Miss Eagle's book addiction

Over at Photo Friday the subject this week is addiction. So Miss Eagle had tidied up the bedside table just last week so the site of her addiction is fit to be on view. Miss Eagle is a reader: of jam tin labels, histories, novels, blogs, websites, email. She has this premonition that she will found dead and buried - buried under a pile of books and papers.
The pile of books has decreased. It gets much higher than this. The pens and yellow marker are there for taking notes, underlining, asterisking. That's the one thing wrong with library books. Ya just can't do that! The scented candles are a Chrissy present that is getting put to use and the picture at the back is of Miss Eagle's dear departed Dearly Beloved and Miss E herself in better years two and a half decades ago. The lamp is a combination of a stand which was part of a job lot at an auction and the shade from a second hand shop, The Lion Bazaar, in Townsville's West End.


Miss E would never be caught turning down corners of books, so she has bookmarks. The book marks come in great variety from sterling silver to the Leunig ones advertising Readings (Miss E loves that Carlton shop!). But this bookmark is special. It is a work of art and it is from Miss E's Tennant Creek days. In those days, Judith Church was TC's artist in permanent residence. Judith would do these wonderfully colourful bookmarks (signed in gold) in the shape of gumleaves with a piece chomped out of it by a koala or a possum. You will note, dear Reader the prominence of the Sturt's Desert Pea and, of course, no bookmark is really complete without a tassel.

And just in case you are wondering what the books are - they are precious little books. Miss Eagle loves this size book - just feels so right in the hand. The dark red one on the bottom is the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. The blue one is The Little Flowers of St Francis: stories about Il Povero, that beautiful man who was so kind, loving, and generous to people and to animals.

Life in my hands : Rings around my heart

PhotoFriday: Self-Portrait 2007

This is one of a pair of hands of a 62 year old woman. Miss Eagle is no glamour puss. The atavar on the sidebar is a wish - somewhere between Suzy Parker and Mame.

Over the years, the hands have been busy. See the profile. These hands have changed the nappies of three children, stamped thousands of library books, handed out thousands of leaflets and how-to-vote cards. They have helped to keep food and fluids up to a dying husband and they held the sobs when he left to continue his journey seventeen years ago.


But it is not the hands that Miss Eagle wishes to talk about: it is the rings. The ring on the ring finger is a sapphire and diamond cluster. This ring is a combination of Miss E's engagement and wedding rings. While her husband was dying, the engagement ring band wore through from years of rubbing up against the wedding ring. They were not a matched pair and the engagement ring was always a little larger. A long time passed before Miss E did anything about the worn through ring. Then she decided. As a symbol of life to that point, Miss Eagle would combine the two rings and mounted the setting on the wedding ring. So there is now a unified ring.

The ring on the middle finger is of great sentimental value. A large part of Miss Eagle's life has been lived on the Barkly Tableland - Queensland side and Northern Territory side. Miss Eagle purchased this at a Tennant Creek Show. It is of plaited silver strands and is the work of Carmel Wagstaff. Carmel and her husband used to manage the legendary Brunette Downs Station in the Northern Territory. So it is with great fondness that Miss Eagle thinks of the creative talent of Carmel and the wonderful people and places of The Barkly.

So - the hands hold experience; the rings carry emotion.

An adventure on the journey of life.

Miss Eagle's good friend, Jim Phillips of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, was diagnosed yesterday with bowel cancer. Miss Eagle asks for prayers for Jim - particularly as his work, business, and family life have to be sorted out to enable him to seek treatment interstate.

In the Territory there is a saying: Get a pain, catch a plane. So next Thursday Jim is on a plane to Brisbane.

Tennant Creek (pop. 4,000) and Alice Springs (pop. 25,000 and five hours away) is not the place to deal with something as serious as this. Jim's dearly beloved, Sylvia, keeps the admin part of the business going. An excellent supervisor keeps the real work going. We need prayer so that Sylvia can be relieved of her admin duties - which are vital to the sustainability of the business - to be with Jim in Brisbane.

Jim and Sylvia walk and work closely with God day by day in every way.

Please be with them as they journey with Him on this adventure too.