Studies Of Longleat Trees

 The trees at Longleat stately home are amazingly varied. A friend has been looking for pictures of nice gnarly tree roots, and I thought that these filled the bill admirably :-)

 


It is difficult to portray the size of the roots; these small ones were the at least the diameter of my thigh.

And a close-up view.

To give an idea of the scale, the seat in the back left will hold at least four people seated.

This is a different tree in an adjacent part of the
Park.

Its roots are very much smaller than the giant we saw earlier, which is probably at least a hundred years older as Longleat House was built in the mid 1500s.

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Book Review - A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy

A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy - Walking with Mary from Conception to Baptism
By Sarah A. Reinhard

Ave Maria Press, 24th September  2012


We are all used to the typical pregnancy manuals, which tell you about what physical changes to expect and how your unborn baby is developing at each stage in the pregnancy, week by week.  These books are indeed good, but the emotional/spiritual side of pregnancy, with its delights, joys and fears is more often than not given very short shrift indeed.

This excellent book fills the gap brilliantly, covering both the physical changes in mother and baby as well as giving the reader much food for thought and reflection on all aspects of the spiritual side of pregnancy, birth and afterwards.

Based on the mysteries of  the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  and therefore aimed primarily at a Roman Catholic audience, it is also eminently suitable for  those of a high church Anglican/Episcopalian background. Some things are likely to be unfamilar to those outside the RC Church, such as Purgatory the chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Litany of the Sacred Heart and the Via Matris devotions.
 Reading it from an Eastern Orthodox point of view, I found much of beauty and value for Orthodox Christians too, especially those following the Western Rite who may well be more familiar with the imagery of the Rosary.

The author has a great love for the Mother of God, often addressing her affectionally and informally as Mama Mary. Chapters are based on the weeks of pregnancy, outlining what is happening with mother and baby, possible events such as ultrasounds and hospital appointments, followed by devotional reflections about how Mary might have felt at various points in the mysteries included in the Rosary devotion. Scripture is cited and a brief prayer relating to pregnancy rounds off each chapter. It is a simple but effective format.

There are also "hard" things that may need to be dealt with, and the author and guest writers do not shy away from these less than happy aspects of pregnancy. Miscarriage, eating disorders and depression in pregnancy, the diagnosis of major congenital abnormality in the baby,  stillbirth and those cases when labour does not go as expected or planned are all discussed.  Extensive suggestions for  spiritual preparation for labour as well as the physical aspects are given, as are  ideas for adapting to life with a new baby and the important task of preparing for the baby's baptism .


The only thing which did make me pause for thought was the mention of the author picturing the Holy Spirit as a spouse rather than the more traditional imagery of a dove or flame, which did strike a slightly discordant note to me as I am far more used to reading Christ described as a Bridegroom rather than the Holy Spirit, but it was obviously of value to the author in appreciating the work of the Paraclete.


I so wish that this book had been available when I was pregnant with my daughters as I would have greatly enjoyed using it !

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Book Review - The Struggle

The Struggle
by Wanda E. Brunstetter
Barbour Publishing, 2012


Marriage, parenting, family partings and bereavement are the major themes underpinning this remarkable new book by Wanda Brunstetter.

When his marriage appears to be in trouble and his wife is constantly turning to her mother for support and friendship instead of to her husband,  it seems to a worried Timothy Fisher that the best thing he can do to save his marriage is to move his wife and daughter from their tightly-knit Amish community in Paradise, Pennsylvania, to the area in Kentucky where two of his brothers have already settled.

His wife Hannah faces the move with despair and trepidation. Following her miscarriage, she has retreated into herself, turned away from Timothy and has become a sharp-tongued, unhappy, rather selfish woman who has problems interacting with other people and is focused almost exclusively on her own wishes and needs and not on what is best for her marriage or her extended family. Her attitude causes problems for Timothy's brothers' families,  her own parents and Amish friends alike.  Their Englisher friends also find their romantic relationships don't always run smoothly either, and there were several points in the story where I had serious anxieties as to how things would be resolved.

