Sarah and Hagar, wells, bikes, flowery hats, household hints.

Really one ought to resist the temptation to start a blog entry with 'Phew! Worraday!' but somehow I have to. These last few days I've been trying to do my half hour of bohemian housework (which expands, and does cutting the grass count?) and also to do some reading towards my proposed Sarah and Hagar piece of textile-art-work. So here you can see the books on the table including http://www.amazon.com/Hagar-Sarah-Their-Children-Perspectives/dp/0664229824, which is where I start; with some exegesis helped by coloured pencils and sketchbook. (As an amateur bookbinder, that Bible bought in 1973 is crying out to me...) I became fascinated with Genesis ch. 21 in particular, with its story about the survival of Hagar and Ishmael through sheltering the lad under a bush and then finding a well to which Hagar was directed by an angel. The latter part of the chapter is about Abraham and features his concern for another well, and planting a grove of trees. The commentaries don't mention the connections that you can see I'm making, the idea that Abraham is trying to make it possible for other cast-off people to survive; they only talk about Abraham celebrating the birth of Isaac, and I want to try to find out whether it's just my hair-brained idea, or whether I could make it the subject of the PhD I will never do.

It's seen better days

'Fairy' rose

But then wells cropped up again today, when our Jez did a fly through Barton on his bike with a bunch of his engineer mates, on a ride from Lincoln to the Humber Bridge and back. Some of them came from even further, from Sutton Bridge well south, and so did over a hundred miles in one day. Knowing it was our garden party today, and that I hoped to bike out to meet Jez & his friends somewhere on the bridge, I decided I could easily make my outfit dual-purpose, and so I quickly - wish I'd thought earlier, it was a rushed job - tied a few sprigs from our Fairy rose that is so resplendent just now, to my cycle helmet. It's a bit bedraggled now, of course. The helmet could have been very necessary, as on the way down from the bridge as I got up to my heady 30 mph, my back brake fell to pieces with a loud Bang! Thank goodness I had a front brake, or I'd have been in pieces myself. But what Jez didn't tell me until he got here was that he was doing a sponsored ride as part of the East Midlands group of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

Wells: the charities Jez's bunch was supporting do all kinds of clever things throughout the world; young people wanting to make the world a better place; and they explained it simply to me as 'Things like making wells in Africa', and how topical that is with me; how important water is. Like I said the other day when I mentioned that charity Practical Action, it's the simplest things that are so necessary, and the more simple and clever the way of getting it, the more people are able to have it.

At church with Jez & friends

www.brunelthebear.org.uk/eastmid

supporting
www.engineersagainstpoverty.org
www.redr.org.uk
www.ewb-uk.org

Mother and son reunited on the Humber bridge

At the end of the day as I was about to start writing this, I received sad news of a SOTS scholar in Germany having been found dead in his flat after a heart attack; is there anythng more sad than to die alone? So I end this blog feeling really proud of my li'l boy, and very sad about this death of a lovely man who two years ago commented on my flowery hat, and last year complained because I came to SOTS without one! As I searched for Jez on the bridge, I ran into (not literally - they had a lucky escape since the brake was so near death) a bunch of walkers raising money for leprosy charities; one of them commented on my flowery helmet and said, 'It brings a smile to our faces'. If by doing that I can make anyone aware of the good things done by people who do real stuff rather than talking like I do, then I'll be well pleased: flowery hats in favour of world peace and an end to poverty.

Lovely young people

PS While at the church fete, I bought a book published in 1954 called 'Modern Household Encyclopaedia. Over 8000 hints... A goldmine of household information'. I'll be bringing you some of the wisdom contained in this in due course, when I've tested all the hints. Meanwhile, my own suggestion: I thought about how my steam iron, having not been used for a few days, was surely about to sprout green algae on its insides. What to do should this happen? I suggest applying to have it awarded the status of 'Site of Special Scientific Interest' (SSSI). Next problem please..... Oh all right then, just one from the book: 'Container for cleaning agents. To make cardboard box sturdy to hold cleaning materials for kitchen or bathroom, dip the whole box, or at least the bottom, in melted paraffin.' I can see I'm not going to be able to live without nightly readings from this book.