A very British Infusion

A site in Cornwall now exports its own highly exclusive tea, reports the BBC. Apparently the local climate is very similar to the foothills of the Himalayas. They even sell the tea to India!

And Yorkshire is not far behind.... Taylors of Harrogate could soon be using Yorkshire-sourced tea, after founding a plantation in North Yorkshire. Perhaps that will cause trading standards difficulties with their flagship brand Yorkshire Tea, however, unless they can grow sufficient quantities of the real Yorkshire Tea to cover the 10 million cups that Taylors claim is consumed per day !

More Ingleton photos

Sigrun has posted three "albums" of photos from the Ingleton Weekend on Facebook (note - you don't need to sign up to see these):

• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

Infusion walks the Cotswolds

Infusion spent a weekend away in Stow-on-the-Wold in August 2006, staying at the local Youth Hostel. We enjoyed good food, fellowship and walking. On the Saturday we did a full-day walk, which was remarkably hilly towards the end and on the Sunday we headed to the Malvern Hills. This photo is of the British Camp from the Malvern Hills; there are additional photos on the website.

Long Distance Walkers’ Association

Helen recently mentioned the Long Distance Walkers’ Association in an email - so it seemed worth publicising their website. They organise lots of events around the country - both Challenge Events and Local Group Events. The website includes a database of over 1,000 long distance paths (with brief route summaries, lists of maps and publications, and cross references to linked routes) and lots of practical tips.

Credit Crunch theology

The blog post Credit Crunch theology: Does God want us to be poor? raises a good question. However, the writer of Proverbs offers a balanced and timeless perspective:

give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Bird-feeding ban!

This is hard to believe but council staff in Berwick-upon-Tweed issued a public health warning to a retired couple telling them to stop feeding birds in their garden. See: RSPB supports couple warned not to feed birds

Recycle a pet?

If you don't want to adopt a retired greyhound (especially Dixie), then maybe you would like to consider adopting an unwanted chicken? The lifespan of an egg-laying battery chicken is 72 weeks, but a rescued 'ex-bat' can live for up to 10 years.

Google Maps: walking directions

Google Maps are beta-testing an application for walking directions.

Eat kangaroo to 'save the planet'

Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It seems that the methane gas produced by sheep and cows is more potent than carbon dioxide in the damage it can cause to the environment.

Alternatively, one could go vegetarian.....

[picture courtesy of Free Nature Pictures]

Infusion walks Ingleton

It would have been nice to title this Infusion walks the Three Peaks but only three of our number managed that (although a further three managed two out of three Peaks). However the sixteen participants on the 2008 Infusion Walking Weekend all made it up Ingleborough.

Our stay at Ingleton Youth Hostel (lower pic) was made more interesting by the boiler breaking down on Tursday so there was no hot water on Friday night / Saturday morning. As the Hostel was full, four people stayed in a B & B (top pic) - although the proximity of a sign saying "Elderly people" may give the wrong impression!

Ingleton photo gallery

Father, son and holy toast

From today's Guardian comes the story Father, son and holy toast - a discussion of the JesusPan, kitchen gadgets, and religious images appearing on food. The sort of news story that could only appear on a Friday.

The obligatory Olympics post

The 2008 Olympic Games commence today after what seems to have been a very long build-up.

I caught this morning's TFTD on the Olympic Games are a metaphor for life itself with a reminder of Paul's use of this metaphor in 1 Corinthians 9. I also appreciated the mention of Olympic athlete Eric Liddell , who was immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire.

[Posted on 08/08/08]

Time Travel: Is Life Without Plastic Possible?

Following on from all those reports about what plastic is doing to sea life (cf David Shukman's reports from Midway island in the Pacific), and how it is absorbing toxins which are then introduced into the foodchain, BBC reporter Chris Jeavans has taken on the challenge to spend the month of August without plastic. (Where she fails, she is collecting the evidence and comparing it against her usual amount of plastic, to see how much it is possible to cut down.) Cutting down plastic when you live a wasteful lifestyle already is probably pretty easy, but cutting it out entirely sounds like no mean feat & I'll be interested to read how she gets on.

Walking with the fishes: swimhiking

Following lighthouse-bagging, here's another option for those who find merely walking up (and down) hills is not challenging enough: swimhiking. This combines swimming and hiking and the creator says it is the perfect way to get fit and explore the countryside. Read the Guardian article and perhaps the book: Swimhiking in the Lake District and North East England.

"With swimhiking you are freed from the constraints of hiking. On foot, rivers and lakes become a barrier, but if you swimhike you can go much further, or at least in more directions"

Word Spy

The Reader's Digest used to carry a regular feature on "How to improve your word power". Now you can do this online with Word Spy - a Web site devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases. These aren't "stunt words" but new terms that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources.

Lighthouse bagging

Some people like to "bag" Munros or Corbetts but a recent a Guardian article describes the somewhat different challenge of lighthouse bagging:

"You need a head for heights and sturdy sea legs to conquer these pinnacles of engineering achievement and testimony to our ceaseless struggles with the sea. The walkers who bag Scotland's 284 Munros have it easy compared with those who undertake the ultimate challenge: visiting all 209 working lighthouses that mark the most treacherous corners of Scotland's coast".

The term pharology is used for the study of signal lights and lighthouses, It comes from Pharos - the huge lighthouse of Alexandria that was built in the third century BC and was one of the tallest man-made structures on earth for centuries.

