What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.
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This lovely old aeroplane is a Sopwith Pup, as used by the Royal Flying Corp during the First World War. Sopwith was a major British aircraft manufacturer of the day. This aircraft is still flying from time to time in England where it’s based at Old Warden Airfield, itself a survivor of the First World War. This particular aircraft was built after the war and modified back to the fighter configuration.
In the photo the engine is being tested after maintenance, so a couple of side panels have been removed for inspection. The propeller was spinning, you can see the motion blur in the image.
Here’s the same aircraft in action.
Design and construction
Based on a smaller, earlier aircraft, Sopwith designed the larger Pup as a fighter in 1915 with the first prototype appearing in 1916. Both the navy and the army (the Royal Flying Corp was part of the army) ordered numbers of the planes and they served well until superseded and transferred for training purposes as newer, more effective fighting planes rapidly evolved.
This aircraft was much lighter than its German counterparts. It could take off and land on grass surfaces, in quite short distances. The Pup was very manoeuvrable, had a tight turning circle, and a high service ceiling for those times.
The Pups were replaced with Sopwith Camels during 1917.
Old Warden Aerodrome
Old Warden was a First World War air station, as already mentioned. It lies just north of Shefford and south-east of Bedford. Today it’s the home of the Shuttleworth collection of old aircraft and motor vehicles, a very fine and famous collection with a long history, originally as a private collection, but now open to the public. The old aircraft are frequently rolled out, and often one or more are performing in the air.
Everything that’s not active on a particular day is stored in a series of First World War hangers and those are all open to visit as a museum with informative explanatory material on display as well. There is active maintenance and restoration going on, and some of that may be on display too.
If you’re interested in this sort of thing, and are in the area, I highly recommend popping over for a visit.
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Judy’s Biochemistry year at Aberystwyth made the long coach trip to Cambridge where they stayed in Churchill College and visited biochemistry labs at the university. (1970)
Jan 2025 (3 months before publishing this article)
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On 2nd January we visited Batsford Arboretum, one of the places we like enough to revisit several times a year. Before it was an arboretum it was a family estate, the photo shows the interior of the private family church.
House repairs
The heat pump system we’ve been waiting for was finally installed towards the end of the month, it was all working throughout the evening and night of 31st and it was wonderful to began to feel warmer, the first time our radiators have been warm since the gas boiler failed back in October! We survived with our 5 kW gas fire in the lounge and a couple of electric convector heaters. We had other work done on the house during January as well, repairing a leak around our chimney and making further changes to a window. This completed the work begun in December.
I enjoy following progress in spaceflight – a lifelong interest – and January was a busy month. A Falcon 9 booster launched and landed for a record 25th flight, Blue Origin’s first launch of New Glenn reached orbit but failed to land, and Starship Flight 7 failed to reach orbital velocity, but the booster was caught successfully. The break-up of the orbiter made a spectacular light show over the Caribbean.
One of my accounts on the internet was hacked and several more compromised, it was stressful and took time to recover.
Donna started running quite seriously, spurred on by her brother, Paul, and his wife Vanessa. She did a Park Run with them in Tetbury on 12th, and then a 10k race at Westonbirt School on 17th. She’s at the run a bit, walk a bit stage, but improving all the time. I’m impressed!
Our garden cabin got painted, we paid a handyman to do it as it’s a big area to cover, and he sprayed Donna’s choice of Dulux Weathershield colour over a primer following pressure washing and sanding all the timber.
On the 5th we drove to Nottingham for a friend’s 80th birthday party, staying one night. It was a lovely occasion and we met a lot of old friends from our days in St Neots.
We visited Kelmscott Manor not far from Lechlade, where William and Jane Morris lived for some years and made many of their own furnishings. The wall-hanging in the photo was made by them in 1860 when they lived in Kent. As we explored the house we began to see what a gem this place is, full of original material from the Arts and Crafts movement of the time.
Paul and Vanessa (with the two dogs) came to visit for Donna’s birthday, we always enjoy seeing them. We didn’t go out, but split the time between our house and Isobel’s (Paul and Donna’s Mum), chatting and catching up.
Woodchester
Later in the month we visited another interesting old house, the never completed Woodchester Mansion. This is very unusual, it remained empty and unused when the funds ran out and is a frozen work in progress. The builders just downed tools and walked out!
At the end of April I did a canal walk from Chalford to the tunnel entrance at Daneway.
Early in the month we visited Weston-super-Mare to look after the dogs while Paul and Vanessa explored Dartmoor. One day, Donna and her Mum wanted to shop at Cadbury Garden Centre so I took the opportunity of walking around the village of Yatton where I used to live. It’s changed a bit since I was last there and it was fun to walk around some of the old haunts. We visited Cheddar, Cheddar Gorge and Burrington Combe as well.