  Just when it seems there could conceivably be a happy resolution to their marital difficulties, a disaster of unimaginable proportions strikes Timothy and Hannah.  Can anything be done to salvage their marriage ?

I thought it would be difficult for Wanda to trump her wonderful "The Half-stitched Amish Quilting Club", but she has done so, and I can't wait to sit down to read and savour  "The Struggle" again very soon.

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Book Review - Eat The City

Eat The City
by Robin Shulman
Crown Publishing Group (NY),  July 2012

You know you are dealing with a truly extraordinary book when you see the jaw-droppingly wonderful subtitle :
A Tale of the Fishers, Trappers, Hunters, Forages, Slaughterers, Butchers, Farmers, Poultry Minders, Sugar Refiners, Cane Cutters, Beekeepers, Winemakers, and Brewers who built New York.

That is a tall order to fulfill, but the book achieves it easily, starting with modern-day efforts to grow food in urban areas on individual and collective levels, which in turn leads Shulman to wonder how people managed to provide food in the city in times past. The journey into the past proves to be fascinating for Shulman and the reader alike.

New York has always been  incredibly cosmopolitan, attracting entrepreneurs and impoverished immigrants alike, all drawn to the prospect of a better life or of making a fortune. Food related areas are shown on historical maps with names evocative of long ago, but people do indeed still grow food, rear livestock and produce beer and wine within the confines of the bustling city,  through the determined efforts of citizens wishing to improve their areas and use vacant lots to grow food rather than be used as hideouts for hoodlums.

The chapter about meat production and butchery is a bit gruesome in places which rather made me wish I hadn't read it immediately after eating my lunch . I particularly enjoyed reading about Andrew Cote, an urban beekeeper who has hives on the rooftops of buildings and helps an enormous variety of other people to set up their own urban hives, producing unique honey which takes its flavour from the plants growing in the area. The mystery of the glowing bees and the bright red honey was fascinating and could even have been the subject of a detective novel.

This was an engaging and absorbing book, and one I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

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Book Review - Adventures Among Birds

Adventures Among Birds
by W H Hudson
Published by Collins  2012  (HarperCollins UK)

Written by an outstanding and dedicated ornithologist and conservationist who truly delighted in all aspects of the natural world, this remarkable and absorbing book was first published by Collins in 1913 and now is re-issued with a superb and affectionate introduction by Robert Macfarlane.


Hudson, born in 1841, was unabashed about forcefully expressing his point of view, making his writings frank, refreshing and disarming. The book is primarily about the variety of relationship between humans and birds, and is divided into chapters covering different birds and their habitats although there are several references to animal species too. His unusual childhood (he was born in Argentina) saw his love of birds begin with the gift of his captive Cardinal bird, whose attempts to escape taught Hudson a salutary lesson, that even to a bird, freedom is a goal and a blessing.

Hudson's descriptions of places are very evocative and almost poetic in their beauty; I have visited Wells-Next-The-Sea myself on a few occasions, and he captures the spirit of this remote Norfolk spot wonderfully. One of his favourite places, it was and still is a veritable haven for all wildlife and is especially good for observing coastal and migratory birds.  It is wild, untamed and contains a large variety of habitats in a fairly small geographical area, yet Hudson delights in observing and describing the locals and visitors to the area as well as his painstaking and wonderfully detailed depictions of the birds, and he does this throughout the book to a pleasing result. Many snippets of history and folklore are mentioned, and apt excerpts from poetry both well-known and little-known appear at intervals throughout the book.

Hudson proved himself to be good at understanding what motivates much of the human behaviour he has observed, and although understanding and sometimes truly sympathetic, his ability to produce often caustic wry comments  regularly made chuckle.

