Bird of Paradise flower, Madeira, 2013.

Another "AD" holiday with another friend.

In the "BC" days I never went overseas on holiday, partly because I love exploring the UK (and have seen far more of it than most people I know) and partly because I mostly took solo holidays (which I also love, and to an quite an extent miss) so was not really confident to go so far afield.  What a lot has changed!

This friend I met back in the early 1980s when we worked in the same office in Derby.  Like all of my long term friendships, we have each seen our share of struggle and pain along the way, and we have also loved and laughed.  This friend is definitely my 'overseas travel' buddy, and we continue to share plans for more adventures in the coming months.

Madeira was our second overseas jaunt, having previously been to Hungary (no great nature photos from there for some reason) and it ended up with an extra day when rain closed the airport...!

Once I've posted this, my next task is to start work on a big pot of vegetable broth for this evening.

I am excited to be hosting a first, experimental, "pot luck" meal within the context of which we will " break bread" (share Communion) in a very low key way.  The hope is that conversation will flow, relationships be forged and strengthened, and that these first few participants will feel encouraged to have a go at hosting themselves.

If all goes well, I will be inviting these folk to undertake to host a similar small gathering with the next couple of months (so that would mean five homes in the next 'cycle') with a view to cascading this to include everyone who would like to come along and/or host over time.

In these early days, it's important NOT to keep inviting the same folk but instead to make a concious decision to invite people we maybe know less well, or who know each other less well, to help make a stronger 'web' or 'network' of relationshsips. We may need to co-ordinate a bit to ensure we can include everyone in a  timely fashion.

Next time, I hope to be able to include at least one family with young children in those in my home, so that this can be truly inter-generational.

I'm excited - I hope other people will be to.

Passion Flowers in Edinburgh in 2012!

I decided to stick with my "AD holidays" theme for these photos, and of itself it is enjoyable to look through them again, recalling places and people.

This was a Staycation based at home here in Glasgow, and shared with my bestest walking buddy.

The flowers were photographed in Edinburgh ona day when we enjoyed the Princes Street Gardens before the spectacle of the Tattoo in the Castle.

Any photos of times we've shared have a degree of poignancy, since each of us has faced some huge and painful challenges over the years.  The passion flowers, with their interpretted symbolism of the crucifixion are at once beautiful and poignant in their own right.

Hope you enjoy the photo.

The Joint Public Issues Team (BUGB, Church of Scotland, Methodist Church and URC) along with the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office have just released this resource to help Christians think through the big issues and make up their mind how to vote in the upcoming EU referendum.  It aims to be objective and does not endorse either viewpoint.  It is a relatively bulky document, yet remains very accessible and worth reading.  As you can see, Sophie Cat is already getting to grips with it!!

There is a meme thingy on social media inviting people to post seven nature photos in seven days.  It seemed like maybe a nice idea to share the same photos, and my reasons for choosing them, here.

This jolly puffin was photographed on Staffa in June 2011.  It was my first "AD" holiday and I was determined to make the very best of it.  To fulfil a very old promise, I was paying a return visit to Oban where 14 years earlier, with some friends, I'd been on a tour of the  distillery.  We made a pact to retun in 2011 to collect a bottle of 'our' whisky.  Times changed, but I remembered the promise and I returned... I expect the friend has long since consumed and forgotten the whisky, let alone its significance!!

One very special day of my holiday was the Mull-Staffa-Iona trip, and on Mull I chose to go puffin spotting rather than entering Fingall's Cave (not time for both).  This cheeky chappy is a wonderful reminder of a very 'golden' day at a time when I was beginning to discover what "new normal" might mean.  Almost five years on I can still recall the wonder of a day on which I saw puffins, eagles and dolphins.

Another nature photo, and another memory tomorrow!