World Environment Day 2006

The members of the Eastern Region Environment Committee of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne have been busy little bees. To-day is World Environment Day and yesterday at church at St Thom’s at Upper Gully we received a handy little brochure on Water Saving. While Melbourne is not the driest part of the dry continent, its residents are quite water conscious and have constant reminders to vigilance so the Water Saving brochure was a contribution to the whole civic water saving ethos. The brochure explains to us as follows:

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. Most of Australia is classed as arid or semi-arid, with 80% of the continent receiving less than 600 millimetres, and 50% receiving less than 300 millimetres, per year.

Of all the water on Earth, only 3% is fresh. Less than a third of 1% is available to humans. The rest is frozen in glaciers, polar ice caps or deep within the Earth, beyond our reach.

Water is one of the most important natural resources we have. It is essential to our existence.

Since 1900, global water consumption has risen 10 fold. UNESCO has predicted that by 2020 water shortage will be a serious problem world wide.

As Christians, we are called to care for, and to share with all, the creation given by God. It is therefore a responsibility of the Church to show leadership in sustainable water management. Action is therefore being taken to raise the awareness of members of the Eastern Region of the Melbourne Anglican Diocese to this responsibility and to encourage an engagement in, and an acceptance of, the challenge concerning water usage by the Church itself and by Church members.

REFLECTION

As a people of faith we have before us the Great Commandment,

“To love God, to love neighbour and to love self”.

The environment is our neighbour, sustaining us, nurturing us and teaching us about ourselves and about that which is different to ourselves.

The land, the water, the air, all that is vegetable and all that is animal and mineral become very intimate neighbours calling each of us to learn more about how we relate to them.

The commandment calls us into a relationship with our living world.

We mutually receive and have reciprocal responsibilities back to all aspects of the Earth’s created order.

We have been offered a time to heal both ourselves and our environment by using this received and share knowledge, we are enabled to hand on our wisdom to those generations yet to be born and also to honour all those who have made this journey before us.

Loving God we thank you for this world of wonder and delight.
You have given it to us to care for, so that all your creatures may enjoy its bounty.

Seasons of the Soul: Pentecost

To-day is the celebration of Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian church.

Happy Birthday, Church!

PENTECOST BLESSING

Deep warmth of joy and love be yours,

Bright light of sight and life be yours,

Rich glow of fruits and growth be yours;

Fire of the Spirit burn within you

Fire of the Spirit burn within you.

Energy of God fill you and dwell in you,

Life of God inspire and renew you,

Breeze of God revive and disturb you;

Wind of the Spirit blow through you

Wind of the Spirit blow through you.

Life giving presence of God stir you

Unseen power of God strengthen you

Wellspring of truth cleanse you and lead you.

The Spirit encourage and guide you,

Creative voice of God direct you

And kindle adventure within you;

Wild Goose cheer you and call you on

Wild Goose cheer you and call you on.

by Craufur Murray

From Pocket Celtic Prayers compiled by Martin Wallace

Keep me burning......

To keep a lamp burning

we have to keep

putting oil in it.

- Mother Teresa

Oprah, consumerism and a real woman

Miss Eagle is unapologetically an Oprah fan. But she doesn't watch the show much anymore. A few years ago she loved it - there was lots of spiritual stuff, lots of love and goodwill stuff, and the bookclub. Sure, Miss Eagle understands that the show has to make dough - and this has to involve interviewing celebrities and promoting the latest network shows. But when this becomes dominant Miss Eagle is left behind. If Miss Eagle has to conjure up an image of consumerism gone wild, gone mad - it is the screams of the audiences of women at Oprah shows in high decibel form. When there is too much emphasis on celebrity (and Miss Eagle does not deny that she likes a bit of glam and the occasional movie star) it leaves Miss Eagle cold. But Miss Eagle loves Oprah: admires her, thinks she is all woman.
All this leads Miss Eagle to tell you, dear Reader, about Lee Seigel's marvellous article, The strange genius of Oprah: Thank you for sharing, in The New Republic. For those of you who are not familiar with this U.S. magazine, you can receive a digital edition and you can get a four week free subscription and access the story here. If you have any difficulties, please email Miss Eagle off the sidebar and she will see what she can do to assist.

