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Sorry, this picture is so similar to the sp I uploaded but I liked it anyway.
I'm so antsy right now because I just got an idea for tomorrow's picture but I know I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about it until tomorrow.
Viewing on black makes a huge difference.... plus the focus looks a little odd small, you really need to see this bigger.
a 1969 4 door Morris Minor * (British)
following a 1966 Ford Mustang * (American )
~ Newlands Corner ..
"A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.”
Quote by "Winnie the Pooh"
Make a difference today! Happy Monday
This looks so much better when Viewed On Black
From my garden. Ferns to Flickr. They are steadily unfolding and now's the perfect time to get some macro shots.
Fern: Polypodiopsida, Polypodiophyta
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No Group Awards/Banners, thanks
This train is on the original alignment up Steelton Hill and on the left you can see the brushing that is taking place for the new double track grade. This overpass for the NP (Willard Munger Trail) will remain and there will be a new bridge just to the west of this to span the new grade.
The Scriptures present us with a variety of visible images which signify the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. These signs include wind, fire, breath, and rivers of living waters. You and I have been called to experience the adventure of life in and with the Holy Spirit. We all need the Fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In fact, Ephesians 5:18 urges us to constantly be filled with the Spirit. If you are in a place of hunger for more, you will be blessed by this teaching entitled Fire of the Holy Spirit.
Signs of fire in Scripture signify in a special way God’s holy presence, power, and glory, as well as the purification and cleansing action of the Holy Spirit. Some examples include:
• The Burning Bush – Exodus 3
• The Pillar of Fire in the wilderness – Exodus 13:21-22
• The Consuming Fire on Mount Carmel – 1 Kings 18:17-40
• The Burning Coal that purified the lips of Isaiah the Prophet – Isaiah 6:6-7
• The Tongues of Fire at Pentecost – Acts 2:1-4
• God’s Consuming Fire in the new heavenly Jerusalem – Hebrews 12:22,28
The role of the Holy Spirit is not an ‘optional extra’ for Christians; He is the very essence of our relationship with the Father and the means to accomplish what we have been called to do. We have generations of people that don’t know what it means to experience the Holy Spirit, and that in itself is heart-breaking. However, ordinary people filled with Fire can make all the difference.
I feel it is right to show you this life changing teaching and pray that the principles expressed in the teaching will take root in your life. For over four decades we as a ministry have seen the Holy Spirit radically transform people’s lives, bodies, relationships and circumstances. We’ve seen millions set on Fire from above and we want to see that same Fire released in your life.
FIRE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. ”But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:1-4 & 10-12
YOUR WILDERNESS IN LIFE – THE PERFECT CONDITIONS TO CATCH FIRE
The first thing I want you to notice is the location where Moses encountered the Fire of God. I want you to notice that it doesn’t say that when Moses encountered the Fire he was lying next to a lush green pasture next to a cool bubbling brook of water surrounded by lilies. It doesn’t say that he encountered the Fire of God sitting in a 5-star resort getting massages. The Bible says that when Moses encountered the Fire of God he was in the desert.
In fact, let me take it one step further, the Bible actually says that Moses was on the backside of the desert when he encountered the Fire of God. Now, how many of you know that the desert is a dry place, the desert is a thirsty place, the desert is a lonely place. Yet, this is the place where God chose to reveal himself to Moses through this burning bush of fire.
We all go through times of difficulty, we all face trials. Maybe as you sit and read this teaching you don’t feel the presence of God, maybe you’re going through the most challenging wilderness experience you’ve ever experienced. I have good news for you; the dryer a piece of wood is, the quicker it catches on fire.
When the Lord Jesus began his public ministry, the first thing that John the Baptist said about him was:
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16).
What does it mean to be baptized with the fire of God's Spirit?
When the Holy Spirit comes he sets our hearts on fire with the love of Jesus Christ. Paul the Apostle tells us that,
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, and pray for the Holy Spirit to be fully released in our lives, what happens – what does the Holy Spirit do?
• The Holy Spirit opens our ears to hear God’s voice – the Spirit enables God’s Word to come alive in us so that God’s word becomes a living and life-changing Word that is sharper than any two-edged sword – Paul the Apostle calls the Word of God the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6).