SS Great Britain
Debbie, Aidan and Sara came to visit in the middle of the month and I went with them to Bristol where we visited the SS Great Britain and did a walk around Roman Cirencester. The photo is the best I could manage, I struggled to predict where everyone would be and it was hard to get ahead for better photos! It was an interesting experience, and later Aidan got to visit his favourite football club, Bristol Rovers.
JHM: I posted more on groundbreaking; and on a delayed attempt to launch SpaceX’s Starship for the first time. World events: Finland joined NATO; and Starship launched for the first time on 20th April.
Donna’s Dad, Tony, was suffering a lot of pain in the mornings when we had to help him out of bed. But we were able to get carers in from a local hospice, Longfield, despite the COVID precautions. This was wonderful as otherwise he would have had to go into care and visiting was not possible during this time, it would have been an awful experience for him and for us, too. Paul, as a family member, was able to drive up from Weston-super-Mare to visit to see his Dad.
There were daily ministerial broadcasts about the pandemic. It was a strange time, I remember one day a queue of over 100 people was socially distanced all around the Tesco car park with a very long wait to get into the supermarket. Donna and I always looked forward to our one permitted daily walk, but the necessary restrictions were causing serious damage to the economy. I wrote a Haiku of Haikus about it all.
World events: The number of COVID cases worldwide passed 1 million on 2nd April and by 27th it passed 3 million; Donald Trump announced the US was suspending funding for the WHO.
We were in Beddgelert at the beginning of the month, visiting Paul and Vanessa in the cottage they were renting for the week. One day we travelled to Caernarvon and back on the Welsh Highland Railway, walking to and from Beddgelert Station.
Wightwick
On our way home from Gwynedd we stopped to visit Wightwick Manor, a Victorian Manor House in Wolverhampton. This is Victorian style at its most intense, nothing here is simple, everything is ornate, the chimneys, the internal woodwork, the plaster ceilings – everything! If you are in the area, this National Trust property is well worth a visit.
JHM: I wrote on love and forgiveness. World events: The WHO declared Rubella had been eradicated from the Americas; and there was a serious earthquake in Nepal.
As I no longer had a Unilever work laptop, and my own device was a small netbook, I bought an Acer Aspire laptop at Tesco for use at home and continued with the netbook when I was out and about. I ran Linux Ubuntu on both. The photo shows the netbook with Google Wave active in the Chrome browser.
Duchess
We took the X-treme Camp children and some of their parents tenpin bowling on 6th and everyone seemed to enjoy the evening. And the Duchess of Gloucester came to St Neots to open the new Eatons Community Centre, a grand occasion for what became a very popular local venue for all sorts of social activities and events. Click the image for a larger view of her being greeted by young people on the day.
The Bougainvillea flowered abundantly in our conservatory and I bought a wireless Wi-Fi hub for use when I’m out of the house. It provided Wi-Fi connections for up to five devices at once.
On 2nd April I flew to Ford Lauderdale, Florida for the Koinonia Life Retreat, oganised at the Duncan Conference Centre by my friend Steph. I spent the first night at the home of her friends, Terry and Bill. On 4th I stayed with Steph and her husband Earl and on the 5th and 6th visited my cousin Jill and her partner Marcia. After that I spent more time with Steph, Earl, Terry and Bill before flying home on 11th. It was a great trip, and many of the people I met at the Retreat had already been online friends for some time. It was very good to meet them face to face.
At Unilever I was now working on the web Portal which seemed to me rather confusing and not well-designed for research teams. I felt I was pushing against the natural flow of a river of information. It was an uncomfortable experience.
World events: Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles; and the first ever YouTube video was uploaded (watch it).
The most extreme floods we had seen so far in St Neots were in early April, peaking around the 4th and 5th. The river broke its banks and spilled across the floodplain. That is quite normal, but this year the water was exceptionally deep.
Kitchen
Our new kitchen was finished and we were able to put everything away and make the place tidy at last. This was a huge improvement since early March.
Debbie was working hard at the University of the West of England in Bristol. The photo shows her writing up an assignment at home in Yatton.
Judy continued day trips with Debbie and Beth, sometimes I’d go along as well, but often I’d be at work at Long Ashton. The photo below was taken by Debbie and shows Beth and Judy on the beach at Clovelly. I’m glad they were able to spend time with her while she was still fit and well. She lost her hair during a failed attempt at chemotherapy in autumn 1994, but her hair was growing back well by April as you can see.
