Country Ruins

I love photographing old homesteads that are now in ruin.
Here are some taken near Mt. Mary on our day trip to Blanchetown and back today.

Going down the hill in Morgan

"Birds of a Feather" Studio/Gallery. Fine Art at Kapunda, South Australia

from Roger's website

For some time we have been aware of the beautiful art work of Australian Birds by Roger Murcott.
Roger has a amazing Gallery where you can view and buy his work.
Today we had the privilege of visiting his gallery while passing through Kapunda.
His work is right up there with the best.
If you like Birds as Art this is a must to visit.
There are limited edition prints,postcards and originals for sale.
Kaunda is about an hour from Adelaide.

http://rogermurcott.com.au/

Carmine's Antiques and Tapestries Gallery

Today we did one of our "half way" trips,picking up Granny from the Riverland at Blanchetown to come back to Adelaide.
We took a slightly different route home by driving from the Blanchetown Roadhouse across country to Morgan.
Morgan is a sleepy former River Port on the River Murray with much history.
In Morgan we came across Carmine's antique shop and tapestry gallery.
An amazing little place with a n amazing collection.
The Tapestry Gallery was all the creation of Carmine's late mother who did not start doing tapestries until she was 77.
We found a really interesting illustated book on the Phantom of the Opera.
The original story.
Well here are some pics to wet your appetite for Carmine's shop.
Morgan is about a 2 hour drive from Adelaide.
We enjoyed a leisurely trip home from there.
Stopping off at Mt. Mary and also at Tanunda where we visited Roger Murcott's amazing "Birds of a Feather " art gallery of Australian Birds.
I will write a separate post about that.
All photos taken on Canon 600D and with permission of Carmine.
see www.morgan.sa or email Carmine at cdb@morgansa.com.au

Dementia and The Christian

All of us at different times,sooner or later are touched by the plight of a family member or friend who has a form of dementia.
As regular visitors to a Nursing Home we see the effects this has on some of the people there.
We have also seen it affecting our own family.
We visited with a relative last week his mother.
She has a form of dementia.
She and her late  husband  had much influence in our spiritual growth as Christians.
She was always a very gracious and active lady and very involved in her family and the life of the Church.
To the casual onlooker there does not seem to be much wrong in that you can have a conversation and she is seemingly aware of who you are but more than half an hour with her and things are not what they seem.
She is still happy and content within her own world but family find it very difficult when they no longer have their mum with all her faculties.
If there is a good form of dementia to have hers would appear to be a better one.
Some of course change their personalities and become very difficult when they have dementia.
One of the questions that comes up are about what sort of quality of life  does a person with dementia have?
It is hard to know.
In early stages some can still express that they are content and accepting of their condition.
A question also comes up as to when we are actually dead?
Does loss of faculties count for death?
I think not.
One of the things I have pondered on lately is the concept of there  being no time in eternity,heaven.
In a sense when we are there we will be there at the same moment as our loved ones.
We will not have arrived today and they will not have arrived years ago as there is no timescale in eternity and bodies and life have become eternal.
A wonderful man Bill Armstrong has just died in this last week.
He had his faculties right to the end.
His beloved wife Jessie has had dementia for a while now and has lost her ability to know people.
She still lives and Bill is in Heaven.
In reality it may be she is already there with him.

"Ephesians 1

New International Version (NIV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To God’s holy people in Ephesus,^[a] the faithful in Christ Jesus:

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."

In this sense we are already blessed in the heavenly realms.
We are already there but until physical death we don't really appreciate that our experience of eternal life starts at our new birth in Christ. 

So to my way of thinking if I was to die tomorrow I will already have my Christian family there with me even though in our time frame they have not yet passed from this life.
Maybe this all sounds far fetched but it gives me some comfort.

From the Wayside Chapel by Graham Long

Dear Inner Circle,

What could be more wonderful than having a pair of girls giggling in your house for four days? Even though I am a grandfather, I've just spent the last few days playing games and having fun in a quest to celebrate being alive. For four days I pulled on all the doors that said "push" and pushed on all the doors that said "pull" and eventually looked at my girls in stunned confusion while they laughed like mad and tried to explain to me the difference between the two words. How priceless to go the McDonald's drive through and order a Chinese meal with the helpless laughter going on in the back seat. Eventually I had to apologise to the girls and to the voice on the other end of the drive through speaker to calm things down so that I could then order pizza. Our eight year old said to me, "Do you know the difference between you and me, Papa?" "No," I said. "I only make a mistake once," she said.

