30 June 2011

Day Six - Favourite Book

My favourite book of all time has to be Legend by David Gemmell. The concept is brilliant. The characters are brilliant. The description is brilliant and it's written in the traditional Gemmell style that I love.

However there were a couple of other contenders, both read recently, which I considered for this status. Firstly Name of the wind which was practically perfect. Then there was Game of Thrones, where I just love the story and some of the characters. 

I had to choose Legend though because it's had a profound and lasting effect on the type of book I choose. It led me to the place where I will pick a book based purely on it's cover. It also gave me a profound respect for Gemmell's writing style and has made me want to read all of his books. 

This is my attempt at an outline drawing of one of the copies I have, it has nothing on the original or the other cover design, however I don't think it turned out too bad.

My favourite part of the book, a fact which often freaks people out a little, is the description of the gangrene which is killing Druss the Legend, hero of the book. It's so vivid and real you can visualise it, almost smell the stench.
Rowen

Genesis 2:18-20

"Then the Lord God said,"It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him."
From the ground God formed every wild animal and every bird in the sky, and he brought them to the man so the man could name them. Whatever the man called each living thing, that became it's name. The man gave names to all the tame animals, to all the birds in the sky, and to all the wild animals. But Adam did not find a helper which was right for him."

I think that the moral of this verse is that we are at our best when we are balanced by our equals. We are not suited to be dominated or dominating. Animals and birds are good and beautiful and helpful and at times may even stay loneliness, but none of them is any match for having a human who we can sit and have a conversation with.

Rowen

29 June 2011

Day Five - Best Friend(s)

When I came to do this post I couldn't decide on which of my friends was my best friend, there are many I would consider for various reasons, however I wittled it down to three. These three were selected mostly because they came to the picnic I had for my 18th Birthday this may, which meant that I had some quite nice pictures of them.


Unfortunately my drawing skills really don't do them justice. The only one of the three I'm even vaguely happy with is Sammy T. Clarissa looks nothing like herself, and I've managed to make the vary pretty Beth just look odd.


The one on the left is Sammy T, My parents knew his when we were babies, his family lived across the road from mine. I'm not really sure when but his family moved away before I was able to remember him, and the earliest recollections I have of him are of a boy who wears clothes which don't fit in with everyone elses. That's because in the middle of school 'year 3' when I was eight he moved back, and he didn't have the uniform. He was ok then, but until the end of primary school my general attitude was that all boys are awful. We became friends really in year 7 or 8 of high school, but really we became close in the last two years, as part of firstly a small group which dwindled to a trio over the past year. Him, Jonathan and I, managed to develop a cameraderie which I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate, and we really have our own set of jokes which I think anyone else would struggle to understand. Sam's really laid back, sometimes too much for his own good, but I think this picture really shows that.


Clarissa is one of the most undiscriminately kind people I've ever had the good fortune to meet. She hasn't got a bad bone in her body and I think I'd die of shock if I ever heard anything cruel come from her lips. I met Clarissa in Year 3, when she moved to my school all the way from Liverpool. She got sat next to me and another friend, and we instantly made friends, I've never looked back. She's a completely loopy aspiring journalist, and this picture actually doesn't do her justice.

The third friend I drew was Beth, I met her when we started High School, she was sitting alone in the hall when I turned up, and we started to talk, not a lot. She was in a form group with one of my other friends, and so I saw a bit of her during breaks and lunches and it didn't take long for us to become close. I went round her house several times during the course of high school, and her mum is also lovely. Beth is one of the most opinionated and argumentative people I know, but it's in a good way, she'd stand up for any of her friends and not back down. It's Beth's birthday tomorrow, so happy birthday Beth.

There were countless other people I looked at when doing this, but these are the three I came up with, and they're all deserving :)

Rowen

Genesis 2:15-17

"The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it. The Lord God commanded him, "You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree you will die!" "

A good deterrent which was ignored. It makes sense that God should want to keep his people innocent, humans are much less cruel and careless as small children, until they pick up the bad habits surrounding them.

Rowen

28 June 2011

Day Four- Favourite Place



This is a picture of my Church, I found it by typing Barham Church into Google Images, I found pictures of two other Churches at the same time, but it comes from the Wikipedia page. The Church is my favourite place because it's calm and tranquil and alost always quiet. It's usuallly cold which is not so fun in winter, but makes it the absolute best place in summer. It houses the holiday club I've both gone to and helped at. In short it's a place which feels like home, it's always the same and I always am and know I always will be welcome there.

The building is pretty astonishing with some amazing history, parts of it are over 1000 years old, built in the time of William the Conqueror, while other parts are only about 20-30 years old, built in the 80's. Using it you can see the history of the local lords and ladies who're buried within the Church. You can also see where the 18th and 19th Centuries saw it's size expand rapidly.

