Water into wine. The biblical story of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding is one that is well known. It goes something like this. Weddings are the responsibility of the bride’s family to provide for and as it is a Jewish wedding there is a duty of hospitality on the family. Now this is not just a basic hospitality. [I have on occasions been present at modern day traveller funerals where there is an equal obligation that extends to the minimum (or so I was told) of providing a cup of tea and a sandwich (jam in this case) for everyone. I think that the wake had more than this and possibly the after funeral do, but for those travelling to the funeral this was the minimum.] In Jesus time blessing was equated with generosity and for the host to run out of wine would have been a terrible social shame. Mary informs Jesus that this is about to happen, clearly expecting him to do something about it. He says, “Oh come on Mom it’s not the right time to be doing flashy things.” But she say...
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Cormorants on the breakwall at Dawlish Devon I love to see the cormorants drying their wings like this - I took 10 or so shots and this was the best - but still lacks much of the reality of the happening. The reason I like them is because they are like so many birds who live from food beneath the surface founced to stop what they are doing occasionally to let their feathers dry. They are also by coincidence one of the animals that can live in all three forms of space - they fly, swim and walk on land. As a child I learned to draw great crested grebes another fish catching bird usually found in freshwater. Cormorants are loathed by freshwater fisherpersons because they are seen as the reason why there are less fish and I guess that this is valid but birds got to eat and with the invasion of the natural fishing grounds of the cormorant, plus the over fishing of inshore areas then the birds just move to places where there are fish. Nice stocked club water is like a banquet. The trouble is...