Falling in love with our girls again is to fall in love with their dad again (their dad, our son, died nearly five years ago). They have a beautiful dad who is worthy of their adoration, (technically a step-dad but in reality, there are no "steps" in love) and the most wonderful mum but in the way they laugh, the way they are up for fun at any time, their love of life and even the shape of their feet, a man they will never know is truly present.

Some of the people who inspire me the most are those who live with mental illness and find a way to cope and make a contribution to the community. I just had morning tea with a man of extraordinary intelligence who never-the-less has wrestled debilitating mental illness for about 30 years. He is well read and well informed on most matters of world politics. He is keen to add whatever weight he can to the quest to make this world a better place. His conversation sometimes flies out into the stratosphere in a bizarre manner and yet he fights to return always to the present moment and to keep continuity in our conversation. Although the words and thoughts jumped around a bit, a most beautiful face kept eye contact with me and his love of humanity and desire for justice was constant. He told me that he was going to have an early lunch at the Salvation Army and I walked with him, wondering if the Salvos really were active in this part of Kings Cross. He led me into Wayside. Perhaps I need a uniform. We pin medals on lots of chests of people who are just doing their jobs but I looked into the face of real courage just now and I'm in awe of a truly great Australian.

The hopes and dreams of people impacted by mental health issues have been collected and creatively transformed into a deck of 52 cards to inspire others to follow their dreams. The project, called the Deck of Dreams, is the brain child of our very own Jen Lee who works in our Day to Day Living programme. Each card showcases unique artworks depicting people's dreams. On the back of each card the artist has written a positive, real and inspirational message of hope. There will be an official launch of this project next week on Wednesday, 24 July in our community hall. You are invited to this event at 6pm. It's free with nibbles provided but we need you to RSVP to Bec McKenna. Click here for more information.

My book, Love over Hate: finding life by the wayside, will be in book stores from Thursday, 1 August but as a special offer for the Inner Circle, you can purchase a signed copy of my book a couple of weeks before it hits the shelves. Buy it here. From your purchase, 30% of the RRP will go directly to Wayside and it will be sent to you free of postage charges. We have a supply of books at Wayside now too so if you are dropping past during business hours, we can sell you a book immediately.

Thanks for being part of this inner circle, 
Graham

Rev Graham Long
Pastor and CEO
The Wayside Chapel
Kings Cross
http://www.thewaysidechapel.com/


 Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information is important to us, as it is fundamental to the way we operate. All information is kept in the strictest confidence and is stored in a password secure database. Levels of access to information are determined by an authorised employee's specific need to do their job. Personal information collected by The Wayside Chapel is never sold or passed on in any way, shape or form to any other organisation or non-authorised person for any purpose. If you would like to seek access to, or revise your personal information or feel that the information we currently have on record is incorrect or incomplete, or you believe that the privacy of your personal information has been interfered with, please contact us. Our appointed Privacy Officer is Laura Watts laura.watts@thewaysidechapel.com

Australia's newest Sports Star

Ashton Agar is Australia's newest cricket star who was relatively unknown to most cricket fans before his first and current test match.
Read below on how the ABC reported his  amazing first innings which broke some records.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-12/agar-becomes-australias-unlikely-hero/4815480

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-12/watch-highlights-from-ashton-agars-record-ashes/4815582

I had fun using my slr camera to photograph my TV screen of the innings.
A good way of practising sports photography from your armchair.

PS.

Since all this hapenned Ashton has been out of the limelight as he did not make a big impression in the next match. Hopefully he will work his way through all that after such an exciting start.

Do you suffer from GAS?

If you have Gear Acquisition Syndrome(Gas) there is help on the way.
Follow the link below for some answers.
http://www.f-stopeight.com/the-self-talk-retorts-of-an-ex-gear-addict-how-i-started-breaking-free-from-gas/
How many cameras,lenses,flashes,gadgets etc do you really need?