It houses the first Organ of it's kind in the country, as well as a unique sculpture by a world-famous artist. It owns silverware which is centuries old, although the best is kept in secure storage at Bury Cathedral.

Yet it's the people who make it what it is. The group of kind and loving people who know one another, who've known me since I was a tot (my parents started taking me there every sunday when I was about 3), who've watched me grow up and genuinely care for me. It's them really that makes this my favourite place.

I love Suffolk as a whole, but this is the only place that I have always felt safe.

Here is my attempt at drawing it:


And here is a significantly better painting my Grandad did about 20 years ago I think, probably because that's where my parents got married :)



Hope everyone's enjoying the pictures.

Rowen

Genesis 2:10-14

" A river flowed through Eden and watered the garden. From there the river branched out to become four rivers. The first river, named Pishon, flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is excellent. Bdellium and onyx are also found there. The second river, named Gihon, flows around the whole land of Cush. The third river, named Tigris, flows out of Assyria towards the east. The fourth river is the Euphrates."

I have a theory, yet another one, that these rivers are in fact the oceans, and as such they flow around the continents rather than nations within a continent. As there was once just one supercontinent I suppose they could have started as Rivers but grown to Oceans once the continents separated. It makes sense as there are four rivers and four lands, and we now have four continents. Or at least it makes sense in my head, what d'you think?

Rowen

27 June 2011

Genesis 2:8-9

"Then the Lord God planted a Garden in the east, in a place called Eden, and put the man he had formed into it. The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life and also the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil."

Are the trees the same tree? Or two separate trees? I don't know, but I've always thought of them as one tree in an isolated clearing at the very centre of a large and circular garden, a bit like the botanical gardens but outside. I suppose the eden project could be a good representation of this as well, only it's much too small.

I wonder if God put the tree there because he knew that humans would have to have that knowledge one day, but maybe he thought he'd be able to control when we were given it.

The man that God placed there, Adam, I think is his special person, from reading Chapter one I think that he didn't place all the people he created here, but just the one who was most special to him, maybe the first one he created?

Rowen

Day Three - Favourite food

I love a variety of foods, so today I thought what food do I love that you may be able to tell what it is in a drawing, I came up with cake.



The above selection came from typing 'cake' into Google images. I was trying to draw a traditional Chocolate Gateau using only my imagination. I'm not really sure how well it went.

What d'you think?

Once again I couldn't get the picture the right way up for which I apologise, I'm doing my best to remedy this.

What's your favourite food?

Rowen

Genesis 2:4-7

" This is the story of the creation of the sky and the earth. When the Lord God first made the earth and the sky, there were still no plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields  because the Lord God had not yet made it rain on the land. And there was no person to care for the ground, but a mist would rise up from the earth and water all the ground.
Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed a man from it. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nose, and the man became a living person."

An introduction into the story of a lifetime, but an introduction into the specifics after the prologue has already been told. We have already been told how the earth was made in General terms but now, this passage says we're getting to the specifics. It also disperses some confusion I had concerning some passages from the funeral verses... eg 'dust to dust'. God made us from dust so we must go back to dust... maybe this is why our skin becomes dust when it dies and falls off?

Rowen

Day Two - Favourite animal


I've always loved seals, and sea lions and penguins. Something about the way they move in the water is just graceful. Today's picture is a Fur seal, I took the photo when I went to visit Banham zoo with my family during half-term.

For some reason I still can't get the pictures from the sketch book to post the right way.

Rowen

Genesis 2:1-3

"So the sky, the earth, and all that filled them were finished. By the seventh day God finished the work he had been doing, so he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day, because on that day he rested from all the work he had done in creating the world."

This in my opinion is a very clear message. All work and no play is bad for us. It is even bad for God, hence he rested. I always picture him on a sunlounge in Barbados as a kind of old man in a Hawaiian shirt and drinking a cocktail at this point... not too sure why. I don't think that we should take the rest and relaxation to the extreme some people do where they can't even switch on a lightswitch on the holy day. However I do think that we shouldn't work or do homework or anything which stresses us out on the holy day. I think we should do only things we enjoy, intermingled with a little praising God.

The story of creation is one they get you to tell throughout school using the media of drawing, stained glass windows, story boards, paper plates... I drew this picture in every one of these ways throughout my education. I suppose the reason for this is because it's something which causes a lot of debate but which even small children can be interested in... even they kind've get it, that yearning need to know how it all happened. The big question of 'WHY AM I HERE?'. I'm sure everyone has thought at some point, for what reason do I exist, I seem kind of pointless. This story gives one answer to that question, God created you because he felt you were needed and God knows best.

