Places recently visited

The Black Country Living Museum at Dudley in the West Midlands is well worth a visit. It includes a Victorian village and Canal basin. For more pictures see my photos dated May 9th 2008 on

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80674038@N00/

Goodrich Castle near Symonds Yat is in a stunning location.

The canal at Kinver in the West Midlands passes through beautiful countryside

The view from Alfred's Tower near Stourhead. (National Trust property)

For more of my pictures of all these places, see

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80674038@N00/

and look for pictures downloaded on May 9th 2008

Making Music

Our church worship group having a good sing.

Grace's 7th Birthday

Our oldest grandchild Grace had a swimming party on her 7th birthday: hence the cake with the swimming pool theme. (Click on it to enlarge it). More party pictures are on my flickr site at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80674038@N00/

Sydney Gardens

On April 19th I posted a picture of an express train passing through Sydney Gardens. The park is a very scenic part of Bath at is also cut by the Kennet and Avon Canal, which is one of my favourite bits of towpath (see picture above). At the other end of Sydney Gardens is the Holburne Museum (below).

With Anton and Erin:

I thought I would put this picture in again as it aroused quite a bit of interest before, but it has disappeared off my blog main page. I first published it in my February 2008 blog.

Mary's 70th birthday

My cousin Mary celebrated her 70th birthday this weekend, and we gathered at Geoffrey and Margaret's house for the party. The rest of my pictures of this notable event can be seen by clicking on the following link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80674038@N00/

where you can click on the individual photos and enlarge and/or download them to your own computer.

34067 Tangmere at Bath

Battle of Britain Class Tangmere was designed by Oliver Bulleid in 1945 for the Southern Region. It is now the only member of its class to do railtours, and I took this picture as it passed through Sydney Gardens, Bath, on 17th April.

Blaenavon

We went on a fascinating visit to Blaenavon Ironworks. Many people have visited the ‘Big Pit’ at Blaenavon, but just as fascinating are the remains of the Ironworks, which are all part of the Blaenavon World Heritage site (just as significant as the Taj Mahal, then!). My photos are of one of the blast furnaces and of the water balance tower, which used to hoist trucks loaded with iron to the top of the site, from where they would be pulled for several miles to a tunnel through the mountain, and then down an inclined plane to the Brecon Canal. The whole area is well worth a visit. For more on this, click on this link:

http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=6&PlaceID=145#

Corsham Debt Advice Centre - run by Priory Street Baptist Church


The Christian impact on the Economy.

A survey ignored by the media.
Faith communities (Christian, Moslem and Jewish) in UK contribute over £2bn to the national economy each year. Many faith communities are working in areas of emerging need such as employment training, alcohol and drug awareness, and debt counselling. Projects tackling these problems are particularly needed in many urban areas now suffering high levels of deprivation.

Many faith communities provide accommodation for the wider community. In Wales alone, (where the survey was conducted by carried out by Christian group Gweini, working in partnership with the Wales Council for Voluntary Action) , over 600 operate purpose-built community centres; 1,800 rent out rooms to outside groups and 1,100 supply accommodation free of charge. 98% of this work is done by Christian churches, whose congregations in UK are contributing something of the order of 1.6 million hours of voluntary work on behalf of the wider community every week. This is the equivalent of 40,000 full-time workers provided by the church for free.

None of this survey was taken up or reported on by the mainstream media. Indeed public commentators are fond of asking all too frequently whether religion is good for society, and equally often giving a negative response. So, to those who say ‘Christianity is fine, as long as you keep it private’ my response would be, ‘Do you really want that £2 bn taken out of the economy, or all that voluntary work removed?’

Sapperton Tunnel

For my 66th birthday we had a meal at the Tunnel Inn which is just above the mouth of the old canal tunnel at Sapperton, near Cirencester. At over 2 miles long, the tunnel was, when constructed, the longest tunnel in Britain. Click on picture to enlarge it.

Sean ,Eva and Grace

Sean thinks this might turn out to be the best photo ever taken of him!