• The Spirit opens our eyes to give us vision of what God is doing today in the Church, the world, and our personal lives. “Without vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18)
• The Spirit opens our minds to give us knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of God and his ways (Isaiah 11:2). Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach us the truth and help us remember all that Christ has taught (John 14:26; 16:13).
• The Spirit opens our tongues to praise God and to speak his word with faith, conviction, and boldness and to encourage the fainthearted, the hopeless, and the weak.
• The Spirit anoints our hands to bring blessing, healing, comfort, and help to others.
• The Spirit equips our feet with speed and haste to bring the good news of the Gospel to every neighbor near and far.
• The Holy Spirit purifies our hearts and minds and sets us on fire with the love of Christ.
When Jesus began his ministry, he was led by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news of the kingdom to every village, town, and region of Israel. The Spirit gave force or power to every word Jesus spoke. The Spirit revealed the thoughts and intention s of people’s hearts to Jesus. The Spirit empowered Jesus to perform signs and wonders and miracles, and power to free people from Satan’s oppression in their lives.
We are Christ’s body – members of his church on the earth. Jesus calls us to do the same works he did and he equips us with spiritual gifts to carry on the work which he began.
Saint Theresa of Avila (1515-1582) wrote:
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Outpouring of the Holy Spirit today
Why is God pouring out his Holy Spirit today, with signs, healings, and spiritual gifts? I believe one reason is that the Gospel and the Christian people are under unprecedented attack today. We need spiritual power to counter this attack and to proclaim the Gospel in the joy and power of the Holy Spirit. The charismatic renewal is a key part of God’s work to renew, restore, and equip God’s people to stand strong in faith and courage, to persevere with unwavering hope, and to be on fire with the love of Christ. Our task is to make Jesus known and loved by all who will receive him and the good news of salvation he brings.
Our role in the charismatic renewal movement
We are first foremost disciples of Jesus – disciples who are personally committed to the Lord Jesus, to follow him and obey him and to submit to his word for our lives.
The Lord Jesus calls us to be servants just as he came "not to be served, but to serve." As his servants who use their gifts, talents, and time to generously and selflessly serve others to help them grow in faith, hope, and love. We use our gifts, not to build up ourselves, but to build up the body of Christ and to advance his mission in the world.
The charismatic renewal is a sign of what God is bringing about through the gift of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is a visible public sign of the Lord’s work of renewal in bringing people into a revitalized relationship with God and a sign of the unity he desires for all of his people. The Spirit unites, Satan divides. A true sign and fruit of charismatic renewal is love for our church – our church leaders and members, and for all believers who are brothers and sisters in Christ. A sign can’t do everything – but it can point to God and to the work of the Holy Spirit to renew the churches and to bring God’s people into greater unity and love for one another.
Some traps or pitfalls we must avoid
We don’t lead or serve to draw attention to ourselves, to gain esteem, praise, or applause. We serve in humility like John the Baptist who said, “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Our reward comes from our Master Jesus Christ. He suffered abuse, mistreatment, and even rejection, and yet he loved his own to the very end (John 13:1), even those who rejected him and those who nailed him to the cross. Paul the Apostle said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
THE FIRE COMES FIRST
The next thing I want you to notice about this story. This encounter Moses had was the precursor to Moses being sent to Pharaoh, and once Moses went to Pharaoh the greatest story of God’s deliverance and God’s supernatural power that has been recorded, possibly in history, began to unfold. It all started right there at that burning bush; and I see a principle here that is enduring. Before God sends you to Pharaoh, before God sends you to your destiny, before God sends you to do that thing that you were made to do, He is first going to send you to the Fire.
The Fire comes first, that encounter with the presence of God comes first. When Jesus was about to go to heaven He looked down at His disciples and He said I want you to go to Jerusalem, and what? Wait. I want you to go and wait. Now, think about this for a moment. These 12 men were the most experienced and educated and qualified men in things pertaining to Jesus Christ of anybody that has ever walked the earth. Who else got to spend 3 ½ years, every day and every night with Jesus? These men had a PhD in the Jesus Christ school of ministry. If they were alive today, I am sure that every denomination in the world would give them honorary credentials and I’m pretty sure that every Christian University would give them an honorary Doctorate. If ever anybody was qualified to go and preach about Jesus, it was those men. Yet, Jesus looked them square in the eye and said you’re not ready, go to Jerusalem and wait.
