Happy Monday! I checked the calendar is it actually Monday…
This is the ‘there are no updates’ Monday Miscellany post. So I would like to tell you about my night of being terrorised by a cat…
Last Thursday night, I was tired and went to bed as usual at 10pm and was woken up at just past midnight by a cat.
I should explain my bedroom window overlooks downstairs flat roof and often wildlife visit, (my favourites are always the magpies*), but I also, unless it’s utterly frigid, sleep with the window open and on Thursday night it was wide open. I also have Radio 4 on all night. So at 15 minutes past midnight I’m awoken from my sleep by a baby…once I’m fully awake I realise it’s a cat and its outside my window. On the flat roof, paws on the windowsill, meowing it’s head off but not coming in. I worry a bit because it doesn’t have a collar so I don’t know if it’s a stray or belongs to someone and is just trying it’s luck but mostly because I hate to think of a domesticated creature that doesn’t get looked after properly. I grew up with stray/feral cats around and it makes me really bloody cross. Eventually, it stops meowing and sits down, so I close the window a bit and go back to sleep.
It’s gone midnight & I’ve been woken up by a cat sitting outside my window. I don’t know the cat, it looks ok & cared for but doesn’t have a collar. Cat owning people please make sure yours have collars. I feel like a monster for not letting a meowing cat in or calling the RSPCA
At 2.37am, I wake up to see that the cat is on the windowsill watching me. It doesn’t go away just watches me. So I go and sit in the living room for a bit. When I come back, it’s still there. My best guess is that this cat spends it’s nights sitting on my window sill for Radio 4 and was annoyed that my window was opened too wide for it to do that. Or it’s stalking me as it’s preparing to conquer the world..
So here is what I learned last week. Cat owners need to put collars on their cats and I really need curtains. Then yesterday, I was queuing to get into Wilko and there was a lady in front of me with a cat in a backpack. It’s been a weird cat week….
Other than that the week was fairly uneventful, I reached zero laundry in the basket and was so disgusted by the dirtiness of the laundry basket, I washed that too, I also hoovered, did all the ironing and cleaned the oven again. The intervention I thought I needed after this is over might not be the one anyone was expecting….
As you’ve read through all that, here is a Monday gift. Doncaster Council’s twitter feed. I know that doesn’t feel like a gift but when you see their lessons learnt from history, you’ll get it, you’re reading this, you’re my people and whoever is running this feed, needs a raise!
China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, was so obsessed with finding a way to live forever that he ended up accidentally killing himself.
We skipped a week because of Good Friday and we are now still in Easter. About the only thing John Paul II ever said that I found inspiring was that Christians ‘are an Easter people’. This is the time, which is why Easter and spring make so much sense, when nature concurs with our faith (I feel that the folks in the Southern Hemisphere must have a harder time because the liturgical year is very out of sync with their seasons!)
I am grateful. I wake up every morning both numbed and bolstered by how lucky our family has been so far. But our luck is only further to the point of how completely unfair, uneven and arbitrary survival feels in this present moment. I hope more of us realize that, for many people in this country, it has always been like that.
Despite the glorious weather, I’m still trying to summon my energy for the work, I’m feeling listless and uninspired. With the bank holiday and extra days off, in addition to being home all the time, I’ve completely lost track of what day it is too…
I was given some tiny lettuces which I planted up in a bed and also sowed some radishes and salad leaves, and some flowers for the pond area, they look pretty and are perennials so all good.
I’ve planted them quite close because I don’t expect all of them to make it and I’ve also bought a eryngium to go in that area too. My eventual plant is to move the bleeding hearts and the anemone and snake’s head fritillary bulbs to that area as well.
I’ve sowed some flowers to go in all the designated flower areas of the plot. Dahlia (piccolo mixed), pansies (clear crystal mixed), poppies (iceland mixed), sunflowers (russian giant), forget-me-nots (indigo), alyssum (carpet of snow), chrysanthemum (white breeze) and shasta daisies (alaska).
The sunflowers were free seeds and I’m really planting them for the birds but everything else was from Wilko in the half price seed sale, I’m hopeful that some of them will live and as the majority of them are perennial, I won’t have to think too much about flowers every year. I already have the verbenas and roses and rudbeckia, so if some of these take in either the pond area or the flower beds that will make me happy!
I’ve also ordered another 1,600 litres of compost for the new beds, there is a lead time of approximately eight weeks, so the squash may be going in later than planned but as I haven’t even got around to sowing them (it’s a task for today) I’m not so worried about that. I have managed to sow tomatoes, so that’s something. Squash and leeks are the only other thing that I will start indoors everything else I’ll sow direct!