One chapter stands pre-eminent for me, and that is the chapter about the common blackbird entitled Avalon and the Blackbird. Hudson dexribes his meetings with  Mr Blythe Bond, responsible for the restoration of Glastonbury Abbey who had carefully chronicled the variety  of songs and calls made by  his local blackbird, which leads Hudson to investigate in greater detail and outline the research done by others into the wide mimicry of which birds are undoubtedly able, and to discuss whether or not they are capable of true innovation and evolution of their own song patterns as opposed to the simple mimicry of other sounds in their environment.

However,  it is his commentary on the way birds were persecuted and hunted almost to extinction even during his own lifetime which tugs at the heartstrings.  Hudson was a founder member of the RSPB  and a fervent supporter of attempts to introduce the legal protection of threatened species and efforts to secure tracts of land which would be able to act as nature reserves in a determined attempt to halt the seemingly wholesale destruction of iconic species. His passionate commentaries about the need to regulate the hunting of birds are thankfully nowadays to a large extent at least partially redundant due to the introduction of conservation legislation into the UK.

He travelled widely and had an enormous wealth of knowledge of birds. His observations of the natural patterns of behaviour of many species are accuarate and insightful, and although almost a hundred years old, this book continues to be of inestimable value to any admirer or student of birds, people's attitudes to birds or of a way of life which, in Britain, is long since gone.

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Book Review - Need You Now

Need You Now (Part 1)
by Beth Wiseman
Published by Thomas Nelson, 2012

Darlene Henderson and her family have moved to the country, to the small farm previously owned by her grandparents. Her children find the move from their old friends and lifestyle hard, but gradually they all begin to make new friends. One of their biggest surprises is when they find their nearest neighbour is a wealthy but unhappy former Hollywood film star.

Darlene and Brad consider their marriage and family life to be happy and rock-solid, founded on their deep religious beliefs and lifestyle, but what Darlene doesn't realise is that things are very far from right with Grace, the one of their three children who has never previously given them any cause for concern other than her initial health issues as a premature baby.

When Darlene starts a new job as a teaching assistant at a small school for special needs children, she meets the lonely father of one of her charges. Because of her job, her own children are left to their own devices at home far more than they ever previously were when they lived in the city...........and soon, everything is at risk of changing. Brad is unhappy that Darlene stayed out very late at a charity function with their famous neighbour, Grace is unhappy and self-harming, and there is huge potential for disaster in this once-happy family.

To say it whetted my appetite to see what will happen next is an understatement. Nicely paced and well written, the characters are thoughtfully portrayed. A thoroughly enjoyable piece of contemporary fiction !
The whole story is now available  as an e-book, and I can't  wait to find out whether disaster will strike this likeable family, or whether they will all pull together and sort out their problems  :-)

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Book Review - Confessions Of A Male Nurse

 Confessions of a Male Nurse
by Michael Alexander

Published by The Friday Project (Harper Collins UK), May 2012

As I have had the misfortune of needing four operations already this year, I have spent a goodly amount of time in hospital, and this was one of the books in my Read & Review list.
 The book consists of short chapters, ideal for intermittent reading .I am so glad I read it, as it was one of the most thoughtful books I have read this year. 

Having worked in a hospital myself,  it rang so authentically - and in some places, horrifyingly - true. Understaffed wards, sometimes insufficiently trained medical and nursing staff and unsupportive management are the things all hospital staff deal with at some time or another, and this book, although rip-roaringly amusing in places, pulls no punches at all about the quite dreadful impact these scenarios can have on patient care and staff safety alike.
  Despite this sobering aspect, the camaraderie, team spirit and good humour the author encounters in the hospitals in which he works provides some heart-warming episodes too.  Parts of the book are quite literally hysterically funny and made me loud out loud on many occasions.

The British NHS has many good points , but it did not surprise me that eventually the author decided to go back to work in New Zealand where nurses are valued more and work in better conditions.

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Book Review - A Season Of Love

A Season Of  Love
by Amy Clipston

Book 5 of the Kauffman Amish Bakery series.

Published by Zondervan, 2012

Katie is helping her pregnant Aunt Rebecca  while one of her own best friends, Rebecca's niece Lindsay, is in the Englisher world helping care for her brevet-aunt who has had an accident. The focus is very much on Katie in this book, starting with her decision to tell Lindsay about Rebecca's delicate state of health with a complicated pregnancy.


