An agreement between people to do or not do something specific.

I’m currently reading ‘Logging Off’ by Nick Spalding, where midlife man ‘Andy’ starts a sixty-day digital detox. Andy sort of makes a covenant with himself to do stuff differently. It’s amusing, I’ll let you know if it’s life changing.

But, it’s the subject of renewing a Covenant, that Methodist people entertain once a year, usually in January.

I recently produced some postcards for the Borders Circuit of the Meth Church, an idea from Rev. Pete Taylor.

The postcards show a reminder of the traditional Methodist Covenant Prayer on one side and a revised newer version on t’other.

If you can make use of some, I’d be happy to edit the artwork with your details/logo etc and supply a cost effective print quote. Or I could send you the artwork if you’d like to print them yourself. Just send me a message.

In the midnight you awake with a chest ache, with dark dreams, worry and fear, a black dog feeds…

Alas, Decembral distractions: Hazel Prior’s Antarctic Penguins, The Bagnold’s suburbia, Mandalorian sci-corn, Home Alone capers, Billy Elliot’s passion, Spiderman’s kingdom’s, various BBC Sounds’ dreamscapes, Grayson Perry’s acute observations, Simon Cross’s Theotokos Nativity, Scott Mariani’s excessive adventures…  From Snowpiercing sci-fi, to grounding Octopus Teachers…

For us this year there’s been no December theatre trip. But, this holyday season I’ve again spent time, perhaps vicariously, with a few novels, films, songs, radio shows, musicals, TV dramas…  It’s amazing where you can travel with a clever combination of words, a hearty chorus, some great characters and some dramatic lighting and effect. To quote a superhero “…it’s about what you believe”.

“…it’s about what you believe”

A superhero

If you are lucky to have ‘time-off’, mid-Christmas, there is a hiatus, a Pinteresque pause… …(a rejection of perfection in favour of realism?) This ‘space’ between the jingle of Christmas and the expectations of a new year…

It’s a bit like the interval in a theatre show. You remember the theatre interval? The lights go up, and the buzz is suspended. The energy of the dramatic stories that have just enchanted you is… exhaled. The house lights reveal you in a row of burgundy velour seats. The people around you stir, flip their seats and jostle to the ice-creams, or the bar, real people, real faces, sharing real place(s). There is a tangible hopeful expectation of the next act…

This ‘space’ between the jingle of Christmas and the expectations of a new year… can be a tense time… Outside the window the light is bright, but low… shadows glint… dusk silhouettes stand silent… But, Hark, the…

In this pause between excitement and expectation we might find a realism…
Do the stars still burn? Yes.
Are there still glad sounds? Yes.
Wasn’t it great to chat with a friend outside of Tesco’s? Yes.
Take an impromptu walk round the block with like-minded friends…
In essence, is humanity still a wonderful thing… ?
To quote Joe Gardner in Soul “just regular old living” … there is still lots to celebrate.

“…just regular old living”

Joe Gardner, Soul

So above the ache of disease, outside of the dark dreams, beyond the worry of responsibility, away from the fear of blame, afore Horace’s dusky dog… 

Perhaps reality is more about just regular old believing.

Perhaps it’s more about just regular old believing.

julesprichards

We wish you innumerable delights and best hopes for 2021…

Back in October, after another Government imposed stint of self-isolation, I shared a random compilation of images from my Instagram feed – minus the inevitable shots of pets, food & drink of course.

I very often find the vibrancy and intensity of the world around me so strong I have to stop and acknowledge or notice it… I tend to share some of the images I capture, and inevitably, as a certified visual artist, I like to play with images, I can’t help it… ‘scamper’.

As I say, sometimes I find the stuff around me resonating so strongly that I have to stop. I learnt to do this as part of relearning a lot of things during a period of transition a few years back. It’s an ongoing work-in-progress.

The strength of our thoughts and feelings can be helpful, it can also be confusing, perhaps intoxicating, enchanting or perhaps frightening… but if we might find a way to truly slow down… Stop. Pause… breathe…

…to quote Ezra Bayda “What happens when we slow down and pay attention?  Everything! Innumerable delights are right at hand.” 

This reflective and celebratory ‘end of the year’ season we sincerely wish you innumerable delights and best hopes for 2021.

Image creation – It’s what I do.

UPDATE JULY 2025: The article below the stars, written a few years back, will soon be redundant, as Microsoft announced the end of its Publisher trinket. But this leaves us without Publishers unique hyper-useful asset!

Yes, graphics are not a problem and better on many other softwares but … here’s a challenge…

The big big loss, that no other software does in the same hyper easy useful way is print multiple pages per sheet. Publisher allows you to create bespoke page sizes and print multiple pages (mail merged and or double-sided) sheets. This is so so useful for tickets, cards, passes, slips etc.

To date there’s NO other software that offers print bespoke page sizes multiple pages per sheet!

Challenge find an alternative! ?

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Match-cards, revision-cards, flashcards… Yes, it’s easy to use the default Microsoft Word†, add boxed text etc and trim-out cards. But it’s not very tidy or economical and to be honest there’s an easier, tidier and more economical way.

Our old friend Microsoft Publisher*. If you have MS Office then it’s there. Often underused it’s a great tool of creating multiple odd sized cards, tags, stickers etc.

It’s easy to make the bespoke page size to fit on A4.