Beth and Judy
It was probably in April or May that we began meeting with our friends Tony, Faith, Paul and Jenny again. I don’t know the precise date, but I think it would have been this time of year. They were great meetings when we prayed together and received so much in visions, words, interpreted tongues, Bible readings and much much more.
We got started again because I visited Tony and Faith first I think, and then Paul and Jenny, and suggested that we should give it a try even though things had been difficult for some years beforehand.
Judy was fully on board with all this too. And although we prayed for her healing sometimes, this was not the focus for us; instead we really wanted to hear what Father had to say to us and it was like drinking from a firehose!
World events: The Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people; and the US government stopped funding NSFNET, making the Internet entirely independent of government control.
The beginning of April was warm, here Beth has a guinea pig on her lap and Debbie is working. They’re sitting out in the back garden at 80 Stowey Road in Yatton on 1st of the month.
Chew Valley
The 15th was much colder, by this time Debbie’s Bordeaux exchange student, Anne, had arrived and one of our trips was to Chew Valley reservoir. Our car at the time (in the photo) was ‘Karen’, so named by Debbie because it was a Volkswagen and karren is German for cart or barrow. This car had belonged to my Dad, when he replaced it he let us buy it at an advantageous price.
There’s little to say about this month, I haven’t found any photos. We were still living at 22 Rectory Drive in Yatton, Debbie was ten and Beth nearly seven.
I was working at Long Ashton Research Station, and Judy was teaching at Cotham Grammar School in Bristol.
World events: South Africa ended its ban on interracial marriages; and Coca-Cola released New Coke which was not well received.
The photo shows Debbie and Beth in their Wendy House. It was becoming a bit the worse for wear at this stage and was held together by tape and clothes pegs! The back garden at Rectory Drive was small, but just big enough for playing in and to grow a small apple tree, a tiny veg patch, two even tinier gardens for Debbie and Beth, and a sand pit.
While the girls were small it was all we needed, and in any case we couldn’t afford a larger mortgage. We were no longer involved at Horsecastle Chapel at this point, an evangelical congregation meeting at the northern end of the village. We’d become friendly with a number of believers from a variety of backgrounds and were meeting in our own homes.
Debbie would sleep peacefully in her pram and Judy was able to catch up with other tasks and even take a photo or two like this one.
We were living in our flat at 20 Belmont Road in Bristol; ours was the middle flat with a musician (Gwyn) and his wife (Gladys) downstairs with access to the back garden. Gwyn played in the BBC training orchestra in Bristol and had a fine selection of classical music LPs. He copied a selection of tracks onto reel-to-reel tape for us. There was a landing halfway up the stairs to our flat and we kept our bikes there. I rode to work and back every day in Long Ashton.
World events: Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Micro-soft (sic); and The Vietnam War ended with the Fall of Saigon.
This is 14 Belland Drive in Charlton Kings, Cheltenham where Judy lived with her brother, Frank, and their Mum and Dad. Judy was back here from University for a weekend in April and the photo shows the house from the back garden.
Huge room!
Also in April, Judy’s Biochemistry year at Aberystwyth made the long coach trip to Cambridge where they stayed in Churchill College and visited biochemistry labs at the university. She was mightily impressed by the size of the student rooms at Churchill, compared to those at Aber! They made a day trip from Cambridge to Unilever’s research lab at Colworth north of Bedford; and strangely enough I would work there much later after Donna and I were married in 1998.
World events:Paul McCartney announced that he had left The Beatles; and Apollo 13 was launched to the Moon.
I travelled home from Brantwood in the Lake District, probably on 3rd April. I had a great time, there were people from a number of different schools. I think I was the only one from Cirencester. Dad drove me over to the course organiser’s home in Owlpen where we set off for the minibus journey north. We made several trips, walking to the top of Coniston Old Man and visiting the slate quarry on the way up. The slate quarry is now derelict, but was still working when we were there in 1965. We also travelled to the pebble beach near Barrow-in-Furness where we found seabird eggs hidden amongst the pebbles.
The summer term began after Easter, the final part of my year in the Lower Sixth at Cirencester Grammar School.
World events:Early Bird was launched, the first commercial telecommunications satellite; and The Pennine Way officially opened.
I was in Form 1B at Cirencester Grammar School. Here’s a section from my maths exercise book at the time. I remember the maths teacher was Mr Dyer, a kind and gentle person who was always helpful and positive.
World events: The USA launched the first weather satellite; and Brasilia became the new capital of Brasil.
We were living at 17 Queen Anne’s Road in Cirencester; the Summer term began at Querns School, the final term of my second year. Comics were the thing that occupied children in those pre-computer days. Instead of games and other apps on a phone, I was spending hours reading Swift or playing in the garden. Cindy was probably not yet quite old enough for a comic.
