Gerberas.

 This was the 365Project picture ... so I get questions about the lighting!
Simple really ... the three gerberas were in a lemonade bottle and sitting on the kitchen bench in the morning light from the window.  Nothing else!

 The odd contrast must have happened because I was looking directly down onto them.  Wearing a blue top probably accounts for the colour tinge on the work surface.  But there was no trickery or adjustment in the top picture.  The second one was cropped to remove a few saucepans on the draining board.
For this next shot I did try to be a bit "arty" ... but it didn't really work!

 The bottle must date from the 1950s and was dug up some years ago.  The embossed writing is: Newry and Clanrye Mineral Water Co.  It's been a while since they were trading!
The Newry and The Clanrye are the rivers that join to flow through Newry City.

 So, the angle you look at something makes a huge difference to what you see!  There's probably a sermon there ... it's too late at night to begin to think it through.  Maybe you could write your own!

 The gerberas were given to me yesterday by someone I met first on Facebook!  We had coffee together after the Holy Communion service ... he'd parked in the Co-op so I do hope he didn't end up with a fine.  You can have 90 minutes there now ... time will tell!

I did try to get a few pictures in the garden but rain started and always anxious about getting the camera wet I beat a hasty retreat indoors.  One of these days I'll need to find the lawn mower and put it to use!  If you look carefully you'll spot Eliot doing his usual disappearing act to avoid the camera.
Other things happened today ... many photographs were taken ... City Hospital from the top of the new car park ... Saint John's Malone for the Lent Series ... some children's art work ...

 It was interesting to see how that many people prefer to queue for the older (and closer) park while most of the top four or five levels of the new park remain almost totally empty!  It is a slightly longer walk to the tower block but is a bit cheaper and even at the height of visiting time there were many spaces.  If only that were the case at the Royal ... there it is almost impossible to get a parking space unless at lunch time or on Sundays!


Saint John's is a beautiful building ... sadly we were only 60+ attending this evening ... the Lenten practice of discipline has slipped in all of our churches.  It used to be that folk made an extra special effort to do something extra during Lent ...
These talks and interviews have been particularly good, relevant and profitable ... and just one remaining next week.  There are lots more photographs on the Parish Website under both Pictures and Lent.

Finally ... a detail from the work of the Sunday School at Saint John's.  The detail in this mural was great and the colours used are very dramatic.  I like it.







Come, trust in Christ and live in peace,
anticipate that final light
when strife and bigotry shall cease,
and faith be lost in praise and sight.

Church Hymnal number 519

Richard G Jones (b. 1926)