FlashForward - What Did YOU See?

Last year I was an avid follower of FlashForward, the TV series based on a novel by Robert J Sawyer. We had a 'mid-season finale' back before Christmas and sf fans all over the UK eagerly await the resumption of the story.

There was a little coincidence I enjoyed at one point - before the series commenced I bought a 5 disc DVD set of What The Bleep Do We Know, and got around to watching the first disc which happens to describe the 'Two Slits Experiment', so I got a good feeling akin to having done my homework when the experiment was mentioned in FlashForward and I understood the reference.

Meanwhile struggling with impatience to know how the story goes, I got the novel out of the library and read it. I was surprised on different levels - one being that the book was written as long ago as 1999; another that the novel and the TV show are so different. Aspects of the TV series that had grated on me and irritated just weren't there at all in the original novel. The characters in the novel seemed much more sympathetically drawn to me than the key characters invented for the purpose of the TV series. Anyway, some very interesting stuff (although I think I'd need an extended course in quantum physics to be able to fully appreciate the science).

How expectations can lead to disappointment

As the icicles dangling from the gutter get longer, more snow arrives - another inch or so joining the snow still lying around from last week's blizzard conditions.

Lately I've been thinking about how my own expectations sometimes lead to disappointment. Here's a f'rinstance: when a friend came out of hospital and was open to receiving some practical help, I took round a couple of meals from my freezer. These were home-cooked meals catering to the different dietary requirements of the family, in containers suitable for microwaving, and in addition I supplied baking potatoes (raw). Now normally, when I've supplied meals for friends in need in the past, I've driven round and delivered them at dinner-time already hot and ready to eat. On this occasion with the roads in the condition they are and the fact that I was going out for the evening, it was more convenient to me to walk round whilst it was still light and leave it to my friend and her family to bake the potatoes and reheat the meals. It didn't occur to me until later that this might have disappointed my friend's expectations, and only then because I realised that I had anticipated a text or email thanking me for the meal and complimenting me on my cooking, and been disappointed when no such message arrived. It was interesting observing the way my thoughts went, thinking about the idea of 'non-attachment' and wondering if a gift is given in expectation of receiving gratitude, can it really be considered a gift, or does it become a trade?

PS The message of grateful thanks arrived later, after I'd written this post.

Brave blackbird

Today a blackbird challenged my report that only a robin was brave enough to come close to the patio window - he hopped to within a few inches, cocking his head at me questioningly then hopping under the garden table and regarding me steadily through the glass as though drawing my attention to the lack of sustenance there. Meanwhile the tray of food I put on the wall has become covered with a layer of snow.

Day 3 of the Big Snow

Yesterday I put out for the birds this smorgasbord of seeds, etc. I placed it under the garden table so it wouldn't become covered in snow, but only the robin was brave enough to visit with it being right next to the patio window.

At the other end of the garden in front of the shed there is a low brick wall with domed coping stones on which I've laid a bag of compost and on that perched a flat receptacle of water which the birds use as a watering hole or bath according to their preference. Here it is covered in snow.

Now I've cleared off the snow and put some fresh water in there, and on top of that balanced the tray of birdfood. Already the robin has approved the new location.

The brilliant sunshine reflecting from the snow gives a fantastic sparkling quality to the light and to the landscape. As I sat looking out of the window I was thinking about how snow transforms the landscape totally - and so quickly! From there my thoughts turned to prayers, turning to God and inviting Him to totally transform the landscape of my life so that it's purity will reflect His glory.

Awwww!

Some hoodies came and mugged my snowman - he is no more!

Frosty the snowman comes to town

Next morning and it's still snowing so I went out and did the sensible thing ... had fun building a snowman!

Hey ho, yet more snow!

It's been falling steadily since around 6 pm this evening and is already around 5 inches deep or more. The world in muffled silence is a very different place indeed to the sparkling sunshine of yesterday's bitter frost.

At the moment it's looking unlikely I'll make it to the gym tomorrow.