Remember, Remember...

Remember, remember,
the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot...

The weekends either side of November 5th are marked by lots and lots of fireworks being let off. I don't mind the organised displays so much - it's the youngsters letting off fireworks in the streets and the back garden events which annoy me. I do, however, love the misty look and the smell resulting from all the bonfires.

I'm not sure how the cats will cope - it's their first Bonfire season. This time last year I'd only just adopted Furretti, and she was too young to go outside, and Miaowrini didn't make an appearance chez moi until 12th November.

Looking back over last year's posts to see when the kittens did actually make an appearance, I realised that Monsignor Furretti has really grown. Then...

and now...

The Thomas More Legal Centre...

Many people have noted the increase in action taken against Christians who wish to do nothing more than express their beliefs freely. There was a case of a nurse who was disciplined for wearing a cross at work, a worker who faced the sack for having a palm cross in his work van, and so on. The latest case is that of a mental health worker who was sacked for handing a leaflet about women's experiences of abortion to a fellow worker (as part of an amicable discussion).

The Thomas More Legal Centre helps to represent people experiencing such discrimination at employment tribunals and such-like. But they need funds in order to continue to do so. The Pastor in Valle has a letter from the Trustees over on his blog, along with more information.

The Centre doesn't normally appeal for funds, and the Trustees had decided to continue with this policy until they had a case which actually needed to go to court. That time, it seems, has now arrived.

Donations can be made by cheque (made out to Thomas More Legal Centre) to The Treasurer, Thomas More Legal Centre, Palmyra Chambers,
46 Legh Street,
Warrington
WA1 1UJ; or by bank transfer to Yorkshire Bank, 34 Princes Street, Stockport, Cheshire, SK1 1RE; sort code 05-09-33, account no. 43102195 (Thomas More Legal Centre). If you are a UK tax-payer making a gift by cheque, please send a signed statement with your name and address asking for the donation to be treated as Gift Aid.

The Trustees are also asking for prayers, and I'm sure we can all help with that!

Further To My Last Post...

In my last post, which was rather too long ago for my liking, Just Another Mad Catholic asked if I'd heard Tom Lehrer's Hunting Song. I hadn't, but, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I found this...



I'll just point out that there's another dead mouse to add to the bag!

Hunting Licence...

I arrived home late from church this evening after stopping off to visit Leutgeb for a quick cup of tea and a natter. I discovered a note, taped to my door, from my cat-loving neighbour:

Dear Mac,
Miaowrini caught a large pigeon or a small seagull and dragged it in through the catflap - it was still alive - and I'm sorry I couldn't stop her, as she was too quick for me.

I entered the flat with caution. No evidence left in the hall. I saw three feathers in the kitchen. I checked my bedroom - all clear. Nothing in the bathroom. The sitting room, on first inspection, seemed pretty undisturbed.

I then pulled the armchair to one side and checked under the side table...

(I removed the corpse before taking the photo...)

Anyway, on the advice of Fr. Z, I have decided to keep a tally of the kittens' conquests.

So far, the kitties have notched up the following -

pigeon (live) - 4
baby blackbird (live) - 1
mouse (live) - 5
stag beetle (live) - 6

pigeon (dead) - 4
mouse (dead) - 3
stag beetle (dead) - 1

I may have missed out a couple of mice and stag beetles...

Ooops! My Bad...!

I can't actually believe that nearly a week has gone by since my last post promising to blog more frequently. Things have been more than a little hectic, and even the kitties are starting to wonder if I still live at home...

I'm just off out again after a fabulous day at Aylesford.

However, so as not to leave yet another day without a blog post, here are a couple of photos from last week

First of all, Fr. Z blessing some holy water - in Latin, with the salt, and exorcism prayers and all that pre-Vatican II stuff that led St. Teresa of Avila (whose feast day it happens to be today) to remark that holy water was one thing that sent devils packing...

Sorry about the photo quality - I only had my iPhone handy.

Next is a photo (also from my iPhone) from the evening's Rosary & Benediction...

Life Interrupts Blogging... Not!

As I have said before, one of the criticisms often levelled at blogs and bloggers is that we are, apparently, all sad, lonely old gits who blog in our pyjamas rather than going out and experiencing "real life."

