Tuesday 21 April 2015

A lament

To be out on the hills or down on the fells
The sun on your back and the rock.
The last of the snow rolling into the brook
Tears of a mountain in shock.
 
A breeze from the south and southward down
The stones on the steepening slope,
Lay silent and gave no reply to the call
Nor offered up any more hope.
 
We looked for you from the ridge and the edge
And to you we sent all our aid,
But the hills and the rocks knew, as we knew it too,
That you lay and there would be laid.
 

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Vegetable War Poetry

This all came from a misheard comment in a telephone conversation.


Down to the pits went the potatoes and carrots,
     Down to the earth followed the leeks and the swedes,
Laid out in rows a target for maggots,
     While the cabbage whites wheeled overhead.


Peas shoot with pea shooters
The crack shot team from the pod.
While the butternuts squash
And the earth leaks leeks
And the sky rains tears from God.


Press we to the field ungrieving,
In our heart of hearts believing.
This time the victory will be ours,
This year will see us rise our flowers
Above the dark, embittered ground
From which our roots will ne'er be found,
By mankind, though he digs for hours
And use his breath and many powers.
So press we to the field ungrieving,
In our heart of hearts believing.

(My thanks to Thomas Hardy for the opening lines of that last one)

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Ducks and Cows

Regulations state that if a wandering cow comes within 30 metres of the back of the archery range the session must stop until the cow has moved on, either of its own accord or by persuasion, usually the former. This poses a few problems because our archery range backs on to a cow farm.

Equally troublesome at the moment are the ducks, who either distract the kids by getting over frisky on the lake, or by building nests in unfortunate places. Currently there are two sets of well guarded eggs, one in the bottom of the abseil tower (we're still not certain how they got in) and this one, dangerously placed opposite a basketball net.

 
Meanwhile, there are increasingly new ways of spelling my name:
 
 

Friday 3 April 2015

A Good Friday for Everyone

The centre has become very multi-cultural in the past few days, or more so than usual. Today I counted staff from 7 different nations and 3 different continents in the canteen and that didn't include the 90 or so Italian guests we have had on site this past week.

Good Friday has important multi-cultural theme, it is the day when salvation was brought to the world, rather than just one nation, and the freedom to meet God was given to all races and peoples. The death of Jesus was planned by the Jews and carried out by the Gentiles. People of different backgrounds, beliefs and nationalities were brought together in a horrific act that in a mysterious and brilliant way became a beautiful expression of love and redemption for everyone.