Monthly Archives: August 2012

What does heaven look like?

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Delores from Life on a Limb left us a question before she headed off with her family to spend a couple of years living in China. The marathon journey began on the last day of July and involved a couple of weeks travelling through the Chinese countryside, before arriving and settling in to her new home. I do know access to Wifi may be intermittent for her until life becomes more settled, but she will blog along with us each Friday when possible and dip in to see if we are behaving as she would like us to do. 😉

So to the question:

What does heaven look like?

I refuse to answer that question on the basis that I don’t have the answer. 😉 Nobody ever came back to tell me what it was really like, so I am left to speculate.

But, since I have in the past rather burst your bubble about the Garden of Eden…..

I want to be sure of my facts this time about heaven.

Back in November 2009, I did have a little dalliance up in the clouds and shared it with you.

Being older and so much wiser these days, I have given the subject more thought.  I am still a little confused and would like to share a few of my unanswered questions:

Are there walls in Heaven?

If not why do they need gates? Come on, everyone knows about St Peter having a long stand at the Pearly Gates with a gi-normous book that has the name of everyone ever created!  Now that leads me to another question… Are the names in that there buke listed alphabetically (There must be millions of Mary Murphys from Cork) or NHS fashion, where you are asked your name and DOB? Then again it might be in true Olympic (am I allowed use that wurd yet?) fashion with a chapter for each country and marked with a little flag at the top of every page.

Once you’re in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for all eternity?

Can you just picture the women gathered to celebrate Nollaig na mBan – Women’s Little Christmas? My great, great, great grandmother sitting straight as a ram rod with her whalebone stays digging into her sinking boobs, (Is it any wonder that women in old flash bang photos looked surly!). Next to her might be my granny in her bright yellow dress and lisle stockings, laughing her head off while sharing a joke. Flour handed mammy with her bright pinny (apron) baking up a storm and me with sleeves pushed well up, elbow deep in potato peelings.  Of course, If it is an Irish heaven, the women will be on one side and the men on the other with a St Somebodyorother marching up and down the middle just like they did an the dances of my youth!

Will the air be permeated with the scent of Eternity perfume?

I like that idea! 😀

If I am sitting on a cloud fluttering my wings, who will cook the dinner?

Maybe they have McDonald’s & Starbucks! 😉

Seriously now…. What does heaven look like? I decided to type that very question into the most used search engine and came up with Heaven for Kids and couldn’t believe what I read.

John tells us in the book of Revelation Chapter 21, that the City is 1,500 miles long, 1,500 miles wide, and 1,500 miles high.   A city that size that was sitting in the middle of the United States would go from Canada to Mexico and from Georgia to the California border!  Now that’s what I call a capital city!

Will all the people of THE WORLD (over 7 billion at last count) and everyone who has gone before, fit in that space? Wall to wall bodies packed in like a tin of sardines. Do they not have health and safety rules in heaven ❓

After Jesus returns God will bring back all the Christians who died, even people who died THOUSANDS of years ago!  And He’ll make their bodies perfect, better than we ever were before!  Our body will be like Jesus’ body after he rose from the dead!

The underlining was mine. I thought that the ‘The Universal God’ was supposed to be merciful and all inclusive?

Can People In Heaven Still See Us Here On Earth?

Yes.  People in Heaven may not pay attention to every little thing that’s going on back here on Earth, but they’re sure to be keeping an eye on some things, especially when it comes to people they were close to like family and friends.

Can’t you just see your Grandpa watching your softball game from Heaven?  Telling his new friends who may be watching it with him, “Yep, that’s my grandkid!”

Eh Hello! In Ireland we don’t go in for softballs, a sliotar is more in our style and let me tell you there is nothing soft about it!

What about pets?

Maybe your family has never been able to have a pet, the building where you live won’t let you keep one, or someone in your family is allergic to them, well in Heaven you won’t have to worry about that, and you may have the pet you’ve always wanted!

Just think, have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride on the back of a lion?!  Or pet a polar bear?!   Or run through a field with a pack of zebras?!   Well someday, you may just do that!

So you can have pets from any part of the globe, yet there is no mention of your cousins who follow:

  • Atheism
  • Baha’i
  • Buddhism
  • Islam
  • Jainism
  • Judaism
  • Mormonism
  • Paganism
  • Shinto
  • Sikhism
  • Spiritualism
  • Unitarianism
  • Zoroastrianism and
  • All the others I forgot.

Is it any wonder the world is the way it is?

After all that; my idea does not seem so outlandish. I think heaven might look like this:-

But remember you don’t need to wait for ‘a heaven’ to be happy. Happiness is not a place or a destination, it’s a continuum. Being happy is up to you, it comes from deep within you!

Now it is time to flutter your angel wings and fly along to see if the other active members have found their heaven. Anu, Delirious, Maxi, Maria/Gaelikaa, Maria SilverFox, OCD writer, Padmum, Paul, Ramana, Shackman speaks, The Old Fossil, Will Knott..