What did He say to wait for? It was the promise of the Father. Do you know what the promise of the Father was? It was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew that those men, if they were really going to be able to make a difference in the world, they were going to need the power of the Holy Ghost.
I’m convinced that when it comes to the infilling of the Holy Spirit, one of the main ingredients, if not the main ingredient is hunger. Just hunger! You can have what you want, you can have as much of God as you desire. Do you want Him today? Are you hungry for Him today?
LASTING FIRE OF THE SPIRIT
In Exodus 3:3 when Moses saw the bush he turned aside to see why the bush wasn’t burnt. I want you to notice that it was not the fact that there was a burning bush that impressed Moses so much. A lot of people don’t understand this, they think that it was some unusual sight, some unusual phenomenon and that was the reason Moses thought it was so interesting.
The Bible doesn’t say that Moses was interested because a bush was burning. In fact, there are indeed bushes in the wilderness that spontaneously combust. I’m sure that Moses had seen plenty of them, he had lived there for 40 years. He was interested because a bush kept on burning. I imagine it happened like this. Maybe one day Moses was walking through the wilderness with his sheep, following behind him and he passed this particular spot and looked over to his left side and there he saw the burning bush and he thought to himself, very interesting, one of those burning bushes and he kept going. On his way home that night with the sheep still following behind, he passed that spot and he looked and he saw it was still burning, he said wow, that is the toughest wilderness bush I have ever seen in my whole life and he kept walking.
The next week, Moses was on his way back on that trail again and when he came to that spot he looked and he said I could have sworn that was the same tree that was burning this time last week, but that’s impossible all these bushes look the same, and he kept walking. That night on his way home he saw it again and it was still burning. By this point Moses was starting to get curious, maybe he took some rocks piled them on the path and he said next week when I come back on this way I’m going to check that bush and see what’s happened to it. So he went home.
The next week as he was passing he saw that pile of rocks on the path, it reminded him. Oh yes, that bush was burning here and when he approached it he looked to his left side. Surprise, surprise, the bush was still burning. Maybe, it was at that point that Moses decided to turn aside to see what was going on with this bush.
I remember, when I was first filled with the Holy Spirit as a teenager. Well my friend, that was over 20 years ago now, and I have good news for you. I’m burning brighter today than I was back then and I believe 20 years from now, I will be burning brighter than I am today. The Fire of the Holy Ghost never goes out! Somebody said, ‘How do you keep the Fire burning?’ That’s the wrong way round, the Fire keeps me burning.
The Lord saw that Moses turned aside, that’s when the Lord spoke to him. People ask me all the time about how I hear God’s voice? Notice that the burning bush didn’t start shouting to Moses as he was walking by on the path taking care of his sheep.
The Holy Spirit is patient; He can wait for a long time. What is He waiting for? He’s waiting for you to turn aside and listen. People ask me, why is it that I don’t hear the voice of God? I think most of the time the answer is very simple, you are not listening. If you don’t believe me, let me ask you a question, a little diagnostic. When was the last time you sat in a room for 20 minutes quietly, without the television on, without the radio on, without praise and worship music on, without your mobile phone, without Facebook, without e-mail, you turned everything off and you sat there and said Holy Spirit I have no other agenda, I’m just here to listen, I’m not even here to talk, I’m not here to fill your ears with all of my needs, I’m just here to listen? When was the last time you did that?
DISTINGUISHED BY THE SPIRIT
So Moses turned aside and the Lord spoke to him. Now, I don’t know how many bushes there are in the wilderness, I assume there are a lot. One thing I do know is that there was only one bush in the wilderness that caught Moses’ attention. It was the one bush that was burning with the presence of the living God.
What is the world looking for? Are they looking for us to build nicer buildings? Are they looking for us to have more eloquent preachers? Are they looking for us to have better music? Or better marketing programmes? What is it they want? What we think is relevant to the world is completely irrelevant. We have just begun to become like them, sound like them and act like them, we never confront them, we never offend them, we think that we will win them by looking like them. The church has thought that we can convince the world that they need what we have, by looking, just like they look.
I tell you what we need, Elijah the Prophet discovered it thousands of years ago, when the people of Israel were serving their false God named Baal. Elijah stood up and he said today we have got to make a choice. I say it to you, we have got to make a choice. If Baal is god serve him, if money is your god then serve it, if popularity and acceptance is your god give your life to that, if partying and pleasure is god then live for that, but if Jehovah is God, Elijah said, then serve Him! This was the test, Elijah knew his God and he knew that the authentic God would be able to demonstrate His power.