Making time to think

From the BBC website:

When Barack Obama met David Cameron, the pair got around to discussing thinking time - and the lack of it. It's not just potential leaders of nations who are short of opportunities to reflect on the bigger picture. How can any of us grab thinking time during the working day?

... few of us complain of having too much time, whether at work or at home. As a public service, the Magazine asks how to grab yourself some thinking time - from those who've had time to think about it.

[Image from FreeFoto.com]

Keep taking the Tablets...

Hundreds of pieces of Hollywood movie memorabilia are up for auction on 1 August. The autction will include the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments (click on item 8) from the 1959 film Ben-Hur. The film starred Charlton Heston and is famous for its chariot race. The tablets were made in consultation with experts in their field and only five pairs of the tablets are known to still exist.

If you prefer not to let Hollywood act as your commentary on the Ten Commandments you might be interested to read God's good life: the Ten Commandments for the 21st century (David Field), Mere Morality: What God Expects From Ordinary People (Lewis Smedes) or Smoke On The Mountain: an interpretation of the Ten Commandments (Joy Davidman).

Hitting the high notes on Snowdon

Forget concert halls and theatres: three cellists have scaled new heights to perform their music.

This is a wonderful news story about a trio of cellists who climbed Snowdon, carrying their heavy instruments on their backs and then played together at the top. It was the latest mountain in their challenge to play at the top of the highest peaks in the UK and Ireland. The self-styled "extreme cellists" have so far raised over £3,000 from their mountain music challenge, which will be donated to a spinal injury charity and mountain rescue organisations.

Sandcastle engineering

If you are heading to the coast this summer you may be interested in the science of building sandcastles - there are several links here, including one to amazing sand sculptures from around the world.

[Image from FreeFoto.com]

GOOSHING: the ethical shopping tool

I entered a recent Cafédirect competition and was delighted to win a copy of The Good Shopping Guide!

This tipped me off about GOOSHING - the free ethical shopping tool. Using GOOSHING makes it easy to buybrands from the most responsible companies at the cheapest price… and boycott those corporates that don’t care about animal welfare, human rights or the environment. The price search tool seeks out the lowest prices available - on 250,000 products from over 350 shops. GOOSH away.....

Star in a reasonably-priced TARDIS

A fun idea by staff at the BBC has resulted in a "hilarious mash up of Doctor Who and Top Gear": Star in a reasonably-priced TARDIS. This combines clips of the TARDIS in flight from the show with David Tennant's appearance in Top Gear's Star In A Reasonably Priced Car slot. It shows Jeremy Clarkson talking Tennant through a lap in the TARDIS and when the clip was shown to Clarkson and Top Gear's Executive Producer they loved it and agreed that it could be put online.

Walking gear: sales and reviews

The Infusion walking weekend is only six days away.... If you need new or replacement walking gear and clothes check out livefortheoutdoors.com website (home of Trail and Country Walking magazines) for reviews of particular products, and the Ramblers provide good generic advice on walking kit on their website. There are a lot of sales on at the moment - online as well as in the high street:

• Blacks
• Craghoppers (for the Earl Grey clothes)
  
• Lands End (or visit their outlet in Oakham - free tea & coffee for visitors)
• Millets
• Rohan
  

Blogging break over

The recent blogging break has been unintentional - it was in part due to a new job and the resultant tiredness when adjusting to a new routine, coupled with no longer having access to a really fast laptop. Then came our summer holiday and a hotel with a slow Internet connection.

All this time, though, possible blog topics and links have been bookmarked and a selection will get posted over the next few weeks. The Infusion blog is back....

Wilberforce on the Wasted Life

Check out this blog post, quoting from William Wilberforce's book, A Practical View of Christianity (1797), in which he addressed the defective nature of the Christianity many middle and upper class people in England professed. Wilberforce speaks of people filling up "the void of a listless and languid life" - and the blog author notes "that sounds as if it could have been written about today".

• What is an unwasted life? See the Don't Waste Your Life! website.
• I was reminded of the book Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment: Learning to Live with Passion and Wonder by Richard Winter
• The Infusion blog series on Wilberforce can be found here.

Knit One, Save One

The Leicester Diocese website alerted me to an appeal from Save the Children UK for knitted hats for babies. They aim is to produce 10 million hats in 2008, which will be sent throughout the world to where they are needed to keep new born babies warm. There is a tag to fill in with each hat which will go to Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street to highlight the appalling death rate among new born babies in many parts of the world. Any baby hat pattern will do or you can get the ‘knit kit’ pattern.

Links round-up

After an unintended blogging break, here are a few links I thought worth noting:

MPs launch Faith in the Future report: a report from a cross-party group of MPs (including local MP Andy Reed) which finds that, despite unprecedented levels of financial security and good health, Britons are no happier today than fifty years ago. Report based on a two-year process of consultation with church leaders and policy experts.

Christian Bookshops — who needs them?: a blog post on the vital role that Christian bookshops have a to play in Christian mission.

Mobile phones more important than wallets: a survey has found that more than one-third of workers would choose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop or digital music player if they had to leave the house for 24 hours and could take only one item.

Green myths?: article which says that media, individuals and business often focus on the wrong issues rather than putting their efforts towards combating the main contributors to our carbon footprint. Lists environmental activities that "do little more than salve our conscience, making us feel we are doing something good, thus diverting attention from the real problem areas". Ouch!

National Liftshare Day (June 9th)

National liftshare Day aims to raise the profile of carsharing and encourage and enable more people give it a try. Leicestershare.com (the Leicestershare Car Share scheme) has been set up to make it as easy as possible for you to find a match for your journey. It is free to use and has been designed for both drivers and passengers.