We spent time with the neighbourhood children too, especially our next door neighbours, the Watts. Linda was more or less my age, and Graham about Cindy’s age; I think we played well together, either in the house or in the garden.
I had a Tri-ang pedal-power American Jeep (the image is similar, but not identical) with a little, khaki jerry-can on the back. Cindy had a pull-along roundabout with four wooden figures with arms that swung out when it was revolving.
When we moved to our new home in Queen Anne’s Road, the garden was an area of rough soil, topsoil mixed with underlying layers, bits of concrete, and scattered building rubble.
Dad, of course, made a start on turning it into a proper garden, but before he had time to get very far with this, I was out there at the age of two in my little blue coat with its fur edged hood. One of the things that I found was a poker. Everyone had a poker by the sitting-room fire, essential for moving coal and logs around when necessary. Mum and Dad didn’t have a poker, so I was very pleased to find one.
Years later I realised what it really was. It was a fence-wire strainer. It was made of galvanised steel with a loop at one end and a long section of screw thread on the other (a bit longer than in the photo). It would have been passed through a hole in a concrete fence post, fence wire attached, and a nut tightened on the thread to pull the wire taut. Mine had lost its nut and been discarded. It served as a poker for at least 25 years until I was quite grown up and had left home.
World events: The British comic Eagle was launched; and Britain formally recognised Israel.
Dad spent time with family and friends in and around Cirencester at the beginning of the month, travelling back to Skendleby by train on 7th. The constant exchange of letters with Mum in Coagh continued.
On 12th he noted that President Roosevelt had died but made no comment on the news. At the end of the month Dad learned he was to be billeted out in Skendleby and wrote in his diary that he had mixed feelings about it.
There’s not enough information to write something for every month in the 1940s. Dad’s diaries start in January 1943, so for January 1940 to December 1942 I’ll write about things I know, or draw on dated photos and documents. Sometimes I might use a photo or document with a guessed date.
Watermoor Church
Although my grandparents, Ted and Nor, usually went to the Parish Church in the Market Place on a Sunday morning, Watermoor Church was a similar distance to walk and it’s clear they sometimes went there instead.
They lived at Churnside, 37 Victoria Road. To reach the Parish Church they would walk north on Victoria Road, turn left onto Dyer Street and continue into the Market Place. To reach Watermoor Church they would cross Victoria Road, follow The Avenue, and turn left along Watermoor Road.
Here’s another experimental new section. It will contain material that I believe fits this range of dates.
Mop
This is a back-of-the-envelope pen and ink drawing by my grandfather, EA Jefferies (Ted or Guv), he made it for my Dad when he was a young child (five-years-old in 1931) and the colouring-in looks like the work of a child of that age, or maybe a year or so younger. The picture shows the Mop Fair that takes over Cirencester Market Place in October each year, so it might date to October 1930 or 1931.
This picture is very typical of the drawings and stories Grandpa produced. The characters are animals. Notice the smoke rising above the roundabout on the right, it was steam-powered, no diesel generators in those days! The Parish Church is clearly recognisable on the left of the picture. My Dad was given the nickname ‘Tigger’ (or just ‘Tig’ for short) because he was so bouncy when he was little.
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The first step is hearing about the things Jesus did and said, discovering his nature and purpose.
There’s an idea out there among some people that the first step towards following Jesus is going to church, or developing a faith, or taking vows or something like that.
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Nothing could be further from the truth!
The first step is hearing about the things Jesus did and said, discovering his nature and purpose, finding that he is a likeable, kind, and helpful person to everyone who gets to know him. Everything follows from that. It’s where the adventure begins!
Plants are available from garden centres and will grow happily in your garden given the right conditions. These plants belong to the buttercup family and are near relatives of the anemones.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.
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This makes it three in a row for flower images. The pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) grows wild in the Cotswolds on dry grassland areas open to full sunshine. It was once quite common, and although not actually threatened, is something of a rarity these days. There’s a Cotwold dry valley site near Cirencester where there’s a reasonably large colony, but to keep the plants safe, the location is not advertised. However, plants are available from garden centres and will grow happily in your garden given the right conditions. These plants belong to the buttercup family and are near relatives of the anemones.
Protecting endangered or rare species (both plants and animals) is of ever growing importance. There are several ways species come under pressure and we’ll look at those first.
Challenges to survival
Habitat loss is the primary cause of decline for many plants, including the pasqueflower. Land improvement, especially the use of fertilisers to increase crop yields, is an issue for plants adapted to poorer soils.