Katie, Lindsay and Lizzie Anne are delighted to be reunited again  and Lindsay decides that she definitely wants to be baptised in the fall with her friends and also finds herself  developing a romantic relationship with her dear friend Matthew. 

Katie feels very left out as she has no boyfriend and when her brother Samuel proposes to her friend Lizzie, she is bitterly hurt. She becomes closer to Jake, a distant Mennonite family relative but she knows a relationship between an Amish girl and a Mennonite boy will be unacceptable to her family especially as she has now been baptised into the church and is expected to abide by stricter rules of conduct than before...

What the Englisch would regard as unremarkable is not necessarily acceptable to the Amish when such behaviour is regarded as drawing attention and remark to oneself or one's family. A series of innocent mistakes and mishaps causes great family tension and misunderstandings; Katie's father has not been the most tolerant character in the previous books and he comes across as insecure and rather aggressive and domineering at times in this one. He may be a good provider for his family, but he is not a good father; his mishandling of the situations means that poor Katie's life veers from bad to worse in a short space of time and the tension affects every member of the extended family, whether directly or indirectly..

Unhappy, confused and feeling totally misunderstood, Katie struggles with the restrictions placed upon her, and even her close  friendship with Lindsay is seriously threatened by the events which unfold. I don't want to spoil the story, so I will not divulge the denouement.........

The book focuses very much on the younger members of the extended Kauffman family, and it is lovely to see what happens to these three dear friends as they mature and make decisions for their adult lives.
As always, the recipes insterpersed in the book are a delight.

A  throughly enjoyable read and end to the Kauffman Bakery families' story.

 Thank you, Amy !

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A Summer Walk

             I thought you might enjoy sharing a typical summer walk with Prince Vasyl.

As we reach the brow of the hill, we see a garden with sweet-scented lavender,

red and purple fuschias and pink hydrangeas hanging over the wall. 

We always stop to admire them !

The village is ancient; the Church was started soon after the Norman Conquest

and many of the cottages around it have very old foundations

 even if the later additions are Tudor......

Some of the new buildings are in mock-Tudor style,

 but don't quite manage to deceive :-)

I have been told this is an historic fire insurance plaque.......

The view of the sea from the top of the hill.

And the view of the Norman Church tower, which dominates the village.

The view of the North and Eastern aspects of the Church

 through the iron gate into the churchyard.

One of the Celtic Cross stones, though of relatively recent date.

Local folklore is adamant that Dick turpin's family are

 buried in this set of graves

 directly under the ancienty yew tree.

I have not done any research to say

 yea or nay to this popular belief :-)

The view from the Turpin graves is a tranquil one indeed !

The churchyard is completely full and only families with

an existing grave with space left in it can be buried here. 

 It is possible for cremated remains to be scattered in one small area.

All other burials have to take place in the municipal cemetery.

I love the angel graves.

This evening primrose plant has seeded itself and also

established itself  near adjoining graves.

 It looks and smells wonderful.

The grave plot of an Italian family, which is very ornate

 for a simple Anglican country churchyard

I love  this one.

And this marks the entrance to an underground burial vault.

This one is right next to the boundary wall

separating the churchyard from the children's playground.

This one makes me think of giant chess pieces.

And this one has fallen into disrepair and had

 to be dismantled and laid flat for safety reasons.

This one is completely overgrown with foliage.

The buttresses of the massive tower are very impressive !

The crenellations of the tower were invaluable for defence in troubled times,

 as were the narrow arrow-slit windows.

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Harvest Begins

Harvest has begun in the fields near us.

Hay bales are appearing.....

The farmer had finished for the day, leaving the machinery

 in the field to provide a nice block of colour.

Looking down the sloping field.

The dune system, the beach with the tide out

and houses on the other side of the bay are visible.

The view through the hedge separating the field from nearby houses.