I given examples of this before, ‘Save Paper, Time & Money’ here.

So, we set one Publisher page at the desired size. You could have any size card, as long as it multiples into an A4 page.

Duplicate a master, and create your different pages (or mail-merge your data/text into a master). With Publisher we can then print this on A4 as a set (multiple pages per sheet) or as a stack of sets (multiple copies per sheet). These can be easily electronically guillotined and banded. 

It’s versatile, can look great, and it saves time and paper**.

*Horror, Yes, Publisher! When I first was prompted to use publisher, because the situation didn’t warrant the cost of the more professional options, I was horrified. My preconceptions about Microsoft turned out to be a tad misplaced. It initially looks like you’re using a child’s toy. But get over it! It’s a very versatile tool for simple multiple-page publishing needs – you can create print-impositions for press that InDesign can’t do! Projects can even look qood, if you use design elements created in Photoshop and Illustrator etc.

Uneconomical unproductivity can be easily sorted – saving money, with zero paper wastage, more print per sheet, and easy guillotining and set sorting – and we can make it look good! In the long-term, planning economically and productively can save an institution £1000s

†Word is a word processing program. PowerPoint is for creating screen presentations. 

‘Save Paper, Time & Money’ here.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been part of a ‘lockdown’ project from the Facebook Group ‘Create!‘, part of Northampton District Methodist Church.

The project aims to raise awareness of the Christian conviction that nobody should be ‘locked down’ because of who they are.
The Methodist Church is “committed to sharing, with all, the refuge and shelter God offers to each one of us” – Psalm 46.

The birds can perch in its shade.

People were asked to send in their drawings, paintings or creations of birds.

As might have been expected, these came in reflecting a vibrant mix of characters and colours…

The group were initially inspired by this illustration ‘Book of Daniel – Beatus of Liébana‘, and were thinking about growth and the diversity… and the story of the mustard seed.

The story of the Mustard Seed 

Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?  It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth.  Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

Mark 4: 30 – 32
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Many thanks go to Mission Enabler Jill Marsh at Create! for her direction and insight.

Grateful thanks goes to Victoria Holdridge for the dedicated illustration of our tree.

Once the tree was realised, the birds were able to ‘…perch in its shade’.

This composite image of the birds in the tree will be available to buy printed as folded A5 greetings cards and A6 postcards.

If you’d like to buy A5 greetings cards or A6 postcards contact Jill at Create! HERE -or myself, HERE.

The project is also available as a package of press-ready artwork*, that can be downloaded from here;

Artwork*: The birds can perch in its shade.

*Please credit us if downloading and using or sharing this resource. And, please do let us know if you use it in any form. It’s good to talk.

*Credit: ‘The birds can perch in its shade’ – Facebook Group Create! Northampton District Methodist Church.

You can more read about this project here:  “…when planted it grows…”

This is a ‘lockdown’ project from the Facebook Group ‘Create!‘, part of Northampton District Methodist Church. You can more read about this project here:  “…when planted, it grows”

The project aims to raise awareness of the Christian conviction that nobody should be ‘locked down’ because of who they are.
The Methodist Church is “committed to sharing, with all, the refuge and shelter God offers to each one of us” – Psalm 46.

But below shows the final creation and where you can download artwork or order printed merchandise.

The composite image of the birds in the tree, are available to buy printed as folded A5 greetings cards and A6 postcards (while stocks last).

If you’d like to buy A5 greetings cards or A6 postcards contact Jill at Create! HERE -or myself, HERE.

The project is also available as a package of FREE to use press-ready artwork*, that can be downloaded from here, Artwork*: The birds can perch in its shade.

*Please credit us if downloading and using or sharing this resource. And, please do let us know if you use it in any form. It’s good to talk.

*Credit: ‘The birds can perch in its shade’ – Facebook Group Create! Northampton District Methodist Church.

Other forms of merchandise can be ordered through this Online Merchandise Store:

Feeding into a small project I’ve been part of recently, I’ve been thinking of the ‘largest of all garden plants’ and ‘the birds of the sky* are able to nest in its shade…’

“When planted, it grows and becomes…”

Perhaps we might recognise or even realise a place we can all share.  Where we can find shelter, sanctuary, shade, harbour, rest and relief.  From the throat and heart to the stretching vascular meristems… it can become a life supporting structure.  A place we can share stories, support, nutrition and relief, as well as a place to design, create, educate and grow…

If heaven is like this, we can perhaps sneak a glimpse of it.  It’s not just a wonderful world, it’s a mighty world… the world around us can have great strength and value.  If we think of the resources around us, perhaps they are in-deed mightier than we can comprehend.

As people, we are a vibrant mix of characters and cultures, colours, voices, insights and dreams.  Some live in the north some in the south, some will sing together and some will never meet, eye to eye.  We all sing different notes in different styles but are perhaps part of the same throng, capable of marvellous murmuration, rejuvenating ritual and intimate ingenuity.  

The energy that can bind us is bigger and mightier than we can comprehend. Perhaps it should be valued, shared and celebrated. 

If your interest is piqued, there’s more here… BBC’s Something Understood, Mark Tully asks why trees are so important to us.

And, from the BBC’s @BBCideas The girl who changed the world with an acorn  An urban fairy tale which challenges us to think about the way we interact…