Physical removal of plants or hunting of animals is an issue too. Most species can cope with limited amounts of removal, but if population levels fall drastically, there are real dangers. The dodo died out on the island of Mauritius following hunting by European sailors. The flightless birds were unafraid as they had no natural predators, so they didn’t run away from their hunters. They were welcome fresh meat after weeks at sea on salt beef.
Ecological damage also causes harm, sometimes unexpectedly. After the dodo became extinct, a tree species mysteriously stopped reproducing. Gradually the population was reduced to only older trees. It turned out that the fruit contained toughly seeds with tough shells that would only germinate after passing through the gut of a dodo. Links like this between organisms can be critical.
Climate change is another danger, especially for plants. If climate change is slow organisms can change the range of places where they grow; if it’s fast, animals might adapt, but some plants may need an entire year to move a few metres.
Pollution is a further serious issue and can exacerbate the other problems already mentioned above.
Diseases of both plants and animals can become pandemic and risk extinction, especially when populations are already stressed by droughts, loss of habitat, or pollution.
Attitudes
Given all of the above, what should our attitude be to the current situation?
Some people will shrug their shoulders. – Perhaps they don’t understand the peril the world faces, or they don’t understand the need to help the natural world recover. Or maybe they just feel there is nothing they can do about it.
Others may understand enough of the science to realise there is a danger, to see that it can be reduced (if not entirely averted), and to take some personal actions to help.
Biologists, ecologists, nature enthusiasts, and climate scientists understand only too well what is happening. Usually, they will be trying to communicate the issues whenever and wherever they can.
Followers of Jesus, and people of other faiths will often understand that we should do all we can to protect this world we live in, and live in ways that will reduce the damage.
All of the groups mentioned here are either responding already, or need help to see and understand that the natural world needs our help and that every single one of us can make a difference. Education and commitment are the way forward, so please share this post with anyone you know who might be influenced by it.
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17:13 – There’s so much in Jesus’ heart and mind as he completes the prayer for his immediate disciples. And there’s a lot for us to dig into and appreciate here too.
Do bear in mind throughout, that Jesus would have been speaking not only to the Father, but also wanted and expected his apprentices to overhear. His words are for them too, and through them passed on to you and me as well, in written form. Jesus intended you to read his words. It’s very personal!
Joy
Jesus wants his followers to have his own joy within them. What is Jesus’ joy? He doesn’t state it here, but surely what makes Jesus joyful is completing the work his Father sent him to do, returning to be in his Father’s presence again after living a life here in our broken world; and knowing that the Father himself is delighted and joyful that, despite unimaginable hardship, the task is completed and has broken the barriers that kept people from entering his Presence. Jesus has the same joy because he knows the same thing, the work is done, the goal is achieved, the way into Father’s presence is open to every Jesus follower, everyone doing Jesus’ own work. That work is love – love towards family, friends, neighbours, even enemies.
17:14 – Yahshua (Jesus) continues to speak to his Father about the situation, making four points.
He mentions that he has given them the Father’s word (not words, this is singular). Jesus is himself the Word spoken into physical existence.
The world has hated them.
The reason the world hates them is because they don’t belong to the world, and the world loves its own.
We are like Jesus, not belonging to the world.
One thing we should take away from this is that telling the Father things he already knows is perfectly acceptable. Our expressing them to him is neither pointless repetition nor trying his patience. We can do this too, we’re laying out the situation as we see it before we ask for help, guidance, comfort, encouragement, or action. The Holy Spirit may respond as we do this, showing us things we’d overlooked, pointing out the way forward, changing our perspective.
17:15-16 – Think about conversations between two friends perhaps over a coffee or sitting in the shade on a hot, summer’s day. A typical conversation might include saying hello (a greeting), checking how the other person is, asking questions, offering help, discussing mutual interests and more. Yahshua says we are no longer servants, but friends, and he says he and the Father are one. He told the disciples, ‘If you’ve seen me you have seen the Father’. So it’s more than OK to be on friendly terms with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; all those things we might discuss with any friend are things we can discuss with the Father. It’s what he wants us to do!
Only after describing the situation does Jesus move on to asking for things. He begins with clarity about what he is not asking, and then he asks for their (and our) protection from the enemy. Think about it! You are following Jesus, and he has asked for the Father’s protection over you, personally. The prince of darkness is restrained from harming you. How far does this go? Well, let me assure you, it goes the entire way. Down the centuries many of Jesus’ followers have died, as he did, at the hands of bad or ignorant people – killed by lions in Roman arenas or hanged by Nazis in the Second World War like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Martin Niemöller. But all of them were protected from the greater catastrophe of falling into the hands of a spiritual enemy.