Prayers to ease exam stress

Infusion numbers several teachers amongst its ranks, and the Church of England has published a selection of prayers offering reassurance to students and teachers in coping with the current examination period. See also this post on prayers and meditations that were written with education in mind.

The disappearing Doctor Who knitting patterns

I blogged on Dr Who Tardis and Dalek knitting patterns last month and today the Guardian - "Hands off the Doctor Who knitting circle" - has alerted me to the fact that a blogger (Mazzmatazz), who created knitting patterns for Doctor Who-related objects and published them under Creative Commons licenses, has been instructed to remove them from her website by the BBC.

On a mystery-related note, this Saturday's episode features the Agatha Christie storyline - don't forget to check out the book titles in the dialogue!

Something Understood: the potentially subversive nature of walking

On a Sunday morning and/or night I often drift in and out of sleeping and catch parts of Something Understood through the radio headphone under my pillow. The theme for last Sunday's episode was One Foot in Front, in which Mark Tully considered "the potentially subversive nature of walking. While walking may have immense therapeutic benefits, it is also about protest and pilgrimage." You can see the readings and music selected for this episode here or listen again until Sunday.

Job satisfaction

Blogging has taken a bit of a backseat recently, with the heatwave and starting a new job. In connection with the latter, this blog post on job satisfaction was timely and thought-provoking.

Web-enabled walking

Ahead of the Leicestershire Walking Festival in two months time (Saturday 5th July), this is the first in a series on Internet resources for walkers. First up are some free resources from Leicestershire County Council:

• Parish Walks Series: This popular series of leaflets provide written directions and a map; all routes are circular and range in distance from 1 - 9 miles. Leaflets can be downloaded direct from the website or requested by email.
• Walking Through Time - Staunton Harold: download map and route directions for three walks
• Walks to Nature - Charnwood: download map and route directions for the Outwoods

[Above right: logo from Leicestershire County Council's Parish Walks series]

Make mine Fairtrade

A lovely cup of tea just got even better. Cafédirect are offering tea lovers 50p off any pack of 80 tea bags from the Teadirect range. Just pick up a pack of Teadirect, Teadirect Decaffeinated, or new Teadirect Gold before 30 June 2008, then hurry back home to put the kettle on. So, if you keep meaning to switch to Fairtrade tea, now is the time to do so!

Blogging Birthday!

The Infusion blog was launched a year ago on Friday 4 May 2008, and this is post number 258. These are the topics that crop up most frequently:

• faith (50)
• environment (26)
• food (25)
• Christmas Countdown (24)
• Internet (23)
• tea (21)
• church (19)
• walks (19)
• Fairtrade (17)
• Lent (17)
• books (17)
• coffee (14)

Search engine gives revenue to good causes

I've just come across a new online search engine with a social purpose, which gives 50 per cent of its advertising raised revenue to good causes. Each search using VeoSearch.com generates income from advertising, half of which is then donated to sustainable development projects, promoted on the website. Users of the search engine also have the opportunity to set up an account for free and nominate causes to benefit.

The search engine does not perform its own searches, but uses Google, Yahoo, Ask and Exalead. The search engine has already dealt with more than 17,900,000 searches and has over 33,000 members, generating more than £19,900 for good causes. Visit www.VeoSearch.com to start searching - the website also provides more information about how it works, the charities that benefit and how to set up a personal account.

deovox: an update

Damaris soft-launched deovox, a free audio devotional aimed at helping people get back into regular bible study, in February. Following feedback, the developers have come up a number of improvements. The intention is to provide a devotional guide for use by individuals, enabling them to benefit from each episode more than once. Damaris aim to release two episodes a week: these will provide a resource that can be used throughout the week and the devotional guides will help people to get the most out of each episode. Each episode contains a wealth of material that guides the listener deep into each passage.

The next episode has just been released, with a daily devotional guide. You can sign up for the Deovox Update email which will link the two recent episodes and provide daily devotions for the following week, or just check out the deovox website.

Of First Importance blog

Of First Importance is a daily devotional blog: each day it will provide a thoughtful quote to help you remember what's "of first importance": the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are options for email delivery (see right hand side of blog) and RSS feeds.

WebWatch: Manage your money

Christianity magazine has a regular WebWatch column, with themed reviews of Internet sites. This month the theme is Manage your Money:

"Over the last couple of months we’ve been analyzing how the Web can help Christians with their stewardship of all God has given. We’ve spoken about stewardship of your time and your thoughts, but we haven’t yet addressed the area most people instinctively think of when they hear the word “stewardship”... Your money.

So let’s talk about it now. How do we use our finances effectively in God’s service? How do we even get them under control? Can the Internet really help? Well, yes it can, in a mind-boggling variety of ways."

Dilemmas of a time traveller

This week's CultureWatch from Damaris includes an article on the moral dilemmas raised in a recent episode of Doctor Who: Dilemmas of a time traveller. The themes of choices, responsibility, suffering, morality, and ethics are considered in the light of the Doctor's decisions in episode two of the current series 'The Fires of Pompeii’. The article concludes with some recommended reading for a fuller treatment of the problem of suffering.

Walk to Work Day

Did you know that today was Walk to Work Day? The Walking Works campaign from Living Streets aims to encourage people to leave their car keys on the sideboard and walk all or some of their way to work. Read the musings of the BBC website on the topic.

