Povey Prattle

Some time in 1965 I was taking an evening  drive with a friend in the lovely English County of Worcestershire. We saw lightning and heard thunder in the middle distance.  I asked my friend to pull over so that we could enjoy the storm.  She was happy to do so. Lightning in Worcestershire  (stock photo). Like many children  I had been afraid of thunderstorms as a child. Mum tried to allay my fears by saying that the thunder was the noise of Angels delivering coal to heaven.  (I never thought to ask why the coal was going to heaven and not to hell, where it would be more needed!) By 1965 I had learned to enjoy the storms. Now that I live in Florida (since 2006) I learn to anticipate and enjoy the storms which pass through this part of the State in the rainy season  (June - Nov).  When weather patterns are normal they come through most days in mid to late afternoon. I breathe a sigh of relief.  Our rivers, aquifers and retention ponds are being filled. Trees, flowers, shrubs

Zion and I extended our Canine Therapy ministry with a visit today to Sarasota's  "ALSO Youth". https://www.alsoyouth.org We had a great time there with some lovely young women and a very shy young man. Zion was, of course, a hit.  He is an attention hound! One of the young women offered Zion a treat, but first asked me "does he shake?" "Oh no" I replied, "he won't do that". She asked him to sit  (which he did).  She held a dog treat in her left hand and extending her right hand she said "shake". Then that attention hound proved his "Papa" to be dumb,  by extending his left front leg and paw for a "shake". Merde alors!  My lovely Zion did what I did not know he could/would do, much to the amusement of the young women at ALSO Youth. So now Zion and I are working on the shake, play dead, and roll-over commands at home.   When he has mastered those we'll move on to the rubrics of the Book

A Grebe he photographed at Shearwater, which is a man-made freshwater lake near Crockerton village, about 2 ¹⁄₄ miles southwest of the town of Warminster in Wiltshire, England. The lake is formed from a tributary of the River Wylye

Sweet Princess (stock photo'). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maureen Dowd, New York Times columnist (in her disgraceful op-ed piece published July 15/16 2019). and Nancy Pelosi (D)  Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives have a message  for four newly elected U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D) Michigan Ilhan Omar (D) Minnesota. Alexandria Occasion-Cortez (D) New York // A yanna Press ley (D) Massachusetts. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That  word from Maureen Dowd,  and Speaker Pelosi   is  that these four wonderful U.S. Representatives should rush out to get their pretty Princess costumes; sit at the back of the classroom; and only speak when they are spoken to. Strange that these four women have " less than Trump approved  whiter than white skin

They are not Evangelical Leaders.   I  know a bit about this since I was raised in an Evangelical (maybe Fundamentalist) Church and I studied at a somewhat   progressive Evangelical Seminary. Despite what lazy journalists say, the following men (see below) should not be identified as Evangelical Leaders.   T hat does disservice to a noble evangelical history with godly leaders:     e.g . people such as  William Wilberforce M.P.  who never gave up in the U.K. parliament until the Slave Trade was abolished in the British Empire; and  Lord Shaftesbury who campaigned against child labour; and Hannah More the great social reformer in my home City of Bristol U.K. They were among the best of the evangelical tradition. The men pictured below are not "evangelical leaders".  They have sold their souls for the right to bear that description. They should be identified in the popular media as "far right Republican businessman", or Trumpeteers. Robe

This is Lance Lance is pictured here with his owner Nan Miller.  He is a Great Pyrenees mix.  He is a Therapy Dog working with the Humane Society of Sarasota County. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is Zion Zion is pictured here with a student at New College, Sarasota, FL.  He is a Great Pyrenees mix. He is a Therapy Dog working with the Humane Society of Sarasota County. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, "gosh darn it" (as nice people say) Lance and Zion may not be doppelgangers, but they are surely look-a-likes. I want these good and gracious boys to meet one day! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The (weekly) Sarasota Observer recently had an article about the H.S.S.C  therapy dog programme  (you can read extracts below) a lot of which is about Lance and Nan. Everything she says about Lance is also tru