Due to the KDP rules on Amazon, I am not allowed to upload a whole book anywhere other than on the KDP site. I can therefore share chapters with you, but must remove them when read.
If you would like to read the whole story, or perhaps buy a copy for a friend, it is available from an Amazon near you. The link is below:
Counting Stars by Anne E. Thompson is available from an Amazon near you. UK Link Here!
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She doesn’t look, think, or fight like James Bond, but sometimes a mother simply has to do whatever it takes. . .
Due to the KDP rules on Amazon, I am not allowed to upload a whole book anywhere other than on the KDP site. I can therefore share chapters with you, but must remove them when read.
If you would like to read the whole story, or perhaps buy a copy for a friend, it is available from an Amazon near you. The link is below:
Counting Stars by Anne E. Thompson is available from an Amazon near you:
Thanks for reading.
Why not sign up to follow my blog?
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I was recently asked to preach on this Psalm. It’s one of my favourites, and I thought I would share my notes with you. I hope you find them interesting. Usually when reading the Bible, it would be a mistake to focus too much on individual words unless you’re reading it in the original Hebrew. However, this Psalm is so well known, and the truths are repeated in the rest of scripture, so I think we are safe to dissect the passage and still understand what the author was trying to say:
Psalm 23: 1-6
God’s Shepherding
This Psalm was written by David, who had been a shepherd. The themes would be very relevant for him, because our relationships with God are a personal thing (isn’t that amazing!) One thing I love about this Psalm, is that the author started to write in in the third person, referring to God as ‘The LORD’ and ‘He’. About half way through, this changes, and he starts to talk to God, using ‘You.’ This happens to us, doesn’t it? We start to read the Bible, or think about God, or what he might want, and gradually, hardly noticing, we start to actually talk to him directly.
Verse 1
When I was little I was very confused by this Psalm, as it begins: ‘The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.‘ I understood that God was the shepherd, but not why I wouldn’t want him! Later of course I realised it meant ‘I shall not want for anything else.’
The LORD is my shepherd: LORD denotes Yaweh, “I am” the eternal God (written in capitals). We can never know God so he kindly gives us analogies we can relate to.
No uncertainty—the LORD is my shepherd (not ‘I hope so’)
Personal, God cares about individuals—the LORD is my shepherd.
Cows know owner (I learnt a lot about cows before writing my farm books). They know owner because listen to his voice. We are like sheep to their shepherd.
Present tense—whatever has gone before doesn’t change what is now. We all have things we regret, but God is interested in the ‘now’ of our lives. WE tend to worry about our past, and be anxious about our future. But the Bible tells us that God will cancel out our past because of Jesus’ sacrifice, and none of us can know what the future holds. It is the ‘now’ that matters. Are you being kind today, being humble, being fair?
Because the LORD is my shepherd, I therefore will not need anything else. I don’t think this can mean physical things, because some Christians are starving, or living in war zones. I think it means that if we have the spiritual side of our lives sorted out, then we can trust that everything else is part of God’s will—if we suffer, or go through pain, then it won’t be for nothing, it will be part of the bigger picture, part of God’s eternal plan. God is enough. Sometimes we need to remember that, to focus on God more, to try and see today in the light of eternity.
My animals expect me to feed them. Do we expect to receive from God? Do we come to church expecting to hear God’s voice?
Verse 2
Spurgeon said the ‘green pastures’ represent Scripture. They are where we rest, they show God’s abundant love for his people—always fresh, abundant, never exhausted. We can read the Bible over and over, and so many times we find something new, it speaks to us in a new way, we understand a little more of God.
He maketh me lie down—God doesn’t want us to be always struggling, striving away at life. He wants us to come to him, give up our worries, rest in his promises. It will be alright, because God is our shepherd.
Still waters are like the Holy Spirit, who sometimes works quietly: a dove, not an eagle. Sometimes/often we don’t notice what God is doing, we don’t see his Spirit working in us or in others. But those waters are there, still waters run deep, afterwards we sometimes look back, and realise that God was at work, things did work out right.