If you only found out about the Walk to Work Day after the event, you can still take part in the Step into Spring Pedometer Challenge which kicks off that day and runs for four weeks. If you keep track of the number of steps you walk, how much calories you burn and how much carbon you save, then send in your results - you could win a digital camera! Click here to find out more.

Dr Who Tardis and Dalek knitting patterns

Instructions for knitting your own Dr Who Tardis and/or Dalek

(courtesy of a tip in the weekly newsletter from www.moneysavingexpert.com).

World Book & Copyright Day (April 23)

Since 1996, World Book and Copyright Day has been celebrated on 23 April to honour books, widely recognized as invaluable cornerstones of societies’ educational, cultural and social systems.

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

It was therefore a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

Blake's "Jerusalem" banned

If your nationality means that you celebrate / note St George's Day, then you may be saddened to hear that Blake's Jerusalem has been banned by a leading British church.

The Patron Saints website is a useful resource should you want to find out a bit more about St George, or indeed the other British patron saints.

Health warning: This blog post was written by a Scot, who is unimpressed by both St George and Jerusalem.

Internet Evangelism Day (April 27)

April 27 is Internet Evangelism Day - a resource for churches, Bible Colleges, groups and individuals because …
... over 1 billion people use the Web
... the Internet is changing the world
... God is using the Web to transform lives
... “We’d love to use the Web for outreach, but we don’t know how”

Their website carries a wide range of resources explaining how best to build church websites, write blogs, create video clips, and interact in many other ways with the worldwide web community, to share the gospel. Includes a free e-book on web evangelism.

Taxonomy of biscuits

Following on from the news that chocolate teacakes are a cake rather than a biscuit, here's a link to a taxonomy of biscuits from the NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown.com website. Biscuits explained expounds on the difference between biscuits, cakes, crackers, chocolate covered biscuits, and chocolate bars.

If you are still not sure how to spot biscuits, here are three clues:

• They come in packets
• They have two sides
• You could dunk them in tea

Dawkins - and the Doctor and the art critic

Just had to blog this news item that combines a defence against secularism in art (from a non-Christian), Richard Dawkins, and Doctor Who!

The writer defends Christian art - and the Bible as literature - against attack from leading humanists such as Dawkins. He says: "we should celebrate the Christian legacy in western art and society - and stop the Dawkins army from denying us the possibility of drawing inspiration from faith to create the art of the future".

The Doctor Who angle is the news that Professor Richard Dawkins is to appear in the current series as himself. The article pointed me to Outpost Gallifrey, described as "the most popular Doctor Who fan website on the Internet and homepage of online Doctor Who fandom".

Ultimate Bible Quiz

The Bible is a rich and wonderful compilation of 66 different writings, written in many different genres by several different authors. Nearly everyone has read or heard some part of the Bible, but do you know the Old Testament from the New? Do you know the Biblical characters and events? Take this quiz to see!

"I'll have those trousers in Earl Grey, please"

I received the new Craghoppers catalogue over the weekend and noted two features of interest: that one of this season's colour choices for clothing is Earl Grey, and that Craghoppers are now including a small range of Fairtrade clothing (trousers, shirt and fleece) - although this is only a option for menswear.

Competition: win a green Spring Clean

If you keep meaning to use "greener" products for household cleaning, then why not enter a competition to win all you need? Ecover are giving away 25 Ecover Household Starter Packs (containing new Bathroom Cleaner, Multi Surface Cleaner and SquirtEco, plus 2 bamboo cleaning cloths) and 10 runner-up prizes of Healthy Homes Booklet. The Ecover website also offers lots of tips on greener living.

New Infusion Programme online

The Infusion Summer 2008 programme is now available on the website.

Pudding Party

The Infusion Pudding Party took place in Loughborough last night when we sampled a variety of puds - from the calorie-laden to the healthy & fruity.

Here's my recipe for Cranachan:

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons (medium) oatmeal, ½ pint whipping cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 8oz raspberries (fresh, frozen or canned).

Method: Toast oatmeal, then cool. Whisk cream and sugar until thick, then fold in oatmeal and raspberries. Chill for at least two hours before serving.

What was going on outside Emmanuel Church?

Read the Emmanuel Church overview of The Big Picture - a world record breaking community picture built on the grass outside Emmanuel Church in March 2008. Part of Hope 08, it comprised almost 500 panels, each painted by a community group, school or individual. In total around 2,000 people took part in painting the boards, which together made up an 80 metre long and almost 8 metre high picture of the Easter story!

Coffee and Teacakes

A couple of stories that caught my eye this week - expensive coffee and cheaper chocolate teacakes:

• Animal dung coffee at £50 a cup: Fancy a cup of an exclusive coffee? What if it is a gourmet coffee blended from animal droppings and currently being sold at a London department store for £50 per cup. Two rare coffee beans (Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kopi Luwak bean) are used to create Caffe Raro which is thought to be the most expensive cup of coffee in the world. What makes it unique is that the Kopi Luwak beans - which sell for £324 a kilogram - are eaten, then passed, by the Asian palm civet (a cat-like mammal).

• Teacake set to cost taxman £3.5m: Chocolate teacakes have been wrongly classified as a biscuit for two decades and the European Court of Justice has ruled that the UK Treasury must pay out £3.5m as a result. Customers paid VAT on Marks and Spencer teacakes for 20 years before the authorities accepted the product was a cake, which does not command VAT.

What's in your fridge?

