I'm fascinated by trees - organisms whose lifespan in some species can exceed a millennium. I love their astounding diversity, from the minute Dwarf Willow to the towering Coast Redwoods like ‘Hyperion’ in the US, which at over 115m is higher than the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Is it just me, or do you sometimes feel both inspired by and envious of someone you admire? Author friend, C.F Dunn’s memorable strapline, ‘History, Mystery, Suspense,’ recently had me turning a distasteful shade of green, while whooping ‘Go Claire!’

Serendipity has long been one of my favourite words and researching its origin has felt like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole, each discovery only leading to another, even more bizarre.

What better prayer can we pray for someone than that they become rooted in God's love? Yet this is not the climax of Paul's aspirational prayer in Ephesians 3,

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3: 17-19

Have you ever seen a starling murmuration? It’s a wonderful sight even on TV or social media but if you get the chance to see one ‘in the flesh,’ go for it. There is a starling murmuration map that gets updated every winter as sightings come in…

Do you recall the wager in the film ‘Shakespeare In Love?’ Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) persuades the Earl of Wessex (Colin Firth) to bet £50 that a play cannot capture the nature of true love?

My coming soon novel, ‘The Twelfth Cross,’ is set mainly in the year 1290 and involves a journey to the 12 locations from London to Lincoln that would later host the Eleanor Crosses. When the action is at Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire, the antagonist Derian Scand protests that another character's version of events is ‘a cock and bull story.’

These days we’re used to being instantly connected with others through the intangible mystery of the internet, a modern phenomenon that has embedded itself irrevocably in our lifestyle. Internet interconnectedness serves as a useful metaphor for prayer - the mysterious, intangible connectivity between us and God.