My new blueberries arrived last week but I can’t get any ericaceous compost, so they are currently still in their pots at the plot. I need to think about how to acidify the compost I do have and get them planted. For those of you keeping count that’s eight in total, I’m going for double figures and remember these are little plants so they’ll take a while to produce loads of fruit (which is what I’m aiming for!)
The apple tree is in blossom and it’s looks amazing, we also know what type of apple it is, Beauty of Bath, which is an early dessert apple, it apparently usually fruits in early August but the apples don’t store all that well. The plum goes really early too so it’s obviously a theme for the fruit trees on my plot.
Over 10,000 people have died in hospital from COVID-19, goodness knows what the number will be when home and care home deaths are added in. We are getting to the hardest part of lockdown now, it’s not a novelty and we’re not fully adjusted to it, we will get more used to it.
However, we’re all at the stage where we’re bored and irritable, you can see it in how outraged everyone is by people who they think are flouting the rules, with how judgemental we’re all being.
There’s a quote I’m fond of about how privation can refine the soul but preferring to refine the soul when the the body has no other choice. But right now we have no other choice so we can choose to nurture the good in us or we can choose to give in to the destructive part of our natures.
I’m obviously going to try and choose the better parts of me. This time is really hard for everyone, I haven’t touched another human being since Mother’s Day, but I’m not cooped up in a too small flat with someone I don’t like (just trying to imagine what this would be like 30 years ago in a house with my dad gives me nightmares.) I’m alone but I’m an introvert, so goodness only knows how difficult extroverts are finding it. I’m in the flat a lot and I have no garden but I have the plot just around the corner. I miss my friends but on Friday, some allotment friends, gave me some lettuces and flowers to plant and I’ve been talking to friends a lot more than usual. I’m finding it hard to work from home but I still have a job and I have no new money worries. I’m irritated by the noise next door from the loud children but at the same time, I’m not trying to entertain and educate distressed children who don’t understand what the hell is going on and yes they are loud but they are also having fun and that’s a good thing – I went and had a nap in the living room where I couldn’t hear them! I’m going to carry on donating to the food bank, I’m going to try and use this time productively, I’m not going to pretend it’s not rubbish but it’s not the disaster it could be. I’m going to help if I can and if the only way I can help is to give a friend a food parcel, then I’m going to do that.
I’m not going to tell anyone to be grateful for this time, I’m not at grateful for it, it’s bloody awful. I’m not going to minimise anyone else’s pain or distress right now by telling them to be thankful. I really feel for people having a bad time during all of this and if you are finding this hard, I’m so sorry, I hope it gets better for you soon.
I’m just telling you about how I’m trying to get through this. When things are hard for me, I’ve always tried to be thankful for the good things in my life, to remember that however bad it is, it could be worse and that it will get better. Nothing lasts forever. That has been the key to my resilience. Yesterday, I saw Sarah and she hasn’t been home or seen her husband, her dog, her son or (more importantly!) her grandson for three weeks. The B&B her husband runs is shut down and she’s working in the NHS in London not in her new job because that is a community job and she’s really needed here, she told me that she felt so lucky to have a routine of work to help manage.
That’s what I mean, about gratitude, I have trained myself to find it because it helps me manage. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t burst into tears on Saturday because I miss my people or that the best part of my weekend was, Sarah, the allotment and face timing my mum and then my brother and actually seeing their faces (and watch the nephews show me their Easter Egg hauls!). There’s always light if we look for it, but sometimes we really have to look for it.
So this week, because I’m on leave until Wednesday, I really need to spend some time today and tomorrow cleaning. The flat is tidy but things (like the kitchen floor) need attending to. I need to clean the oven again (once last week wasn’t enough, it was that bad!). I’ll come out of this maybe with a drink problem but also with a very clean living space! I will come out of it though and I hope you all will too….
It’s Good Friday, no links today, but as I’ve been posting about my faith this Lent, I wanted to post this, I’ve posted it before but it’s worth watching again.
I have a confession, I’m finding all the time alone on the allotment a little difficult, I miss my trusty sidekick!
So I haven’t done as much as I planned, but I have done some things, the potatoes are in and the beetroot has been sown.
I’ve taken a decision not to fill up one of the squash beds and use the compost for other parts of the plot. Like the rose garden. Next month, I’ll see if I can still order some compost from somewhere else but I’m trying to chill a little bit.