Rowen

26 June 2011

Day One - Yourself



For some reason I was unable to get the drawing the right way up... The picture is of me and my dad at my cousins wedding last October. I was out most of yesterday hence the only just posting, and I havn't finished the drawing yet, but I'll do my best and upload a better picture later.

Rowen

24 June 2011

30 Day Drawing Challenge

I can't draw very well... I can draw better than some people, but worse than others. But should that stop me giving it a try... I honestly don't know, my friend has persuaded me however. As of tomorrow I shall be participating in the 30 Day drawing Challenge as found on Facebook, I'll be posting my drawings here though.

The list is as follows:
  • Day One - Yourself
  • Day Two - Favourite animal
  • Day Three - Favourite food
  • Day Four - Favourite place
  • Day Five - Best friend
  • Day Six - Favourite book
  • Day Seven - Favourite Movie
  • Day Eight - Favourite animated character
  • Day Nine - Favourite TV show
  • Day Ten - Favourite Candy
  • Day Eleven - Turning point in your life
  • Day Twelve - Most recent accomplishment
  • Day Thirteen - Comic
  • Day Fourteen - Favourite fairytale
  • Day Fifteen - Family Picture
  • Day Sixteen - Inspiration
  • Day Seventeen - Favourite plant
  • Day Eighteen - Just a doodle
  • Day Nineteen - Something new
  • Day Twenty - Something orange
  • Day Twenty-one - Something you want
  • Day Twenty-two - Something you miss
  • Day Twenty-three - Something you need
  • Day Twenty-four - A couple
  • Day Twenty-five - Scenery
  • Day Twenty-six - Something you don't like
  • Day Twenty-seven - Something you love
  • Day Twenty-eight - Anything you'd like
  • Day Twenty-nine - A place you want to go
  • Day Thirty - A congrats banner for finishing the Challenge
I'm not really sure how I'll manage to draw some of these but I'll think of a way. I'm going to try to draw from photo's where possible. I'm also going to try to Colour the pictures, but I'm not too sure how well that'll go so I may scan them both before and after...

Hopefully you'll see something worthwhile tomorrow.

Rowen

Genesis 1:29-31

"God said, "Look, I have given you all the plants that have grain for seeds and all the trees whose fruits have seeds in them. They will be food for you. I have given all the green plants as food for every wild animal, every bird of the air, and every crawling animal." And it happened. God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. Evening passed, and morning came. This was the sixth day."

At this stage the whole process of creation has taken place, perhaps the reason that Chapter One ends with this verse. The world is there as we know it, fully populated, and all in just six days... something which always has and always will blow my mind. Although I can cope with it slightly better with the use of my altered day lengths which you'll know what I'm talking about if you read a couple of my previous posts.

God on the sixth day, after he has made us masters of everything, wants us to know that he has provided for us. We will Never go without so long as he is there looking after us. And he's kept his promise, as long as we're willing to work together as a species, because the world has food in plenty, even when there're droughts or famines, I'm not sure I'd put the blame on God so much as the blame of the results on people not working together. Parts of the world produce excess food, and other parts can't produce enough, this shouldn't matter as long as we co-operate and share what we do have, do our very best to make it last.
An example of this which I'd like to use is a famine, which we covered for my A-level history course, that took place in Russia during Stalin's period in power. The country was effectively war-torn for most of the Soviet era and under Stalin it was no different. There weren't enough people in the rural areas to produce food for everyone, they very often barely produced enough for themselves, but Stalin came along and took what they could not give, so people burned crops rather than give them up. Most people would have seen sense at this point and tried to encourage people back to agriculture, but Stalin punished them. What resulted was some of the worst famines of modern times, and in what is technically an Economically developed country, it was one of only two superpowers in the world. However people died in their millions, they boiled shoe leather to chew and they ate their dead, in some places they deliberately killed the weak for food. The reason for all of this is Pride. Pride of just one man which wouldn't let him accept foreign aid.

I'm not saying that all the world's problems can be fixed by the giving and accepting of aid, but it certainly can help. I think that we should also try to figure out how to prevent disasters such as this, which are man-made where we can and try to sort them while we still can.

Surely that's what being masters means?

Rowen

23 June 2011

Genesis 1:26-28

"So God said,"Let us make human beings in our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all the small crawling animals on the earth."
So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. God blessed them and said, "Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

While reading this passage a couple of things struck me which I've never noticed before.

