Hope Springs Eternal but Inspiration is often Accidental

Thursday 25th Nov’21 The painting above hangs in my living room and for a lot of reasons, to me, represents Hope. It has its own story but that is …

Hope Springs Eternal but Inspiration is often Accidental

Another Difference

Good morning from a sunny, still, and warm, Wellington Thursday. Well warm to us. We have a very temperate climate – no really highs or dreadful lows…

Another Difference

Attractive Differences

It’s a balmy 6C here at 43.4516 N Latitude today, while my friend basks in an approaching New Zealand summer. Why balmy you ask? The morning started …

Attractive Differences

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG

No distance of place nor lapse of time, can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth. This is an idea by …

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG

The call to duty

In the old days ( read ‘in my time’ here) the Call to Duty referenced that advertising that convinced so many young men (my father at 17) to enlist in a war. World War 2 to be exact and the premise was (as my father told his mother) if we don’t stop them there they will come here. The ‘there’ of course was the European Theatre.

Today, and I mean ‘today’ the Call of Duty is to fight a virus. I’m sure you have heard of it. Nay sayers and conspiracy theorists may try to deny it but the truth is, the next few months will hit home even them for I believe this 3rd wave is not the last. There will be another. And by the time this is over everyone will be touched personally.

My country, my province is in distress. How is that for a tidy comment? Yes, I know people who have died from this, and this alone. I have been personally touched.

Our hospitals are in a critical state and now are sending out a Call to Duty to folk who have never worked in an ICU, some nurses, some others with more valuable expertise.

First, as a retired Registered Nurse who once worked in ICU and in fact managed ICU, no matter what the government tries to tell you, these skills are not transferrable without a lot of training. A call has gone out for physicians – family physicians to come and work in our ICUs as nurses. Plans abound to bring Student Nurses in to work on hospital floors so that Registered Nurses can go work in ICU.

Let me be clear. Being a registered nurse or a doctor does not mean one is able to work in specialty units without training.

Our people being pulled into these COVID19 ICUs are at risk themselves.

It seems everyone is wandering in the dark here. And they can all use prayers because for the life of me I have no idea what else we can give them.

Morning thoughts

Be Modest in Blessings Received

Be Grateful for what You have

Pray for those Who Have Not

Seek to Serve

Levels of communication

France & Vincent

*

I wrote this entire article before I finally abandoned the attempt to sleep, though of course, I lost most of it on the way downstairs. A pity, it was a brilliant piece as I was dictating it in my mind. Isn’t that always how it is, though? That, like the doorstep wisdom that allows us to find a perfect retort in only retrospect, is the sort of wry irony the mind seems to delight in occasionally.

It is three in the morning and I cannot sleep. I’ve tried for the past couple of hours but have tossed and turned, too warm in spite of the frozen night, my body reminding me of the painkillers I should have taken and my mind hovering around the edges of that odd lucidity that lies somewhere between consciousness and sleep.

By the time the kettle had boiled about all I had left of…

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A Special Blogger – Sue Vincent

I have been a follower and admirer of Sue Vincent for years. She has both brightened and enlightened my life. Please, read, share and contribute if possible. An amazing woman. An enigma. A delight.

Darlene Foster's Blog

Sue Vincent is one of those special bloggers and writers that inspire people all over the world. Readers have long been captivated by her posts about mythology, ancient ruins and medieval churches, and her daily #midnighthaiku. Many have participated in and grown as a result of her #writephoto prompts. She is a person of considerable talents, and in addition to posting her prompts, Sue has tirelessly supported bloggers by hosting guest bloggers and sharing blog posts. She has 19,000 and counting followers.

I’ve not met Sue in person but feel I know her through her wonderful blog posts and consider her a friend. She has taken me the width and breadth of Great Britain, to places I would have never got to myself, providing amazing historic details and wonderful photographs. To appreciate just how talented and wise Sue is, pop over to her blog. I particularly love her outlook…

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Seven Year Swear

It’s been 7 years since I’ve been on my own. I’ve treated it like the heroine from Titanic. I’ve travelled, laughed, danced and loved my family and …

Seven Year Swear

Vintage Red

True inspiration!

Books&morebooks2017

Way back in 2011 as a very new blogger, and before this site was created I posted on my other site –

“I have just finished reading the novel Vintage Red by Michael Judge.

The introductory blurb says:  “Racy, blackly comic; laced with wit, both dry and expansive; a wicked ear for dialogue; cuts through to the bone, exposing venality of church and state – just a sample of the praise that greeted the arrival of this impressive first novel.” and “An original new voice and a breathtaking achievement”.

The story tells the story of a property magnate who finds after his wife’s death that she lead a disturbing life that he knew nothing about.  Throughout the book, we read about this other life and also about the husband’s domestic failings, his public amorality and his personal hypocrisy.

We learn how the wife meets a shy school teacher one afternoon…

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