The cold wintry weather continued throughout January with many frosty and snowy days, and some occasional blue skies! Days ideal for a local walk! Here’s a wee slideshow.
In January we normally take delivery of the previous years photo book, but this year we instead bought a ‘Decade of our photos’ book from Facebook, and it was interesting to see just how much of our normal life acivities were curtailed by lockdown in 2020.
We also try to keep some sense of normality during this continued lockdown by dressing differently for Church on a Sunday, even although it is just a zoom service on line. And even on 25 January when we celebrated ‘Burns Night’ my wife put on her kilt and served ‘Haggis, neeps and tatties’. 🙂
And something to go with all these cups of tea!
Ofcourse the big event in January this year was the roll out of the Covid 19 vaccine across the UK. We were pleased to be invited to go to our local medical centre to receive ours towards the end of the month. Appointments were 10 minutes apart, and you were told to appear exactly on time! The service was very impressive, as after answering various questions and receiving the first dose of the vaccine, we were given an appointment card giving us the date and time for the booster injection.
We both reacted to the vaccine by having ‘flu’ like symptoms the following day, but were fine within the next 24 hrs with help from some paracetemol. The vaccine we received was the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, and we were warned that 1 in 10 have a reaction to it. Since then the German government has announced they are not giving it to the over 65’s! In the UK two doses are said by the MHRA to be 62% efficient, which is quite a drop from the 90% efficiency initially reported by the Oxford team. However we are still in lockdown at present and there is unlikely to be any change to that for at least the next few weeks.
We are very grateful to everyone involved in fighting this pandemic by working around the clock to produce vaccines and treatments, and those in our National Health Service in particular who have given 110% to help save countless lives.
Robert Burns, Scotland’s national bard finishes one of his most popular poems with these famous words, they speak about a mouse whose little nest is disturbed by the ploughman:
“But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!“
It seems no time ago that our politicians here in the UK were boasting confidently of all the happiness and prosperity that was coming our way when we left the European Union. Now we are in a pandemic, over 100,000 deaths due to Covid, grief and sorrow around the nation, unemployment soaring, the country trillions of £’s in debt, and a strained relationship with our former European partners! Mmmm! How apt, the words of Burns ‘The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley.” And many many are saying again with Burns, An’ forward tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!“
Solomon, the wise man of old, warned us about boasting, he said, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” It’s good then to keep our horizontal relationships with family, friends and colleagues on a loving and even keel! How awful to be separated by death when we are in ‘conflict mode’.
More importantly however is our vertical relationship with God! If you or I are suddenly called into His presence will we meet him as Saviour and friend, or as our judge? That is a big question! Here’s a prayer similar to one I prayed many years ago, it changed my status and my life!
“Lord Jesus, I’m sorry for all the wrong things in my life. Thankyou for dying on the cross to pay for my forgiveness. I’m putting my trust in you as my Saviour. I surrender my life to you as my Lord and ask you to help me live a life that pleases you. Amen“
more help at: matthewmuriel@aol.com
God bless
Matthew
Matthew McKinnon's Blog 
The prayer part is a blessing .thank God you have received the vaccine .
On Tue, 2 Feb 2021, 1:57 a.m. Matthew McKinnon’s Blog, wrote:
> matthewmckinnonsblog posted: ” The cold wintry weather continued > throughout January with many frosty and snowy days, and some occasional > blue skies! Days ideal for a local walk! Here’s a wee slideshow. In January > we normally take delivery of the previous years photo book, ” >
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