Infusion on Facebook

Infusion now has a presence on Facebook!

Although there are fears over Facebook identity theft, as with the majority of web applications, there are sensible precautions one can take such as not revealing too much personal information and using the privacy / security options. In the article linked above Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer states: "Our extensive privacy settings and security measures empower our users and make it very difficult to get to personal information and misuse it."
The Infusion Facebook Group is a closed group and members must be invited or approved by the administrator.

Another Facebook Group which may be of interest is A Cup of Tea Solves Everything. The blurb reads: "When you are upset... have a cup of tea.When life seems too complicated... have a cup of tea. When you wake up in the morning, and can't be bothered to do anything... have a cup of tea. It is scientifically proven (maybe) to make you feel better." Familiar sentiments to some of us!

The armchair walker

BBC will shortly be launching the Ultimate Outdoors Season. Part of the season is a new five part series starting on BBC2 entitled Mountain (Sunday 29th July from 9-10pm). Griff Rhys Jones is the presenter and he begins his exploration of Britain's mountains in the breathtaking wilderness of the northwest highlands of Scotland. I gather that there's also a new series of Wainwright's Walks starting on BBC Four soon. A radio alternative is Ramblings - don't forget that you can listen again to radio programmes in the week after they are broadcast.

Holiday reading (3)

Here's another perspective on our summer reading: reading to the glory of God. This doesn't just mean only reading "Christian" books, as this article On Reading from Desiring God ministries discusses. The author says that reading "can help us to know God and ourselves, gain vicarious experience, increase our perception and imagination, train our minds to think critically and logically, and teach us self-discipline". The article finishes with some suggested further reading.

Messy gardens better for wildlife

As well as cleaning my boots, I cut the grass today. We have a patch at the top of the garden that we call the "wildlife garden", which started one week when I couldn't be bothered to get out the extension lead to cut the grass at the very top and which we subsequently decided to let grow. I felt vindicated today as I read a Guardian article, Messy gardens are a bee's best friend, that quotes research proving wild beasts and birds appreciate gardens that have been allowed to go to seed, in a manner of speaking. The article also mention the launch of a Wildlife gardening manifesto last week by Natural England. And the photo? That's one of the appreciative hedgehogs from our messy garden!

Muddy boots

I had expected to blog on "Infusion walks Shutlingsloe" as we planned to climb the "Cheshire Matterhorn" last Saturday, but the weather put a stop to that. [In spite of that, five of us enjoyed a rather damp walk on the Leicestershire / Rutland border, near Cold Overton]. Instead I'm blogging on boot cleaning. I don't clean my boots very often but when I do I use the guidelines from an old copy of Country Walking magazine. Although the CW website has lots of useful tips and tricks, it doesn't include the article on cleaning boots. However, I found this article, Care of walking boots, with very similar advice.

Holiday reading (2)

In the first post in this series I discussed different approaches to acquiring books for holiday reading. If you like the deliberate approach to book selection (as opposed to the accidental approach), here are some suggestions if you have read all the books by a favourite author and are hungry for more.

• Who Else Writes Like...? A readers' guide to fiction is an established reference book designed to help anyone who enjoys reading fiction to expand the number of writers they read. It answers the dilemma facing those who have exhausted the output from a particular author: "What shall I read next?" Your local public library should have a copy.


• The literature-map website is an interesting idea. Its a visual search tool for authors - the closer two writers are on the "map", the more likely someone will like both of them. Just type in a name to find an author on the map.


• Another approach is provided by whichbook, a website that helps readers find books by genre, setting, plot etc. Instead of starting from the overwhelming choice of books available, whichbook starts from the reader and provides an intuitive way to find books to match their mood. The intention is to enable each individual to build the elements of that elusive 'good read' we are all looking for but don't quite know how to define.

Leicestershire Walking Festival

The Leicestershire Walking Festival takes place on Saturday 4th August, with a choice of a choice of 12+ walks. The walks are everything from 12 miles to 1.5 milesand from hard core to child friendly. The session entitled Finding your way (a tutorial on basic map reading and short walk) at 2.30pm is particularly recommended.

The walks all start and finish at the Bosworth Battlefield Visitor Centre in west Leicestershire. All the sessions are free, but there is a car parking charge of £1.50 per vehicle . Check the website for full details.

