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The compost heap today

My mobile is thinking that "/ "is the sign I need now. Our invalid spent some time with his chances described in % terms, and my mobile picked up on this and kept this symbol on the top row whenever I wrote a message. Now the mobile is foregrounding /. This is because nothing seems to be known, and I'm writing 'I hope he has some enjoyable few more hours/days/weeks/months/years', and perhaps that is also true of all of us. We live with this sign hovering around us all and what we might do/what might happen to us.

Some days are like collections of fragments, with all kinds of information coming in; and today I read that the town of Todmorden in W Yorks has set up a scheme to promote locally grown veg, with 70 veg plots scattered around the town, and plans for 1000 fruit trees to be planted. I keep going on about the need for community orchards, and it's good to see that I'm not alone in these obsessions. http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/projects.  

His first/last frost

Another fragment was that a quarter of all women in the UK are obese, thus the fattest in Europe. There's something wrong with this place! Could the lack of decent cycle provision have anything to do with it? Then the day seemed all bitty, ending with me wondering if I had done anything at all. But I started by springing about the place marvelling at this thing called Frost, which we haven't had for a while, and such a novelty it was that I thought I had to photograph it (yesterday's pics of Humber mud paled into insignificance at the side of it). Looking more closely, I saw a frozen centipede, and wondered whether this little creature would come back to full wiggly life after he has thawed out? he might/might not. There could be a prize if you can spot this little creature also in the pic at the top of the page.

Noticing birds descending on the good crop of holly berries this year, I went out to bag a few sprigs for decking the halls, and this gave me a good-grandma kind of a glow; that, and having made the Christmas puddings. I'm sure we need this 'all is safely gathered in' feeling especially now that chill winds of all kinds are blowing across the western world. Am I just in a mood, or does the world seem a chillier place than in 1976 when general happiness was said to be at its height? So I quite like this pic for its suggestion of melancholy/hope, and its monochrome/splash of colour quality.

But then, going back inside I was doubly warmed by the kitchen, and the fact that I've spent a couple of days dyeing fabrics and threads for my project. I could spend my time just doing this; the ultimate experience for those who have always liked colouring-in. 

But the memory of yesterday's mud is elbowing its way in, and I'm going to  have to celebrate it here. I could have watched the 'Humber mud south' all day; there were ripples going in one direction, the tide flowing out in another; mesmerising.Makes you forget everything else. Don't knock it till you've tried it. And if even Humber mud doesn't pep you up, see this link to our new bish's enthronement sermon http://www.lincoln.anglican.org/#jumpnews
and do click on the you-tube therein!

Humber mud, north

Humber mud, south