The first is that it says God said 'in our image' not in my image. This leads to the implication that there are other Gods, something which is contradicted time and again throughout the bible. However it is supported by some of the phrasing found in the Creed said each sunday which goes something to the effect of 'God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God' although it is talking about the relationship of Jesus to God the father it too implies that there are other Gods, lesser Gods. Maybe God is the most powerful, knowing and loving, but it doesn't discount the fact that maybe there could be other Gods who support our God. I guess it leads credence to my opinion, shared by some, that following any religion and worshipping any actual God, whilst striving to do good would lead you to heaven. I had an RE teacher once who said that 'God's house has many rooms', what if each room is for followers of a different religion?

The second thing that I noticed which I hadn't before is that he created human beings in the same way that he created all the other creatures. This somewhat pacified a lot of confusion I had carried around for a very long time, because I always thought that when God created humans he created only Adam and Eve. This led to confusion because I could mever understand from this how Cain and Abel managed to get wives when they were Adam and Eve's only children. However my realisation leads to a further realisation that Adam and Eve weren't the only humans he created, but they were the special ones, his 'pet' people... for want of a better word.

One last thing is that it says he made humans the master of the earth. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but it certainly gives huge sway to the whole eco-movement, something I was already inclined to support, because there can be good masters and bad masters. A good master would ask for only so much as his servant is able to give nothing more, because he knows that asking for more will weaken his servent and shorten the time he can serve. A bad master will demand everything he wants when he wants it and you'd better deliver or pay the price. With the earth it's a bit like that. We have recently been bad masters, stripping the earth bare of all it's resources for our own material wealth, we've pumped the sky and the water full of toxins and pollutants. We have in short been killing our planet. For many hundreds of years, thousands maybe, the way people lived was hand to mouth, they would take only so much as they needed only when they needed it. That wasn't a particularly good way either, although it protected the planet it could also lead to large-scale death as people didn't get what they needed. I'd like to think that nowadays we're somewhere in between. We try to live comfortably and securely, preventing death where possible, whilst trying to reduce and counteract the poisons we released.

I got a lot from those three short verses, way more than I expected to. I'm wondering what anyone else thinks?

Rowen

22 June 2011

Genesis 1:24-25

" Then God said, "Let the earth be filled with animals, each producing more of its own kind. Let there be tame animals and small crawling animals and wild animals, and let each produce more of its own kind." and it happened.
So God made the wild animals, the tame animals, and all the small crawling animals to produce more of their own kind. God saw that this was good."

A variety of animals were created and in order with the way that science says that they evolved. first the water animals, then the birds, and then just about everything else. The tame animals makes me think of things such as sheep and cows and even I suppose dogs, animals which may not have always been tame but which certainly were tameable, the ones which humans would be able to put to their own uses. The small crawling animals makes me think of things such as bugs and insects, snails, spiders and snakes, everything which thinking of makes your skin crawl. The wild animals makes me think of ferocious beasts; lions and tigers, wolves, reptiles and even dinosaurs.

God obviously had foresight, he obviously foresaw the damage our species would do and tried to prevent it... at least to some extent.

What does the description of the animals in this passage make you think of?

Rowen

Bride by Blackmail - Carole Mortimer M&B (October 2006)


This book is the second I finished, less than a day after the first, it is also the second book in the omnibus. The third I have yet to read. It is by Carole Mortimer who is one of my favourite Mills and Boon authors she wrote a few of the books my mum had when she was about the same age I am now.

I would honestly say that I didn't like this book to start with, there was too much treachery and twists only hinted at, however towards the end it settled into a rhythm I was comfortable with.

She wasn't actually blackmailed into being a bride but only into pretending and it wasn't altogether surprising when she realised she still loved her ex-husband. My faviurite element was how you as the reader became very sympathetic towards Jed whilst Georgie is still completely oblivious to his very obvious feelings.

Rowen

The Blackmailed Bride - Kim Lawrence M&B (October 2006)

Yesterday I mentioned that I'd finished two Mills and Boon books in the time that I havn't been blogging over the past week. This is mostly because of the multitude of exams which members of my household (myself and my sister) have been taking. As of monday I finished my exams but I felt I still needed time to recover, I have now done so and am back.

The first of the two books I read was The Blackmailed Bride, the first book from the omnibus I bought a couple of weeks back, I have a high turnover of this kind of book. It more or less fulfilled my expectations, only I felt it was too rushed, the whole of the beginning of the book took place over about 3 days. Seeing as she was being blackmailed into marrying this man she barely knew against her will I thought she fell in love with him much too soon.

It did however fulfill in other areas and I was on the whole satisfied by the plot.

Rowen

21 June 2011

Apologies

I'd just like to take a moment to apologise for not keeping to my plan... within a fortnight of starting it. The past week has been pretty hectic. Tomorrow I should be back to normal and I'll also post about a couple of books, albeit Mills and Boon again, which I finished.

