Fanny's Farm Shop - a magical place

Another great day off. A good friend and neighbour suggested we visit Fanny's Farm Shop for our Wednesday walk today. I haven't visited for years and had forgotten what a magical place it is. A lovely place to visit with children and also an interesting place for visiting 'grown-up children'.

Today was one of those lovely cold but bright Autumn days in this part of Surrey - ideal for a stroll. We were chauffeured to our destination by a kindly husband so we only had to walk home after a scrumptious cream tea.

It's difficult to describe Fanny's Farm Shop. More than a tea shop, less than a garden centre - quite unique. The creator and owner Fanny Maiklem obviously has a great sense of humour and I would guess is a bit of a 'magpie' judging by the collection of miscellaneous country-related artifacts scattered throughout the farm. She is famous for her home-made marmalades, jams and chutneys but the home-baked cakes are also worth a mention and today's cream tea was absolutely delicious.

Once again, I had taken too many pictures to choose just a few so have put them together in a slide show. Perhaps you might be tempted to pay a visit yourself . . .

Social Media . . .

Browsing through my Twitter timeline this evening, I noticed a link to another interesting post on Matthew Warner's blog.

In his post, he gives a list of insights based on recent statistics on social media published via a Youtube video.

Of the twelve items in Matthew's list, whilst all of them were interesting, some of them struck a particularly chord with me. (My comments in blue)

Over 50% of the world is under the age of 30.

i.e. What the young people in the Church are doing, how they are communicating, how well we are catechized and how authentic our lives are…matters…a lot.

'How well we are catechised and how authentic our lives are . . . matters . . . a lot.' How right he is. I think one of the best ways that all of us can help our young people is to be a good example of what it means to be a Catholic today. This means not only practising our faith but being informed about it and prepared to answer questions about what we believe and why.

iPod/iPhone applications hit 1 billion downloads in 9 months.

How many of them were Catholic apps? How many were made by Catholics? How many were actually good? Also - I’d love to see some creative and entertaining Catholic apps made by Catholics come out. Not just ones with lists of prayers (those are good, too, though).

I have just checked the apps on my iPhone. I have 68 (I was surprised to find it was so many!) in total at the moment and of them 9 of them are Catholic, mainly reference or liturgy/Divine Office based. I think all the Catholic apps I have are excellent and I use some of them daily.

The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 yr old females.

I thought this was one of the most interesting stats. While Facebook and other social media platforms are currently dominated by younger people, that is quickly changing.

Well, I guess I'm one of those 55-65 year-old females! What Matthew doesn't mention is that often once we 'oldies' latch onto something like this, it tends to make it less popular with younger people. After all, how many youngsters want to be associated with something that their parents, and even their grandparents are getting into? I don't know if this is the case with Facebook or not. It will be interesting to see if it can manage to keep its appeal for the youth at the same time as attracting a wider age-range of users.

Britney Spears has more twitter followers than the entire population of Israel, Ireland, Norway or Sweden.
How many spiritual leaders or positive role models get this kind of attention? Sad. But also an opportunity.

I would say there is definitely a Catholic presence on Twitter. In addition to many individuals, the Catholic press and Hierarchy are well represented. It seems to go hand in hand with blogging. Most bloggers are now on Twitter, I've noticed.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.

How many Catholic videos are on there? How many have been viewed more than 18 times? How many are well-done and a good representation of our Catholic faith?

There are many Catholic videos on YouTube. Some of them are very well done, especially those produced in America, I've noticed, but there's certainly room for a lot more, and some are pretty dire but then again so are a lot of the other videos on YouTube.

Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Decades from now (if not already) we will look back on this time as just that, a fundamental shift in the way information is shared and communities are nurtured. Will the Catholic Church be one of the shining examples of success? Or one of the laggers-behind?

Sorry, this has turned out to be quite a long post but do go on over and have a look at Fallible Blogma to see the whole list. It makes interesting reading.

Thanks be to God . . .

I was not sleeping very well last night and as I often do when I find myself in this situation, I switched on our bedside radio. It was just before 4am and I managed to catch the rescue of the first Chilean miner live on the news channel. What an emotional moment! I was glued to the radio for quite some time, reluctant to switch off as I listened to the scenes of utter joy from all concerned. What an amazing achievement for all those involved.

As it was my day off today, I was able to watch some of the coverage on the TV News Channel and see the pictures to match the words.

I was amused to see the pictures of the statue of San Lorenzo (St Lawrence, Patron Saint of Miners) bedecked with miner's safety lamp and helmet. I think in the photo above, the hat gives him more than a passing resemblance to Boy George!

It was touching to see and hear mention of the miners' faith. Claudio Mario Gonzalez, the ninth to be rescued, pictured below was not the only one to sink to his knees in thanksgiving on reaching the surface.

Thanks be to God that so far all has gone to plan and we pray that the remaining miners will be safely reunited with their loved ones.

By the way, after hearing the fantastic news I slept like a top until my alarm went off all too soon this morning after my nocturnal news fest!

Retreat feedback . . .

Sorry, I've been a bit quiet lately - not so much Blogger's block as Blogger's lethargy, I'm afraid.

It's a week now since our retreat at Douai Abbey. This was our first visit so didn't know exactly what to expect. The accommodation was excellent. The guest rooms were in a very modern building with all mod-cons. It was much more like walking into an hotel bedroom than a retreatant's bedroom - not so much basic as bountiful. Large rooms with tea/coffee making facilities and a very large shower room en-suite. Our room like many others overlooked the Abbey Church so an inspiring view.

The Abbey church is also fairly modern having been finally completed in 1993 although the original construction began in 1929. The overall effect is very pleasing and, seated in the choir as we were for the Office, one could appreciate the workmanship of the choir stalls, organ etc. close-up. Modern, yes, but with more than a nod to their historical past. The main part of the Abbey church was much more typical of modern churches and cathedrals.

The monks were very hospitable and the meals excellent. We joined in parts of an organised retreat on Julian of Norwich which was taking place over the weekend led by a layman. We also spent some of the time with our Team for discussion and prayer.

Lots of pluses then but if I were looking for ways to improve the experience, for me personally, I was disappointed that there was no opportunity for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Naturally, one could always visit the Blessed Sacrament chapel in the Abbey Church for private prayer. There was also a lovely oratory in the guest accommodation with a beautiful icon but disappointingly no Blessed Sacrament.

The Abbey is surrounded by quiet a large area of open land suitable for walks and we joined an organised prayer walk on Sunday afternoon, stopping from time to time to meditate on some of Julian of Norwich's words.

I wanted to post a few photos but couldn't make up my mind which to choose so put most of them in this slide show.

Update: Sorry I forgot to mention that the soundtrack is from The Introit: Dominus Dixit Ad Me by the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Choir.