Locusts and ancient wisdom

Miss Eagle does not wish to give offence to those of other beliefs and none. However, recently Miss Eagle was discussing a rather traumatic incident affecting a friend and wrote this. She thought afterwards that this might be of interest to others who may be living through troubled times and so decided to publish it here.

Miss Eagle is a good mate of the 8th century prophets. Loves 'em to bits - even when they're cranky and hard to live with. In the Tanakh (the Old Testament), Joel Chapter 1 is all about what the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. Now isn't that a picture to cheer you up! Sheer yuck! But then comes Chapter 2 and I just love verses 25-27. It is all about restoration and it makes Miss Eagle's spine tingle with excitement, dear Reader:

So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust, the consuming locust, And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to shame.
Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
And that I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.

Now, I have to say I have had this experience a few times in my life. In one case, the restoration was specific: item for item. And so unexpected. And when these things happen in life they prepare you and undergird you for the next time. The locust attacks are rather cyclical in this life - and, it seems, we will never rid ourselves of them entirely. They come out of left field, consume all before them, and we are powerless to prevent them. So I am a great believer in restoration and a goodly, godly dose of Joel Chapter 2. I find that God never wastes anything. And he ties up all the loose ends ever so neatly at the back of the tapesties which are our lives.

Warmth from a feather...

To-day, June 1, is officially the first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Miss Eagle has just the thing for those cold winter nights when it gets dark earlier and earlier. It is Feather Pudding and it will warm the cockles of your heart. Eat it with simply oodles of creamy custard. If you want to know how to make it, pop across to Food from Oz for the recipe.

Our deepest fear....

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Taken from the 1994 Inaugural Speech of Nelson Mandela

The party's over....

The party's over. Normality is beginning to resume after visitors have gone to the airport; empty bottles have gone into the bin; the left-overs have stocked the fridge for the week ahead. Now, with the new job and all, a new blogging routine has to be established. Stay tuned. Thank you to those who have emailed or posted.

Blessings and bliss
Miss Eagle

Miss Eagle Regrets and Life Takes Over

Dear Reader,

Miss Eagle wishes to inform you that she is taking Leave of Absence. She hopes to resume normal service in about ten days times. Real Life is invading the Quiet Life. Visitors are on the horizon with accompanying preparations prior to arrival and various jollities on arrival. In amongst this are your Miss E's birthday celebrations (26 is reprising) and Herself's best friend is being farewelled to live in England. As well, the coffers are getting a top up with a six month contract of employment - so nine to five time slots with train rides before and after will become the order of the day. Miss Eagle is happy to receive email from the sidebar and will be dropping by the sites and her Feeddemon so she will not be incommunicado altogether.

Yours bloggingly,
Miss Eagle

A darling daughter and a best friend

Miss Eagle has mentioned Martin and Vonnie's Melbourne visit. Martin has sent me his photos of the visit and Miss Eagle, the proud Mama, loved this photograph of Herself and Vonnie taken at Avec Amour. Pardon Miss Eagle's indulgence.

The Great Aussie Scone Fest Mystery

www.bananamuseum.com

Dear Reader, the Great Aussie Scone Fest has kicked off over at Food from Oz. But your help is needed. The Old Foodie has left a comment, informing Miss Eagle of a difficulty.

Well Miss Eagle, I thought I had found the perfect contribution in a book called "The Australasian Cookery Book .. specially written and compiled for the requirements of Australian and New Zealand Homes" (is about 1910 vintage). The recipe is for Pineapple Scones. "these are made in the same way as banana scones, using grated pineapple insted of the banana."Only minor issue is that there is not a banana scone recipe in the book. Looks like I'll have to experiment, but will be on holiday 12-29th so it might be belated!

Does anyone, anywhere in the world, have a recipe - preferably circa 1910, but any will do - for Banana Scones?

Lord preserve us

My local parish church is St Thom's and every few months they have a street stall at the Maxi Supermarket at Upper Ferntree Gully. It is something and is organised by the indefatigable fundraiser in chief, Gwen Brideson. Three tables. One table was burdened with beautiful knits and crafts. A second table groaned with delights from the kitchen. The third had the piece-de-resistance, the raffle of Rosemary Sendin's Mother's Day cake. Miss Eagle made a valiant effort to win this, purchasing quite a few tickets. But the winner was Iola Tilley - without whom St Thom's would probably fall down - who has more counts towards motherhood than Miss Eagle.

