Disappointed Spring Greetings

27 April 13 Good day to you all, family and friends, Hope you are all well! I am afraid to say –we are nearly back into winter especially during the nights and early mornings with ground frost and very low temperatures of 2-4 °. The sun makes a very brave effort every morning but come 11o’ clock the clouds move in and that is the end! Day temperatures rose to 14° 2 weeks ago but this last week has been very unfair- we would like to think about summer but spring has not arrived yet! I should not complain, we just had our cup of coffee outside in the sun until the first drops chased us inside. I heard this morning on the farmer’s programme that bales of hay has been sourced from France and England to help the farmers feed their cattle! Good news! Our swallow arrived yesterday and we saw him again today- he sweeps over us with flair, quite a few times, to greet us – it brings us great pleasure! The other birds are still being fed as there is nothing else for them to eat- the insects that is supposed to be their staple diet, is missing from the skies! Siskin’s, gold finches, black caps, and our usual garden birds-chaff-finches, hedge-sparrows, house sparrows, red robins and the black birds are our daily delight! The baby cat Jet is back feeding at night time –he is thin and very clever- he makes sure that we cannot watch him – I am not sure if his leg is fully healed. But he is there as soon as the evening starts turning to dusk- we do have these wonderful long evenings and with the moon in full shine we have great bright nights. I just moved the computer from the kitchen table back into the office/music/piano room as Lukas calls it- as the painting of the ceiling with varnish will commenced on Monday morning. After anxious moment described in a letter to my ‘Niggie’-which will be posted onto my ‘tawwetienie blog’where the Afrikaans readers can enjoy all the disasters and I will not bore you with the details in this letter. I am on leave and just as well the 1st week of work was difficult enough with me sleeping during the day- at least now the work gets done without worrying about me. We had a very exciting weekend gone by, first with the visit to Dublin for Lukas’s 3rd birthday which was on the 23rd and the Songs of Praise service at church. Both events turned out to be wonderful in its own way! I am at rest this Sunday as I did all the playing last week and as always something has to go wrong 2nd Hymn so well known to me- when I start playing it – did not sound right- eventually I hear Stephen calling my name – telling me I am playing the wrong Hymn for the words on the wall! It took me a good part of an hour to get rid of the redness in my face and to face every-one afterwards with confidence telling them I that I had a senior moment! I heard that Garth’s father is not well and we hope and pray that his suffering will not be prolonged. Any-one else who finds them not on the ‘well’ side of health we wish you a speedy recovery and if it is ongoing that you will have the courage to bear your pain and discomfort! Birthdays: My calendar seems to be very empty for this coming week- if there is some-one I do not have a birth date for, hope you have a lovely day! On the political front there looms dark and thundery times ahead, the abortion question and the stupidity of our Min of Health- much the same as when? Pres Zuma or some-one in SA’s government said you will be cured of Aids if you eat beetroot! A 20 year debate about the state of a suicidal pregnant women will have to discussed by 6 people majority of them Psychiatrists, in different stages to determine if her state of mind requires an abortion never- mind id she is standing on the cliff edge or the woman who is in premature labour and in the process of aborting- rather let her die of sepsis because there is still a faint heart beat present than do an abortion and save the woman’s life -then on the other hand they allow same sex marriages, no problem with that – now somewhere is something drastically wrong- is it like the maths exam I had to do in Std 8 and my symbol were xxx and my very wonderful diplomatic father made me feel better by saying:” Do not worry your answers were above their comprehension” That is exactly where I stand in this –their reasoning is above MY comprehension. May-Lou from Sinn Fein is the best and most outspoken woman in Parliament- , she is my heroine for this week when she said that the bank managers earn in 2 weeks as much as a nurse earns in a whole year! How can that be acceptable? The tragedies in the world is so sad, the bombing of the Boston Marathon, the Bangladesh building that collapsed and the Syrian’s? use of weapons of mass destruction but the slaughtering that is taking place there in any case- Reading the Bible so regularly with explanations and sermons every Sunday to proclaim the Good News – one wonders where and when the turning point will come- The Islam religion is now so overwhelming that Christianity seems to be falling more and more behind. In spite of that we know that our Redeemer LIVES! and that is what me going in all this doom and gloom. Thank you to all those who wrote letters and answered mine – it is with great delight that I read every word! Well with darkness descending upon us here in Cranleymore because of a enormous dark and ominous cloud over the house, I want to wish you well- be always alert- drive safely and care for one another –you never know when it is your time to leave your loved-ones behind! A bit of disappointed spring greetings with the promise of Arctic winds next week with plenty of rain, I bid thee farewell........... Barry and Christina