Povey Prattle

Damn  (and a few other more colourful words) -  the  clocks "spring forward"  in the wee hours of tomorrow morning in the U.S.A.  (except Arizona and Alaska). As one who arises most days at 4:30 a.m. (and thinks that 10:30 a.m. is the middle of the day) I now have to endure an extra hour of government mandated morning darkness. Damn and  blast I say, and a pox on those who dreamed up this nonsense. 

My Primary Care Physician  (G.P. in the U.K.) prescribed a potent medicine to take care of a nasty infection in my nether regions. The medicine is so potent that I am allowed only two pills   (each taken a week apart): for continued doses of this medicine might cause cancer, (go figure). My prescription insurance plan usually takes care of drugs etc. and sends them to me by mail.  But in this case, to avoid delay, I routed the prescription via a local (chain) pharmacy which is a partner of the mail order pharmacy. The local pharmacist was good enough to tell me that the retail price for the two pills was $31, and that she had to charge this full amount since I had not connected the dots between the mail order Pharmacy, the insurance company, and the local branch of the retail Pharmacy.   She added that if I submitted my insurance details to her within seven days I could get the lower price. I'd have been a fool to ignore this, so I trotted back to the local pharmacy wit

I got some Australian Lamb this week at my local supermarket.  I cannot do so often 'cause lamb (which I like very much) is usually very expensive. The lamb I bought was labelled as hormone and antibiotic free (probably true for most lamb, which as far as I know cannot be "factory farmed"). What I bought was labeled as "Lamb for Stew", and it was "on sale".  The package weighed about twenty four ounces, and was sold for the princely sum of five bucks ($5), a bargain these days. I prepared it in my slow cooker, and there was enough for three meals.  On Tuesday and Wednesday I ate it with sweet potatoes, corn,  and cannellini beans;  today with sweet potato and haricot verts. A  "Feast fit for a King" indeed, or at least for a Povey. The crowning joy of these meals was the mint sauce which I made from scratch. Not for me the sickly sweet American product known as "mint jelly". No siree! I made, from scratch,  the far

O.K.     (1) So I know that the collective noun for Crows is a "murder", not a "convocation".   (2) And I know the difference between Crows and Jackdaws.   Nevertheless we had what I choose to call a "Convocation of Crows" this morning,  on and around a leafless tree in my neighbourhood. The noise was all but deafening.           Their gathering reminded me of some words by a Fourth Century (A.D.)Christian Bishop, one Gregory of Nazianzus. (N azianzus was a small town in what is modern-day Turkey). He, (referring to a gathering of Bishops in Constantinople) speaks of Jackdaws -  but they might as well have been Crows.     A meeting of Bishops described "they squawked in very direction. a flock of jackdaws combining together, a rabble of adolescents, a gang of youth, a whirlwind raising dust under the pressure of air currents, people whom nobody who was mature enough either in the fear of God or in years would p

Spider threads on a misty morning 1 Spider threads on a misty morning 2 Spider threads on a misty morning 3 Spider threads on a misty morning 4  Spider threads on a misty morning 5 A flotilla of ducks (Wood ducks?) 1 A flotilla of ducks (Wood ducks?) 2

Back in the 1990's when I was the Rector at St. Stephen's Parish in Pittsfield, MA  I got to know Liz . Coscia and her daughters Sara and Katie.  They were good people who enjoyed our life in Christ at St. Stephen's.   Now, in 2015, I was lucky enough to hook up again with Liz (now Contenta) .  Thanks be to God she has married another Pittsfielder, one Frank Contenta (a man I knew and respected).   Last  month Liz C was visiting her Mum just down the road from SRQ, in Englewood, FL   They came up to SRQ and attended the 11:15 Eucharist at St. Boniface Church on Siesta Key, FL.   I was blessed enough to preside at that Eucharist (and my beloved the Revd.  Andi Taylor was the preacher).  What a blast!   Here are some "snaps" from that day.   jmp at the Altar with his good colleagues Andi T (l) and Ralph M (r)       Andi T and I minister the Holy Communion     Liz C and I after our post communion lunch at Panera Bread.  

Last Thursday I visited  St. Boniface Parishioners Becky W and Chuck F who happen to be in the same Nursing Home (for rehabilitation).  In fact their rooms are on the same corridor, opposite each other. Becky is a retired school-teacher.  She is adored by all the older gay men at St. B's.  They are lavishing her with visits and phone calls. I made her laugh when I said "the Bible says that Jesus is the King of Kings.  I think that you are the Queen of Queens". On Friday I went down to  see Bob H and Frank P at their home in Charlotte County, FL, some 48 miles from where live.    Bob is the man who had a nasty fall at his work-place last year, a fall which seriously injured his brain. At one time Frank P (his partner), and Peggy and Pat his sisters thought that I would be called in to minister "last rites".  You may remember that I frequently visited Bob in the Trauma Unit at Blake Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, FL, then just one at the V.A. Hospital in