God leads us. We aren’t driven along, we are given someone to follow. (Chickens cannot be ‘driven’ but they will follow if I have food!) Jesus leads us by his example, we can see how to live by looking at how he lived. We see God in other people, and that is an example for us to follow too. It’s much easier to copy than to decide for ourselves (like the chickens wandering all over the garden) so we need to choose carefully who we will copy. WE have to allow ourselves to be led.
Sometimes we want to know the whole route, all at once. But usually God leads us step by step. I need to be asking each day, ‘What does God want of me today?’ Sometimes Christians get in a muddle about this, they agonise over ‘being led’. A little like the joke of the man who needed saving and prayed to God, then ignored the police/firemen/lifeboat that came to rescue him! We ask God to lead us, but he has given us a brain, surrounded us with wise people—following God does not have to be via a thunderbolt!
Verse 3
God ‘restores’ our soul because it needs restoring! We get it wrong, we do/think/believe the wrong thing, over and over. God restores us, again and again. ‘Restores’ is an active verb, God keeps on restoring us.
He restores my soul. Not me, not yoga, not a holiday! God does it, because he is our shepherd—he wants to take care of us. We need to remember to pray, to ask him to restore us, to let him guide us, to accept his forgiveness.
He leads me in paths of righteousness (or ‘right paths’). We should be obedient, follow what we know is right. WE don’t pick and choose which commandments we will follow, we obey all of them. We belong to God, we need to behave accordingly. We MUST be kind, be humble, be just.
Verse 4
We don’t run, or slip or struggle our way through the valley of death, we walk. It is a calm thing. We don’t walk alone, God is with me. We don’t wander aimlessly though the valley of death, we walk through it, death is simply on the way to where we are going.
Corrie Ten Boom told a lovely story about when she was young, and was frightened of dying. Her father reminded her, that when they caught the train, he would give the young Corrie her ticket right at the end of the journey, just before she needed it—the rest of the journey he kept it safe for her. He said that God is the same with death, he doesn’t make us ready until we need to be ready. . . If we’re scared, we’re probably not going to die today! God gives us what we need when we need it. This Psalm reminds us that when the time comes, God will be there.
When I had brain surgery, my walk to the operating room was terrifying, but I felt ‘wrapped in warm cotton-wool’—God was with me in a whole new way, because that’s what I needed at that time.
It is only the shadow of death we walk through, God removed the actual permanent death when Jesus rose. The valley is often a peaceful place—when my Dad died, it was a peaceful, Godly thing, a becoming more soul and less physical.
I will fear no evil, not because evil doesn’t exist, but because God is stronger, and he is there, protecting me. Most of our fears are in our head: the interview, the being alone, the being ill, the missing the bus—these things are rarely as bad in real life as we fear they will be! When we walk with God, we don’t need to fear evil, he has it sorted, we can trust him. God is with me. All the time.
The rod and staff which are used to keep the flock in order: for discipline, they are the things that comfort when things are tough. Knowing that God is in charge, is mightier than anything we will ever face, is to have true comfort when we need it.
Verse 5
‘You prepare a table for me’: one translation has ‘furnish and decorate’ a table—God doesn’t skimp when he does something for us. He treats us as special. We prepare a special table for Christmas, or a party—it shows that something is special. The Psalmist is saying that God treats us as something precious, something worth celebrating.
‘You prepare a table’ implies something normal, not rushed—a meal is eaten slowly, in a calm way. God is preparing something we can enjoy, we don’t need to feel tense about it.
‘In the presence of my enemies’ for David, his enemies were very real—they wanted to kill him! This verse was literal for him. I don’t really have physical enemies, but I do have fears, anxieties, temptations, and they are very real to me. I think this verse shows that even though those things exist, God still treats me as something precious, and the way God treats me is what I should be focussing on, not the negative things.
‘You anoint my head with oil’ signifies that we are made special. A king was anointed with oil, a priest was anointed with oil, it signified something special, a change. We need to allow God to anoint us, to change us, to make us something special.
‘My cup overflows’ shows that God gives us more than we can even hold! God gives generously. Look at how many acorns an oak produces, how many eggs a chicken lays, how many pips are in an apple: way more than are needed! God gives to us extravagantly.
