Since being away I’ve realised there is a bit of catching up to do, I’ve just responded to a note I left myself to order some fairtrade shirts.   Maggi Dawn mentioned it a week or so ago, so I’ve taken the plunge and ordered two.  The good thing about these shirts - or so they claim is that the labour is paid for fairly as well as the cotton!

This has been growing now for some weeks, I only got around to photographing it today, I must admit we are feeding quite a few slugs and caterpillars, but it has been used a fair bit. (some of our choir were late into the service because they we walking it!!) The plan is to plant some flowers after the vegetables go over / get eaten.

Why does everything start to come good just as you are about to go away?? Toms are doing really well, courgettes have finally decided to grow, cucumbers are doing well, caterpillars are needing collection every morning and chillies, (sorry for the naff picture.) It has taken two years to grow this plant, (i’m quite chuffed as you can imagine) this year there are loads of small bullet shaped fruit, twilight chillies go through a number of colours before hitting the jackpot and being devilishly hot!! We may make some Chilli jam, mmmm.

Hmmm!!

There must be a vocational element to living in each of these, I’ve always been drawn to the rural setting, I don’t seem to be built for the city somehow…

However after the illuminating picture of Britain from above, and listening to reflections on rural living, perhaps the real challenge is to live in a more heavily populated area and work towards reducing the footprint away from the centre of that geographical area, keeping money and travelling local rather than spreading it across a larger area.  I think, rather than suggesting one lifestyle, (rural, urban etc is better than the other), the thing to focus on is locality.  Following the reflections on Thinking Allowed, it seems to rural has as much to learn about community from urban centres as the perhaps idyllic rural images people may have are either not true or created rather than natural.

Those who seek the urban ‘pretty gardens and perfect lawns’ need to see the real rural life which ocasionally contains a little mud on the road, or perhaps a chicken or two and the idillyc rural seekers need to learn about small communities needing the involvement of each individual and of a life lived more in the open.

So where does that leave to vocation to a rural setting?  Answers to that may be short, but certainly not closed.  It may take on an altogether different style of ministry from the traditional rural…

I treated the congregation to the full three minutes and five seconds of what is perhaps one of Paul Simon’s best known pieces of writing.  I’m not sure what the inspiration for the song was, I try to find out, but all the official sites seem silent on that subject!!

The sermon took a wide angle lens look at the passages (1 Kings 19:9-18 Matt. 14:22-23)

and suggested that:

“The point at which the miracles happen…    … is the point at which we re-enter and engage with the world”

All this stems of course out of both Jesus and Elijah dwelling with God atop the mountain…

 Hello darkness, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

I  must admit it’s had me in a bit of a tangle.  On the one hand it is quite a high minded ethical peak oil aware kind of thing to do - on the other, it seems not only down right impossible, but pretty impractical too.  Plastic is pretty much ingrained in the life of the world, we even have green-plastic too, that’s made from plant extracts, not sure how many worlds we would need to supply that demand!

It has to be applauded for it’s awareness raising side, but small amounts of plastic - (re-cycled and used sensibly as apposed to the packaging industry) has to be perfectly acceptable if not useful.  It is, though, a good dig at the throw-away society and for reading merit worth a gander over this month!!