The Wednesday before last, after a six-and-a-half-hour drive to the mountains, I arrived at the little timber cabin in Halls Gap. I love how the road south follows the railway line for a time. I passed two enormously long freight trains as I travelled down. When I lived in the hills, I would often hear…
I didn’t know last Monday that I would see the Giant Sun Orchid still flowering in the Adelaide Hills. I thought I’d long since missed the chance to see them this spring. And I didn’t know last Tuesday that I would reconnect with a friend, and have the chance to say sorry. I didn’t know…
I had that feeling when I woke up this morning that I’d been dreaming a lot last night. On mornings after disturbed sleep, I often have a headache. And so, after breakfast, I sent through my monthly report to Church Council and then drove out to see the large duck orchids and the cinnamon bells,…
For the last six years or so, I have carried around a small blue notebook. It isn’t my journal. But every now and then, I’ll be at some seminar or watching a YouTube video, and I’ll hear a phrase or an insight that I think really is worth noting down. Out comes the notebook, and…
I love the part of a baptism service liturgy when the congregation are invited to remember their own baptism. I remember mine, at the age of 16, at Southfield Road Gospel Hall in our small town in North Somerset, back in the ‘80s. I remember approaching Len, one of the elders at our Baptist Church,…
My favourite ceanothus is alive this morning with a dozen bees. This is its peak week, its bright, deep blue flowers visible from way down the street. As I watch, I can hear the buzz of the bees, and a squabble of honeyeaters in the roses down the side of the house. Right now, there’s…
Tolstoy wrote, “rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.” Folks often miss out the “love for one’s neighbour” part when quoting it. I myself was quite happy to carry the “love for one’s neighbour part” with me on my retreat, but only on the condition that I…
Earlier this year, I found myself in my mum and dad’s dining room back in England, sorting through a collection of old report cards, artwork and memorabilia from my childhood. Here in Australia, I keep two shoeboxes of my own, full of concert ticket stubs, cards and letters – a story of old relationships and…
Yesterday, I had an appointment with the periodontist, then an appointment with the medical imaging nurse, and then an appointment with the doctor in fairly close succession. There was though, the briefest opportunity to stop off between appointments and wander out to a spot I know in Belair National Park. Here the first blue fairy…
My little cottage is near the eastern end of a row of six narrow cottages. None of us have fences to speak of, so at sunset I can stand in my front garden and look across all the gardens at the flowers and shrubs and the setting sun. Over the years, I think I’ve seen…