From the Wayside Chapel by Graham Long

Dear Inner Circle,

You cannot take what can only be given. You can extract endless experience from the world. You can travel around it; you can measure it, weigh it, name it, classify it but such an act does not come close to having the world give itself to you. You can extract experience from another person. You can become the expert among all the people you know and meet. People can be measured, weighed and classified but none of these things comes close to the act where a person gives themselves to you. The act of love is an act of self giving so love can never be taken. I met a brute recently who has raped in order to get his needs met. To his neediness however is added a truck load of emptiness. He's more desperate and more alone now than at any time in his life even though he has many children to many different women.

After 42 years of marriage, I've come to appreciate that a healthy relationship is one that moves from fulfilment to longing and back and back again. When I was younger, the 'longing' phase felt wrong, like as if something urgent needed to be done. I didn't realise when young that no matter how in love you might be with the other, sooner or later, someone has to wash the car or do the shopping. In my old age, I've come to appreciate that my marriage is tested, formed and strengthened in the 'longing' phase of our life together. What's true of relationships is also true for organisations although we don't move from intimacy to longing and back again but we move from "mission" to "wishin" and back and back again. No organisation can live in their mission. Mission is achieved in extraordinary moments and lost as it must be while real and unromantic work is achieved. There is nothing wrong with an organisation in a "wishin" phase of its life. It is in such a phase that the organisation is formed and tested and built. It's not the end of the world when "mission" seems far away. It's as healthy as it is for two lovers to be getting on with life but longing for their next meeting. So many people ditch their relationships in the longing phase and so many organisations wreak havoc on good people in their "wishin" phase. But ditching the wife or the leader and jumping forever into new projects is no substitute for the maturity that comes from knowing that longing and wishing are your good friends.

Last night it was cold and wet and Robyn and I were both hungry so we decided to eat out at a local restaurant. So many think that intimacy is something that happens in a bedroom but the conversation in the restaurant, over good food and a glass of wine rated a high distinction on the intimacy scale as did several conversations yesterday. A man who is struggling with many things yesterday finished his conversation by saying, "thank you for loving me". All real living is meeting.  On the way home home from the restaurant, it was raining quite heavily. I put my head down and walked briskly but decided to seek shelter under Robyn's little umbrella. Oddly enough, Robyn seemed shy to share her bit of shelter with me until I looked into her face and found it wasn't Robyn I was walking with.

Yesterday I was called downstairs by a man who was asking for prayer. He told me a story that is too traumatic to retell here. I had my doubts about the truth of the story but no doubt about the trauma that he was living through. If true it was dreadful and if untrue, even more so. A good looking man with a bodybuilders physique, was in a world of pain and we managed to get him scheduled and in the right kind of care. Although Wayside wasn't really the right place for him, he kept saying, "Where else would I turn?" I'm glad he had somewhere to turn.

Thanks for being part of this inner circle,

Graham

Rev Graham Long
Pastor and CEO
The Wayside Chapel
Kings Cross
http://www.thewaysidechapel.com/


 Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information is important to us, as it is fundamental to the way we operate. All information is kept in the strictest confidence and is stored in a password secure database. Levels of access to information are determined by an authorised employee's specific need to do their job. Personal information collected by The Wayside Chapel is never sold or passed on in any way, shape or form to any other organisation or non-authorised person for any purpose. If you would like to seek access to, or revise your personal information or feel that the information we currently have on record is incorrect or incomplete, or you believe that the privacy of your personal information has been interfered with, please contact us. Our appointed Privacy Officer is Laura Watts laura.watts@thewaysidechapel.com

                 




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Some recent pics

A couple of weekends away were an opportunity for a little photography.
We stayed at the Riverbush Cottages near Berri for a family celebration and last weekend at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley for a State Opera Gala Concert.

Early Morning Fog at Riverbush Cottages

Gully at the back of our cottage

Yellow version of Crimson Rosella at back of our cottage

Grass Parrots(Red Rumped Parrot) at back of our cottage

Old house on backroads in Barossa valley

Old house on backroads in Barossa valley

View from Menglers Hill lookout in Barossa valley

View from Menglers Hill lookout in Barossa valley

View from Menglers Hill lookout in Barossa valley

View from Menglers Hill lookout in Barossa valley

Our cottage(Banksia) at Riverbush Cottages

More morning fog

More morning fog

Lavender Bush in the Fog

Early Morning Fog Photographer in Dressing Gown