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.

New Year

There will be those who will think that the scorching temperatures are indicative of global warming!
I am not a denier, but they are not (on their own) evidence per se! It was wonderful to wander around at midnight last night and watch the fireworks in the wramth of the hot evening.
Here at Port Eliott, today, it was not 40 it was 25! 80 kms away from Adelaide (where it was 40) and 10-15 degrees cooler! Beautiful.
It would of course be ludicrous to suggest that Adelaide is in the grips of global warming and Port Elliott is not! We need to appreciate that global warming is a long-term and not a short term (year to year) trend. If average temperatures have gone up by 2, 3 or 10 degrees in 50 years time then there will indeed have been a trend, but this does not happen statistically from year to year.
As I think back through our post Christmas holidays over the last two decades they have (if anything) been cooler than the late 60s and 70s. So let's not be silly!
Meanwhile we have really appreciated the 4 minute timer for the shower which seems to have worked for all. Now water! That is a real and immediate problem!!
Happy New Year. Watch the water!

Bloody, bold and resolute!

Having expostulated yesterday on how New Year's resolutions are laughable in our society and how(any way) we are called to have a resolute state for our life rather than a list of good ideas (homily here). I have, nevertheless, continued (after 18 months) with my novella...(see here).
We shall see how long the resolution lasts!
It does seem to me that an awful lot of bloggers style themselves as novelists, and strive to use the medium to force them to write...and then never do it. Myself included.
Well, my theory is a page a day must write 365 pages a year...and 366 in 2008!