I was telling Mrs F that I'd brought my pelargoniums in fronm the balcony as nights are getting colder now.

Wish I knew how to take cuttings. It's supposed to be dead easy, yet I've never succeeded either taking cuttings OR getting them to survive the winter indoors. I think it is too warm indoors and not enough light.

Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants which includes about 200 species of perennial, succulent, and shrub plants, commonly known as geraniums. Confusingly, Geranium is the correct botanical name of the separate genus which contains the related Cranesbills. Both genera are in the Family Geraniaceae. Linnaeus originally included all the species in one genus, Geranium, but they were later separated into two genera by Charles L’Héritier in 1789. Gardeners sometimes refer to the members of Genus Pelargonium as "pelargoniums" in order to avoid the confusion, but the older common name "geranium" is still in regular use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelargonium

Sharing an email from David Parsons

Love over fear in Burma

Vishvapani, a member of the Western Buddhist
Order in the UK, argues that the monks' protests in
Burma show the principle of loving kindness in
action, in this think-piece broadcast by BBC Radio
4's Today programme.

I spent last week on retreat, practising a
traditional Buddhist meditation called the development
of loving kindness.

Its aim is to foster intense friendliness for all
beings, starting with oneself, then including a
friend or teacher, someone for whom your feelings
are neutral, an enemy and then everyone.

Doing this again and again and especially
focussing in a kindly way on people to whom you feel
hostile, stirs memories, regrets and resentments -
and that has a transforming, purifying effect.

" You feel their weakness: the vulnerability of
flesh when faced with batons, tear gas and guns "
Vishvapani
It shakes up the whole of your emotional life and
creates a space in which loving kindness can
emerge. I returned this week to the juddering television
images of cinnamon-robed monks thronging Rangoon
and Mandalay, and among their slogans I caught
snatches of the same ancient verses by the Buddha
that I'd been studying:

" May all beings, weak or strong, large or small,
seen or unseen, near or far, all be happy at
heart. "

But despite the monks' inspiring courage, I've
shared the foreboding and then the anguish as
Burmese troops have confronted them.
You feel their weakness: the vulnerability of
flesh when faced with batons, tear gas and guns; the
fragility of peace when confronted by power.

Reverence
The violence stirs memories of the massacres of
Buddhist monks in Cambodia, Tibet and many other
countries.
The monks are honouring the Buddha's words,
teaching that loving kindness is also a call to
action.

It's no surprise that for many years Burmese
monks have stayed in their monasteries, cultivating
inner virtues - and even now most do the same.
Throughout Buddhist history monks, have often
sheltered behind ruling elites, sometimes tolerating
dictators like the Burmese junta, in return for
the social stability that enables them to
continue their practice.
But a point comes when inner sensibilities demand
to be expressed in action, and the monks are
showing that they possess an alternative kind of
power.
Because the Burmese revere the monks, the
generals first felt constrained to respect them, and
that reverence is prompted by the virtues the monks
display.

Loving kindness doesn't mean you never get angry,
but understanding how anger springs up when you
feel threatened loosens its grip - that brings
strength. It's not power that corrupts, wrote Aung
San Suu Kyi, it's fear.

Whatever the outcome of the monks' revolt, their
courage in stepping outside the monasteries to
stand by ordinary people is a victory in itself.

The monks are honouring the Buddha's words,
teaching that loving kindness is also a call to
action. Just as a mother would risk her life for her
child, her only child, so let one cultivate
boundless love towards all beings.

This talk can be heard on the BBC Thought for the
Day website
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7015922.stm

May all sentient beings be well, happy and peaceful .
YES !
XXXX

More support this worthy cause links:

http://peoplepower.proboards85.com/index.cgi?board=monks

A really good lie in today. Must have been around noon when I finally got up and called Johanna, Profd's g/f to wish her Happy Birthday. She'd started the day with a lie in too and a doughnut birthday cake with candles ...awwwww...:-)

Switched computer on and got stuck at the www.lightworker.com. who have broadcasts once a month and they can be seen on You Tube videos. I have Isha Lerner's Inner Child Cards but have never really heard her speak about her cards, the Tarot and the messages of fairy tales. Enchanting video.

Isha Lerner is the co-author of the best selling deck of Inner Child Cards. Four decks including her passion the Power of Flower cards,In this video Isha speaksabout “Power Mapping”, a way to see your life path, and about the flower essences that her company makes.

You can also “Pick a Card” for inspiration at the lightworker site.

Was a Lena's and Suzanne came over with the strangest Danish DVD -" ADAM'S APPLES ". Danish sounds weird to start with and the film had Swedish subtitles which meant I really had to pay attention. Miss a line of text and you miss the point.

Anyway , this was after a delicious brocolli blue cheese quiche and salad a bottle of Italian red

http://fest06.sffs.org/films/film_details.php

" Fresh from prison, middle-aged neo-Nazi atheist Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) is sent to live in a country church for a stint of community service. Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen), the priest charged with his reform, maintains a delusional optimism as a defense against darker truths in his past and all around him.

(To Adam: “It says here you are evil. It's crude to write that on a person's C.V.”)

Asked to set a goal for his stay, Adam nonchalantly sets the bar pretty low: he'll bake an apple cake. But when the church's beloved lone apple tree is beset, in short order, by crows, worms and lightning, and fallen bibles keep opening to “The Book of Job,” it's clear that the thunderclouds above the parish have blown in straight from the Old Testament, and a test of faith is at hand.

The pitchest of black comedies, Anders Thomas Jensen's wickedly funny film reverberates with profane dialogue, appalling behavior and strategic use of the Bee Gees, as Adam only somewhat maliciously sets out to dismantle Ivan's sunny armor. But while Ivan, who bleeds from the ears when he's forced to confront upsetting realities, seems blind to how little reformed are the other wayward souls in his care (an obese alcoholic former tennis star/rapist and a violent gas station robber), Adam underestimates how much they depend on the priest's Pollyannaish perspective. Assuredly filmed in frosty blues and suitably stormy weather, Adam's Apples is a sly religious parable by a writer/director with a bracing talent for dark, astringent humor.

—Steve Mockus "

Saw the moon on my way home and she was looking good. I'm glad Lena's is only a 10 minute bus ride from me. Sort of spoils the evening when it takes a long time to get home,

Off to bed now . HOw's your weekend unfolding ??

Peace zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Forgot to mention .

Suzanne's soul mate of 27 years ,Martin died earlier this year and Suzanne had been sent this DVD by a friend and psychic who insisted that they watch it without giving a reason why. They had never got round to it- but we did finally , tonight .