Why do we get this special treatment? Because in following Jesus we become like him. Jesus is not of this world, and neither are we.
Sanctified
17:17-19 – This Greek word, ἁγίασον (hagiason), is specific in its meaning; its sense is the act or process of making a thing or a person holy, to consecrate, to set apart, or as here to sanctify. Greek versions of the Old Testament use the same word in explaining that the Tabernacle and later the Temple were holy, and the priests were holy (set apart to serve). Jesus used the word when talking about the Temple, and in the Lord’s prayer when he said ‘Hallowed be thy Name’. In modern English we might say, ‘Let your name be kept holy’.
Here, speaking to his Father, he uses the same word of his followers, ‘Make them holy by the truth, your word is truth’. If you are following Jesus, then know that he has made you holy and set you apart to serve him and him alone! He asks that we be made holy, set apart, by the truth. So what truth is this?
Elsewhere Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’. He also said, ‘The truth shall set you free’. He says here in verse 17, ‘Your word is truth’. This makes perfect sense, Jesus himself is The Word, spoken into a broken world by the everlasting Father.
And finally, in verse 19, Jesus says very clearly that he has set himself apart for his Father’s use on our behalf, so that we, too, can be truly set apart for the Father’s use as well.
Don’t forget who you are
If you take away nothing else from these verses, take away the amazing truth that following Jesus demonstrates you are set apart, holy and fit to serve the Father, precious and special. Do not be hoodwinked into thinking you are not significant. And don’t for one moment think that you’re significant because of what you do. You are significant because of who you are! Jesus is your brother, you’ve been brought right into the family, welcomed and hugged and loved by the Trinity, no less.
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If I’m given misinformation and base my thoughts, words and actions on that, sooner or later I’ll run into a problem.
Originally posted in December 2020, I’m republishing a revised version of this article in response to (and in agreement with) a new post today by Chris Dryden, ‘Keep your word‘. His message is well written and well worth reading.
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Truth matters. It matters because basing our thoughts, words and actions on falsehood is asking for trouble. Truth is like light: it enables us to see clearly, it banishes darkness, but it can be snuffed out and then we’re left in the dark.
Let’s explore the background, why am I writing about truth at this particular time? And why am I writing about it at all? I’m writing about it at this particular time because truth seems to be valued by fewer people than ever before. There have always been those who trample on truth, but we do seem to be living at a time when peddling falsehoods has become pandemic. Perhaps the most obvious examples are in the political sphere, where governments and their opponents have sometimes made claims based on almost anything other than the simple facts. Policies and decisions are being made on the basis of opinion, personal ambition, whim, wishful thinking, and even denial of clear evidence. I’m writing about it because it matters. It really does. We’ll get to that in a minute.
In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act
George Orwell
Is this a new phenomenon? No, people have always made things up, sometimes to fill gaps in what is known, sometimes to deny what is known because it’s distasteful or hard to deal with, or for the base motives that are common, if we’re honest, to all of us – greed, self preservation, shame, fear and the rest. Survival, self-respect, money and power are important to us – sometimes important enough that we will cheat, lie, and ignore inconvenient truths that are staring us in the face.
So why does it matter?
(I said we’d get to that.)
The answer is really quite simple. If I’m given misinformation and base my thoughts, words and actions on that, sooner or later I’ll run into a problem. You can’t avoid the truth indefinitely, it will come back and bite you. Misinformation leads inevitably to error and confusion.
Imagine a map that shows a bridge across a river. An ambulance crew see that the bridge provides a valuable short cut to reach a seriously ill patient in half the time. But when they arrive at the river – there is no bridge. They have to retrace their journey and try a different way, but they are too late and the patient dies. Truth matters, and it can be critically important, even to the point of life or death.
Or imagine a general fighting a battle. He is told by his intelligence agents that the enemy is almost out of ammunition; he decides to mount an immediate attack, before new supplies can reach his opponents. If the intelligence report is true, he will win the battle easily. If they made it all up and it’s false, he might be heavily defeated. Does truth make a difference? Yes – because it leads to right action. This is why intelligence and counter intelligence matter.
Unfortunately, a strategy to deceive and confuse is now being applied widely within our society. We should be friends speaking the truth to one another, but much of the untruth flying around these days seems deliberate and causes serious difficulty for all of us. It’s become a bad habit. Who should I believe? Which ‘facts’ can I depend upon? How can I check? How should we deal with this difficulty? Here are some suggestions.