Speaking as someone who has been writing my own blog for over five years, I think I can safely say that nothing could be further from the truth! I will admit, though, to having (on the very odd occasion) blogged whilst wearing my nightdress...

The past five years have been filled with opportunities resulting directly from my blogging activities. I have made many new friends, and I'm always really astounded when people tell me that they read my blog. I would be inclined to think that they were just being polite, were it not for the gleam of recognition when the blog name gets mentioned: "Ohooooo... so you're Mulier Fortis! And what are the kitties up to?"

Occasionally I let the blogging slip a bit - because I just don't get on with the touch screen on my iPhone, which makes blogging on the go an unrewarding experience, and I'm often just too tired at the end of the working day... Weekends sometimes feel even busier than weekdays - as Leutgeb has pointed out, lately there have been so many traddie activities happening at weekends that it's impossible to attend every event, and it's necessary to prioritise. The blogs, however, help to keep everyone informed as to what is happening, and there are plenty of photos and written accounts to enjoy.

The blogs are wonderful tools for evangelisation. It is now almost impossible to be unclear on what the Church actually teaches on a particular topic - a quick Google search will often reveal all, and, if things are still unclear, there are wonderful priests like Fr. Ray Blake, Fr. Tim Finigan and Fr. John Zuhlsdorf who are only too happy to help instruct and counsel their readers on anything to do with the Catholic Church. And the really great thing about the blogs is that those of us who wish to try and follow the teachings of Holy Mother Church no longer need to feel that they are in any way odd for wanting to do so. There are plenty of faithful Catholics out there in the big wide world...

 I want to give a particular plug to the wonderful Fr. Ray Blake - his parish is in Brighton, a town with what must be one of the most aggressively pro-LGBT agendas in the country. There was quite a kerfuffle recently, with gay rights activists threatening to have his blog shut down because they were outraged and offended by Fr. Ray's support for the teaching of the Church on matters of sexual morality. Fr. Ray himself is never rude, inconsiderate or deliberately offensive in his blog posts, but the simple fact that he defends Church teaching is enough to support accusations of homophobia, discrimination, hatred and bigotry.

By-the-by, from what I have read on Fr. Ray's blog, he is just as firmly opposed to heterosexual activity outside marriage, so his views are hardly discriminatory, but that little fact always seems to escape everyone's attention...

Some people, such as the Communications Officer for the Diocese of Middlesbrough, Fr. Derek Turnham, might consider blogging to be akin to a criminal offence. One can only wonder why they are so afraid of the new media. What is so dreadful about ordinary people being able to voice opinions about the Church? Isn't that what Vatican II was all about? If the views expressed are erroneous, they will be corrected by other bloggers quickly enough...

Very strange...

In the meantime, I promise to make more of an effort to update my blog with greater regularly...

The Most Beautiful Thing This Side Of Heaven...

The High Mass this evening for the patronal Feast Day at Blackfen was wonderful.

The Mass was very well attended (despite England playing football somewhere) and the mantilla-quotient is definitely on the up. I am no longer the only woman at Mass wearing a mantilla.

I shall be putting together a little slide show to make use of all the lovely photos I took. Cantores Missae sang the Mass, and they were superb. Schubert's Salve Regina quite choked me up!

For the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fr. Z has a little poll going - about whether you pray the Fatima prayer at the end of the decades of the Rosary (as instructed by Our Lady at Fatima.)

A Transatlantic Visitor...

I was delighted that the incomparable Fr. Z found time to drop by and pay a visit to His Hermeneuticalness in Blackfen, just in time for the patronal Feast Day.

It appears that he was just a little puzzled by the name of Kent's famous brewery...

Irony...

It is rather amusing to reflect that, at the Blackfen Blognic yesterday, His Hermeneuticalness delivered his talk on Catholics and the new media without actually employing any techno-wizardry himself...

The Reluctant Sinner has posted a much more detailed account of the day, so do go and check him out.

Urgent Action & Fervent Prayer...

Yousef Nadarkhani has been sentenced to death for apostasy. He was never a practicing Muslim, but because of his ancestry, the Iranian court has decided that he should be put to death. He was arrested when trying to register his church.

Blondpidge has done sterling work to bring this to people's attention, tweeting, blogging and emailing. She has several suggestions for action, and provides telephone numbers, links and even a sample letter over on her blog.