Holiday reading (1)

How do you choose what books to read on holiday? Do you save up books you have purchased or received as gifts over the past year so you can feast on them on holiday? Do you pick up books in charity shops so you can leave them behind and lighten the load in your suitcase when you return home? Maybe you rely on your hotel or youth hostel having a "library" (sometimes just a shelf) where you can borrow and/or deposit books.

My summer reading tends to contain all three of the above elements. This summer my serendipitous reading included a couple of books I picked up from just such a holidaymaker's library. One was Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater - an autobiographical sketch of his childhood. While I found the writing funny, poignant and disturbing, I enjoyed the way a number of his food memories resonated with me (i.e. the days when lemonade lorries visited weekly and the great Angel Delight vs Instant Whip debate).

What's in your wardrobe?

There have been several recent news items on on "cheap" supermarket clothes that exploit the workers who make them. The Radio 4 Thought for the Day today was from Rhidian Brook (who is always worth listening to) on "the consequences of the dis-connect between the things we consume and the people that make them". That was a sobering thought this week as some us us contemplate the Craghoppers and Rohan sales and the possibility of acquiring new walking clothes....

Earlier this year I was struck when I heard Colossians 3:9-14 (from The Message) reminding hearers that Christians have a new wardrobe! The passage goes on to say that love is the "basic, all-purpose garment" that is indispensible at all times (rather than the latest gadgety rain jacket). If that's the case, then maybe we need to check that "every item" in our lives (and wardrobes?) is indeed "custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it".

In praise of ... Snowdon

There's an op-ed piece in today's Guardian in praise of ... Snowdon, of interest to those of us who have toiled to the top. It was interesting to learn that the cafe at the top is having a much-needed makeover. The pic on the right was taken during the Infusion weekend away in Wales in summer 2004.

End of Term

Today is the last day of term for Leicester teachers (and pupils). While the rest of us try not to be too envious of the length of your summer break, we do recognise the importance of your vocation and the need for rest and recreation after what may have been a stressful year. I noticed that the ACT website has some prayers and meditations that were written with education in mind. These are worth checking out by all of us - I especially liked the meditation entitled The Best Teacher (Revised for the 21st Century).

21st September is Tea Time

Just received the summer Christian Aid newsletter, which alerted me to their latest fundraising challenge (which should be quite close to the heart of most Infusion members): Tea Time on Friday 21 September 2007. The idea is you can hold Tea Time anywhere: in your office, at church, at home. You simply ask your friends to give you a donation to Christian Aid in return for a cup of tea or delicious piece of cake. At 4pm on 21 September, people across the UK will be drinking tea together to help end poverty. Christian Aid provide a free event pack and there are other downloads, including recipe cards, available.

Also, the Christian Aid website has had a makeover - its well worth checking out.

Read any good books recently?

The BBC reports on research conducted by Manchester University that shows that, contrary to popular expectation, Brits spent more time reading in recent times than they did in the 1970s. that shows that people in the UK are reading more than they did a quarter of a century ago. These findings fly in the face of many people's assumptions about modern Britain as "a nation of dumbed-down MP3-toting philistines who prefer computer games to the mind-expanding delights of a good book".

Meanwhile, Christian Research comment on the WorldBookDay poll which found that The Bible is the nation’s sixth most indispensable book. Over 2,000 people voted, nominating 10,000 different titles between them. The overall winner was Pride and Prejudice getting 20% of the votes, followed by Lord of the Rings with 17%. You can read the full results here.

Watch out for a forthcoming blog series on summer reading.

Infusion walks The Roaches

An occasional feature of this blog will be a retrospective look at a walk we’ve done in the past. On 21st October 2006 six of us went on an 8 mile walk along the Roaches Ridge in the Peak District in October. This was area we’d previously visited in Summer 2003 when Nick and Nikki led a walk.

We started the walk at the Tittesworth Reservoir, a Severn Trent property including a Visitor Centre with toilets, a crafts and gifts shop, and a restaurant. Here's a map for Tittesworth Reservoir. With a total ascent of 415m, the route climbed gently to Roach End followed by a high level traverse of The Roaches Ridge, before describing an arc around Hen Cloud to reach Upper Hulme and returning to Tittesworth. Some thumbnail photos are available on the Infusion website.

Towards the end of the walk we came upon this seat, which was a good location for a group photo; the text on the seat reads:
Come and sit upon this seat
While you rest your smelly feet
While you’re looking at your map
Gusty wind will take your hat