Elijah said, ‘meet me on top of the mountain, bring all of your 700 prophets and I will stand there as one lonely man representing Jehovah, and we will find out whose God is the true God. The prophets of Baal began to dance and sing, try to call down the fire, Elijah was falling asleep. Not even a puff of smoke from Baal’s alter. After a while Elijah stood up, he said, ‘guys I hate to interrupt it looks like you’re having lots of fun. Don’t worry, maybe Baal is locked in the bathroom - it’s okay. I understand how it is, these gods are unpredictable. Maybe he’s gone on vacation.’ Then Elijah said, ‘Gentlemen before it gets too late, before the sun goes down let me pray. I don’t need a long time, I don’t need to scream and shout, I don’t need to cut myself, all I need to do is speak to God because He’s living.’
Elijah prayed, ‘Lord hear me, let these people know that you are God and that You’ve turned their hearts back to you in the fire.’ The Bible says fire fell from heaven, it consumed the sacrifice and the wood and the stones, it even lit up the water in the trench. Our God is a consuming fire! The world is not looking for pyrotechnics, they are not looking for Rock-n-Roll music, they are not looking for great entertainment. What they are looking for is the reality, the demonstration of the power of God and when they see it they will fall on their faces as the children of Israel did and begin to declare the Lord, He is God.
WHAT ARE YOU BURNING FOR?
This burns in me, we need revival in this nation. We have generations of people that don’t know what it means to experience the Holy Ghost, and it breaks my heart.
Some of us are way too dignified. Often caring too much about what people think or about how we look. If you care more about how you look than receiving the Holy Ghost then you are not hungry, that’s all I can say. A hungry man doesn’t give a flying leap what anybody else thinks. A hungry man has one agenda, to get that food and when you’re hungry for the Holy Ghost everything else in your life will come second to that. You will desire Him more than the air you breathe, you will desire Him more than the food you eat, you will desire Him more than your dignity, you will desire Him more than your reputation, you will desire Him more than your ministry, you will desire Him more than anything!
It is true that people will look at you and look down their nose and say it’s one of those crazy Pentecostals. Oh my friend, don’t worry, I’ll tell you what you do, let that unbelieving sceptic go to a football game. You follow that unbelieving mocker down to the stadium and watch as their team score the goal that wins the game in overtime. Then you will make a discovery, everybody burns! Some people burn for sports, some people burn for money, some people burn for popularity and power and sex and style and fashion. But everybody burns for something. The difference between us and them is that we burn for something that matters!
Yours in the harvest,
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda
46521 leads 78018 away from Quorn - the black BR Standard loco being based on the design of the the green LMS design in front. Saturday of the GCR Winter Gala.
After checking into the hotel I needed some lunch so headed straight for the bar and ordered some lamb chops. Incidentally the lovely receptionist did not bat an eyelid to meeting yet another tgirl. If you haven't spotted the difference yet I can confirm there is no vodka in it, honestly.
Was walking home and started noticing all the different and strange numbers on the way. On bins, on gates, on signs. Different fonts. Different textures. I likey :D
For Macro Mondays group "Numbers" theme
Los que poseen el espíritu de discernimiento saben cuanta diferencia puede mediar entre dos palabras parecidas, según los lugares y las circunstancias que las acompañen.
BLAISE PASCAL
Those who possess the spirit of discernment know how much difference can mediate between two similar words, according to the places and circumstances that go with it.
This is my entry for the #16 - Spot the difference (present two images as a diptych with one or more differences to see if others can spot the differences) category in the 113 in 2013 Group.
Picture taken at Kilden in Kristiansand. Trying to display different materials used. Kilden with glass and wood, and an old mill behind.
What a difference a day makes. Into the frying pan is where Shimelle went and ended up cooking up as a skater/bmx boy. He still needs some tweeking but I'm liking him...
St Mary and St Walstan, Bawburgh, Norfolk
There are islands off the coast of Norwich. Here we are in typical rural Norfolk, a quiet village set in a rolling landscape of farms and sprawling fields punctuated by woods and copses, the sound of traffic on the busy A11 and A47 not so very far off. And yet, we are very close to Norwich, but floating free from it thanks, perhaps to local authority planning.
