My soul there is a country

Far beyond the stars,

Where stands a winged century

All skilful in the wars.

There, above noise and danger,

Sweet peace sits crown’d with smiles,

And one born in a manger

Commands the beauteous files.

He is thy gracious friend

And O my soul awake!

Did in pure love descend

To die here for thy sake.

If thou can get but thither,

There grows the flower of peace,

The rose that cannot wither

Thy fortress and  thy ease.

Leave then thy foolish ranges

For none can thee secure

But one who never changes,

Thy God, thy life, thy cure.

Henry Vaughan

My garden has lots of flowers 
Roses, dalias, to name a few
The bees like to visit there
And the butterflies do too

I have a pond with waterlilies
Where dragon flies like to skim
Where little tadpoles all hatch out
Where Frogs sit around or swim

Birds fly down to take the seed
The finches like a bath
And a lovely pair of collared doves
Have landed on the path.

The pine trees are tall and proud
Within them  birdsong sweet
At nightime the owls will hoot
And the sheep nearby will bleat.

Gill Burrell
🌲🌳 🌻 🌺  🦋🕊🦇🦉🐑🌳🌲

The Lord knows his sheep    🐑🐑
He calls them all by name
He leads them in green pastures
Through the sun and rain

The people who are there
Are sheeplike kind and True
There will be none that's bad
But will be like me and you

God will live there too          🌌
His love will comfort all       
He will care for them            
Be they great or small

I hope you will be there
And we can meet again
So let us do what's right
And believe on Jesus name !

           🌄🏞🌅

Gill Burrell

At last my OU study books are here
I clapped my hands     📚
And gave a cheer

I tore the package and looked inside
A brand new shiny book I-spied

I must now be patient and bide my time
My course will soon be here on line

My induction will take place this week
I am so excited
I can hardly speak!

I have my note book, labels and pens
So bring on the studies
Let battle commence !

Game on!

By Gill Burrell

I wonder why they are not many more vegetable growers and independant sellers?
Organic vegetables taste superb. I have never before tasted vegetables that have tasted so good, so sweet and so fresh.

The vegetables in the supermarkets do not taste as fresh and delicious as these that I usually buy. This is mainly because they keep them for five days before actually delivering them to the shops or supermarkets, then they keep them in refridgeration before placing them onto the shelves. Then there is the sell by date for a few more days, so they sit there even longer, losing their freshness and their flavour.

I stumbled upon this little vegetable seller by chance, when I was outside walking one day, after I had turned onto a little lane where I had never been before. Next to a little house in the drive I saw the sign 'Fresh Vegetables for sale'. I looked at the beautiful display of vegetables under the canopy. They appeared to look just like jewels of greens, reds, yellows and purples. All organically grown and collected from the field earlier on the very same day!

Ripe red tomatoes of different shapes, not all perfectly round shaped (like in the supermarket) but slightly mishapen.
Purple sprouting broccoli, big plump potatoes, baby potatoes also in various shapes, bright orange carrots and Emerald green Calabreese, Kale dark green and some leeks, courgettes and some green beans.
The price was reasonable too, at 50% cheaper than the supermarket! 

The only drawback is that it is mostly available in rural locations. However there are some allotments or small holdings on the edges of town that grow vegetables. There you can find a few places that sell vegetables near the town so it is always worth looking out for when driving.
After tasting how good they were, I have been going back there again and again ever since!

Many dictionaries define compassion as; sympathy, pity or concern - all emotional responses. Compassion should also transcend emotion and translate into action.

1) It recognises the needs of others; Taking an interest in the concerns of others. Are they are poor? Elderly? disabled? Lacking? Excluded?

2) Relates to the needs of others; When you have been there you yourself you can understand and relate.
Pressure, illness, pain, poverty, grief, slander, discrimination, rejection

3) A response is needed; 

Taking an action. By listening and being a sympathetic ear,  or giving encouragement, a friendly word or deed, helping out, giving wise advice, giving a meal, making a donation. All these are actions we can take to show compassion.

Emily Davison was a suffragette. A suffragette was someone who fought for women to have the right to vote. Until 1918 no woman had the right to vote in an election at all, only men could vote. One woman Emmeline Pankhurst (and soon joined by other women)  founded a movement for Women's 'suffrage' it had originally been known as the Women's Social and Political Movement ( WSPU) but they liked the new title of 'Suffrage' which they felt described them well. Thats how they became known as the Suffragettes.