She also reminds us of the need to storm heaven with our prayers.

Bloggers At Blackfen...

The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma had its meeting at Blackfen today. In good Catholic tradition, we started the whole day off with Mass... and we were especially blessed to be able to celebrate a Solemn High Mass. I think this may be a first - three blogging clerics on the Sanctuary...

We then had a talk from Fr. Tim Finigan on being a Catholic blogger. He had much encouragement to give us all, along with some words of caution. I do hope that he will publish the text of the talk online, because it was excellent.

Lunch was provided in the large hall by Trish and her gang of helpers. Leutgeb was first off the mark in reporting the meeting, and lunch was declared to be yummy. I can second that: it was positively scrumptious!

We had a brief business meeting, and then it was time for Vespers, which was for the Feast of the Dedication of the Parish Church.

It was an enjoyable, edifying and encouraging day, and I was delighted to be able to meet up with people I'd only previously encountered online: so a warm hallo to Fr. Sam Medley, Fr. Simon Henry, Anthony, Stuart and Richard; and greetings to old acquaintances: Dylan, Leutgeb, Annie Elizabeth, Fr. Michael Clifton, Paul Priest and Hilaire Belloc.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Vesper, who often comments, also paid us a visit!

There are a few more photos over on my Flickr page.

Change Of Address...

No, not mine.

The Crescat has moved over from Blogger to Wordpress, and very good the new blog looks too. Remember to update your links!

I love the quote she has at the top of the blog now (I heard it many years ago, and it's even truer now!)

If brought up on charges of being a Catholic I hope there's enough evidence to convict me.

A Little Good News...

A brain-damaged woman, who can only be referred to as "M," was at the centre of a High Court battle to have her food and fluids withdrawn. She has been in a minimally conscious state (having first been diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state) for over 8 years, and her family wanted to end her life.

That sounds rather harsh, but it is really just stating the truth. The family wanted to have her food and fluids withdrawn (though it's prettied up by calling it "stopping life-supporting treatment.") Effectively, that means that they would subject her to a horrifically painful death by starvation and dehydration - and, as in the case of Tony Bland, she would have needed painkillers to ease the suffering this entails.

Yogi Amin, who represented the family at the High Court, stated that the ruling allowed the High Court to decide whether a minimally conscious person should be allowed to die naturally, with dignity. He didn't mention that death by starvation and dehydration isn't actually what one would consider a dignified death.

Unusually, the medical authorities fought against the wishes of the family. They said that M was clinically stable, and the health authority pointed out that her life was not without positive elements. I must confess that I never thought a health authority would range itself on the side of the angels. Usually they're all for cost-cutting measures.

Fortunately for M, and possibly for others in a minimally conscious state, the judge ruled against the family.

This Makes Me Really Cross...

Quite apart from the self-righteous tone used by Baroness Flather in suggesting that the poor have too many children, particularly those from Pakistani or Bangladeshi communities, and that this really isn't necessary in Britain because of the welfare state and pensions (oho... someone hasn't been reading the news lately!), I rather object to the fact that none of the MSM have been open about the Baroness' vested interests in making such statements.

Baroness Flather is a director of Marie Stopes International.

One-child policy, anyone?

Massive twitch of the mantilla to Red Maria for highlighting that little connection.

The Kindness Of Strangers...

I had a very arduous teaching day today, and then meetings after school. Then I had to pop over to Bluewater to get some stuff (it's open later than the average High Street store.)

I stopped off at Boots to visit the Clinique counter. I've used lots of makeup over the years, and have discovered that cheap brands do not pay. My skin is quite temperamental, and Clinique really suits me best. The moisturiser I use is the Comfort On Call one - it soothes the slightly irritable flakiness I have a tendency to develop.

To my surprise, the counter was completely deserted. I waited patiently, assuming that the assistant was on a break. Eventually a young woman turned up, and I explained what I was looking for. She was very apologetic, explaining that she wasn't a Clinique specialist (there had only been one on earlier, due to sickness) but she'd seen the variety I wanted, and she said she'd look for it. I promptly plumped myself down on one of the make-over chairs.