The gooseberries are starting to blossom and the autumn raspberries are recovering from last week’s frosty mornings.
For Tuesdays during Lent, I’m going to talk about my faith and spiritual practice (or lack thereof). So this is the time to look away if you’re not interested in this topic. No worries, there will be an allotment post tomorrow and I’ll see you then!
This is the final stretch, the last week depending on how you do it, we are in Lent until Sunday or Lent finished on Sunday and we’re in Holy Week but still observing our Lenten resolutions or Lent doesn’t end until the evening of Maundy Thursday when the Triduum begins and honestly diving into whatever you gave up for Lent on Good Friday, seems a bit off.
This Lent has been the ‘lentiest’ that I think I’ve ever been through and I’ll observe until Sunday morning but this is the week when faith gets real.
Jesus is God as man, God loved us so much he sent Jesus so He could experience humanity. Jesus didn’t share all of human experience, he wasn’t (that we know of) a parent or a spouse, he wasn’t necessarily a perfect, devoted child but he was human, last week, I talked about being made to feel all the emotions and Jesus experienced that. Holy Week is the point that we can actually walk through this journey with Jesus, with the disciples, with God.
The thing about a consistent practice of Christianity is that we do Holy Week and Easter every year and every year it can be a different experience. If you feel that God is asking too much of you or has abandoned you or you’re just afraid, you can find your experience in Jesus begging God in Gethsemane or on the Cross. Feeling cross and fighty? You can be with Peter in Gethsemane. Can’t own your faith, meet Peter (again) as that cock crows. Parents who have lost a child or fear losing one, this week you can walk with Mary. Lost a friend or just don’t understand them anymore, take a walk with the disciples this week.
We started on Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph. We know what he knows and the disciples don’t, it’s all going to end, it tears and death and then something else entirely. This week we are going to walk in this and find something of ourselves in it.
Years ago I wrote a Stations of the Cross meditation, and as it’s still part of my Holy Week practice, I’m going to post it here. It’s quite long and I find that every year, I end up spending more time at different stations. It’s always changing and it’s always the same.
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1. Jesus is condemned to death
Jesus has done everything that God has asked of him. He left home, told everyone he could about God. For a while it looked like they’d heard him. Last week everything was going right. He’d been welcomed into Jerusalem with crowds calling his name, waving palms. Now they’re shouting for him to die. He did was what was asked of Him, what He was supposed to do and this wasn’t the plan. God said there was no other way, so Jesus said He’d do it but now…He’s been condemned to death, to be crucified and it’s going to hurt, a lot. God has no idea what He’s asking…does He?
How often do you feel that God hasn’t kept His promises? That life is harder than you can cope with?
Now is the time to tell God how hard you find things and to ask for help to take the leap into the unknown and trust God’s plan.
2. Jesus is given His Cross
God has asked Jesus to do this and though He doesn’t want to, Jesus picks up the Cross. He has put his life in God’s hands and he has to trust that God will give Him the strength and support to do this.
Sometimes following God is hard and no-one understands this more than Jesus. He’d asked God if there was another way and God said no. So Jesus picked up the Cross and reluctantly walked to Calvary.
Now is the time to ask God to walk with you, no matter how hard things are.
3. Jesus falls for the first time
The Cross is heavy and it’s difficult to carry. Jesus falls.
We all fall, but it doesn’t make us hopeless or losers. Think of times you haven’t succeeded and realise that sometimes failure can help you to see your mistakes.
Now is the time to talk to God, to admit that you have failed and acknowledge that you need his help to get up and carry on.
4. Jesus meets his mother
Mary sees Jesus, her little boy. She put her trust in God. Endured so much – humiliation, exile, pain – but she got Jesus. Her baby, her beloved child and now, He’s going to die for God and she has to watch. Nothing she can do can change this. How does she feel? Is she sad, angry, does she feel God let her down?
When do you feel that God has failed you? That God doesn’t understand your sacrifices, doesn’t understand your pain? That God gives other people an easier time.
Now is the time to give any pain that you have to God and acknowledge that he does understand and is carrying you through that pain
5. Simon of Cyrene helps carry the cross
Simon is a visitor, he’s come to Jerusalem for Passover and got caught up in this. Now he’s being asked to help this man, this traitor, this could cause trouble for him. People are going to see his face, know that he helped, judge him because of this.
When do you see someone who needs help that you can give? But you’re busy, there are other things to do. And helping is interferes with your life…
Now is the time to ask God for the strength to help others, even when it may be difficult for you.