But Miss Eagle always heads for the preserves. This time - with a vision of all those scones to be baked and tested for the Great Aussie Scone Fest - your author was even more focussed than usual. Miss Eagle does not bother to make her favourite Plum Jam anymore. Bett Connop's is a delight and this time it was made from Blood Plums.

The other purchases all came from the kitchen of the elegant Eve Nielsen and, as you will see Dear Reader, her jams and chutneys are elegant as well. Six jar's of Eve's produce came back to The Trad Pad: Apple and Sage Chutney; Nectarine and Peach Chutney; Lemon and Fennel Jelly; Fig and Ginger Jam; Gooseberry and Plum Jelly; and Blackberry Jam.

Vonnie, Martin and Me

Miss Eagle's dear friend, Vonnie, from Bluewater in North Queensland has been visiting Melbourne this week with her husband Martin. Vonnie is an indomitable woman of faith. Life has not always been easy for or kind to Vonnie and there are many stories and experiences woven into her life. Not least is the fact that she is the mother of ten children. Yesterday, we three went up to Sassafras and had a long lunch of the beautiful food they serve at Miss Marple's.

Great Aussie Scone Fest

Janet over at The Old Foodie has entered into correspondence on the topic of scones.

Well now Miss Eagle,

I have just posted an addendum ("Above and beyond") to today's post "Colonial Kosher", as a result of the comments from Gillian Pollack (her comment was just before yours on the shark/mullet story) at http://gillpolack.livejournal.com/ - she has put up a batch of scone recipes from her Jewish grandmother's cookbook. Now dont you just have to get out your Schauer and post her scone(s) recipe? - she must have at least a couple? You might start the Great Aussie Scone Recipe Fest. In any case, you are duty bound - with the name of your blog and all - to find a pumpkin scone recipe for the rest of the world. I await it eagerly.

Janet

Please note: Miss Eagle has used a pumpkin colour for The Old Foodie's letter.

For further information

and all about Miss Schauer on scones

please go to Food from Oz.

Please forward recipes, photographs and anecdotes

to Miss Eagle by clicking on Email on the sidebar

Furry frendz

Miss Eagle hasn't posted on her furry friends for a while

- and they won't have her forget them -

so here we have

Rose the Spartacat and Princess Trixie Wigglebottom.

Book shelves

You, dear Reader, will have noted that Miss Eagle questioned Herself's colour preference in the previous post suggesting it was influenced by the classical book covers on the bookshelves.

Here is Herself's idea of a bookshelf.
This one is in the sun roomwhich looks out on to a courtyard and across to the Dandenong Ranges National Park.
Another corner - of bits and pieces

Classic colour choice

Herself has let it be known that these are her favourite colours.

Miss Eagle wonders if the colour choice has been influenced by the surroundings

- particularly the bookcase of classically bound books.

Prayer and friendship

So many female blogs avoid discussion of matters that are avoided by society at a polite dinner table: politics, religion, sex and death. Now that's OK as long as we remember that we live in a real world in which not everything is as neat, beautiful, ordered, and creative as our blogs suggest. In fact, we ought to remember the reality checks where we look at the needs of others, where we consider people who are far from us and outside our circle of friends and acquantainces. There are people who are marginalised in our society - and through no fault of their own. Two things that can face all of us with a bit of a shock are the marginalising effects of severe and/or prolonged illness and the ageing process.

Many of us enter the world of Ms Robyn through her blog daily parcels tied up with string. Ms Robyn majors in the beautiful and good but has also let us into corners of her life which haven't always been the best. In fact, Miss Eagle has been stunned, at times, by her honesty and her disclosure. Here is a generous spirit.

Her spirit has been challenged in the last 48 hours or so as you will see if, dear Reader, you visit her blog. She has stepped out into a spiritual realm with a blog devoted to prayer for those with needs. She has been hurt by those she considered friends. She has been supported by many, many more. Ms Robyn is in the field but she is wounded.

Miss Eagle is of the persuasion which believes we are spiritual beings with body, mind, and emotions attached. Now she is a big girl - in more ways than one - and knows that there are others in the world who don't see things this way. Miss Eagle's friends include a range of atheists and agnostics. Miss Eagle also knows there are people who fence their spiritual values in with some rather heavy dogma and certainties. She knows the capacity that they have to hurt people by hitting them over the head with sacred books and sureties.