The first assistant wasn't having any luck, so she called over another assistant and they both started rooting through cupboards. We had a good chat about different moisturisers, and I explained that this was my favourite. Then the first assistant called over the supervisor, to ask if she could check the stock cupboard.

Meanwhile, I'd spotted a tester for my moisturiser, and the supervisor, armed with the stock code, went to have a look in the back. No luck. I must have looked a little woebegone, because, when I asked if it was possible to buy the tester, the assistant said that she'd put some in a little sample pot, just to tide me over until I could get back to the shops...

Feeling in need of a little refreshment before heading home, I stopped at the Krispy Kreme shop. As I bought a hot chocolate and a mango creme doughnut (a new variety, which, really, doesn't quite work) the assistant asked if I'd like a complimentary glazed ring doughnut, hot from the oven.

Those little acts of kindness quite lifted my spirits.

On further reflection, I must have looked really exhausted...

Pondering My Next Purchase...

I love my little snazzy camera. It has served me well over the past couple of years, and I've taken some very good photos with it. However, this has rekindled my interest in photography - I have several old photo albums with "real" photos - and I decided that the time has come to upgrade.

I am not going to go the whole hog and buy a camera and a slew of lenses to be screwed on at crucial moments. I realised that what I actually do want is what is popularly known as a "bridge" camera - one down from the DSLR and one up from the point-and-click compact that I currently have.

By dint of several visits to Jessops (big, serious camera shop) and shops like Currys, I have narrowed it down to two possible choices: the Canon PowerShot SX30 IS and the Fuji FinePix HS20 EXR.

The Canon has the longer zoom - 35x optical zoom, 14 MP - and the zoom is button controlled (I can't remember the correct term, but I'm sure you understand me.) The Fuji has a shorter zoom (30x) and it's manual, but the picture is 16 MP.

Part of me is very tempted by the longer zoom. I also quite like the button-controlled zoom. However, my current Canon camera is protesting when I use the automated zoom (it's on its way out, hence the need for a new camera) and I am wondering whether a manual zoom might be better - the less automated bits there are, the less there is to go horribly wrong.

Then again, there's the battery. Canon has a lithium-ion rechargeable battery unit. Fuji uses AA batteries. I prefer the former, but maybe that's just because, back in the mists of time, rechargeable AA batteries used to be such a pain and never actually lasted any length of time. Maybe they've improved.

Price-wise the two cameras are very similar. I'm dithering...

Mind you, since I have to save up the pennies before I can actually get round to purchasing one of them, I have got a bit of time in which to dither. However, if any of you people out there know of any good or bad things about these cameras (from personal experience, that is - I've already read several reviews online) I'd be delighted to hear from you.

Watch this space...

Trepidation...

My next-door neighbour, the one who does the cat-sitting for me, caught me on the way back from Mass this morning. Apparently she has been watching the cats from her window each day - her flat looks out onto the back garden.

She has seen Miaowrini stalking the pigeons.

My neighbour also warned me that trouble is brewing. Furretti was up a tree the other day... and she very nearly caught a squirrel...

I dread to think of the state of my flat if she actually succeeds in bringing one home...

New Look...

A new academic year has started for us here in Merry Old England. It's a pretty exhausting time for teachers (IMHO) - at least until we've sussed out our new timetables and classes... and in some cases, new exam specifications as well.

To celebrate the fact that I'm not as zonked out as I was last weekend, I have revamped the blog layout just a little. I had a look at the "Dynamic Views" option as described by His Hermeneuticalness, and decided that I like the idea, so that option has found its way into the sidebar, as has the option to have updates from the blog emailed to you. Personally I prefer to use Google Reader for that sort of thing, but, if it floats your boat...

I think the colour scheme and background picture are pretty much set - it's my trademark "look," I think. Do tell me what you think of the overall effect, and I'm interested in any suggestions you may have for further improvements...

LMS Pilgrimage To Aylesford...

I was asked to publicise the LMS Pilgrimage to Aylesford, and I'm delighted to be able to do so. I thought Fr. Tim had advertised it already, but it seems that, in my slightly bemused state last week, I put up a (real) poster in the church porch...

The music at the Mass will be contemporary with St. Simon Stock, which is rather exciting.

Good News...

Ches and Mrs Ches have just announced the arrival of a daughter... do pop over and give your congratulations!