Another Advent

Another Advent

For Andy, who suggested the possibility.

From the darkness that returns
each year we sing our plaintive song
and ask that God will come again
and fill our lives with what we know
and hardly know is all we need.
The fire burns low, the night is long,
and yet we feel in some way held
within the circle of this flame
that still we tend with anxious care
in some place hidden from the eyes
that mock and laugh and turn away
with restless ease towards their end.
The world too turns, and we await
the power that fills our life with light
and let our alleluias ring
within the darkness of the earth.

C.M.M. 12/17

Fire, fire!

Fire, fire!
Originally uploaded by goforchris.

For all Dunoon expats who remember the Gantocks Hotel as somewhere people met for a meal if they wanted out of Dunoon, it appears to be burning down. This is our view on this dreich morning when the rest of the UK bathed in jolly sunlight, and if I hang out of the window I can smell the smoke which is hanging in the chilly air. I'm always struck by how flames are in short supply in all but the most dramatic and out-of-control fires, but it looks to me as if the hotel has had it. Maybe it had had it anyway - it was pretty dreary the last time desperation and a long wait for the ferry drove me in.

Update: At dusk there was still too much smoke from the building to see more than that the roof had fallen in. Apparently the hotel was due for demolition. Hmm.