As a result of spending six months in Australia I keep some food items in my fridge (including jam and some fruits) that I never did before - although the need to keep food items cool is less of an issue when you grow up in Scotland! Today the Guardian has an article on What should go in your fridge? discussing the fact that - with the trend towards larger and larger fridges - many of us store an increasing range of foods. The writer talked to a wide range of culinary and food hygiene experts to find out what we should and shouldn't keep in our fridges. It makes for interesting reading!

What's the meaning of green?

In the 1970s Kermit the Frog sang about the hardship of being green (video of its not easy being green) but now the term "green" is now used universally. An article on the BBC website ponders What is the meaning of 'green'? noting that retailers, politicians, High Street firms (especially supermarkets) have jumped on the bandwagon, and an entire industry of smaller green firms has been developed.

RSS feeds from Emmanuel and St. Mary's

The Emmanuel and St. Mary's website has recently launched RSS feeds to keep you updated with changes to the site. If you're new to the world of RSS then it's an easy and free way of getting only the latest news from a website delivered to you (there's more from Wikipedia HERE or from the BBC help pages HERE).

If you do use an RSS reader, Google Sidebar or similar, this is a new and easy way of getting the very latest news from Emmanuel or St. Mary's quickly and easily. Click on the links below to be taken to the special feeds:

• Emmanuel
• St. Mary's
  

Sowing, reaping, keeping

Laurence Singlehurst is Director of Cell UK and former Director of Youth With A Mission, England. Laurence visited Holy Trinity, Leicester last Sunday and preached on 1 John 2:12-17 in the morning and evening; you can listen to his morning and evening sermons online.

In 2006 IVP published Laurence's book Sowing, reaping, keeping: People sensitive evangelism. This book is a book to "help you tell others about Jesus". It takes principles from the parable of the sower and explores what it means to "sow the seed of faith, to reap the harvest when the seed of faith has taken root and to nurture the faith as it grows'.

By offering biblical and straightforward steps, the author provides a helpful framework on deepening encounters and relationships with people, and then guides us through ways in which we (as individuals, groups or churches) can go about each of these stages, seeking God's help at every turn.

Doctor Who does books

In the Year of Reading, its good to see that the new series of Doctor Who (which kicks off on Saturday) features two episodes set in a library and one which features Agatha Christie's ten-day disappearance and provides viewers with the opportunity to "spot how many titles of Christie novels are hidden in the dialogue".

A two-part story Silence in the Library and River's Run apparently promises "an abandoned library, moving shadows, the gruesome Nodes, and the horrifying Data Ghost" - the Radio Times reviewer says the latter is "possibly the most spine-chilling scene I've ever seen, anywhere".

10 stories that could be April Fools... but aren't

From the BBC: 10 stories that could be April Fools... but aren't

However, the Guardian caught me out with this: Deconstructed Delia

Diary of Lent Pilgrimage

In Leicester's Lent Pilgrimage we noted that the Bishop of Leicester was planning on walking through all the deaneries and many of the parishes of the Diocese of Leicester on a Lent Pilgrimage. Called Crossing the Diocese, this involved walking 215 miles and visiting 114 churches. An online diary of the pilgrimage is now available.

The “Bambi Factor”

Disney films have rarely been seen as contributing much more to environmental awareness than the creation of a clutch of cuddly talking animals to the cause. However, a new book by a researcher at Cambridge University is suggesting that, far from just cute, Disney icons like Bambi, Nemo and Baloo are the all-singing, unsung heroes of the green lobby.

According to academic David Whitley, Disney’s screen fables have been helping successive generations of children to develop “a critical awareness of contested environmental issues” ever since Snow White in 1937. Far from simply offering sheer escapism, he says the films carry important messages about our relationship with the natural world. Conservation is so central to Bambi, for example, that the film is credited with having inspired many 1960s environmental activists at an early age. Read the full story.

Househunting

There are some brilliant resources online for househunting:

A Rightmove account or similar allows you to set up regular updates to help find a property. Some estate agents update on Rightmove before their own site at times, but it's best to check both. To find out which estate agents are active in a given area, and collate their web addresses for your 'favourites', Estate Angels is a good place to start, unless you've got a local paper - not everything is quicker online!

Once you've found a house you like, its council tax band can be checked - the site is also useful for finding out the post code, which is key to getting house price information.

Find out what the house or others in the street sold for recently with Your Move, or examine local house price trends using the first half of the post code - use the property finder in The Times Online and then look up the market summary report for a property in the list that results. BBC news also has useful more general regional information.

To see what a neighbourhood looks like, or to find the way to the shops, Flashearth has the aerial photos from several sites - pick the one with the best definition, and superimpose the streets if you get 'lost'! A new function that has appeared on some map sites is a 'bird's eye view' where you can get closer still, at an angle, as if you are swooping down over the buildings. You can then look around you by rotating the image. It doesn't seem like Loughborough has been done yet, but here's an example from elsewhere.

The only problem with all this information being online, is that you probably consider more places in more detail - leaving less time to go and view the actual places...

Purpose Driven

I just finished reading The Purpose Driven Church. The Author, Rick Warren is pastor of the enormous Saddleback Church - you may have heard of him as author of the more famous Purpose Driven Life, which has been something of a movement in the States.