One thing about blogs is that they can be completely ignored. Those who don't find Our world wrapped in prayer and love to their taste can ignore it. You don't go to the blog - and you can be sure the blog won't come to you. Prayer for the sick whether it is in the form of kind thoughts and positive energies, meditation or In Jesus Name, Amen is a form of concern and love for someone other than ourselves. All the great faiths of the world commend such age-old love and concern. Those who ignore such a practice, if only they could know, are impoverished.

And for you, Ms Robyn, I have found this poem:

The Best of Friends

© Jill Wolf

When friendships undergo a test

It's often found old friends are best;

The sampler on the parlour wall

Has these few lines which say it all;

The best of friends can change a frown

Into a smile when you feel down.

The best of friends will understand

Your little trials and lend a hand.

The best of friends will always share

Your secret dreams because they care.

The best of friends, worth more than gold,

Give all the love a heart can hold.

Family sayings - 1

In the long, long ago in Miss Eagle's girlhood, little Miss Eagle was searching for something in the big reclining Ottoman where her mother stored all sorts of stuff. Little Miss Eagle discovered a UFO: a beautiful linen supper cloth which her mother had worked beautifully many years before but had not completed. Litt Miss Eagle asked her mother why she had not completed it because she did such beautiful embroidery. LME's mother said "I would rather spend the time making a dress. You can wear it". This became a saying in Miss Eagle's family as a criterion of practicability and workability. "Can your wear it?"

Solutions to problems and political policies would be judged by the same yardstick...but can you wear it!

Postscript: If you, dear Reader, have a similar story of family comments turning into family wisdom, please share.

The tale of the blogs and the FeedDemon

Once upon a time in the Land of Blog, Miss Robyn asked:

how many blogs you have in your favourites list and how many you actually visit regularly.

Well, Miss Eagle has lots. Lots enough to have FeedDemon and have them all in categories. There are sixteen categories. Now Miss Eagle hastens to add that these are not all visited everyday. Some are what one would call reference blogs. They're there for when Miss Eagle needs to know something.

The frequently visited categories number ten. Now when Miss Eagle says frequently there is the everyday sort of frequency (unless she gets behind) and the others that always do fall behind to once a week depending on how she goes getting through the first lot.

The high priority categories are the 'Aussies' and the 'Charmers'. Well actually, as of this week there are three priority categories: 'Aussies' (10), 'Charmers' (19) and 'Charmers - Aussies' (18). (Did you guess Miss Eagle was once a very dedicated librarian?) 'Aussies' are a very mixed bag while the 'Charmers' are just that, charming. You know the sort - gardens, crafts, homes, pleasant pastures, a dash of spirituality. The 'Charmers' category got far too large - all those 'Charmers - Aussies' were getting out of hand, wouldn't you guess. Then Miss Eagle notices that Anni's Mayday is still in the 'Aussies' because Miss Eagle wasn't too sure in the beginning. But she thinks Anni should really go into 'Charmers - Aussies'. All that bit about garden gates has over-qualified her!

Then next Miss Eagle goes to the 'Feminists' (7). Now these are not all overt feminists. But they are serious high-minded women. The women whose posts Miss Eagle has to get her head around and think about them.

The next three categories jostle for priority. They are 'Food' (19), 'Progressive Christians' (30), and 'Religion' (35). At this stage there may be only a select and favourite few chosen.

The four bringing up the rear are 'Fun', 'Furry Friends', 'Peace' and 'Photos' - a combined total of 21.

So my sidebar is not authoritative. FeedDemon and actual visits are. But if you want to exchange links please let me know - and you will go on the sidebar.

How does Miss Eagle come to have those blogs in the FeedDemon? Because she likes the cut of their jib. Not to say that they are there permanently. Some stop blogging. Some change and what once had things of interest to Miss Eagle no longer do. A very, very few cause Miss Eagle to wonder what on earth, why on earth she bothered to put them on. And in case you are wondering about the diversity of the categories and the unmentioned reference categories - Miss Eagle has four very different blogs to feed as you will note on the sidebar.

So with all that going on in her blogs, in her FeedDemon, and on her screen Miss Eagle lives happily everafter.