Povey Prattle

I am eating so damn healthily.  Lots of fresh fruit, salads and roasted veggies. Next to no carbs.  Chicken and fish rather than red meat.  'Tis all very good. And yet -  I had a deep appetite for lamb today.  So for dinner tonight I oven-roasted a  small shoulder lamb chop, together with zucchini, green pepper, parsnip and  carrot. Will the healthiness of the roasted veggies out-way the fattiness of the chop?   I need to know!

 From    Ron and Charlotte Thompson   Dear Friends: Please pray for our brave daughter-in-law, Liz, who learned yesterday that she has an aggressive malignant tumor; and for her children, our grandchildren, Josh, age 4, Julia, age 7 and Hannah, age 10, who at the moment do not know how sick their mother is; and for our son Matt who is holding everything together...and then ... add a small prayer for our whole family. Thank you ============================== (Ron and Char are good friends of mine.  I got to know them when I moved to SRQ in 2006  jmp )

Following my pieces about Dorothy Parker, Ida Tarbell and Anne Hutchinson my good friend Charlotte recommended a biography of Gertrude Bell, (1868-1926) an extraordinary person who was an expert on the near/middle East. Alongside Charlotte I  also recommen d “Gertrude Bell:   Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations” by Georgia Howell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006).       It is a fascinating tale of a brilliant, brave, adventurous and wise woman who was the virtual shaper of British foreign policy in “Mesopotamia” following World War I after the Ottoman Empire collapsed.   Do buy the book or borrow it from your local library. Wikipedia has the following on Bell   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell Do also read the Atlantic Magazine review of Howell’s biography at   http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-woman-who-made-iraq/5893/ You will note the misogynist views of her critics in passages such as this: “As to the prejudices of Sir Mark Sykes, co-author

Years ago I spent a couple of days and nights at a camp site near Bristol, UK.  It is known as Goblin Combe. I slept in a cabin on a bunk bed.  The cabin was windowless.  After dark there was not the slightest glimmer of light.  I hated it.  I was totally unnerved by the absence of light. What's more, I was in a sleeping bag.  My feet were trapped at the lower end of the bag.  This was unbearable - I wanted my feet to be free. Even now, whether at home, or in an hotel, or at the home of a friend, I need my feet to be free from sheets, blankets or quilts.   The first thing I do when staying overnight with friends, or sleeping in an hotel is to "un-tuck" the top sheet and blankets so that my feet will not be trapped.  Should I have to use a sleeping bag I unzip it and use it as a cover, knowing that I will be unable to sleep should my feet be constrained within the bag. When I was a seminarian (1972-1976) I took a  field trip with my year group  down a coal mine in

My photo's from Ecuador are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugapoveytoday/ They are in alphabetical order by title.  I did not have time to sort them into chronological order.

The attempted coup d’état in Ecuador and the subsequent imposition of Martial Law meant that I had but two days for “touristy” stuff.   I chose to take Gray Line tours on Monday 4 th and Tuesday 5 th October to see a bit of Quito and of Ecuadorian countryside. My first tour was to the Centro Historical and then to the Equatorial line. The Centro is a total gem.   It is a well preserved and maintained Spanish Colonial centre –   (it is in fact a UNESCO “World Heritage” site).   At its heart is the main square with the Cathedral, the Presidential Palace, and the City Hall. I longed to wander around the Centro but I had to keep pace with the Gray Line tour which simply took us to four Churches --   blah! The Presidential Palace was still ringed with troops.   I noted that one of them was reading a newspaper, and two others were chatting on their mobile ‘phones! That same tour took us (three tourists and a guide) up to the Equatorial line.   It’s a hokey site. But who could resist bei

Sunday Oct 3 rd was the day on which the Revd. Chris Morck presided at the Eucharist for the first time.   He did so at the Episcopal Church “Christo Liberator” (Christ the Liberator) in the district called Comite del Pueblo in Quito. “Comite del Pueblo” (Committee of the People) is an area where homeless people took over some land which had been owned by absentee landlords, and began to build homes.   After long, hard, and sometimes violent struggles this area was incorporated as a Civil Parish within the City of Quito.   It is a semi-ramshackle yet vibrant area, inhabited by many poor people.   And our wondrous Episcopal Church has a presence there in the Church of Christo Liberator.   The Vicar is the Revd. Raul Guaillas.   He has supervised Chris on his journey to Priesthood. It is a small, but vital and vibrant Church which sponsors a day care centre for very poor children, called Porto de Belen, and a breakfast program for the elderly poor (mostly widows). At 7:00 a.m. on Oct