The claim is that the model presented in the Purpose Driven Church offers church leaders a "unique, biblically-based approach to help them establish, transform, or maintain a balanced, growing congregation." The approach centres around the core activities of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and missions, and much of the book is geared towards communicating more effectively with those within and outside of the congregation, according to their level of commitment, to encourage growth. Although the language of the book tends towards management-speak at times, and is in some ways something of a church marketing manual, it is easy to read and thought-provoking. Don't let the size of the book put you off - it is large, but the font-size is also generous, so it's quicker to read than it appears!

Occasionally there are comments which perhaps would not apply outside the USA, but the model could be applied anywhere in the West, and probably beyond. It's also worth noting that as the model is largely a communication planning framework, courses such as Alpha fit well within it. Being involved in a church-plant, I found myself continually asking 'how do we put that into practice in our setting?' I particularly appreciated the chapter on music in church, which recognises how much the worship style drives who will attend a particular service, and advises how to work with that to the best effect.

I'd recommend Purpose Driven Church to anyone into strategic thinking and planning, church planting and growth (both in numbers and spiritually). Further Purpose Driven resources relating to the Church are also available at purposedriven.com

20s & 30s event and website

Jacky has publicised the Care for the Family event: Better than Alright? An evening for everyone in their 20s and 30s. This will be held on 7th May in Nottingham at Notts County FC (a very accessible venue with ample parking). Tickets need to be booked in advance.

Care for the Family have also launched a new website for those in their 20s and 30s: www.lookingatlife.org.uk

Infusion walking weekend 2008

An Infusion walking weekend is planned for early August. We will be based at Ingleton Youth Hostel. The plan is to walk Ingleborough Hill and Whernside (10 miles approx) on the Saturday and then have a more leisurely stroll on the Sunday. Naturally there will be a tea shop stop at some point! Contact Simon & Tricia to book your place by Sunday 6th April at the latest.

The Bigger Picture

If you've driven through Loughborough recently you can't fail to have noticed the huge structure that appeared on the grounds of Emmanuel Church in Holy Week: The Bigger Picture. It is a Hope 2008 initiative where the churches in Loughborough worked together to create a world record breaking community picture and reach out to the town on Easter Monday.

Several thousand people were involved in colouring in around 500 panels with emulsion paint, including schools and community groups. Throughout the week the panels were slowly joined together like a jigsaw with the last piece completing the picture on Easter Monday. The project broke the world record for the largest ever painting by numbers picture!

Wildlife round-up

The Big Garden Birdwatch results are now in. Overall, the average number of birds seen in each garden has declined by a fifth since 2004, and house sparrows have decreased by almost two thirds since 1979, and starlings by three quarters over the same period. Despite this, however, four species of finch, which spend the winter in the UK, were seen in increased numbers. Click here to find out who is perched at the top of the Big Garden Birdwatch table in 2008.

Cameras held by elephants' trunks have been used to provide an intimate view of tigers in the jungle, to be seen in a new BBC documentary (30 March at 8p on BBC1). Because the big cats are used to the presence of elephants, the tusked giants were able to get far closer to them than a human film crew ever could. Thanks to the "trunk-cams", the team was able to follow four newborn tiger cubs all the way through to adulthood. See video of the trunk-cam here.

Hot cross muffin buns

Inspired by seeing the recipe in the Radio Times, I made hot cross muffin buns yesterday. I saved some time by using the bread-maker but they were still a bit fiddly - definitely a recipe for Bank Holidays and days when you have more leisure time. I'll probably make them again next year but will make twelve smaller buns rather than nine rather large ones, and increase the quantity of mixed spice. However my substitution of dried cranberries for cherries worked well.

Cathedral emptied by Easter fire

Norwich's Anglican cathedral had to be evacuated midway through an Easter service as candles set off fire alarms. The congregation of 400 lit candles at the Saturday evening service to symbolise Jesus's resurrection but fire alarms started as the flames from the candles increased. The cathedral was not damaged and the service was able to continue. Full story here.

Easter Sunday: Hallelujah!

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
Let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;
For her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

Thine be the glory, risen conqu’ring Son,
Endless is the vict’ry, Thou o’er death hast won

Christ in the Centre 2008

Meditation for Good Friday

Scripture Union have released a meditation for Good Friday on YouTube.

God’s riches at Christ’s expense

I've had a couple of lengthy car journeys earlier this week, listening to the album The Best of Stuart Townend Live as I drove. I kept hitting replay on this track: Lord I'm grateful (Grace). The full lyrics are here and, while it is a fairly boisterous song to have running through your head in Holy Week, the words offer a concise summary of the Good News of Easter:

Freely given, but bought with priceless blood,
My life was ransomed at Calvary.
There my Jesus gave everything He could
That I might live for eternity.

‘Cause it’s grace!
There’s nothing I can do
To make You love me more,
To make You love me less than You do.
And by faith
I’m standing on this Stone
Of Christ and Christ alone,
Your righteousness is all that I need,
‘Cause it’s grace!

Survey on techno-addiction

Two academics from the University of Northampton's Business School are studying the extent of "techno-addiction" in the UK. The research is being led by Nada Kakabadse, a professor in management and business research. The new work builds on her previous research on addiction to the BlackBerry hand-held wireless device. The School is seeking participants for a survey that asks questions such as "Do you feel uninhibited in a virtual world?" and "Do you feel free to explore new worlds and be a free spirit?" To participate in the survey, click here.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

On Easter Sunday BBC are showing The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's book (you can check out the trailer here). If you've read the book or heard the radio adaptations then you'll know that the main character, Precious Ramotswe, drinks lots of tea - her preferred tea is bush tea or rooibos.