Rowen

14 June 2011

Genesis 1:21-23

"21So God created the large sea animals and every living thing that moves in the sea. The sea is filled with these living things with each one producing more of its own kind. He also made every bird that flies, and each bird produced more of its own kind. God saw that this was good. 22God blessed them and said, "Have many young ones so that you grow in number. Fill the water of the seas, and let the birds grow in number on the earth." 23Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fifth day."

I love sea animals the best of all animals, I think that they have a grace and beauty which cannot be reproduced by anything which is land based. The birds have a similar sort of beauty. The reason for this, as far as I can tell, is that they have freedom. They can go anywhere, at any time, no fences to stop them or people to control them. They have a freedom which we have taken from or denied to many of the animals who cohabit the dry land with us.

Rowen

13 June 2011

Genesis 1:20

"Then God said, "Let the earth be filled with living things, and let birds fly in the air above the earth." "

This gives the impression of a small child who has a pet and decides he wants more, however it is tempered by God's reasoning which is simply for love.

Rowen

12 June 2011

Church Fete

      Yesterday was my village's Church Fete, it is what I think could only be described as a traditional English Fete, one run by the village for the village. It is comprised of a BBQ, a Cake stall which always sells out, a china elephant stall, a book stall, an Ice cream stall and a refreshments stand. There are a number of games including; China smash, tombola, wheel of fortune, bouncy castle, ten pin bowling, darts and tombola. There are also two raffles; one run by the mother's union which gives away two hampers, and one which is run by the Church, full of prizes donated by Church members and Local businesses. It raises a lot of money which sometimes goes towards enabling the Church building to remain a safe environment for the villagers many of whom use it at least once a year and sometimes it gets donated to a Charity chosen by the PCC. I didn't actually take any photos of the Fete, although I took my Camera to do so. I was on the BBQ.
     I actually started this post because while I was there I visited the Book Stall which enabled me to purchase three books for only 60p... the fete is full of bargains if you look for them. Of the books I bought two were Mills and Boon Omnibus' because I like to have a number of them in reservse in case of emergencies but at the moment I resent buying them full price. I buy them second hand from the Village Fete and Bazaar and Charity shops, a number of the ones I have my mum had growing up, and then I was given bags full by my Great Aunt who I believe gets them second hand herself, and by my friends Grandmother who was going to get rid of them... my friend claimed them on my behalf. The third was a completely unexpected bargain at only 20p as I would have probably paid full price for it at some point.
  
   The First Omnibus is titled 'Blackmailed Brides' and is comprised of novelettes by Kim Lawrence, Carole Mortimer and Kathryn Ross. It was published in October 2006 I think, however it's hard to guess as you can only work from the dates on the adverts in the back which span a period of about 3 months. Carole Mortimer is one of my alltime favourite Mills and Boon authors, writing a few of the books which I have enjoyed the most.
   The Books appear to be about women who were blackmailed into being a bride or a similar situation, to save either their own or family pride, or even their job. These books are a sort which I fully expect to enjoy, they will be about three women who will be strong-minded and unwillingly coerced into spending too much time with an overpowering man. They will begin to fall in love against their better judgement. The men meanwhile will have been in love with the women from afar for a long time, but will have seen this as the only way to get the women to reciprocate.


 The second omnibus is titled 'Summer of Love' and it is made up of four novellettes by Candy Halliday, Holly Jacobs, Cathis Linz and Elise Title. They don't really seem to have any common quality except for the fact that they would all be incredibly easy to read whilst lying on a beach and getting a suntan. At a guess I would say they're probably all set at least partially in either the tropics or Australia.
    The first novelette is about a girls secret and much despised crush on the man who is living next door to her. Chances are they'll keep bumping into each other and she will at some point need his help. They'll soon become friends, but on their first outing together the sexual chemistry will erupt.
     The second is about a woman who is pretending to be pregnant and the chivalrous man who rushes to her rescue. My best guess would be that he becomes extremely cross when he finds out that she isn't and whisks her away to a secure place to demand answers.
     The third book is about a man who wants a wife just to be able to inherit his fortune. I once read a similar book and if it's anything alike the sworn bachelor and world-weary woman will fall in love far too quickly and wonder if it's fate which brought them together.
    The final book in the omnibus is about a private investigater who is going to turn on the charm for a one time crush. I'm not sure if I can quite guess the plot of this, but I have to say it intrigues me.