The methods they used to raise awareness to their cause and to fulfil their purpose, which was to win the right for women to vote in elections, the way they did this was by direct action, marching, heckling, civil disobedience, throwing stones and hunger strikes.

Another active member was Emily Wilding Davison who had come from a middle-class family, studied at St Hughs College Oxford she then became a teacher and governess.
Before long she was known in the organisation, for her daring militant actions including breaking windows, throwing stones, setting fire to post boxes and hiding in the cupboard at the Westminster Palace. She was becoming increasingly bolder and was taking more risks.

Sentenced to a month in prison for throwing rocks at the carriage of chancellor David Lloyd George, she  then attempted to starve herself and resisted being force-fed. Her treatment was harsh and cruel. She was flooded out of her cell after she angered the guards. Eventually she was released and went on to sue Strangeways prison for the sum of 40 shillings.

Unfortunately the action she was most remembered for led to her death. The fateful day of the Derby Horse races she had not told anyone of her intentions, but the women who were there knew they would be protesting and that the king would be present. 

However, they did not know Emily would step straight out onto the racetrack and be immediately run over by the king on his horse. She was severely injured and died soon after. 

Whatever her motives that day, she will always be remembered as a fearless Suffragette devoted to the cause. Women finally got the vote first in1918 for women with property then in 1928 for all women aged over 21.

Odette Sansom. born and raised in France in Amiens, had the advantage of being Billingual in French and English. She moved to England with her husband.
There she was recruited for SOE (Special Operations Executive) after she had responded to a request to send photographs of the French coast.

The photographs and notes she had sent alerted the department to her potential as a spy.
SOE was a clandestine operations unit in England that was active during the second world war in France.Its aim was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaisance in occupied Europe fighting against the Nazis.

Odettes code name was "Lise" and she was enrolled in first aid and nursing yeomanry on becoming an agent. She was allied to the French resistance groups, supplying them with weapons and equipment. She worked with another agent called Peter Churchill the head of 'Spindle' network of agents in France.
She was working as a courier passing messages back and forth. Later together with other agents they tried to set up a safe house in South of France then later moved to Annecy near the Italian border.border as their mission was now becoming more dangerous.

However there was a double agent working for the Nazi Germans who had informed them of the safe house. Unfortunately they were then captured by the Nazis but in order to stay alive a bit longer they used the fabricated story that she was the wife of peter Churchill, nephew of prime minister Winston Churchill and that he knew nothing of her activities. They thought this to be a good cover story and a bargaining tool with the Nazis who wanted the release of Rudolf Hess.
Finally she was imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo but did not give away any information to her Nazi captors. At last she was released and she was awarded the George Cross, the first women ever , and was given a chevalier de la légion d'honneur. Her life story has since been made into a film.

           🐅 🐈

Tyger, tyger burning bright,
Blazing headlamps in the night
Some immortal hand or brain
Has taught me to keep out of rain.

When the storm clouds shroud the                                                    stars,
I take shelter under cars,
When they go, the passing showers,
I come forth to smell the flowers.

With the tears from Heaven rent,
Blossoms synthesize their scent.
He who smiles this work to see
Also smiles since he made me.
Tyger, tyger burning bright
Shining orbs that pierce the night,
What immortal hand did make
Me and also William Blake?

By Paul Gallico from Honourable Cat.    🐈

The way capitalism works is by producing food and goods by the exploitation of land, people and animals. It uses cruelty, hierarchies and oppression to make it's
Ill gotten gains.
Intensive factory farming of animals where producing more with fewer inputs leads to greater profits.
The overproduction of goods which is the main objective and  to make a wage slave money system.
This leads to making some people very rich and organises a constant poverty for the majority!

I shall know why, when time is over,
And I have ceased to wonder why;
Christ will explain each seperate anguish
In the fair schoolroom of the sky

He will tell me what Peter promised,
And I, for wonder at his woe,
I shall forget the drop of anguish
That scalds me now, that scalds me now.

By Emily Dickinson

         🍁🌻🌷🌾🌺🌼

Our journey had advanced

Our journey had advanced,
Our feet were almost come
To that odd fork in being's road,
Eternity by term.

Our pace took sudden awe,
Our feet reluctant led;
Before were cities, but between,
The forest of the dead.

Retreat was out of hope,
Behind, a sealed route,
Eternity's white flag before,
And God at every gate.

By Emily Dickinson