Being Available

Our Nature class today was identifying a tree I fell in love with on my walk yesterday. We walked to it, observed as closely as we could, and brought back catkins, nuts, bark, bendy twigs, and what we thought were leaves. Everything matched what I'd thought - a hazel - except the leaves, which were totally wrong. After a long time of internet searching, we realized that what we'd thought were leaves were actually bracts from around the nuts. So, this afternoon, Mike and I walked back there to search for the round leaves with a point that a hazel has, and sure enough, found some (very dilapidated) samples. Just goes to show that it's hard to see what you don't know is there... Extra of the kids hugging the grand old tree.

Lent verse is another passage I've lived by, Isaiah 58v6-7:
This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.


Thought it was interesting that a lot of us, us included, are certainly living the last line better now than ever before in our lives.


Gratefuls:
- can't get over the beautiful, clear skies, oh, that they could stay this way... Zion said today, commenting on no contrails, "So, the virus is doing something good, isn't it?" Yes, Zion, it is.
- all the learning I'm doing; didn't grow up in the UK, so am fairly ignorant of British wildlife, really
- the imaginative fun the kids had in their rhododendron den (main pic). Under another one, we found a dead fox, which didn't seem to faze them at all.