My favourite of the photos.

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Letting Go

We are putting our house up for sale.

Not a decision taken lightly, but we need to "downsize" a little to save money, and it will also be a chance to get a house in a slightly quieter location as we do get a huge volume of traffic rushing past our front garden, day and night. Although my rational mind accepts and acknowledges the validity of our decision, my heart does not. I find myself  wandering round the house, my hands gently touching the things I see, and then invariably heading towards the kitchen door.

Opening it is almost like opening  the door to a different world. My beautiful back garden is filled with the hum of contented bees as they buzz around the plants and herbs, many of which are in flower at the moment. The smell of the garden is indescribably wonderful; early in the morning when the dew is still present as it potentiates the heady smell of the lavender, honeysuckle and raspberries growing in close proximity to each other. If I brush past the bay tree, the heavy scent of the leaves is almost intoxicating, and further up the garden is my beloved white rose tree which smells so fragrantly of Turkish Delight and never fails to bring a smile to my face.

I shall miss it so very much. The sadness I feel is so strong it produces a physical pain. Every day brings a procession of varied birds to the feeding station visible from the window, who like the shelter the garden provides as well as the fruit and berries for their delectation. It will take many years to build a garden similar to this one, many years of relative barrenness as the trees, plants and shrubs I hope and plan to plant will slowly, so slowly, grow their way to maturity.

I wish I did not have this inbuilt resistance to change, this inability to live for the moment, enjoy and then let go gracefully and embrace what new things may lie in store.

I will not mourn the house, but I will mourn for the loss of my precious garden and its living things. Even the creep-crawlies.

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Book Review - A Promise For Miriam

A Promise For Miriam
by Vannetta Chapman

Harvest House Publishers, 2012

This is the first in a new series, The Pebble Creek Amish.

The story starts with a tragedy. When five year old Grace Miller's mother dies, she is savagely berated for crying by her grandfather. The normally articulate child becomes introverted and simply stops speaking at all.
Her father Gabe eventually decides they need to make a new start, and he and Grace leave their Amish community and move to another community far away in Pebble Creek, Wisconsin.

When Grace starts school, her teacher, spinster Miriam King, is nonplussed by this unusual little girl and her taciturn and inward-looking father. Miriam is a a rather more feisty Amish heroine than we have come to expect, but her attempts to take matters into her own hands and get Grace talking again are met with pasive and then active resistance from Gabe, who is content to leave Grace come to terms with things in her own way and in her own time.

Gabe finds the demands of running the farm and trying to renovate the almost derelict house and buildings on his own to be an all encompassing task, especially in the bitter winter, and tragedy almost ensues when Grace is left alone in the house......

Will Gabe give in and accept the help offered by his neighbours? Will he allow Miriam to help Grace speak again ? Read it and find out !

All the main charcters are well-drawn, believable and very alive to the reader, and I found it impossible not to cheer Miriam on in her efforts to do what she thinks is best for Grace, and ultimately for Gabe too. I am really looking forward to seeing what happens next in this series.

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Checking And Giggling

DH and I were trying to work out how old his web-book is, as the work he is needing to do on it is causing the poor little machine to struggle mightily and he really needs an up-to-date machine.

I had the brainwave of checking my blog because I knew I had written a blogpost about getting my machine some months before The Hubster bought his....and lo and behold, I found the post in all its glory and giggled all the way through reading it as it brought back so many memories from December 2008.

So here, for your delectation, is That Post :-)

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Book Giveaway !!

 We have a winner !!!

I didn't realise so many of my blog-readers are also secret Amish fiction fans; I enjoyed reading the comments here and the emails I received.

Shelley, who commented on the blog post is the winner, so could you please email me: orthodoxmum at gmail dot com
with your name and mailing address so I can get the book in the post to you.







 I am absolutely delighted to be able to host my first ever book giveaway on The Garden Window blog !