6. Veronica wipes Jesus’ face
Veronica sees Jesus, there isn’t a lot she can do to help. She can’t carry the Cross for Him, but she sees that He’s suffering and what she can do, she does. She wipes His face, lets him know that she cares about His pain.
Sometimes when people are suffering, it’s hard to think what to say or do, we feel so helpless in the face of great pain
Now is the time to ask God for the courage to look through your awkwardness and to do the small things that may make a difference to others
7. Jesus falls for the second time
Simon’s helping with the Cross, Veronica wiped His face, but it’s still too much and Jesus falls again. Where does the strength come from to stand up and take another step?
Despite all the help we receive, sometimes it’s not enough and we fall
Now is the time to tell God about the things you can’t do without His strength to support you and help you carry on.
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
Jesus is doing the hardest thing He’s ever done. He’s literally reeling from the effort of it, yet He finds time to comfort others. Maybe He’s thinking about Simon and Veronica, following their example and setting His own.
In the midst of great pain, it’s easy to forget that others are suffering too. However, sometimes helping others helps us.
Now is the time to ask God for the courage to see through your pain and into another’s and to help them if you can.
9. Jesus falls for the third time
He keeps falling down, He keeps getting up.
Maybe the moral isn’t that we fall, maybe the victory is that we get up again. All God ever asks of us is that we keep trying. Think of a time when you’ve failed again and again and wanted to give up.
Now is the time to ask God for the strength to keep trying, even though you want to give up, especially because you want to give up.
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
Jesus had given up almost everything to serve God. He’d told the disciples “leave everything”. All he had left were His clothes, but now they’re being gambled away for sport. Everything has gone, He is now completely naked before the world. Mocked and humiliated. Nothing left. No dignity, no possessions. Nothing.
It’s the stuff of nightmares to be naked before the world. How many of us have had the being naked dream? Jesus lived it. To work and have nothing but people tearing us apart. Reflect on a time when you have felt that you had nothing, that you were nothing.
Now is the time to show yourself fully to God and acknowledge He accepts you and loves you, just as you are
11. Jesus is nailed to the Cross
Nailed to the Cross. Jesus knows that He is going to die. God has told Him what happens next but He’s never been dead before. What is really going to happen next?
It’s easy to worry about the unknown and be anxious about how we will deal with new people, places, ideas.
Now is the time to ask Jesus to be with you when you doubt
12. Jesus dies on the Cross
Before He dies, He asks God “Why have you abandoned me?” This is the blackest and bleakest space.
How often do we feel alone? How often do the things we are called to do make us lonely? How often do we feel that God has abandoned us?
Now is the time to ask God for His presence in those times
13. Jesus’ body is removed from the Cross
Joseph of Arimathea was a secret follower of Jesus. Now when it’s most dangerous to be known as a disciple, he asks for permission to take Jesus’ body down from the Cross. He risks everything and steps into the light.
We are often slow to step up to the responsibility that comes with the privilege of knowing God.
Now is the time to ask God for the courage to step into the Light.
14. Jesus’ body is laid in the tomb
A body. All that hope, all that promise. Gone. Dead.
When people die all we are left with is a shell. A body. We bury them. Death can bleach our world of colour. We can’t imagine our future without the person we love and it’s too painful to look at our past.
Now is the time to ask God for the vision to see beyond the bleakness of this moment
15. Jesus rises from the dead
Empty tomb. Jesus’ followers are really panicking now. What’s happened? Has someone stolen His body? Where is our Lord? He did speak about being raised from the dead, is this what He meant?
It’s not always how we think it’s going to be but God keeps His promises. We don’t know the details of the plan, we have to trust Him.
Happy Monday! How are we all doing? Before lockdown it was always a worry to me that Monday Misc was always the same, I was working either at work or on the plot and that was it.
Now we’re all doing the same thing every week, no one is going away, moving house or having dinner with friends or going out to eat, I don’t feel so bad about the complete sameness of my week. I had another bout of ‘peri-menopause flu’, but I wasn’t sure if that’s what it was on Wednesday night, as an overweight asthmatic, my chances of getting away with it aren’t if I do catch it. However, I was fine on Thursday, so thanks for the scare hormones and once this is over the GP and I need to have a discussion about some kind of HRT!
Other than that, I sowed some seeds, worked on the plot, went shopping, cooked, worked from home, only saw other people via facetime and read some books.
This week, I’ll only be working from home for three days, I have Thursday off and then it’s Easter. I shall be spending Easter in a sugar coma and have some Vimto jelly babies for the occasion which is just the combination of my dreams!
Nic Dempsey 