Thursday Special ~ Sold!

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A famous art collector is walking through the city when he notices a mangy cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store and he does a double take. He recognizes that the saucer is extremely old and very valuable, so he walks casually into the store and offers to buy the cat for two dollars.

The store owner replies “I’m sorry, but the cat isn’t for sale.”

The collector says, “Please, I need a hungry cat around the house to catch mice. I’ll pay you twenty dollars for that cat.”

And the owner says “Sold,” and hands over the cat.

The collector continues, “Hey, for the twenty bucks I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat’s used to it and it’ll save me from having to get a dish.”

The owner replies, “Sorry buddy, but that’s my lucky saucer.

So far this week I’ve sold sixty-eight cats.”

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Tilly said I could borrow this one.

Family and or Career

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Regular readers here will know of the LBC – Loose Bloggers Consortium. We are a baker’s dozen scattered across the world, who write a post on a given subject every Friday. We take it in turns to choose the topic and members do not consult or read other entries before they have hit the schedule or publication button on their own efforts.

Over the years we have become like a family and often interact by email, IM, Skype, and the very, very occasional opportunity for a face to face meeting.

In a recent email Padmum sent a link to an Op-Ed article from the Los Angeles Times by By Elizabeth Currid-Halkett:

Family and career: Women in academia lose faith in having it all.
More female doctoral students are backing away from the high-pressure academia race at the starting line, trading career ambitions for having a family…..

Rather than send a very long reply, it is a topic I get very hot under the collar about, I decided to go for a public lynching here instead.

A child is not a toy to be discarded when the parent gets bored or tired of it. Unlike the ‘i’s and gadgetry that are updated more often than I have hot dinners, a child is a continuum of the lives that have gone before and very much our future. We need to prepare a child for adulthood and a useful life in their future.

A child is for LIFE!

These days we are bombarded from every angle with reminders of how our modern ways are ruining the planet. The controversial mining process of fracking, the chopping down of trees for paper products or the redevelopment of the land, the thinning of the ozone layer caused by our carbon footprint (of course the latter does not apply to Royals, Celebs or politicians!). Yet, children – our future – are neglected, left to starve, and even abused and we stand by and let it happen.

Plants, flowers and trees need nurturing in order to grow and children need nurturing even more.  Why go to work in order to pay even higher taxes and others to do your job of parenting for you?

IF THE CHILD GOES ASTRAY WHO IS TO BLAME – THE CHILD MINDER OR THE PARENT?

The above article seem to assume that everyone is doctoral material or destined for the world of academia. If everyone becomes a ‘Doctor of Whatever’, who will empty the bins? We need joiners, plumbers, chefs, shop keepers & shoe makers as well as the bin men.  They are all people who work with their hands as well as their brains and provide very important service. We need to guide our children to reach their potential and not expect them to become a Lawyer, Medical Consultant or Accountant, just because mother, father, or grandparents had adopted that career.

Every child is unique and there is a place for everyone.

If a career is SO IMPORTANT then there are many options nowadays, that were not available in my fertile years, to prevent conception. Even young children in junior school are force fed information on the subject – sometimes before they are even ready to understand what it is all about. So there is no excuse these days for having babies that upset your career plans.

The contraceptive options available are:

  • caps
  • combined pill
  • condoms (female)
  • condoms (male)
  • contraceptive implant
  • contraceptive injection
  • contraceptive patch
  • diaphragms
  • intrauterine device (IUD)
  • intrauterine system (IUS)
  • natural family planning
  • progestogen-only pill
  • vaginal ring
  • female sterilisation
  • male sterilisation (vasectomy)
  • Abstinance – Never mentioned these days

Life expectancy has continued to rise, 78+ years for men and 82+ years for women. It takes eighteen years of your lifetime until a child is through schooling. A quarter of your life to devote to a child you willingly bring into this world. If you have the pleasure you pay the price, there is after all no such thing as a free lunch.

A career is not A LIFE.

Not everyone gets to work until they cock their toes.

When life throws you lemons like ill-health, death of a spouse, or loss of a job, how many of those people you burst a gut for in your career, will be there to help you pick up your pieces? Very few I would say. Even the phone calls stop after three weeks.

Food Monday ~ Cherry Clafoutis

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Cherry Clafoutis

Preheat the oven to 180°C

450g Cherries, stoned.
2eggs size 3, plus two egg whites
150g plain/all purpose flour
268ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g caster sugar
¼ teaspoon mixed spice

Arrange the cherries in the bottom of a greased 1.2litre/2pint ovenproof baking dish.
I use a food processor to combine the remaining ingredients, whisking for about one minute.
Leave to rest for about 30 minutes.
Pour the batter over the fruit and bake for 45-50 minutes until golden.