Jerry Eicher has kindly donated and sent a *signed* copy of  his book "Missing Your Smile", which is the first in his bestselling Fields of Home series;  you may remember that I read, enjoyed and reviewed book 2 in this series,  Following Your Heart , back in February and his stand-alone book My Dearest Naomi in April.

It has been a delight to finally find out the full story of what happened between Susan Hostetler and her two-timing, smooth-tongued fiance Thomas to prompt her to leave her Amish home and family to live in the city of Asbury Park and attempt to carve out a new life for herself in the Englisha world.  Despite its strangeness and very real dangers, Susan begins to find her feet in this unfamiliar new world.

She finds employment, friendship with young folk of her own age, learns to drive - though not without some hair-raising experiences both for her and her patient coach Robbie, embarks on a possible romance with a  young businessman, studies and gains qualifications. Her avowed aim, to leave her Amish background far in the past, seems to be going well - until she meets a troubled young pregnant woman living in miserable circumstances and involved with a no-good boyfriend.  Teresa is desperate to find a good, loving and deeply Christian home for her unborn baby and asks Susan's help to find a suitable Amish family.

Susan wants to help, but fears the repercussions a visit to her community will have on her new life. She knows how desperately her parents have missed her from their loving and poignant letters to her but can she bear to go back once more and leave the world of Asbury Park behind? Or can she bear to put her family through the pain of having to part from her once again?

So much of this book resonates deeply. Early on in the book, her parents' very real pain and anguish, wanting what is best for their youngest daughter and also wanting to follow what is God's Will reduced me to tears. Susan's struggle to get used to the idea of using electricity and her fear of using the microwave was both touching and utterly believable. Jerry Eicher was born and raised Amish himself, and the book is filled with authenticity about both the Amish and Englisha worlds. Both worlds are depicted realistically, warts and all, and unlike in many Amish-themed books, Susan's choice is not a clearcut one.

If you would like to enter the draw for the book, just leave a comment here or email me at orthodox mum at g mail dot com by 6pm GMT on Sunday 15th July :-)

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Safely Home

 Thank you all for your prayers; I am safely back home after my operation - the fourth since the middle of March.

It was initially extremely painful, but I am reasonable comfortable today as long as I rest regularly and for good periods of time.

I am now officially categorised as difficult to intubate after two successive operations; to read about my latest escapade, wander over to my MiscellaneousMumblings blog entry .

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Just Thinking

Updated to add:
I chatted to the lovely anaesthetist who looked after me yesterday, and he assures me that ether and chloroform both rapidly fell into disuse after the discovery of the drug Halothane in the mid-1950s, and by the time he was training in the late 80s, no-one ever learned how to use them, and by then, even Halothane was being superseded  by newer drugs such as Cyclopropane.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



I've been busy packing my suitcase and preparing my things to get ready to go into hospital this afternoon in preparation for my operation later this evening.

We really are incredibly fortunate to be living in the age we do, even if we may not think it at times!

If it were not for modern medicine, I would not be able to have this surgery; although not necessarily a life-threatening problem, it is an uncomfortable, debilitating, unpleasant problem and it limits my normal functioning. It is treatable, though not always completely successfully, and that is a small risk I am choosing to take.

 Like all surgery, there is also an element of risk in undergoing anaesthesia and a risk of post-operative infection, but if there were to be a sudden major disaster scenario or major economic collapse etc, modern medicine as we know it would most likely grind to a halt and we would see a very rapid reversion to the fairly primitive medical provision of at least a hundred if not two hundred years ago.

Would I want to undergo this surgery without any anesthesia ? No, I would just put up with my current level of discomfort and inconvenience and manage as best I could.

 How many people have the knowledge or the ability to be able to produce even basic anaesthetic drugs such as ether or chloroform? How many doctors have had any experience of ever using these drugs to safely anaesthetize a patient for surgery ? I would imagine that only quite elderly doctors or those who have had experience of working in Third World Countries would have this knowledge or expertise. Many operations would be completely unthinkable without having safe blood transfusions readily available and mortality rates would be high.

It is a sobering thought, isn't it ?

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