To celebrate the film being shown, The Redbush Tea Company are running a competition to win an African Adventure (purchase required). However, there's also a competition on the website to win a Redbush teapot and a box of 80 Redbush teabags sending the company your questions, recipes or feedback. Check out the rooibos recipes for inspiration.

Cafédirect coffee rated higher than non-Fairtrade

Cafédirect has outshone the competition in an independent coffee taste test conducted by Which? magazine (March 2008). Cafédirect's Medium Roast fresh ground coffee was rated higher than the non-Fairtrade coffee, for both taste and value for money. More info in the press release.

Christian Book Awards

The UK Christian Book Awards search for nominations has now begun for its 2008 high-profile event which promotes the best in Christian publishing in the UK. Now in its seventh year, the 2008 Awards will be held on 14th May at the National Christian Resources Exhibition in Esher, Surrey.

Voting is open to the public, with the opportunity to vote for your favourite Christian Books from the selected shortlist. You might win one of 5 book sets worth £100 for a library of your choice by voting for your favourite Christian book. There is a free complimentary ticket for Christian Resources Exhibition with every online vote. Voting closes on 31st March 2008.

Quizaid

Christian Aid Week 2008 will run from 11 - 17 May. As always, the website provides a range of downloadable resources. A new fundraising idea this year is Quizaid. The blurb says "Quizaid is the best quiz night in town – and it’s organised by you. Challenge your friends, colleagues and neighbours to dust off their brain cells and join in the fun. You can put on a quiz anywhere you like – in your home, at your local church hall, over at your mate’s or in your local pub. Wherever you hold it, you'll be helping to raise money for the world’s poorest people this Christian Aid Week"

Google Sky

Google have just launched Google Sky - they have teamed up with astronomers to create a tool to browse and explore the universe. You can find the positions of the planets and constellations on the sky and even watching the birth of distant galaxies as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope - more info on the application is here. They also recommend checking out the podcasts from Earth and Sky.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Lenten Lights

As Holy Week approaches, here's a final Lent resource: Lenten Lights: eight Biblical devotions to prepare for Easter. This is a collection of readings from Noel Piper that can to be used weekly during Lent OR daily during Holy Week. Each reading begins with a few sentences that summarise the thought for the day. All the rest is Scripture - letting God speak to us directly from His Word. The devotions finish on Good Friday with the comment:

"This worst day in history is also good because of the reconciliation that comes through the cross".

Special chocolate for Lent

Have you given up chocolate for Lent? One church has linked up with a chocolate company to encourage its parishioners to buy chocolate during Lent! The St Paul's Knightsbridge Lent Appeal brings together local businesses, including Rococo's recently opened Belgravia shop, to offer The Absolution Bar. For the 40 days of Lent you can buy the Absolution Bar (500g of 65% dark chocolate) for £15 with 50% going straight to the local Lent Appeal. The partnership between the local church and local businesses enables one of the world's wealthiest corners to raise money for some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people.

Balance your budget

The Church of England launched a tool to help balance your household budget in time for yesterday's Budget. The Matter of Life and Debt website pages now feature an easy-to-use, interactive, downloadable Excel spreadsheet - which totals up income and spending, and allows householders to make adjustments until they are balancing their budget. The resources include prayers for guidance, emphasising that the Bible teaches us to be content with what we have, rather than find satisfaction from over-spending.

One prayer requests:

Lord God, your will is to bring hope and a future to all your people. Trusting in your steadfast love, we ask your guidance as we work out a household budget. Help us to learn to let no debt remain outstanding, except the debt to love one another, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Three more years for current Gift Aid level

Today's Budget contains good news for churches and charities: the current level of Gift Aid will be maintained for another three years. The Chancellor promised, charities will still be able to reclaim 28 pence for every pound donated until 2011, rather than the level dropping to 25 pence in line with the falling income tax rate, announced in last year’s Budget. He estimated this would reduce the losses that charities would incur by £300m.

More health benefits of tea

We talk about tea a lot in this blog (maybe the logo is a giveaway?) so hearing of new research that finds health benefits for drinking tea is always a good thing. The latest findings from Singapore are that black tea may cut risk of Parkinson’s Disease.

Holy Week TV: The Passion

During Holy Week 2008 BBC1 will broadcast The Passion, a dramatic re-telling of the last days of Jesus. The series will be shown in peak time and will be seen by many millions of people. It will start on Palm Sunday 16th March on BBC 1 at prime time until Easter Sunday. The programme website offers a range of resources.

The Churches' Media Council website provides notes intended to help churches and others to prepare for the series - offering principles they would like to commend to the Christian community in approaching the series.

More locally, Christ in the Centre, Leicester offers a unique opportunity on Good Friday 2008 to witness a dramatic reconstruction of the events which changed the world at the start of the first millennium.

Feed the hungry by surfing the web?

It hardly seems a fair exchange, does it? We can surf the Web, sitting warm and well-fed in the West, and as a result people will get fed in the developing world.

Well, apparently 21 billion grains of rice have been generated by a popular UN backed Internet game. Launched six months ago, freerice.com is an interactive vocabulary game in which players donate 20 grains of rice to the UN's World Food Programme every time they answer a question correctly, allowing individuals to simultaneous bolster their vocabularies and help feed the world’s hungry. The money raised from advertising is used to underwrite FreeRice’s donation to WFP, and so far, enough rice has been generated to feed 1.1 million hungry people for one day.