Norfolk and Suffolk have their similarities of course. Norfolk is a lot bigger, and emptier, especially towards the west. But the biggest difference between the two counties is their relationship with their county towns. Ipswich, above all else, is Suffolk distilled and amplified, the working and historic county translated into an urban setting. Industrial Ipswich was the fountainhead of the county's agricultural production, the docks an interface between Suffolk and the world. To know brash and breezy Ipswich is to know what Suffolk was and is.
But Norwich is different to Ipswich, and it is different to the rest of Norfolk. As you enter the city you pass hoardings which proudly proclaim, in George Borrow's words, that you are entering Norwich, a Fine City! It is like crossing a forcefield. Norwich is a fine city, and it is also a small city, but as Norwich is so far from any other place of near-equivalent size - Ipswich is 40 miles away, Cambridge nearly 60 - it is completely out of scale to its population. If Norwich were dropped into South or West Yorkshire, or Greater Manchester, it would disappear. Here, it assumes the importance of a Leeds or a Sheffield, cities four times as big.
At times, Norwich can feel like a great European city, living a technicolour life in the soft, pastel setting of its rural hinterland. Its industrial past, in shoes, textiles and chocolate, was not grounded in the local countryside in the same way as the industry of Ipswich. In the 1960s the University of East Anglia came, and Norwich's nightlife is lived by people who have, in fair proportion, not grown up in Norfolk.
To set off from Norwich is to enter a countryside that feels different. It is like leaving a shore for the open sea, a sea with islands. The soft fields of Norfolk wash right up against the edge of the city, insulating villages that would have been absorbed if she had grown any larger. Just a mile or so from the edge is Bawburgh. Every island has a story, and Bawburgh's is the story of St Walstan.
St Walstan was a Prince, the son of Benedict and Blid of the royal house of East Anglia. Blid would herself become a Saint. Walstan was born in Bawburgh, or perhaps at the royal vill of Blythburgh in Suffolk. As a teenager, he followed Christ's instruction to renounce all he possessed and become a disciple. Giving up his claims to succession, he did not delay to reach northern parts, as the Nova Legenda Anglie tells us, and humbled himself to become a farmworker in central Norfolk.
After a series of adventures which revealed his saintly character, one of which involved him being rewarded with a pair of young oxen, he received news in about 1015 from an Angel. He would die and be received into heaven in three days time. With typical East Anglian stoicism, he nodded his head and left his scythe to go and find a Priest to receive the Last Rites. Unfortunately, the Priest had no water, but, magically, a spring welled up where they stood.
This was in Taverham, and when Walstan died the two oxen carried his body on a cart to be buried at Bawburgh. On the way, they stopped to rest in Costessey, where another spring sprang up. At last, they came to Bawburgh. They stopped outside the church, and a third spring appeared, the biggest. And then, the Nova Legenda Anglie tells us, Angells opened the walls in hast, and the two oxen with their burden walked into the church. Walstan's body was placed in the church, becoming a site of pilgrimage for people who sought miracles and healing. Eleven miracles have been handed down to us.
The St Walstan legend is interesting for all sorts of reasons. Compared with the West Country, survivals of local Saints' cults are very rare in East Anglia. This part of Norfolk was strongly recusant during the penal years, and it is likely that local people kept stories of Walstan in their tradition even after the practice of devotion to him became impossible. When the penal years ended, the new Catholic church at Costessey in 1841 was dedicated to Our Lady and St Walstan.
Although there is no evidence that the Saint was part of the original dedication of Bawburgh church, the foundations of which certainly predate the St Walstan legend, it bears the name today, and that is because the relics of St Walstan continued to be important right up to the Reformation. Bequests made to the shrine are recorded in late Medieval wills, and these in turn were noted by 18th century antiquarians who restored dedications to parish churches, not always very accurately, after the long puritan night.
During the late 14th century, when acts of pilgrimage were at their most significant, thousands of people must have made their way every year. On the north side of the church was the chapel that contained his bones. From this, a sunken pathway led down the steep hill to the well on the site of the third spring. Incredibly, this pathway was destroyed as recently as 1999, to be replaced by a sterile driveway that circumnavigates the farm to the north of the church.
