Trog, dog of the blog! Jazzy from Edmonton, eat your heart out.

Just having a bit of fun. I’d not want any cat fanciers to have their whiskers bent out of shape due to lack of cat photographs. Which reminds me of a cute cat event I witnessed the other day. Sadly I’d not got my camera with me at the time.

A new postulant was being instructed by the Head Novice. They were sitting in the novices common room gazing intently at a piece of paper on the table. Sitting on the table was Smudge, the novices cat. He was gazing at the paper intently too! It turned out that this was instruction on how, when and where to salt and grit the paths around the monastery. More signs that winter is approaching, not that we have that much snow. Ice, yes. Smudge will be out there stalking wildlife in the snow and ice, given half a chance.

A member of Trog’s extended, human, family has recently died. This posting is offered in memory of the newly past on one, and for his family.

1978. Newport Collage of Art, South Wales. The Documentary Photography Course taught by Magnum photographer David Hern. I was honoured to be part of that ground breaking course for one year. David gave all the students a signed copy of one of his black and white photographs. I’ve just had mine put in a proper frame.

Even before I’d become involved in Buddhism the picture I chose spoke directly of the human condition, in a gentle and compassionate way. The line from one of our scriptures fits it so well. ‘Here born we clutch at things, and then compound delusion later on by following ideals’. The photo depicts a smartly dressed elderly gentleman reaching up to a balloon floating above him. On the back of my print is written, Happy times at the MG car owners’ ball. Edinburgh, Scotland. 1967.

You can see this photograph and many other truly beautiful black and white photographs by David Hern on the Magnam web site. I discovered the link to Magnam here last evening. Many thanks.

The Magnum site is probably better with a fast connection, however well worth the wait with a slow connection.

Here is part of a message I received from a sangha friend in Canada.

I had a dream about you this morning. I found myself in a big, beautiful, sun-drenched house. Someone was dying, so I found the bedroom they were in. The bed was surrounded by people singing the person off to the other side. I thought, I must make friends with people who sing well so this can be done for me. You were around, doing something official. Afterward, you hosted a lunch for everyone, with gift bags filled with flowers and incense and little pictures you had made. What a lovely way to face death, eh?

Glad to be of service, in your dreams at least!

The weather in Britain has been in the news and on all of our minds one way or another. Here is some bright spark who has a solution to the flooding. (Thanks Iain for passing on this item found on the BBC web site in a
comments section.)

I’m going to build an ‘ARK’ with twenty levels, and fill it with fish, well, Carp in particular. Its going to be a multi-storey ‘Carp ark’, that should keep us dry!

My journey to and from Harrogate and Leeds this week end went without event. Returned here Saturday evening to find the phone line was down. No known reason.

As a people we can be horribly jolly in adversity. That doesn’t hurt though.