The final book and true bargain which I picked up is 'Tom Jones' by Henry Fielding. The reason that this is a bargain is because it appears in my 1001 books meaning that I would have had to've bought it at somepoint and would willingly have paid the full price of £5.03 as currently found on Amazon. I'm not entirely convinced I'll enjoy this book, however I'll read it anyway, hopefully it's purchase will help me to maintain a healthy momentum, and at only 20p I really don't mind. It is 854 pages long and was written a long time ago.
    Tom Jones is  a 'high-spirited' 'foundling of mysterious origins'. It describes how he falls in love with a woman who is unattainable, as the heros of these novels so often do. If nothing else I would imagine the book will shine a light on a number of habits and attitudes around at the period.

Rowen

Silhouette; Same Time, Next Year - Debbie Macomber; Hot Blooded - Carly Bishop


      Mills and Boon type books are an old favourite of mine, because they require so little effort to read they allow you to do nothing more than simply relax. At some point in the relatively recent past, in terms of the companies, Mills and Boon became a sub-publisher (not sure of the technical term) under the same people who publish silhouette books. They are relatively similar, following the same basic formula with the main difference being that Silhouette books are more often than not set in America while the Mills and Boon books tend to have heroines based in either Europe or Australia. The second difference is that Mills and Boon tend to be more traditional with rich do very little heroines and CEO's for leading men, while both partners tend to be working in the Silhouette books. Although I've read both and mind neither on the whole I've found I actually prefer MIlls and Boon books.
     I was in two minds about whether I should blog about these books, as I'm not entirely convinced I class them as real books, they're published for short periods of time only and as they were both published in the mid-90's the only places you'd find them nowadays are on ebay or in a Charity shop. As one of my original aims was to make my opinion of the books I read available to people who wanted to buy them I thought that I probably shouldn't post, however one of my other aims was to post about every book I read, and they may decide to reprint them at some point in the future so I thought why not. And hence there are two books being posted about together.
    There are two reasons I read these books in the past couple of weeks. The first reason is that I have exams for another week and have been in exam period for a while now, it wears me out and means I need a little bit of light relief every now and then. Secondly the book which I'm currently reading, The Riddle of the Sands, is incredibly slow paced and I just keep needing to take a break from it.

Hot Blooded - Carly Bishop
November 1995

     This book was ok. I actually tried to read it once before a couple of years ago, but got distracted and wandered off. Therefore I found it slightly repetitive as I started reading but that was left behind soon enough.
     My least favourite part of this book was that the way it was written it came across slightly muder-mystery styled. Murder mysteries aren't a style of book I particularly like so it had that detracted from it at the start. I also didn't particularly like the fact that they both had relatively important jobs in a research hospital yet never appeared to be working.
     I did quite like the essence of the story however, it fulfilled all of the basic required criteria, and I got something in the region of what I predicted I would. I was slightly disappointed with the ending because it didn't seem to complete, however I have the feeling that this is due to 'Hot Blooded' being the first of a trio of books. As I only have this one I'll never know if it completes itself fully, unless I manage to get hold of copies of 'Breathless' and 'Heart Throb' by the same author which were published in the successive months.
     The 'Pulse' series isn't my favourite of the series available to read, I think that could be because the hospital setting reminds me too much of watching episodes of Casualty on a saturday night. I prefer 'Desire' which tends to be much more fantastical.

Same Time, Next Year - Debbie Macomber
July 1995

    'Same Time, Next Year' was more the kind of book I love. I wasn't thrilled with it but it had the typical whirlwind romance/deep-seated attatchment that I was expecting. The storyline was fairly good for the first half of the book, but then the typical dilemna/major problem which always crops up in the second half of the book I felt was resolved far too easily and as a result was rendered lame.
    It was a book which once I picked up I didn't really want to put down, which can only be said to be to it's merit. As a result I finished reading it in about a day, luckily it was a friday, as I didn't put it down for the last time until about 00:30.
    I like the cover art this book has, as it more resembles that which was found on Mills and Boon in the 70's or 80's than many which can be found nowadays, and I think they really had some lovely covers then. Also I think that the picture actually shows people who are very similar to those described in the book. My only issue is that the female looks a bit like she is plotting something.

Rowen

Genesis 1:14-19

"14Then God said, "Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days and years. 15They will be in the sky to give light to the earth." And so it happened.
16So God made the two large lights. He made the brighter light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17God put all these in the sky to shine on the earth, 18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that all these things were good. 19Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fourth day."

      When reading about day three I always forget that there is no light at that point. The image in my head is sunny and warm. God however did not forget. He was aware that there was no light, and he was also aware that life on earth would struggle without the warmth from the sun to keep it going. Therefore he created the sun which gave us warmth, the ability to grow things and the things needed to stay alive. He also created the moon, the body just beyond our planet which creates the seasons and the tides.

