From TK

We haven't had an offering from TK for a while. Here's one now, so get your eyes round this.

Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all. One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea. As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, a condom! When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat. The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist. "Miss Beatrice", he said, "I wonder if you would tell me about this?" pointing to the bowl. "Oh, yes," she replied, "Isn't it wonderful? I was walking through the Park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground. The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease. Do you know I haven't had the flu all winter."

Can you see the join?

The grass seed I planted just over a week ago. not bad, eh?

Cycling, anyone?

Oh! I was out cycling this morning too, but that was before I saw this

Gardening

The Camero has gone! So I had to make sure the space left behind was put to good use...quickly.

My reply

Thanks for all the comments so far. Dale, I think you are right about the desire to nurture and be nurtured being experienced by both men and women. YP, women too, 'look out wistfully on potential conquests' and this is where the difference comes, I think. Whereas men are wistful and then move on, women tend to get stuck there and find it hard to move on. Is it all to do with men's ability to compartmentalise their lives or maybe women's desire to nurture? It seems to me that women have an almost infinite capacity to forgive neglectful or thoughtless treatment by the men in their lives and find it so hard to give up on a bad job and walk away.

A question

A question for all you male readers out there to reflect on, but ladies are welcome to contribute too:

It arises from a conversation with a counselling friend and experiences in the counselling context.
Do you think that men don't need relationships as much as women, or at least that they are less dependent on them and if so, why?
Answers will be gratefully received in the comments box.

Update

So what's been going on chez Jennyta since my self-imposed silence?
Mainly a constant round of work, counselling course, counselling placement, supervision for counselling, plus the usual shopping, housework etc squeezed in as and when. Oh and looking for a teaching job for September.
In fact I have only applied for two so far, neither of which resulted in an interview. There have been other jobs advertised but gone are the days when I will consider a 2 term temporary cover for someone's maternity leave which, in addition to teaching (it's what you're there for, after all), requires the lucky appointee to 'engage in the full life of the school' which means being there 24/7 to run after-school clubs, attend PTA meetings etc and, in one case, to take children on a residential trip. There was also one small village school which I went to visit where the head teacher mentioned most of the above but added 'cleaning the toilets if necessary' to the list.
There are other schools too, which send you a job description and details of the school which, reading between the lines, amounts to:
'Our children regularly swing from the lights and need to be tied down in order to have any chance of learning. How good are your karate skills?'
Shelf-stacking at Tesco's is beginning to look like an attractive option!