Povey Prattle

I have an important role in the life of my dog Penne.   I am her chief haunch scratcher.   She will stand by me for as long as I wish, provided that I give her hind quarters a heavy and prolonged scratching, and it’s even better for her if I use a brush. Once in a while I persuade her to show me her front end. Then I’ll hold her head between my hands and massage it, and her ears.   She’s then in heaven, and lets out a moan of appreciation.   It’s like an “uummm” which comes from her throat. Speaking of which, I have to give her a pill every day. She is glad to let me open her jaws and place the pill at the back of her throat.   Then I close her jaw, massage her neck, and she swallows the pill without a word of protest on her part.  Similarly, when I have to clean the inside of her ears (fortunately “they” now make wipes for this) – she allows me to do this without any fuss.    It’s almost as if she “knows” that this is good for her. She and ...

THE REV. C. DEAN TAYLOR begins his ministry at st. boniface on 2nd october 2011 The Rev. Dean Taylor is a priest in the Episcopal Church whose “ministry brief” states, “It is my deepest belief that every human being born on the planet is a beloved child of God.”    His current Interim Ministry year at St. James, Marietta, Georgia, follows a 20 year rectorship at St. Mark’s in Dalton, Georgia, and Assistantships in St. Francis-in-the-Fields, Louisville, and Church of the Advent in Nashville. “What a joy it has been,” he says, “to see, on Face Book, those teenagers that I not only baptized as babies, but whose parents I married!”   Interim Ministry marks a new phase in his ordained ministry, with each new assignment a unique challenge and adventure. “That interim year,” he says, “can be a very fruitful time of parish self examination and lots and lots of celebration of who you are as a parish.” Preaching, teaching, and pastoral care—“listening with care the ...

1.    Three of us at St. Boniface Church, Sarasota FL (Andrea Taylor, Assistant Rector; Barbara Roth-Donaldson, Assistant Organist; and I) are fans of the Boston Red Sox. (Andrea [Andi] served parishes in Belmont and Lexington, MA; Barbara was the organist at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newton, MA; and I served at St. James’s in Cambridge). I will never understand the algorithms of what Americans call “Major League Baseball -  except that each year the champions of the American League play the champions of the National League in what is modestly called ‘The World Series”. (How the teams get to be ‘champions’ involves all manner of weird and wonderful exercises in the voodoo which is called “wild card”). Anyway, last night our beloved Boston Red Sox “blew it”: meaning that they are out of contention for anything worthwhile in the 2011 baseball season. So Andi, Barbara, and I had a sob feast this morning at Church, even though I have attended only one Red Sox game, an...

This is an apple.   It's a "Ginger Gold" apple.   I placed it atop the toaster. I bought this apple yesterday.  It's from the 2011 New York State crop. Guess what?  It's not been waxed.  It's not been polished.   It's not been refrigerated. It's been brought down to Florida just as it is.  Why  -  there's even a leaf attached. An un-waxed, unpolished, recently harvested apple with a bit of the leaf left on!   Who'd have thought it possible to buy such an apple in Florida.  I like it! (Shhh  -  don't tell a soul that I bought this at Wall Mart) (from one who misses very  many good things in the north eastern United States, especially in autumn the proximity of apple orchards).

The cat sat on the..... In my walks with Penne I sometimes see a woman who takes her two cats for a walk in a baby buggy/push chair.   It is a charming sight. I happened upon her today with my camera in hand.   With her permission I took the following photo’s.   When I said “it’s very sweet for you to do this for your cats”, she responded with “well, they’ve got to get their fresh air haven’t they?”

Nothing today

I often have to “force myself” to leave my home.   You see, I am perfectly contented to be alone at home with my books, my dog, and my cats.   Yet I understand that this can be dangerous.  All alone I can get in to stinking thinking, which will lead me to a modicum of self pity, and to more than a trace of misanthropic thinking. Thus it was today. I took myself to the 8:00 a.m. Eucharist at my parish Church where I was slated to assist our fabulous assistant rector, the Revd. Andrea Taylor. That being done I wanted to spend the balance of the day alone.    But I had promised to meet a good friend for lunch up in Tampa, where he lives. My “isolationist” tendency came into full force. I thought of a thousand and one reasons why the 55 mile drive to Tampa would be impossible.   I was sorely tempted to call my pal and to re-schedule our lunch. But, home from Church, and after a nap I decided that I would resist all the temptations to isolate.   So ...