Rowen

11 June 2011

Genesis 1:9-13

"9Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered together so the dry land will appear." And it happened. 10God named the dry land "earth" and the water that was gathered together "seas". God saw that this was good.
11Then God said, "Let the earth produce plants - some to make grain for seeds and others to make fruits with seeds in them. Every seed will produce more of it's own kind of plant." And it happened. 12The earth produced plants with grain for seeds, and trees that made fruits with seeds in them. Each seed grew its own kind of plant. God saw that all this was good. 13Evening passed, and morning came. This was the third day."

       The third day was always one of my favourites in this story. It was the one which saw the beginning of tranquil, undisturbed beauty. It saw the lands separated by sea, creating a home for many thousands of nations over many thousands of years.
      The thing which I love the most about this image is the fact that there are no people, no-one to mess it up. No one to drop litter and leave it there. No-one to be slowly killing this delicate, beautiful world. Just the plants which speak of life, the full cycle of life,  but at the same time everlasting life. When I hear this passage my head is filled with images of tendrils creeping towards the light. Neverending greenery.

Rowen

10 June 2011

Genesis 1:6-8

"Then God said, "Let there be something to divide the water in two." So God made the air and placed some of the water above the air and some below it. God named the air "sky". Evening passed, and morning came. This was the second day."

       The second day of Creation and already God was creating the ability for life to come. The separation from the water, some below the air and some above it, was the basis for the water cycle, something which the planet needed if it was ever going to be able to support life.
       Personally I am of the opinion that the '7 days of creation' are metaphorical days, which in reality refer to large periods of history much longer, possibly as long as millenia. As God didn't actually create man until much later in the period it is possible that they refer to Days as God would view them. I once read a trilogy of books, by Terry Pratchett which was comprised of 'Truckers', 'Diggers' and 'Wings'. Those books were about people who were only 10 inches tall, or somewhere in that region, they were similar to the Borrowers, but for them a single one of our days lasted in the region of a week. I may be getting the details incorrect, it's been a while since i read them, but it gives you an idea. Anyway the reasoning for this is that they were smaller so for them time passed faster, they still noticed our night and day, but they also noticed more minor fluctuations in the light which we take no notice of. My reason for bringing that up is because I think it's a valid comparison between ourselves and God. We are so much smaller, so much less significant than him, that what would be a day for him would last a phenomenal amount of time longer for us, and as he was the only one around it would be he who would tell us, and he would tell us in terms of his own time span.
     Using that as my scenario I would place this 'Day' of creation at roughly the couple of millenia where Carbon started to come out of the rocks and form into CO2 which would in turn support my theory both Scientifically and Philosophically.

Rowen

9 June 2011

Genesis 1:5

"God named the light "day" and the darkness "night". Evening passed and morning came. This was the first day."

Once again i have no new comments to add about this day, I think from now on I will definately try to select groups of verses which tie togther as I'm struggling to find new stuff to say about basically the same thing for five days in a row!!!

Rowen

8 June 2011

Genesis 1:4

"God saw that the light was good, so he divided the light from the darkness."

      I'm honestly not sure what this shows. Basically it's a sentence, but it came next so I'm posting it. If anyone has any views on it I'd love to hear them.

Rowen

7 June 2011

Genesis 1:3

"Then God said "Let there be light," and there was light."

This passage means to me that not only did create light from the darkness, but that he himself is that light. He came to show us the way and stop us from stumbling because we simply couldn't see. I'm not really sure I can evaluate it beyond that.
       However the fact that he would create something so beautiful with us in mind overwhelms me.

Rowen

6 June 2011

Genesis 1:2

"The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean, and God's spirit was moving over the water."

         This passage shows how our world and the lives we have are the result of God's imagination and his creativity. It shows how stark and bleak everything was before he started to work. It makes me glad that he did create everything and shape it and make it just as beautiful as it is.
      To be honest the world beforehand sounds to me just plain eerie, I don't much like the sound of it at all.

Rowen

5 June 2011

Genesis 1:1


"In the beginning God created the sky and the earth"

       This verse shows to me the power of God and his eternity. He must have huge power as he created the sky and the earth and if it was the beginning what did he use as there would have been nothing for him to use. It shows his eternity as he was at the beginning which is a very long time ago.
        It also raises questions, at the beginning of Sixth Form I took five subjects four of which were sciences. My mum did a degree in science and my brain is very much wired to be analytical, factual, logical. It is not designed to take leaps of faith without evidence which is more or less what this verse requires you to do. My scientifical brain with it's lust for explanation would say that this verse sums up the whole of the Big Bang Theory for which the sky itself is constantly providing evidence.
      This verse honestly says to me Big Bang Theory, however it requires too much faith for me that the Big Bang Theory just happened to start itself, I think it's far too much coincidence, therefore I would say that God set things in motion, got everything moving.