The date of the Walstan legend is interesting, right on the eve of the Norman settlement of England. It is almost exactly contemporary with that much more famous legend, the founding of the shrine at Walsingham by Lady Richeldis. Could it be that these cults endured partly as a form of resistance by the Saxons, popular local legends in the face of Norman cultural hegemony? Or was it that the Normans themselves who ensured that these popular pieties continued, nurturing them in the place of surviving neo-pagan practices?
We can never know, but what is certain is that St Walstan's legend recommended him as a Saint of the ordinary people, a worker Saint if you will, which may explain his almost complete disappearance from popular English story after the Reformation.
Two excellent books by local author Carol Twinch have helped popularise this very East Anglian figure. And, interestingly, in the latter half of the 20th century his cult has been explored increasingly by the Anglicans, at a time when devotion to Saints seems to be going out of fashion in that Communion. There are popular pilgrimages here every year still under the auspices of the Anglican Diocese of Norwich. Perhaps it is the simplicity of Walstan's life, and the healing nature of his miracles, that lend themselves particularly to the quiet nature of modern Anglican spirituality.
You approach the church from the village street and your first sight of it is from the south-east, looking down into the churchyard. What a beautiful church it is! It must be among the loveliest of all East Anglia's 160-odd round-towered churches. The idiosyncratic stepped gables, the red roof of the nave and a little flame-like pinnacle on the cap of the tower are memorable, particularly in this dramatic setting on the steeply-pitched side of the ridge. The graveyard falls away dramatically on the northern side, and from there St Mary and St Walstan appears fortress-like.
You step into a wide, simple interior, white walls and bare wood setting into relief sudden flashes of colour. How much of this church was here when Walstan's body was brought here? Probably, none of it. The archway to the tower is 13th century, and the windows suggest that the rest of the building is early 14th century. Quite probably, the whole church was rebuilt as a result of the prosperity brought about by the shrine of St Walstan. On the north side of the nave there is a large archway, a filled-in opening. It is tempting to think this is the wall that the Angells had opened in hast, but it was probably the entrance to the later chapel of St Walstan, since this wall post-dates the St Walstan legend by 300 years.
The remains of the 15th century roodscreen are made up rather dramatically into an early 20th century screen with bubbly cusping and a canopy of honour above, all of it unpainted. It is difficult to know how they resisted painting it, but it suits the simplicity of the building just as it is. And there are plenty of survivals here of Bawburgh's colourful Catholic past. Most interesting of all, the collection of brasses. Bawburgh has two shroud brasses and a chalice brass. The biggest of these is above a memorial inscription to Thomas Tyard who died in 1505. It is 60cm long, and he lies with the shroud partly open, his hands crossed in an act of piety. Beneath it is the inscription plate, but it seems likely to me that the inscription and the shrouded figure do not belong together, given the differences in the quality of the two. As if to confirm this, a surviving brass rivet in the stone above the figure's head suggests the loss of another brass, presumably Tyard's.
The other shroud brass is unidentified, and quite different. It depicts a smaller figure sewn tightly into a shroud, with just the face peeking out. It is so like the figures mounted on the wall at Yoxford in Suffolk that I assume it is a figure adrift from a larger collection, perhaps representing one of the dead children of a larger figure.
Set in between them is a late 17th century brass inscription and shield to a minister of this church, Philip Tenison. It is quite fitting that it should be here, because Tenison was an antiquarian at a time when such things were looked on with grave suspicion, and Carol Twinch notes that he recorded information about the Walstan shrine here that might otherwise have been lost to us. Deprived of his living by the Puritans, he later became an Archdeacon after the Restoration, in which case the date of 1660 here is obviously wrong.
I think that all five of these brasses were reset here from elsewhere in the church by the Victorians. The chalice brass may well be in its original position. It is to the Priest William Rechers, and is right on the eve of the Reformation, 1531, so he would have been one of the last Priests to be commemorated in this fashion. As at Little Walsingham, two hands are shown holding the base of the chalice, elevating it.
In the nave, there are three further pre-Reformation brass inscriptions, at least two of which are on their original matrices, and one of which retains one of the two figures commemorated, Robert Grote, who died in 1500. His wife is missing, as is the Priest Edward Kightling, whose empty matrix shows that he was wearing priestly vestments.