Variations: Any fruit in season can be used eg: apricots, peaches, pears or plums.

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My first recipe was for Broccoli & Almond Soup way back in January 2008. Little did I think then, that I would still be sharing my recipes four and a half years later. As I said on that first day, I am a ‘mammy cook’ – prepare, cook/bake and serve – no time for pictures since I like my food hot and in Ireland the food cools quickly. Like radio, you get to make your own pictures! All recipes can be found through the tag cloud, just click on Recipes and enjoy.

 

A needle

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If you get lost ~ Corten & Stainless Steel
Sculptor ~ Martin Heron

The needle sits on the Laganbank Road roundabout, Lisburn, N Ireland. It was commissioned by Lisburn City Council as part of their Creating Space Project.

The work represents Lisburn’s linen industry and heritage.

Standing  6mtr tall, this corten steel needle seems to rust, but is is in fact sealing itself from decay. A stainless steel thread forms a line of text: ‘if you get lost just stop and ask for directions‘, flowing from the eye of the needle. The text came directly from discussion with local community groups about their sense of place and identity.

Martin Heron says that Art should encourage and stimulate interaction with the world around us. It should evoke a sense of pride and wonder for the unique quality of the places where we live, visit and work.

I did sleep!

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The oddest place I’ve slept in/on…

We seem to be in a perpetual season of sales right now, so today I offer the bargain of three for the price of one!

The historical city of Lahr at the mouth of the Schutter valley in Baden-Württemberg close to the Black Forest area of Germany. The hotel room had six beds!! Thick walls and heavy double doors. One door opened outward and the second opened inward. SIX BEDS, enough room for an orgy and not a Toyboy in sight.

A tent on Achill Island in a mist so thick that I could not see beyond the end of my nose. The tent was so ancient it had no built-in ground sheet and I didn’t have one with me either. So it was a sleeping bag on the damp grass with a cover over my head. Those were the days when I was young and foolish.

In a house so full of people that the only space available was the bathroom. It was Ireland and an old house, so the bathroom was just that – a room with the bath and a wash hand basin.  The loo was in a separate room all by itself.

Crowds were not unusual in that household they were well prepared with a board that fit exactly on top of the bath and a sleeping bag and pillow to go with it. It certainly gives new meaning to en-suite!

All of theses were over forty years ago. Nowadays my old bones like comfort.

The topic this week The oddest place I’ve slept in/on… was chosen by Paul, so drift on over to to see what tight corner he found to dream in. While you are at it, check out the other active members of the Loose Blogging Consortium: Anu, Delirious, Maxi, Maria/Gaelikaa, Maria SilverFox, OCD writer, Padmum, Ramana, Shackman speaks, The Old Fossil, Will Knott..

Thursday Special ~ Flu free season

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Miss Beatrice, the church organist, Was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all.

One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea.

As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water and in the water floated of all things, a condom!

When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat. The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist.

‘Miss Beatrice’, he said, ‘I wonder if you would tell me about this?’ Pointing to the bowl.

‘Oh, yes,’ she replied, ‘Isn’t it wonderful? I was walking through the park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground.

The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease. Do you know I haven’t had the flu all winter?’

Now you know what to do…… 😉

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Thanks to Ello for this little beauty.

Garden Swing

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I watched fiddlydiddlydo @conoro on the the Sugru video on Boing Boing. It was a Father’s Day gift from his family.

When my first order for Sugru arrived I twittered:

My first order for that stuff @conoro swears by has arrived through the letterbox! Let the fun begin. I wonder if it will fill in wrinkles?

Quick as lightening the man came back with:

@grannymar My beautifully smooth visage is 95% Sugru. Mix 10 parts white to 1 part red for the desired skin tone effect.

Toyboys watch out!  Sunglasses at the ready… my new beauty might dazzle you.

So why did I want it?
Back in the mists of time – make that May 4th this year to be precise, I joined my fellow LBC group in writing about Sincerity.  Well some might say I was talking/writing through the seat of my pants. I am not sure if pants were mentioned but I was talking seats, well one seat in particular.

It looked a little like this, but the frame was blue and the fabric floral in blues and yellow.

It was my sister’s garden swing seat and the five year old awning fabric was badly faded from the sunshine and beginning to disintegrate. That post told how I repurposed some fabric to make a new awning and seat covers.

At the time the frame needed to be painted and colour changed, so we didn’t dress the swing seat in the new garb. So no ‘After’ photos at the time.

Finally I have the evidence of the completed seat.

And it is much appreciated!

I forgot to mention that one of the polywhatsit units for attaching the awning to the frame was broken. When I heard that my mind turned to ‘fiddlydiddlydo and the Sugru’. I tried it.  Above you see the evidence that it works…. on the swing. 😀

Now to have a go at the wrinkles….

They say beauty is only skin deep. In my case, it might be Sugru deep!! 😆