200 years since the events commemorated in this New Zealand Christmas song.
The service (by Samuel Marsden) marked the beginning of the first Christian mission to New Zealand.
Uncategorized
Joseph’s lullaby
Merry Christmas
If you are celebrating the birth of Jesus in the coming day, may the blessings of Christmas be with you and your family. And if you are celebrating some other festival, or simply enjoying time with those important to you, may this season give you all you wish for yourself.
An Advent hymn for the 4th Sunday in Advent
And, in honour of today’s Gospel reading, here’s another photo of my Jesse tree, with the angel of the annunciation to the left between the ten commandments and David’s heart of love for God.
I love advent
The third Sunday of advent, and my Jesse tree has 14 ornaments on it, each representing a story. The latest addition is the lamp, for the story of Samuel. Do you know it? He was a boy, living in the temple with the priest Eli, when he heard the voice of God in the night. He assumed it was Eli, and trotted off in his bare feet to see what Eli wanted. The third time he woke poor Eli to see what he was being called for, Eli figured out that the boy was hearing God. The children’s Bible we used to read our eldest granddaughter had an illustration of an increasingly grumpy Eli and his equally grumpy pet (a cat, from memory). Tomorrow’s ornament is a harp, representing the shepherd boy, David.
Rejoice always
Gaudete Sunday, in the Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions.
I’m first reader at church today. It’s the third Sunday of Advent, and the readings are about joy. After two weeks of readings about turmoil, repentance, and longing, we take a break and rejoice. The purple of penance and preparation gives way to the rose of joy, both in the vestments and in the third advent candle, lit for the first time today.
I do so love the way that the traditional practices shape and punctuate the year.
And here is the 16th Century hymn Gaudate, for your listening pleasure.
Christmas Party Blog Hop
On 20th December (or 21st if you’re my side of the date line) I’m joining 24 other authors to invite you to join us and our characters on a Christmas party in the blogosphere.
More news, and the list of places to party, will follow, but I just wanted to ask you whether you’d rather:
- visit with Candle Avery, his mother, and his nabob uncle for Christmas 1804. Candle’s love story, which I’ve been publishing as a serial while I wrote it, will be launched during the party, and will be free to download. It is set in the months leading up to Christmas 1805, so the possible blog post would be a prequel.
- have a description of the kind of games played at Christmas house parties in the late Georgian era.
(Or both. I have trouble with making choices, so often choose both.)
Thank you to the lovely Helen Hollick, author of the Sea Witch Chronicles, for organising the blog hop and inviting me to join.
Spring in the garden is a delight
The Black Evil One and the Henchcat love when I move the hens. They reckon that I just have to slip up and leave the cover off, and they’ll eat like queens for weeks.
I have been neglecting everything else in favour of the novel. The hens were living in a moonscape; the tomatoes need to be tied up; I managed to treat the trees for curly leaf, but thinning the fruit? If the trees want their fruit thinned, they’ll just have to do it themselves.
Today, the plan is to spend the morning catching up on the ever increasing to do list.
I’ve moved the hens, but still have to change the sand in the tray of their roost and put clean straw in their nest boxes.
And then catch the flibberty things to dust them with mite powder.
I’ve tidied up around the house a bit, but the grandkids that are staying with me for the weekend are going to help me wash the windows inside and out.
Tomatoes, I will get to you, promise.
Meanwhile, the PRH is going to mow the lawn (nearly 2 acres of it), but first, he tells me, he needs to cut some fillets so he can stack the wood for my new raised garden beds. Fillets, he says, are bits of scrap wood that go between planks to hold them off one another so the air can circulate to let the timber dry. Who knew?
The title of this piece is the first line from a chapter in Farewell to Kindness. Yes, okay, that’s where my mind is.
Up to page 337 of 506 on the plot line review, and page 97 on the third draft edit. Wait for me, novel. I’m coming!
Fear of vulnerability
Brene Brown, a research professor and bestselling author, says that the romance genre is both loved and hated because a key theme is vulnerability. Why is this loved? Why is this hated? Rhyll of the Naughty Ninjas has written an article about Brown’s research, which in part says:
It’s that theme (constant in much of romance writing) that vulnerability is courage. When do the hero and heroine triumph by achieving true connection? When they’re able to put aside their masks and armor and allow others to see their true selves, flaws and all. When they expose their feelings. When they take a risk on love. In other words, when they allow themselves to be vulnerable. While my logical mind can’t accept this, the emotional reader part of my brain craves more.
However, it’s pretty clear that western mainstream culture disdains vulnerability and views it as weakness. Strength, control, perfection and certainty are valued and there’s very little tolerance for uncertainty, failure or risk. Being emotional or imperfect is equated with failure and weaknesses. Instead, people are encouraged (or shamed into) seeking perfection in all areas of life, from flawless looks, to perfect grades and parenting, and ever-upwardly-mobile career paths.
Very good article, and well worth reading. Thanks, Rhyll.
H/T to Amy Rose Bennett, who posted a link to the article on Facebook. Amy is the author of Lady Beauchamp’s Proposal, which I had the pleasure of reading recently.
7 curious things about me – and some lovely blogs
Thank you, June Hur, for tagging me in the One Lovely Blog Award blog chase. I’m to write seven lovely things about me and tag 15 further blogs that I consider lovely.
What is the One Lovely Blog Award?
So I went and looked up this thing, and found that it started as a way to encourage new blog authors. Thanks again, June. And Miss Bluestocking (subtitle ‘Inside a Writer’s Mind) is, indeed, a lovely blog. And – with not quite five weeks on the web – this is, indeed, a brand new blog.
Here are the rules.
Rules:
- Share 7 Lovely Facts about myself (I’m sharing 7 curious facts – you can decide whether they’re lovely or not).
- Link to 15 blogs (or as many as possible) that I enjoy reading.
- Nominate the authors of those 15 blogs to participate and do the same, linking back to the original Lovely blog (that’s me, in this case).
7 curious things about me
My Dad was a Russian spy
In the early 60s, at the height of the Cold War, my father was a primary school teacher (elementary, to you US folk) in a outlying suburb of Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city. He had majored in Geography, and he hit upon the idea of visiting all the embassies and trade commissions in Wellington to ask for brochures and other resources for his class.
When Dad arrived at the Soviet Union’s Legation, he was greeted with open arms, all the resources he could possibly want, and a veiled suggestion that more valuable gifts, and even money, might be available if he was willing to share with the nice Russian gentleman anything he might know about New Zealand’s defence force or external relations.
Somewhat dazed, he went home and told my mum that he’d been invited to be a Russian spy.
I just love what happened next. Only in sleepy little New Zealand!