Last autumn Jane was given a plain green shrub by our friends, Ruth and Anthony. It had a label saying it should have pink flowers in due course. Now it looks like this:

Camellia "Lady Campbell"

Pas mal, heh? I love the fact of creation; as the poet put it, "There lives the dearest freshness deep down things". Here's Gerard Manley Hopkins' whole sonnet, God's Grandeur:

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;	5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;	10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Meanwhile I enjoyed this item which I read about today. I initially thought it was an April fool, but I see the CNN article is dated 23rd March. PETA calls for inclusive language for animals in the Bible !

By contrast, on a very serious issue, I'd urge you to look at the Right to Know website. It's to do with an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill sponsored by MPs Nadine Dorries (Con) and Frank Field (Lab), ensuring that women considering an abortion are given independent advice, rather than from those with vested financial interests, http://righttoknow.org.uk/ . It seems to me to make eminent sense, giving women truly informed choice and hopefully saving life. There's something we can do about it. Write to our MPs.