Amateur Springwatch at 20bbl

The first 10 days of my study leave have been spent in the mobile study in the back garden, with wonders of creation all around, and I've been doing my own amateur version of the exellent BBC TV Springwatch series, with the added incentive to get to grips with a very smart camera I have kindly been lent in advance of the big safari ( I still need to practice before the leopards get away!)

blue-tits in the box just by the door;

magpie family harrassing everything and even mortally pecking a juvenile blackbird

lots of bees in the bushes
loads of tadpoles growing legs in the pond
a wonderful variety of lillies and rhododendra
and the hordes of swifts above.

I even made my blog comment debut on the Springwatch site where it was interesting to see a discussion on the issue of evolution. Some of the comments made are pretty narrow and closed, but the arguments, rational or not, all help to reveal the gulf there can be between people of faith and others when thinking about Creation.

All of which has added material to the research I have been doing in advance of the first module of the Certificate in Christian Rural and Environment studies. The first essay will deal with the subject: How good is creation? In it I will be attempting to think about its often brutal characteristics, and see what scripture might say about the new creation. When the lion lies down with the lamb, will it still be a lion, or just one with immense self-control?!