Dealing with it
Be sceptical of assertions – in other words, ask people for evidence
Don’t accept claims without supporting evidence
Remember that lots of people saying something doesn’t make it more true
Use fact checking websites
Beware of false claims presented as evidence
Treat people with respect and kindness even if they are making false claims
So what is the take away message here? We can all make a difference for better or worse. Search for the truth in every situation, look for evidence, listen to what people say but don’t accept anything without evidence of some kind (this might be evidence about the claims being made or it might be evidence that the person making the claims is reliable and usually speaks the truth). Then base any decisions or choices on the truth, never on claims you know to be false. Never deliberately mislead others. And always bear in mind that people with an agenda may sometimes behave like an enemy general. They may see you as the enemy and will misinform you if they think it will help them in some way. The world is a wonderful place, but it can also be a deceptive and dangerous place. Go in peace, but go very carefully!
Let’s base our lives on what is true, and not on what is false. Even though it’s sometimes hard to tell what is, or is not, true – it’s always worth making the attempt. And let’s remember that truth will never let us down. Untruth is just as reliable – it will always let us down in the end. No wonder Jesus said. ‘The truth will set you free’ (John 8:32). He was talking particularly about spiritual truth, but it’s a valid statement for truth in general. And let’s also bear in mind that science is a search for truth, and all the technology we depend on every day works only because it stands on that foundation of truth.
Whether we turn to the spiritual or the physical realm, we can only rely upon what is true. Truth is a thing of beauty, but deceit is ugly beyond measure. Choose beauty. Choose the light. Choose truth!
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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.
Click to enlarge
I have another flower image for you today. This one shows the centre of a tulip flower in more detail than you might normally see. I’ve placed the centre of the flower towards the lower right of the frame so you can see more of the petals towards the upper left. You’ll notice that the petals are yellow near the centre, orange a bit further out, and pink further out again. What a beautiful combination!
The reproductive parts
Tulips are monoecious, a botanical term that means each plant produces both male and female reproductive tissues. The female part of a tulip flower has three stigmas in the centre. Unlike animals and some more primitive plants, the male reproduction process doesn’t involve motile sperm. Instead, pollen is released as a yellow dust, sometimes dry and carried by the wind but in the case of tulips and many other plants, sticky and carried by flying insects.
Flowers work as attractive beacons for pollinating insects, they’re usually brightly coloured, are often fragrant which helps insects detect them from a distance, and provide food – sugary nectar at the base of the petals, and pollen. Bees collect the pollen and carry it back to the hive as a protein rich food for their larvae. Plants produce more pollen than necessary and can spare some in return for the pollen transport provided by the bees. The pollen grains stick to the pollinating insects and as they visit flower after flower, some of the pollen is transferred from the anthers of one plant to the stigmas of another. This cross-pollination is exactly what the plant needs for the female tissues to develop further and produce viable seeds.
Tulips have five of these anthers, and if you enlarge the image and peer closely you can see yellow dust clinging to them. That dust is the pollen.
Intricate
It’s an astonishingly intricate process in which the plants depend on the insects and the insects depend on the plants. I could go into much greater detail; I worked as a professional botanist when I was in my twenties and thirties, studying and publishing scientific papers on pollen and pollination. Maybe some time I’ll write a bit more about that.
Next time you see tulips in the park, at a florist or supermarket, or in your garden – just think about the intricate interactions going on right there!
See also:
Pollen – Wikipedia (contains a more detailed photo of a tulip anther with pollen, about ¼ of the way down the article. Hint: compare the Wikipedia photo with mine.)
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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.
Click to enlarge
Here are two flowering plants with colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel. They’re very distant relatives; the yellow Narcissus (daffodil) is a monocot, the purply-blue Streptocarpus is a dicot. You can’t get much further apart in the family tree of flowering plants, but they look well together.
These two plants simply could not survive in one another’s home territory. The Narcissus needs plenty of moisture, produces leaves in late winter, is not troubled by frost, and flowers in the springtime. It also appreciates some bright sunshine.. Streptocarpus cannot take any degree of frost at all, and is touchy about water. Not enough and it will wilt and die, too much and… wait for it… It will wilt and die! It likes the soil to dry out completely and then have a real drenching, but do not water it again until the soil is really dry. It likes shade or partial shade, but not full sunshine.
Adaptation
The fact that these two plants like such different conditions is nothing to do with the fact they are very distant relatives. All plants growing in the wild are well adapted to the soil type, climate, other plants and animals of the places they inhabit. Natural selection over many, many generations will ensure that this is so. It’s only the survivors that will have a chance to produce seeds. By definition, the next generation comes only from the plants that survived the current generation. Survivors thrive; the rest die out.
