been the vox pops with voters saying that:
A] they won't vote
B] all politicians are useless [espenses has just been the icing on the cake]
C] the big problem is with immigration.
Why cannot we see that voting is hugely important, sacred even, a right for which so many have fought and died and which we must not dismiss. Why can we not see that, quite apart from our Christian connection with our 'neighbour' this country was and is formed by and enriched by immigration going back many, many centuries.

We had our revolutions so very much earlier than almost any other country [why, I am still trying to discern], on so many domocratic stakes we are so far ahead of the curve. Yet you get away from the liberal intelligensia and there is still this huge alienation and sense of fear, anger and distrust - it's just as stong in the country as in the cities. And I have no idea about how to respond, and neither, it seems, does anyone else.

This will be the first General Election for fifteen years in which I will not have organised a hustings. It's also the first time that a BNP candidate has stood in the constituency in which I am living. Neither Labour not the Tories will appear with the BNP candidate, and no one wants to fall foul of the Electoral Commission and risk having to pay for the event [which is what happens if you don't invite one of the candidates]. Once again, democracy suffers at the hands of extremeism.

Pray for us.

Monday 5 April 2010

Easter

I am a Christian because of the very simple yet astonishingly deep idea that on the cross and through his resurrection Jesus destroys the power of death.'

You didn't have to sit through any of the three sermons, so there's the headline of the Easter one. Easter was wonderful. Among many, many other things, there was music, a celebrating community, friends and family and Easter egg hunts in which we re-hid eggs as fast as they were found and unwrapped mini eggs [fairly traded] and then wrapped the silver foil around grapes - The hunters were less than impressed. There was also, most importantly of all, the new life and forgiveness given to us by the risen Christ.

There was also a great opportunity for a piece of installation art, as we transformed a cross from Palm Sunday to good Friday to Easter - with pictures posted here of the cross on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

I also finally made a prayer tree today that was commissioned three years ago. I still have one commission for a painting that is five years overdue, but when that is done, then I will be up to date. It's good to be able to creative. For some reason that I've never been able to fully understand I have never been able to paint in the dark; it's good that it's getting lighter, in so many ways.

Friday 2 April 2010

Returning Dawn

Yesterday was one of those mornings of moonset and sunrise. When I left the house, it was still dark [ish] and the shadows from the [nearly] full moon were dominant. By the time I came out of the woods [as muddy as the dog] the newly risen sun was right up in my face. I love the dawn [and if anyone remembers me fifteen years ago you'll realise quite what an impact children have had on me!]. This morning I was still up at 6am, but at my desk whilst the rain and wind hammered the windows and I completed my third [and thankfully] final, Easter Sermon. I've just to preach them now - and the poor congregations have to listen.