This is a wonderful collection of late medieval brasses, and is extraordinary that so much has survived. Only a couple have been stolen, but it is clear an attempt has been made on the life of the smaller shroud brass. It has been broken in half, and the lower part protrudes upwards. These chancel brasses have also suffered very badly from being covered by carpets, the underlay breaking up and soaking with moisture to scour the brass. On my most recent visit, the churchwarden agreed that to would be better to remove the carpet altogether, and I do hope that this will happen.
But the most vivid memory of the past at Bawburgh is the superb collection of late medieval glass in the nave. Best of all is the wonderful St Barbara, as good as anything else in Norfolk. She stands proudly, holding her church. Across the nave is a lovely fragment of an Annunciation scene. Mary stands in front of a pot of lilies, and a scroll declares Ecce Ancilla Domini Fiat ('Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, Let it be so'). A crowned female head nearby is probably from a Coronation of the Blessed Virgin.
There are floating angels, perhaps censing or collecting the precious blood at the crucifixion, and a king who may be Christ from the same Coronation scene. There is larger, crowned, bearded king, perhaps God the Father, some fragments of St Catherine and perhaps St Gregory, and a lay figure in late medieval dress who might just be a pilgrim to the Shrine of St Walstan. Perhaps most pleasing, because it is so complete, is a set of roundels featuring the words of the Nunc Dimmitis, Simeon's prayer on seeing the infant Christ for the first time. It is rather moving to find them in the same window as the Annunciation, which features words which would be familiar to pilgrims from both the Ave Maria and the Magnificat. It is easy to imagine them sitting telling their beads at a journey's end, contemplating this glass.
At the west end of the church is a small patch of wall painting which defies easy interpretation. It is obviously at least three separate subjects, the most recent being part of an Elizabethan text, below that apparently two figures embracing, the lowest a roundel topped by indecipherable text. It is likely that there is part of a Seven Works of Mercy sequence, which was often placed on the western wall of a smaller church like this.
There is much else besides. The people here were obviously very pleased at the 1660 Restoration, and immediately erected a new set of royal arms to Charles II. You can't help thinking of Philip Tenison, and how it might just be his influence that the people were pleased to see the back of puritanism. One old bench end with an inscription is marooned on the wall, curiously in the shape and location of a holy water stoup (is it covering it?) and there's a nice European roundel in the chancel, which I take to be from a series of Stations of the Cross. Otherwise all is Victorian, or the influence of Victorians. And then you spot the 17th century poorbox fashioned like a newel post, still secured in the east end of the nave. It is from the protestant days of this church, but it is still a reminder of charity, and the offerings of generations of pilgrims that made this one of Norfolk's most significant shrines, and still a beautiful and interesting church today.
There are 12 hard to spot differences between this original image and the altered picture posted next to it.
No prizes for guessing correctly, just a bit of fun. :-)
Photo: Buchanan Bus Station,Glasgow, 28th March 1981.
There is a clear difference between looking at the camera AND looking at me. Two very different things
The Doctor and Leon are getting into a heated discussion about the supernatural and the existence of zombies. "My dear man, according to the best and leading scientific minds, and leading experts, there is no way zombies exist! And as for the supernatural phenomenon, it's just science yet to be understood!" Leon, looking somewhat miffed at this so-called expert, snapped back, "And the events in Raccoon City? A mass hullusion were they?"
A difference in temperature from the last time I took shots of these wonderful houses on Beach Avenue. The houses look out to the Atlantic Ocean.
The incumbent and the wannabe flapping in the westerly wind at the Levin Bowling Club.
INFORMAL SURVEY BACKS FLAG CONFUSION CLAIM
A "man-in-the-street'' survey conducted by a retired Dunedin academic has found 90% of respondents have trouble recognising the difference between the Australian and the New Zealand flags.
Former University of Otago information science lecturer Dr Colin Aldridge said his informal survey was far from scientifically robust, but published his findings anyway, because he was surprised at how many New Zealanders failed to recognise their own flag.
Dr Aldridge conducted the survey in Dunedin, Hastings and Havelock North during the Christmas-New Year holiday period, approaching pedestrians and showing them images of the proposed alternative New Zealand flag as Flag A, and the Australian flag as Flag B.
He then asked: "Which of these would you choose for the New Zealand flag?''
"Only 10% of those approached recognised the Australian flag for what it was.