Verse 6
“Surely goodness” when I was a child I thought ‘surely goodness’ was a special type of goodness! But it means that ‘because of all this, then for sure goodness and mercy will follow me. Certainly these things will be in my life.
We can almost imagine them as two angels, watching our back, all the time. All the days of my life—so, the bad days as well as the good days, those two angels will be there.
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. We live there, not a visit, but living as children who have every right to be there. Forever.
I hope you feel encouraged today, whatever your day might hold.
Thanks for reading. Take care.
Love, Anne x
Thank you for reading
anneethompson.com
Why not sign up to follow my blog?
Due to the KDP rules on Amazon, I am not allowed to upload a whole book anywhere other than on the KDP site. I can therefore share chapters with you, but must remove them when read.
If you would like to read the whole story, or perhaps buy a copy for a friend, it is available from an Amazon near you. The link is below.
Thanks for reading.
Why not sign up to follow my blog?
anneethompson.com
*****
She doesn’t look, think, or fight like James Bond, but sometimes a mother simply has to do whatever it takes. . .
Due to the KDP rules on Amazon, I am not allowed to upload a whole book anywhere other than on the KDP site. I can therefore share chapters with you, but must remove them when read.
If you would like to read the whole story, or perhaps buy a copy for a friend, it is available from an Amazon near you. The link is below:
To be continued. . .
Thank you for reading
anneethompson.com
Why not sign up to follow my blog?
*******
Gin isn’t a thing. Fact.
For my birthday, one of my gifts was a voucher to visit a gin distillery and learn about gin. (I am choosing my words carefully here, I’ll tell you why in a minute.) I am rather fond of gin, though I have to confess that despite the rows of exciting gins offered by pubs and restaurants and bars, I actually prefer the cheaper brands—my gin of choice is probably Gordon’s or Beefeater. But I’m sure the ‘bespoke’ gins are very nice too.
We set off, Husband and I, clutching my vouchers and trying to find the distillery using Satnav. The Distillery—Greensands Ridge Distillery—had sent a map, saying that it wasn’t very easy to find. It wasn’t, but we managed. It was harder to find the correct entrance, as it was unmarked and a tiny door cut into a huge coach house door. But we managed that too.
The Greensands Ridge Distillery is a small industry, set up in an old stables and coach house. We were welcomed into a large room surrounded by barrels and fancy-looking copper equipment, and offered tea and coffee. It was very good coffee, though it felt wrong to be drinking coffee when surrounded by stills and urns and delicious smells. The owner, Will, then gave us a short talk about gin, and gave us a small plastic thimble of Raspberry Ghost, which tasted like a fruity brandy (which I didn’t much like). We learned that distilling produces a clear liquid, leaving all the sugar and colour and proteins behind. I remember this from chemistry lessons at school.
There were four couples at the event, and each couple was provided with a small copper still, which were Moorish in shape and originated from Portugal. Many fruits and flowers have oils which historically, people wanted to use—for perfume or medicine—but they don’t dissolve in water, so people began to distil alcohol to dissolve the oils. They realised that when juniper berries were added, the result tasted rather nice, and hence we have gin. Juniper berries cannot be fermented, so the only way to extract their flavour is to dissolve them in alcohol. Here’s the thing: gin isn’t really a thing! I always thought that gin was like vodka, or wine, or brandy, or rum, that something was fermented to produce it, but it’s not. There isn’t something which is fermented to produce gin, any alcohol can be used. The process which turns the alcohol into gin (any old alcohol, as long as it’s agricultural alcohol, you can’t use ether or surgical spirit!) is the adding of juniper berries. The alcohol must be very pure: 96%, so it has no taste at all. (I don’t know this from experience, I decided to believe the man.) So, Vodka with juniper berries added, either by leaving them in there—infusion, or by distilling them, results in gin. Different distilleries add different ingredients, so the taste is slightly different, but basically, juniper + alcohol = gin
We then were introduced to glass jars of flavours. We went along the shelf, smelling various herbs and spices and plants, and deciding which ones we liked. We were advised on quantities, and how to ensure balance of flavour, and then we weighed them into our little stills, added juniper and alcohol and water, and turned on the heat. Gradually we felt the copper urns warm up, we watched the temperature gauge rise, and turned on the water tap so the steam pipe was cooled, the vapour condensed, and gin dripped into our collecting jars. It was strangely exciting!
