Thoughts have continued, unblogged, sadly. I'm not sure I will be able to gather them all again but if I note down the topics here I can, perhaps, expand on them at a later date.
Having had a lovely day today (James's birthday) I got back to Dad's house to the news that Ron is ill and that it might be E-coli. For this reason it is considered ill-advised for us to return home (esp. for Victoria) . I phoned friends in Glossop whom we visited last week. They are going on holiday tommorow and would be glad of someone to house-sit until Monday - at which point another family are moving in for a holiday. It's an ill wind..... (as they say) and tommorow we will be packing up here (at my Dad's) and moving on to Glossop. Haven't quite worked out the implications of this plan (beyond realising that we won't be able to go sailing tommorow and we also wont' have the joy of having over the families we had invited for Saturday, Richard's birthday. James had a wonderful day (in spite of the distinct shortage of presents!). starting off with morning worship in Tesco car-park (after watching me use hair-spray which I bought there, in desparation!) then collecting nanna and heading off to the hills (which always hover tantalisingly over the urban sprawl of Stockport). We stopped in the Goyt valley and watched a fire engine chuck out all it's water and re-fill. Then we went on to Eyam where we found that the museum was closed (as it was Monday) and after eating butties in the carpark we wandered down through the village and visited the church (which, in spite of it being Monday, was open). The letter written by the Vicar during the plague-year, to his children, on the demise of their dear mother, was very touching and I bought a copy in a booklet. Next Thomas expertly navigated us to the Speedwell mines (where the boat had been broken all morning and therefore there was not enough time to process any more than the already-booked school children on the underground boat ride) from where we headed to the blue-john mines. The visit was very memorable esp. because we sang 'happy birthday' in one of the larger caverns and it sounded wonderful. The man who guided us was obviously enthused about his job and didn't give us too much of the '500 million years ago.....) stuff. he was very entertaining. After the boys were keen on some climbing so we drove to one end of the pass while walked high up. There we cooked potatoes and served them with ham and coleslaw before heading for home and stopping by Tesco for ice cream and milk for milk-shake. Phew, what a day!

Thoughts on: the wedge being driven between the generations resulting in the fact that children don't get the joy of seeing old men (young at heart) make pennies disappear and then re-appear in untoward places.
: the joy of re-connecting with 'old' friends from nursery-school days...
: the youth in Eyam, a wonderful old village, pulling stones out of the dry-stone-walls on the streets until they manage to make them collapse completely.
: changing road-layouts and sprawling housing
: cars everywhere.....
:changes (for the better, I think) in the church which I used to go to when I was a child because the c of E school had us troop (crocodile fashion) to it three times a year.
: I am formulating ideas on the 'culture of darkness' I think we are in...
: MP3's have been by a chap by the name of Marcellino on the subject of Daniel. I've written some to regular disks as I think my boys should listen to them. Essentially Marcellino says that Daniel was about 14 when he was taken to Babylon and that he was prob. not the only 14-y-old to be taken into the indoctrination program which failed to change Daniel in regard to his relationship with the God of his fathers. Being in an increasingly pagan culture we have to be pro-actively preparing our children to face this changing society so that they can 'pick they fights' - like Daniel and the three of his friends mentioned in the book of Daniel . One might wonder what happened to the rest of the handsome 14-y-old lads imported to Babylong. The most heartening thought is that it is clear that God raised up Babylon in order to chasten Israel and it had power of the people of God only so long and so far as the Lord planned.
Now is is far past my bedtime and I hope to write more in the less hectic setting of Glossop. I have brought the '1001 walks in Britain' folder and hope to find some that we can do in the Peaks over the coming week. Meanwhile am thinking about the importance and power of prayer in the light of Daniel and wondering where I should take the children on Sunday, to worship.