There is also the longer-established Hunger Site, where you click daily and sponsors donate food. Needless to say, both these sites have Facebook applications. But how do you feel about them? Is it a bit of fun that simultaneously makes you feel philanthropic? Or does it trivialise the desperate situation of those who live on the margins of life?

Fairtrade Fortnight 2008

Fairtrade Fortnight 2008 ended yesterday. I didn't manage to complete the Fairtrade Fortnight Challenge in the sense of only consuming Fairtrade food and drink, but I did try some new Fairtrade products. The Co-Op's marketing strategy of 20% off Fairtrade products during the Fortnight got me hooked on Co-Op truly irresistible Fairtrade dark chocolate with spices and orange oil. Here are some other Fairtrade links:

• Infusion Blog posts on Fairtrade
• Shopping locally: Just Trade (Loughborough) and Just (Leicester)
• Fairtrade Fortnight blog
• The Scottish government has joined forces with Wales to draw up a detailed set of criteria to enable them to become Fair Trade nations

Walking Fair in Loughborough

On Saturday March 15 (10am - 4:30pm) Charnwood Museum is playing host to a Walking Fair as part of ROAM: a Weekend of Walking organised by the Loughborough University Arts Centre. This features a series of innovative and creative walks led by artists. The Fair will offer information and advice from a range of regional walking based groups and organisations.

The programme of walks on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday invites you to come walking with the artists and experience a different side of Loughborough. Whether you walk for health, to discover something new or to escape from the everyday, the University is encouraging people to join up with a Roam artist to encourage and inspire you to undertake your own urban or rural explorations.

Alternatives to the plastic bag

There have been quite a few media discussions recently about stores discouraging plastic bag use - a great step forward for the environmental lobby! The BBC recently asked people what alternatives they use to cart a week's groceries home. Infusion walkers probably use rucksacks!

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Ever wondered what type of punctuation mark you are? Click here to find out! [You might think that I am an exclamation mark as I use them so frequently but actually I'm a semi-colon]

Rising world food prices

There has been a lot of reporting in the media recently on why the era of cheap food may be coming to an end. The price of wheat has doubled in the past year - and it is not the only foodstuff trading at a high price on the international commodity market. While in the UK, pig farmers are protesting at Downing Street over the price of feed, the global situation is that things have got so bad that aid agencies are having to rethink their programmes.

This made me think about trying to locate my 1980s copy of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald J. Sider or (if I can't find it) to buy a new edition (now called Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity). The book was hailed by Christianity Today as one of the one hundred most influential books in religion in the twentieth century and went on to sell 350,000 copies. The basic message - to quote an apt phrase - is to "live more simply so that others may simply live".

Richard Branson more popular role model than Jesus

A new poll from Opinium Research has named Richard Branson as a more popular role model for children than Jesus. Although Branson also beat the likes of Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King, survey respondents considered family members to be the most ideal role model for children.

Reviews of ethical / Fairtrade products

Further to my post on ethically-sourced clothing, I see that New Consumer has revamped its website and has an enhanced Reviews section. Categories include home & garden, fashion & beauty, food & drink, technology and travel. There's also the New Consumer Directory - a "definitive directory of green, organic and Fairtrade businesses in the UK".

Fragile Earth

This week the Guardian showcases a photo gallery from the book Fragile Earth. The book contains powerful 'before and after' photographic evidence and computer models showing the speed at which both natural phenomena and humanity are making an impact on the planet.

Free Lent readings from IVP

This year, IVP are making forty extracts from their books available online to help make the most of Lent. You can log on to ivpbooks.com/Lent to get a daily dose of encouragement. IVP say:

Lent is traditionally a time when Christians are encouraged to prepare themselves, through prayer and reflection, to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter. Getting a renewed and deepened awareness of humanity's status before God helps believers to appreciate more fully the amazing work of salvation that Jesus accomplished on the cross.

However you plan to keep Lent this year, IVP would like to offer you the opportunity to be encouraged each day with a brief passage from one of our books. There are no strings and no cost, although if you do find any passage particularly helpful, you'll be able to order the book it comes from in just a few clicks. It is our hope that you will be challenged and inspired by these readings. And please feel free to pass on the news to anyone you think would benefit from a little daily encouragement.

UK retailers trading fairer

UK estimated retail sales of Fairtrade products reach half a billion pounds as the Fairtrade Foundation calls on business and the public to step up pace of change. Ethical retailers received a boost with the announcement that sales of Fairtrade products have gone up by 81% in the last 12 months. Released to coincide with the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, the figures also revealed that sales have increased to nearly half a billion pounds in 2007 (up from from £273m in 2006).

• Fairtrade bananas are the best selling Fairtrade product with sales topping £150m, an increase of 130%. 1 in 4 bananas sold are now Fairtrade and we eat 3m Fairtrade bananas a day
• Fairtrade coffee sales rose 24% to over £117m
• Items made with Fairtrade certified cotton increased from over half a million to just under 9.5m units
• Fairtrade tea rose 24% to just over £30m. And recent commercial developments mean Fairtrade tea should account for a tenth of tea sold in the UK by the end of 2008

Harriet Lamb, the foundation’s executive director, said that with three in five adults in the UK now able to recognise the Fairtrade mark, knowing how goods are sourced is becoming an essential part of many people’s shopping habits: “The public have a huge and growing appetite for Fairtrade, and increasing numbers of people are buying Fairtrade goods as a practical action to help tackle poverty in the developing world. That’s good news for the seven million people around the world who benefit from the Fairtrade system, as well as those who have been campaigning since the early 1990s to make trade fairer".