We had spoons, so could taste the gin as it dripped out. As the different flavours vapourise at different temperatures, the taste changed as the heat went up.
We were given a rather delicious gin and tonic to drink while we waited. We also learned that due to the purity of the process, larger distilleries actually produce better gins than the small bespoke distilleries—so my preference for cheaper, mass-produced gins was not so weird after all. The purest gins are ‘London Gin’ because they don’t have any flavours added after distilling. Both Gordon’s and Beefeater are London gins.
To make my gin, I added: lemon and orange peel, frankincense, cassia, nutmeg, goji berries, sarsaparilla (which has a vanilla smell) cacao nibs (chocolate!) and of course, lots of juniper berries (otherwise it wouldn’t be gin). I started to write down the recipe, with quantities, but Will (the owner) stopped me, and asked what I was doing. I told him I wanted to write about my experience for my blog—to tell you all about it. Will made a funny expression. He then explained that to make gin, to own a distillery and the equipment we had used, requires a license. He has a license, and this means he could let us use the equipment and make a bottle of gin. But he could not be seen to be teaching us how to make gin ourselves. We could not then go home and produce our own. This would be illegal. Before we could remove the bottles from the premises, they had to be tested for alcohol content, and the bottle clearly labelled, saying what it contained. We also had to have a sticker, showing everything was properly licensed, and the tax paid. (£8.05 duty on a 700ml bottle of gin.) Generally, I’m not a great one for rules, but I rather liked my ‘gin experience’ and I don’t want to cause trouble for Will, so I’m afraid the exact details will have to remain a secret. I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you. Or of course, you could simply visit the distillery yourself! It makes a very nice (if rather expensive) gift for someone you love. (www.greensanddistillery.com)
Thanks for reading. I hope you have some lovely drinks this week.
Take care.
Love, Anne x
Thank you for reading.
Why not sign up to follow my blog?
anneethompson.com
She doesn’t look, think, or fight like James Bond, but sometimes a mother simply has to do whatever it takes. . .
A new cover for the 2020 edition. Available from Amazon.
Due to the KDP rules on Amazon, I am not allowed to upload a whole book anywhere other than on the KDP site. I can therefore share chapters with you, but must remove them when read.
If you would like to read the whole story, or perhaps buy a copy for a friend, it is available from an Amazon near you. The link is below.
To be continued. . .
Thank you for reading
anneethompson.com
Why not sign up to follow my blog?
*********
A new cover for the 2020 edition. Available from Amazon.
. . . If the guard turned around, he would see Max.
Max turned to look around the section of room where he stood, the part separated by the glass wall. He kept his movements slow, not sure if he would cast shadows that might cause the guard to turn. He hoped there were no motion or heat sensors. Whatever was in this room was important, of high enough value for a human guard to be used. Human guards carried live ammunition—they killed people.
Max was standing in a room, with three beds. Each one was covered in a plastic tent, tubes snaking into them, wires sliding out. At first Max worried he might be in a bacteria ward, may catch some deadly disease. He peered into the nearest bed, then stopped.
He knew that face. Had seen it many times. It was Midra, the main spokesperson on the Global Council. His face often appeared in debates, explaining new laws, on news programmes. That explained the human guard. Yet, it wasn’t him, it wasn’t Midra. Or was it?
Max bent closer. The same but not the same. No, he decided, it was not him, was too young. He knew that Midra was old, very old. He seemed to have been leading the Council for generations. Max had heard his father talk about laws that Midra had introduced when he was young, so this could not be him. It looked like him though. Very like him. Max supposed it was a much younger brother, weirdly similar in appearance, clearly very ill. He crept to the next bed, knowing he should leave, but curious as to who might be allowed to share a room with the relative of someone so powerful.
He stopped, frowned. This too was Midra. Except it wasn’t. Again. This person was even younger than the first, about the age of his own father, but with the features of the ancient Midra. Did all his relatives look identical?