Climate change
And this in turn is one of the challenges life faces in the changing climate we are creating. The climate has changed dramatically in the past, but it has always happened slowly, usually taking tens of thousands of years to shift from ice age to interglacial, or from desert to semi-desert to grassland to forest. A species may seem to move north or south, east or west, remaining in the climate zone that suits it best. But what is actually happening is that as a climate zone shifts geographically, conditions become less suitable in one area and more hospitable in another. Perhaps the species manages to survive a little further north than before but struggles and dies on the southern edge of its old range.
This process takes time, but the global warming trends we see due to greenhouse gas releases are many times faster than any natural climate change. Populations cannot respond fast enough under such circumstances; they go into decline and die out – the species may then become extinct, gone forever.
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Trying to make out any details when the sun is shining in your face is really difficult. But if you turn around so the sun is behind you, shining over your shoulder, it illuminates everything you can see.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.
Click to enlarge
This photo was taken on 6th March, it was a grey evening, the sun had set and the only hint remaining was a touch of pinkness in the areas not shrouded in cloud. The ground around me as I walked was already well into dusk.
Details remaining visible
The only details visible were in the edges of the cloud against the fading sky, and the branches of the leafless trees. But what exquisite details those were! Delicate differences in the shades of grey in the clouds, and a wonderful filigree pattern in the branches, varying from one tree to the next.
It’s a subdued scene, still and inactive, but delightful for all that.
Light and dark
In broad daylight the picture would have been so different! The grassy fields this side of the row of trees would have been vibrant green, the sky would have been bright blue and the clouds white or perhaps grey with white edges.
Another kind of light and dark
If you follow Journeys of Heart and Mind regularly you’ll know that I do my best to follow Jesus. I’m not going to say much about that here, maybe I’ll write another article to explain a bit more.
But I will mention here that this image reminds me that Jesus talked to his followers about light and darkness. Imagine the view in the photo if the sun had been visible just above the trees. The brightness would have been quite blinding, trying to make out any details when the sun is shining in your face is really difficult. But if you turn around so the sun is behind you, shining over your shoulder, it illuminates everything you can see and the detail is crisp and sharp, things are well defined, there’s no glare, there are no shadows unless you look to one side or down at your feet.
Light can dazzle us and hide things from view, or it can make things much, much clearer. It all depends which way you look.
Jesus is like that too, I find. If I look towards him I am dazzled indeed! If instead I look towards the places he’s illuminating, I can see everything very clearly. I need to do both, I need to be dazzled by him, but I also need the clarity provided by his light as it falls on the world around me. There’s a double benefit, he dazzles me, but he also informs me.
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Much of this slope is being managed by rows of stones so that each section of soil will have a reduced slope. Trailing plants like Aubretia can be planted behind the stones.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.
What to do with a sloping garden
Click to enlarge
There are many things that need managing in gardens great and small; one of these things is a slope. If your garden is on a hillside and the slope is steep, you will need to create a winding path to exchange steepness for distance, or as an alternative, build some steps. If you have a sloping flower bed you can make a bank and plant ground cover plants to stabilise the soil and reduce erosion, or you could build a rock garden.
Terracing
In this photo, you can see the initial phase in construction of a third way of dealing with a sloping border – a terraced border. Much of this slope is being managed by rows of stones so that each section of soil will have a reduced slope. Trailing plants like Aubretia can be planted behind the stones, or low shrubs or herbaceous plants could be planted in the lower tiers with tall plants and small trees such as Acer cultivars at the back. The terraced area in the photo will look lovely as it becomes established with some mature plants. Perhaps I’ll go back in future to take more photos for comparison.
A rockery
A rockery would be designed differently, the stones would be carefully placed in a naturalistic way with alpines growing amongst them, but not hiding them. Again, taller bushes and small trees would fit well at the top, concealing the fact the the ‘outcrop’ of rock is of limited height. A well-built rockery should respect overall angles of bedding planes, even though no such planes really exist. But making it look as if they do can give a fine impression of structure. Each stone needs to be angled in two dimensions to fit with angles of all the others. They must all lean backward or forward at the same angle, and they must lie from side to side in agreement as well.
It’s usually best for the stones to lie backwards rather than forwards, they will be much more stable and better supported, but they will also proved better opportunities for planting after the stones are all in place. Careful planting can hide the gaps between some of the stones, giving the appearance of much larger blocks of stone. It’s very convincing if done well!
A hillside
If the garden is large enough, a winding path with several terraced or rockery sections (perhaps both) can be very pleasing. This is a great way of using a hillside, though few of us can afford such an expansive space. But it’s a great idea for shopping centres, university campuses, industrial sites, and parks where there is already a natural slope large enough for this kind of feature.
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Journeys of Heart and Mind 
