Tues/Wed

Tuesday, 29 Nov 2011

John Moxen’s wife Jo has gone to England to visit her daughter and grandchildren. That leaves John at home without transportation as he has had a stroke and heart failure (twice!). He has a defibrillator. He had an appointment at the doctor’s today so I drove him to Downpatrick. Our original plan had been to go to Inch Abbey after his appointment. The weather report predicted 75 mph gale force winds. We took off for the 9:50 appointment. He directed me on several back roads but we made it to the hospital without going through the city. He went upstairs to see the doctor and I waited in the coffee shop. Suddenly the skies opened and the rainfall was a torrential downpour. It went on for several minutes. When John was finished, an hour later, it was down to a misty sprinkle.  He had a good report from the doctor but no release to drive. We decided it was too wet and cold to go to Inch Abbey and started the drive home.

John mentioned that he had grown up in Liverpool and told me some of his story. I asked if he had lived near the Beatles. That opened a whole new conversation. He remembered that the Beatles held concerts and he and other young evangelists were in the area near the theatres to pass out tracts and witness to concert goers. He remembers taking the “ferry ‘cross the Mersey”. Those were the early days of John’s ministry.

There were several places where there was water across the road. We made our way back to Dundrum. I had to park at the back door as there were so many cars in the carpark. Deirdre said I missed the flood. It seems that when Sarah arrived, she stepped into the outer entry only to see it was “raining inside the house”. She went to get Deirdre who went for towels and help! The gutters were full and the rain somehow came through the walls and ran along the ceiling. It was four inches deep by the time they started bailing! The wallpaper had come loose and the plaster was falling. That will be an unscheduled redecorating project.

We had a quick bowl of soup for lunch and then the staff meeting. Richie asked Bebe about her departure date and said to remind him the day before so he could take her to the airport. I told him that I had thought I would take her to Dublin and we would spend the weekend before she flies out on Dec. 12. He said I should be sure that I am insured to drive in the Republic. I wouldn’t have thought of that.

In the evening Bebe and I made desserts for tomorrow’s “traybakes” with our Bible study group. I made egg custard pies and she made ‘Heavenly Hash.’ I labeled envelopes for the December Prayer Calendar. Then we went up to the flat and watched a couple of DVDs with Deirdre. A full day!

Wed

To get things printed, I send an attachment by email to Joan who then prints it for me. I picked up the exegesis materials from my Hermeneutics class at Huntington University. I had it on a flashdrive and will be using some of the material when I lead the Bible study.

Olive Davison, the artist

I had an appointment for 10:45 for tea at Davisons. Bebe was meeting with Richie so I collected her at Blue Bay Café and we headed to Moneylane. Olive Davison is a local artist who does water color paintings. I had admired her work at John Moxen’s and he asked if I would be interested in seeing some of her work. We had a lovely visit with Olive and Alan with tea and biscuits. We had quite an interesting conversation learning about the examinations for leaving secondary schools and about Alan and Olive’s lives as well as their grandson who is a rising star in the Irish film industry.  After tea she brought out fifteen or twenty of her paintings. She could tell us every road and tree in them. Some were scenes in Donegal but the ones I was interested in were of the Mournes.  Olive paints in the car…because of the frequent rain and nearly perpetual mist, she doesn’t want a water spot to ruin her work!  I narrowed it down to three, then one! I have an original painting by an Irish artist of a scene of the Mournes, some pastures, sheep, a small cottage and one lone sheep on a road.

Back at Murlough Deirdre and Richie had lunch ready. I did the washup until our Bible study folks began arriving. Richie, Richard and Nathan finished up.

We talked about Phil.2:5-11, the Kenosis Hymn. I shared some of the work I had done on the exegisis paper about the structure, the word studies and parallelisms. The discussion that followed was good with several participating. We followed that up with the “Traybakes”.  The ladies had brought several tasty bars and cookies. It was a good visiting time. Sadie invited me to participate in a Christmas program next week at the Presbyterian Church in Newcastle.

After cleaning up the kitchen I went to the flat. We had a popcorn and crisps “supper”.  We had tea and traybakes, then spent the evening knitting. A nice quiet evening.