Rowen

P.S I've missed being able to be philosophical, I havn't done it in a while. I used to do so with a group of friends but it died out. The only thing I'm missing is someone to argue with :P

A Verse a Day

          One of the more thumbed books that I own is my Bible. I have a New Century Version Youth Bible which was given to me by my parents as a Christmas present in 2003. I have two other less used Bibles; one is a Gideon's Bible which my yeargroup was handed in out first year of High School, the kind which contains only the Gospel and Old Testament and which can be found in hotel rooms the world over. My third Bible is a Children's Bible which I think I was given as a Christening present; it encompasses 365 of the more well known Bible stories which have been taken out of verse format and made suitable for Children, with a different story for every day of the year.
          As a Christian the Bible is very important to me and as such is a book I believe I should read more regularly than I do, as I currently binge on it, reading none for months at a time and then reading whole books at once. I think I should read it a verse at a time to be able to think more about the words and reflect on their meaning to me. I also think that I should eventually read the whole thing... something which I've never attempted to do.
         My faith is perhaps not as whole-hearted as that which some people have, I'm not convinced which parts of my religion I believe, however I do think it is definately a good thing. I believe in God and I believe in Jesus, although I'm not too convinced over the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure I entirely get the Heaven and Hell aspects; I'd like to believe Heaven exists but without Hell, however there's so many different prophesies about it in the Bible that I'm not sure which to take. My favourite thing about my faith, the aspect which I try to take away from it is the principles and strong moral compass with which it provides you. I also love the feeling of security and calm which it can give to me at times when I don't think I would otherwise cope very well.
          The above reasons are why I'm going to use this blog to start a new project for me. I'm going to go through the Bible from beginning to end and do my best to post every day a verse from the bible and my honest opinion and reflection upon it. I will not guarantee I'll manage it as I'm human and not infallible and life will undoubtedly get in the way. However it is a good habit which I will try to set up, even though it will take me years to succeed.
          I will do my best.

Rowen

2 June 2011

A Trip to the Zoo

       I'd be surprised if you hadn't noticed but i really don't blog about my life that much, it's a bit personal and I'm not really sure if I want to get personal so I'm gonna opt for not. However, yesterday I went to the zoo, because one of my cousins was going to meet a friend and the other wanted some company, me and my sister and my mum and my aunt all went. I came home and was a bit surprised at how proud I was of how some of my photos turned out, as such I'm going to share a few of the better ones, but ignore any which have people.
Zebra having a lie down, it was a warm day.



Llamas or possibly Alpakas

Doesn't this Cheetah just look regal sitting this way?

I never knew just how loud a Donkey could be until I heard this one start braying

This Giraffe was a little bit restless, he kept pacing, but he was the only one who came close and posed for the cameras




I loved the way the fence mesh framed the duckling in this one.


The Molerats loved to play




This one's just adorable, I don't know what he's looking at though.




Sunbathing Meerkat

THe way this little Meerkat was sitting I couldn't help but be reminded of a baby on a playmat.

Sentry Meerkat's at Alert

There was a whole huge family of them.


Some animals just love to climb... the Red Panda among them, I don't think these were even above the enclosure from which their tree was growing.

Meditating Lemur... If he can do it why can't I?

The Fur seals were all in the water, and they were having so much fun playing that they wouldn't keep still long enough to take a photo of them, so it's more by luck than judgement that I got this one. I like how it turned out though.

The penguins were having fun in the water too. As this one was swimming there was only one penguin who wasn't in the water.


I didn't think I'd managed to capture the bubbles on this one, but I did. Just look at him go... If you look really closely you might even see our legs.

I thought this bird was cute, although he wasn't actually one of the animals supposed to be there.



Angry polecat... at least I think he's a polecat. There were two of these, both in separate cages. This one kept growling while the other wouldn't stop pacing.

 


I don't know what this bird was doing... maybe thinking along the lines of 'I can't see you then you can't see me!'


These chickens were loose in the area near to the farm barn.

Isn't the sleepy face of this snow leopard just adorable. I can't believe I managed to capture this through the glass. It's possibly my favourite photo from the day!
If you managed to make it to the end of all these photos I have to say well done and sorry there were so many. I was surprised at how many of the ones I took were anywhere near good, and this is only about 1/5 of what I took. The joys of a digital camera :P
         It was a fantastic day because of the sunny weather and the people I was with, and it was definately a good first day of summer.

-disclaimer; this post has nothing to do with the fact I'm not optimistic about when I'll next post due to the tediousness of my current book or the fact that I feel guilty when I don't post for a long time -

Rowen