Our latest photos of grandchildren

Rosie - gimme five!

With Andy, Debs and Rosie by the Sherman tank at Slapton Sands. (The tank was rescued from the seabed after a disastrous episode in World War II when the U.S. Army was attacked by the Germans whilst training at Slapton for the D-Day landings)

With Frances, Isaac and Lubin at Beesands

With Jacob, Grace and Eva at East Portlemouth, near Salcombe

SOME DEVON SCENERY

(from our recent visit there. Click on any picture to enlarge it)

Cliffs at Burgh Island

Slapton Sands

Beesands

Now this is supposed to look like a great cliff in the Nile Valley. In fact it is only about 2 metres high.

Go to church and pray if you want to be happy.
I read this article in today' newspaper, which corroborates what I have always instinctively believed, though it does raise as many questions as it answers. I have added at the bottom a thoughtful comment from one internet reader


Faith makes you happy, say scientists
Those with religious beliefs are likely to be happier than atheists or agnostics.
Research suggests religion can act as an "insurance policy" against the adversities of life.
Regular churchgoers also appear to cope better with events such as divorce or unemployment and may even be happier.
The study, presented yesterday at the Royal Economic Society's annual conference in Coventry, used data from across Europe to investigate the effect of being religious on life satisfaction, as well as attitudes towards government policies.
Although the idea of religious belief as a "fortress" was not new, "this issue of insurance has surprisingly received only limited attention", the report's authors said.
The study concluded that the "stress-buffering" effect varies according to the life event and religious denomination, but "churchgoing and prayer are also associated with greater satisfaction".
Authors Professor Andrew Clark and Dr Orsolya Lelkes also found strong faith led to different political attitudes. The religious were less supportive of unemployment benefits. Religion could even influence the evolution of social and economic institutions, they said.

A reader's comment:
I would assume that one would need true faith in order for this to be true. If that is the case then it's not simply a lifestyle choice but something far deeper. What about those of us whose intellect does not allow for religious faith? Are we all doomed to unhappiness then?

The canal at Bath

I took this picture on the Kennet and Avon Canal where it passes through Sydney Gardens in Bath. The picture is enhanced by the smoke from a garden bonfire. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

With Anton and Erin

Aficionados of ‘Strictly come Dancing’ will appreciate this picture of us with celebrity dancers Erin Boag and Anton du Beke at a dinner-dance at Westonbirt recently.

Babbacombe

A day out at Babbacombe Model Village near Torquay, with our daughter Jan and grandchildren Grace, Eva and Jacob

At Work

On Fridays I work at the Corsham Debt Advice Centre

Another milestone

We were privileged to host a party for Wendy's older sister Shirley and her husband George, when they celebrated their Ruby Wedding.

Rosie meets Sindbad

Another doting grandparent entry . . . . .

Sindbad the parrot lives in a house in Devonport, and we just happened to meet him as we walked by. Apparently Sindbad gets seasick, so he would be useless on the shoulder of Long John Silver!

Rosie on safer territory at home with Debs

UPLYME - family weekend away

Waves breaking over the Cobb at Lyme Regis

Sitting in fresh air and wind

David and Lubin

Sean and Andy focussing all their substantial intelligence on a Playstation game

Debs and Rosie

Wendy reading to her disciples.

FROST

A comment for our viewers from abroad: global warming seems to have prevented us from having any snow yet this winter, but we have had some frosts. The upper picture was taken in Wadswick Lane, near our home, and the lower one on our drive. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the delicate frost-patterns on the car roof.

Isaac and Lubin: Christmas 2007

Isaac has Leila's snake Frankie round his neck.

FIRST BIRTHDAYS
We went down to Plymouth for a joint celebration of the first birthdays of Rosie (Andrew and Deb's daughter)and Lubin (David and Frances' second son)

CHURCH ACTIVITIES
Two pictures taken in early November when we visited the Lox Lane retreat Centre near Shaftesbury, and two pictures taken at the dedication of Miriam Ovens and the twins Matthew and Benjamin Everett.