******
Due to the KDP rules on Amazon, I am not allowed to upload a whole book anywhere other than on the KDP site. I can therefore share chapters with you, but must remove them when read.
If you would like to read the whole story, or perhaps buy a copy for a friend, it is available from an Amazon near you. The link is below:
Thank you for reading. Please share the story with anyone stuck at home while isolating. Copies of Counting Stars are also available from an Amazon near you. UK link below:
Thanks for reading.
Why not sign up to follow my blog?
anneethompson.com
*****
You can follow my blog at:
anneethompson.com
Do you ever feel you spend the whole day ‘not getting started’? I suspect this is especially true for writers, but probably affects everyone. I mean that whole, being busy but not quite managing to do what I intended to do sort of day, when time slips past like an oily jelly, and suddenly it’s lunch time and I still haven’t started what I intended to do.
It’s not that I haven’t done anything, more that I have not accomplished what I planned to do. Like, when you want a cup of coffee, but first you have to wash-up a mug—the washing-up bit was not your purpose, it is merely one of those have-to-do jobs that appear before the main event. I seem to have a lot of those. . .
Take today, as the perfect example. Today, I plan to write. I am two-thirds of the way through the first draft of my new novel, and I’m loving it, and the characters are completely real people inside my head, and I am excited by where the plot is going inside my head, and over the weekend it occurred to me exactly how the book should end. All inside my head. Therefore, this morning, I am raring to get writing, and put those ideas into words. Today I plan to write. But. . .
I cannot really function without my morning coffee and Bible time, so after cleaning my teeth, I go downstairs and put on the kettle. A chick hatched overnight, so I go and check it is managing to drink (touch and go whether this one will survive). I refill the dog and cat’s water and food, make my coffee, read my Bible. Then it’s time to go for a run (not far, a 20 minute yomp to the end of the road: has to be done first-thing otherwise my exercise for the day is non-existent). Husband wants to come, so I agree to wait for him and fill the time sorting out my mother’s shopping for the week with Ocado. Husband appears, we run.
Return to house breathless and very sweaty. While Husband showers, I give feeble chick more water. Then I go to the pond to check chicks outside have water and food and aren’t stuck anywhere. Mother hen is very ferocious, and tries to attack me as I change water and top up food and attempt to grab some of the dirty hay and replace it with clean bedding. I check on Matilda. Matilda is a pheasant I found on a dog-walk, clearly dying as she had been hit (I assume) by a car, and lying on an oft-walked route, so likely to be mauled by the next passing dog/fox—not a nice way to die; so I carried her home and put her in a duck hutch to die peacefully. Except she didn’t die, so I now have a one-legged pheasant living in a hutch. (I have received a lot of family feedback about this.) Matilda is fine. Change her water, and top up the duck food.
Am about to shower, when I realise I haven’t ‘fed’ my sourdough starter today. I make a loaf every Tuesday, and it needs 24 hours to ferment, so I weigh the flour and stir it into the gloop, ready for tomorrow.
Grab a few dirty clothes and shove them into the washing machine, and give feeble chick another few sips of water.
Finally make it into shower, last hurdle before I do what I planned to do, and write more of my book. Except. . . while in the shower, it occurs to me that this would make a reasonably interesting blog, and if I quickly write this first, it leaves the rest of the week beautifully clear for wring my book.
At last, I have finished, and I hope that today, you manage to achieve what you planned to achieve, with no distractions. Now, if you will please excuse me, I have a book to write. . .
Thank you for reading.
You can follow my blog at:
anneethompson.com
She doesn’t look, think, or fight like James Bond, but sometimes a mother simply has to do whatever it takes. . .
Due to the KDP rules on Amazon, I am not allowed to upload a whole book anywhere other than on the KDP site. I can therefore share chapters with you, but must remove them when read.
If you would like to read the whole story, or perhaps buy a copy for a friend, it is available from an Amazon near you. The link is below:
To be continued on Wednesday. Sign up to follow my blog so you don’t miss the next chapter. . .
Please share with anyone who is stuck at home self-isolating.
Thank you for reading
anneethompson.com
****************
Anne E Thompson 