A week of grace

It has been good this week to do a little catching up with people as well as just attend to things that need a bit of attention. To watch the tomatoes grow....Harvested the first couple two days ago...and am awaiting the torrent that will arrive with the burst of hot weather that we are about to have.
So, some highlights of the week have been

• the mildest of weather
• oysters and other sea food
• visit and lunch with friends form Tasmania
• the fact that one's sister now seems a bit clearer about what has been making her feel unwell
• a lovely New Years' Eve in which I talked too much, and it didn't seem to matter
• a longish phone call from M in which we both just agreed that the best way for the modern priest is to try and be faithful to our vocation and not pretend we are managers (of decline or anything else)
• wines, red and white
• a night at Port Elliott and a bit of reading

on the whole a great deal of grace....but I must needs go and do the Christmas letter which is now an Epiphany letter...or it will really be too late.

Pigeons on the grass

It is always heartening to hear the copious warbling of the magpies. This morning there was a bunch of them in the rose garden watching the traffic as people wended their
way to work. To hear one or two together is a delight. To see and hear five or six is ecstasy!
I often think that you see more of them close by (like all animals) when things are harsh as they have to take greater risks for food when it is scarce. [frightened they would fly away before I photographed them I also fed them a little morning tea!!] The very dry conditions that we have been experiencing are indeed very harsh, though this theory cannot explain these Maggies because we have had some rain over the last couple of days, but the aridity is so profound that everything seems to dry up very quickly.
As I looked up to go back inside two galahs, and then a third swooped
over the house. Alas I had no coffee cake to entice them to stay for photos.
What does it mean?
Of course it is Epiphany and those of us who know the Leunig cartoon know all about the Adoration of the Magpie.
I couldn't find that one so here 's another early Epiphany cartoon to lighten your day. (It's worth going to the Library to find the early Leunig cartoon books to have a good chuckle)