I've just ordered our harvest stuff (a litlte later than usual it has to be admitted) and am now on the prowl for something new for Advent... that feeling of working in a card-factory comes over me once more.

If anyone has any ideas for something different for Advent (so not the traditional schemes/themes) I'd love to hear about them.  I found two that sounded interesting but in the end weren't.

Maybe I'm just too early - none of the charities seem to have theirs done yet...

Last night, along with millions of others, I was glued to my television wathcing the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.  Along with more than a few friends (real and virtual) I was also participating in some online chats via Facebook and Twitter.  A fascinating exercise in online 'people watching' as comments posted revealed some strong opinions!!

I really enjoyed it, and in common with many others in Glasgow ran to the window to look for the Red Arrows (chose the wrong window!) and later to watch the fireworks over the Clyde (right window and they were, simply, wow!). 

I loved the tongue in cheek tour of Scotland (more so, it has to be said than many of the Scots who posted on Twitter, and no, they were't doing that double negative humour thing). 

I loved the UNICEF appeal - a new initiative for which the time has come - and was saddened at the home grown pharisees and scoffers crying 'waste' and 'what about the poor kids in Glasgow'... Unless our attitudes and actions change then, to misquote the greatest man who ever lived, "the poor kids in Glasgow will always be with us". 

I loved the 'come on in (when the announcers remembered to say it) welcome to each nation - even if 'come away in ' would maybe have been a tad more authentic.

I valued the silence to honour those killed in the downing of MH370. 

I smiled at the hiccup with the lid of the baton. 

I thought the Queen's speech was just right - and how many 88 year-olds would be up at that time, never mind politely smiling at the hiccup and then reading so eloquently?

I guess I just love a good Opening Ceremony combining kitsch and clever, innovation and tradition, solemnity and celebration... I think last night achieved just that.

Oh, and this morning I saw this, which made me smile...

Today something special is happening... no, not the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, though I am sure that will be an amazing spectacle.

Today someone who has been the 'wind beneath the wings' of others reaches her one hundredth birthday.

Wife of a repsected and much-published Baptist minister and former college principal, she knows from the inside what manse life and college life are like

House-mother and health-worker in East London during WWII she has seen grinding poverty, the consequences of poor education and too easy access to intoxicating liquor.

Involved in caring for children rescued via kinder-transport; foster mother to wartime refugees; and mother to two children of her own.

Stalwart of her Welsh Baptist chapel, and following her husband to such diverse places as the Wirral and Borehamwood before reaching Glasgow.

And for me, the gentle voice of encouragment, the winning smile, the kindly word when a service, carefully prepared and achingly wrought has been delivered.

As the inescapable march of time carries with it her short term memory, she is often heard to say "my mother-in-law had a saying "It's a job to know"" and it is a job to know - a job to know what to say in celebration of a life wll lived, generously and selflessly, passing on love and Christian values to family, friends and neighbours.

Today we will be celebrating with someone who is not "the wife and widow of R E O White" but who is  loved and revered in her own right.

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY & EVERY BLESSING GWYNETH WHITE

Over the past few days I've noticed an increasing number of 'Clyde' figures around the city - in railway stations and today in the Botanic Gardens.  A little bit of a google later and I discovered that, yes, there is a Clyde Trail - what fun!  I wonder if at the end of the games there'll be an auction of Clydes?  Not that I'll be bidding, however lovely and however much fun - no use decluttering and then immediately recluttering!

One of the inititative running alongside the games is an appeal for Unicef - adverts are appearing all over the UK, I certainly saw them on the tube in London last week as well as on the Subway in Glasgow.  The More information here. 

Today I joined countless others to cheer on the Queen's Baton Relay.  Living where I do, I could easily have seen ot go past in as many as four different locations, but various other commitments made that impossible, and even I can have too much of a good thing!

I saw it first just up the road from where I live.  An interesting blend of wealthy and working class cheek by jowl, people flocked to see the baton and it was wonderful to be just a few yards from a hand over point... the man carrying the baton was mobbed by children longing to be in the official photo!

A couple of hours later, I saw it again just round the corner from The Gathering Place, now knowing exactly how to spot the hand-over point at a bus stop, I was ready and waiting when a young woman arrived with her extended family and friends to take her 100m (if that!) stretch of road to the next bus stop.  A busy shopping street, the crowds were thinner, bemused tourists and shoppers waited for buses... and the lady who had served me in Boots nipped out early for her lunch break to see it (hope she made it back in time!)

Then for some unknown reason I turned left rather than right and headed home the longer way round, which took me through the grounds of the Gartnavel hospitals (there are four of them) including the Beatson WoSCC

It brought back to mind a time when seeing the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games felt like an impossible dream, when the bank card that expired in July 2014 might have seen me out (I cut it up last week when its replacement arrived), and when I vowed if I was still here to go and watch the netball finals (the tickets are in the drawer!)

It was so good - so incredibly good - to cheer on these baton bearers, without a shred of fear or dread in my heart.  So good, almost four years on to be close to achieving those goals and to thinking about new ones.

I feel very blessed, and the Queen's Baton Relay somehow symbolises hope realised.