"The 90% that didn't notice is not a number you can trust, speaking as a scientist. It should raise significant doubt.
"But I published the results because it's relevant to the current debate that a lot of people have difficulty distinguishing the New Zealand flag from the Australian flag.
"If I had put the Union Jack or the [Canadian] maple leaf or a few other distinctive flags, then there wouldn't have been any doubt about it in people's minds.
"They would have said: You're showing the Union Jack, why are you doing this?''
Dr Aldridge said the confusion between the New Zealand and Australian flags was a long-standing problem, and the results of his survey showed it was continuing.
The informal survey also found Dunedin respondents were the most observant, 16% of them recognising the Australian flag.
"In Havelock North, 11% correctly identified it, while in Hastings, only 4% did. The latter seemed to have a higher proportion of non-New Zealanders, though.''
Overall, 43% of respondents chose the proposed flag and 46% chose the Australian flag.
He said Dunedin was the most conservative. Only 27% of respondents selected the proposed flag.
In Hastings, nearly half of the respondents chose the new flag, and in Havelock North, 62% chose the new flag.
Dr Aldridge said he would personally like to see a new flag raised in New Zealand.
University of Otago Mathematics and Statistics Department head Prof Richard Barker said only 252 people responded to the survey, so they could not be regarded as a representative sample of New Zealanders.
"It was not robust in that sense.
"The methodology is such, that it cannot be regarded as a scientific poll.
"Strictly, these views can be taken only as the opinions of those sampled and can't be reliably extrapolated to the whole population.''
Prof Barker described the survey as "anecdotal'' and believed the statistics should be left for Otago Daily Times readers to decide for themselves, whether they were to be trusted or not.
The proposed new flag is now flying alongside the present New Zealand flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge until March 24, when the flag referendum will be complete.
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said it was one of more than 250 sites around the country to fly the flag.
"Having the two flags flying side by side around New Zealand will help people compare the designs before making a decision in the final flag referendum, which runs from March 3 to March 24.'' - Otago Daily News 26/1/2016
CURRENT FLAG GETS THUMBS UP
January 30, 2016
The New Zealand flag will continue to be the New Zealand flag after the flag change referendum, and by a considerable margin if the Herald web poll this week is an indicator.
The question asked was “Which flag do you intend to vote for in the referendum?”
The current New Zealand flag attracted 61 percent support (275 votes out of the 444 people who responded).
The alternative black and blue silver fern flag had 32 percent support (146) and 5 percent (23) of respondents were undecided.
THOSE AGAINST
“There is nothing wrong with the original flag,” said one supporter of the existing flag.
“My grandfather fought for that flag in the war and it would not do his memory and all the other soldiers justice for the flag to be changed. We should be proud of what it stands for.”
“A total waste of our time and money changing the flag,” said another.
“Is the Government wanting to change the flag to keep certain people in this country happy?”
Others in favour of the status quo said “Why change it!!”
“I’m gutted Red Peak didn’t make it and can’t stand the silver fern one.
“It doesn’t even look like a flag. Badly designed and it would be embarrassing I think to have it as a flag.
“So I’d rather we keep the current one and vote again a few years down the track with some better options available.”
“Unless the newer design reflects the history of our country, including those who went to war and fought for king and country, I prefer not to change a thing.
“To me the original holds more mana than that of the black and blue silver fern.”
“The alternative is a poor choice for a new flag. It’s a shameless attack on our national sovereignty.”
“If it had been Kiwis proposing the idea of a new flag instead of John Key saying 'you guys should have a new flag', I would be more on board.”
Those in favour of the alternative flag put it this way:
“I’ve already bought one.
“Whether it wins or not, it’s now flying on my rooftop balcony here in Patterson Lakes, Victoria, where it can be seen for miles.”
Another said “Britain long ago cut the apron strings.
“It is time for us to stand on our own two feet and be proud of our new status.”
“I was quite happy with the old one but we have spent so much money sorting out the change, we might as well have the new one. I do like it better though.”
“Time for a change. The Canadian maple flag is very popular!”
One of the undecided put it this way: “These polls are not a true reflection of how the public feel, given the low numbers which are statistically flawed.”
Another said “I would prefer the silver fern was put on the existing flag or the union jack on the silver fern flag.”
“Neither — just an exercise in nationalism, thanks John Key!” - Gisborne Herald