Povey Prattle

"Team Wilson" a local Realtor business sent a couple of dogsbodies into our neighbourhood yesterday to place "doorknob hanging" flyers at each of our Villas. I reminded them that our Condominium Association forbids solicitation (as shown on our two entrance signs). They responded that they were not soliciting, rather they were inviting us to two "open houses" which are taking place tomorrow. "That's a fine line", I thought, "disingenuous indeed". I made it my business this morning to remove the flyers from four neighboring Villas whose owners are away for the summer.  If left on the door knob, the flyers could be a sure sign to bad people that the Villa is a sure bet for burglary. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The flyers read: You're invited! Open Villa's Sunday the 16th from 1-4 Two Amazing Updated Villa's in Glen Oaks Rid...

As I ate my lunch today  (August 14th) I was given a marvelous treat -  the sight of  Sandhill Cranes  walking  just outside my Lanai, not more than 8' from where I was seated. These gorgeous creatures usually walk in threes:-  female, male, and chick, (Sandhills mate for life). There were just two today -  I  think  that one was an adult, and the other a chick. It was a beautiful sight. Their walk is so stately:- measured and calm.  Their walk is so gracious: - never slouching, but exhibiting immense dignity. Their walk is utterly unhurried: - they "take time to smell the roses", or to feast on a grub or a seed in the grass beneath their feet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The two Sandhill Cranes who delighted me today also moved my imagination. That imagination took me back some eighty years.   I imagined an elderly English couple,  way back in th...

GBH  can refer to the crimes of Grievous Bodily Harm (or Great Bodily Harm).  It can also refer to the Great Blue Hills, south of Boston, MA (from which the public radio and television stations WGBH  get their name). ................. in this case GBH does not refer to any of the above -  it's an abbreviation for the Great Blue Heron. The first time I saw a Great Blue Heron was in the mid-1990's when I was on a sponsored walk for "a good cause".  As we walked alongside  the valley of the Hoosic River, just south of the town of Adams, Massachusetts, we saw a Great Blue Heron in flight. It was, for me, one of those "wow" moments.  I was seeing sheer beauty. My next Great Blue Heron sighting was on the beach in Pensacola, FL. in 2006.   It was a windy day.  The heron, feathers all-a-ruffled had its head down.  It looked as woe-be-gone as an ageing Soviet soldier would,  if he or she were commanded to be present o...

It was not my meeting at St. Boniface Church on Siesta Key, FL  to review pastoral concerns alongside  the Revds. Eric Cooter and Ralph McGimpsey, though that was useful. ---------------------------------------------------------------- It was not   my visit to the Veterinarian with Penne.  I took her there because I was worried about her laboured breathing, and her loss of energy. The Vet determined that her temperature was perfect, and that her heart and lungs sounded good.  He "supposed" that she might have arthritis, and prescribed a medication to deal with it. I have my doubts. He did not say what he may well have thought.  It is that my thirteen year old Penne is afflicted with OAPS: ........ Over Anxious Parental Syndrome. ------------------------------------------------------------ In fact   The Highlight Of My Day was driving my two legally blind friends:  Ben aged 91, and  Betty aged 92,  to TOTAL WINE where...

On Tuesdays of each week the so-called Landscapers visit my community (Glen Oaks Ridge), and the neighbouring community (Glen Oaks Manor). It's a day for ear plugs. First the mowers, then the trimmers, then the edgers, then the grass and leaf blowers.   I can look forward to ten hours of horrid noise. The landscaping companies use those enormous ride-on mowing machines, equipped as they are with two stroke engines:  notorious for their noise and their stinking exhaust fumes. The company which services my community also uses a "ride-on" leaf and glass blower.  It sounds like a Sherman Tank (sans tracks) being driven down the street.  It's a ghastly noise.  This machine is also highly inefficient.   I watched as one driver took three passes on my driveway, yet still left "un-blown" grass. See my Facebook page for photo's of these noise making, fume spewing machines, The noise on "Terrible Tuesdays" sets me on edge. The ...

Since I am not able to upload pictures to this blog I am trying to load them via Tumblr. See below for these bits and bobs, taken from Facebook postings by Jack Chrisman and Barbara Ford-Coates. https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/126364059639/Bn1fpwqf

Following a "little local difficulty" during which our former Rector inexplicably decided to exclude all the retired clerics from all ministries, our Bishop, the Rt. Revd. Dabney T. Smith "restored" the Revd. Ralph McGimsey and me to pastoral duties. Thus, now that the Rector has "moved one" I was able to share the Holy Communion with parishioner (and former Warden) Carl Hye-Knudsen at the Hawthorne Village Rehabilitation Centre today. Carl and I were so happy to see each other. I am sorry that the former Rector took such an arbitrary and odd decision. I wish him well in the next phase of his ministry. I am so grateful that Bishop Smith has enabled me and Ralph to be restored as 'ministers in retirement"