OK, so there you are, hunkered down at some bar to escape the relentless rain. So whaddya do? Sling a Quarter in the juke and dial up a tune to make the world go by. Right on. We choose SPIRIT. Remember them? They had a line, that's for sure:
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Wake up at first light to the sound of thunder, the flash of lightning and rain lashing against the timber and old flowing glass of the Compound. Exciting stuff and the next step's clear; get up, make strong covfefe, feed the animals while you're at it and note how they way prefer rainwater to tap. Less poison in rainwater, you see, unless they've been chemtrailing.
Mission accomplished, advance to the front porch, a room in itself, and coffee in hand take in the rain. Beautiful. Of course if you're living in Wales rain isn't such a big deal, it happens all the time, but this is Texas and you'd be wrong not to enjoy every drop of it.
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That said, there's a fair chance this small rural haven will be washed away in the flood because water's scheduled to fall from the sky all week. Who knows what will survive, if anything at all. "If only," we'll say, "we'd paid our weather tax and covered the land with solar panels and giant wind turbines. Then none of this would've happened."
Have you noticed how powerful people who pushed this money making settled science have an odd habit of buying seafront mansions? It's as though they'd somehow forgotten the ice caps were going to melt.
Cheers,
LSP
It's raining in Hill County and it's blissful after weeks of ling in a preheating oven. Perhaps you know the scent of the thing, of skywater falling on parched Texan land, the smell of cedar, limestone and prairie unlocked by the rain. The genius AI internet robot puts it like this:
The air carries a heavy scent of moist limestone and cedar (juniper) combined with rich, musty prairie soils. The higher humidity right before a storm actually makes human senses of smell keener, allowing locals to literally "smell the weather" coming in off the plains.
Can you smell the weather? Yes you can, and I love the rain. Of course if this was Wales, say Aberystwyth, I wouldn't be so keen on the thing but here in Hill County it's a blessing, rain on.
In other news, popular Reform politician Anne Widdecombe was murdered last week, and Senator Lindsey Graham has died of a sudden illness shortly after visiting a drone factory in the Ukraine, quite a thing. Did the Russians do it? Who knows, though it seems Rainbow Warhawk Lindsey was alive when he arrived back in the States.
Perhaps the bellicose Senator simply died of a heart attack instead of a nasty dose of the Kremlins, who knows. Likewise, Widdecombe's death remains a mystery and UK police are apparently baffled, though eager to tell the world her murder wasn't an act of terrorism and some overweight white guy from northern England was probably the killer, or not. Magnum mysterium.
For the record, I didn't know Warlord Lindsey, but I did know Anne Widdecombe and liked her. She was a big mover in a now mostly forgotten group in the Church of England, Women Against The Ordination of Women (WAOW). They failed, sadly, and Anne went on to become a Roman Catholic. May she rest in peace.
Meanwhile, thunder sounds like a Pak Front and lightning arcs from the sky even as we rain down missiles on Persia.
God bless,
LSP
It's been busy, as in driving to Waco to visit the faithful in hospital, visiting Dallas on exeat and returning to the sylvan groves and leafy boulevards of this small Texan farming community in North Central Texas, some call it the Exclusion Zone. Others call it a "dirt town." No, that'd be Malone or Itasca. Whatever, this morning's evolution went like this, in case all three of you are interested.
Get up and give thanks to God that everyone's still standing, no small thing. Wash up, make strong covfefe, take a cone off the head of a spayed cat, she's relieved, and let the cat loose outside to kill rats. Feed the dog before she dies of utter starvation. Yum, delicious nuggets for you. Then say Morning Prayer (1928 BCP) and head off to Mission #2. Why?
Because we meet there on the 2nd Saturday of the month for breakfast and a presentation on a book or idea. It's called a reading cliub in the hope that it'll encourage people to actually read and it's pretty popular, everyone likes it. Today was an open forum, viz. tell us about a great American who inspires you in the Faith. I chose General Lee, for good reason. Here's Ike, writing in 1960:
Dear Dr. Scott:
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War between the States the issue of secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Well you couldn't put it better than that. By way of footnotes: Lee was a complete gentleman, and his immediate subordinates and men loved him. He had aura and command presence, not least because his command was outstanding; he led his outnumbered and outgunned troops through a string of victories, culminating in the Chancellorsville Campaign, with brilliant daring and excellence. Was there ever such a captain in the annals of modern war?
Winston Churchill didn't think there was and Eisenhower's plaudit speaks for itself. Regardless of your thoughts or views on the Northern War of Aggression, spare a moment to reflect on General Lee, perhaps the greatest American commander to date. You can imagine his opinion of Virginia and the present state of the nation itself.
Deo Vindice,
LSP
There's compounds and there's Compounds. Some have a beautiful lakeside view, swimming pool and several houses. Others do not, such as my Compound which is wretchedly short of a pool. Still, there's a fraternity amongst us all and we enjoy the benefit of it.
In this case, a beautiful view of the lake (Whitney), a crystal clear pool, frolicking deer and all of that. Not so bad, what a pleasant set up. Banned, I'd imagine, in Europe because class envy/politics, aka Socialism. What a great creed until you run out of other peoples' money.
In other news, it seems we've launched against Iran, again. What can I say? If at first you don't succeed, try, try, and try again. Let's hope this latest effort results in victory. Maybe that victory means the US taking all the dam oil and imposing a new rules based world order, late Roman Republic style. Good call, and 47 kinda fits the bill as Pompey, but where's Caesar? Hiding in the wings, obviously.
SPQR,
LSP
No, not downtown Kiev, just an humble Weber at the Compound. Objective: Grilled chicken awesomeness. Method:
1. Brine chicken breasts, ignite grill, slice chicken into bite sized chunks, apply olive oil, season with rub (paprika, cumin, chili, garlic salt, salt and ground black pepper - mix it all up by hand).
2. Let it all rest while the grill gets hot. Maybe drink a rare beer, a Modelo, catch up with social media and note how many Brits were impressed by the UK on their soccer holiday, nice. Maybe play Fire on the Mountain, hey, it still rocks.
3. Skewer the chicken chunks and put 'em on the hot, hot grill, direct heat. Cover and let heat do its trick for around 12-14 minutes, turning half way through. Then remove and tent loosely with aluminium foil. Let rest as you enjoy some chilled white wine and listen to the Dead, all is good.
Friendly Forces: Vintage Sabatier, Amazon Music, sunny southern weather, a dog and the sheer marvel of Bluetooth speakers. For me that's a kitchen JBL Flip. Without getting down in the audio weeds, these little speakers work just fine for kitchen and porch, and they're cheap too, which is important.
Victory: Serve those grilled chicken chunks with rice and curry sauce. and fall on your scoff like a warrior. All good.
In other news, you'll note that a lot of Brits who came over to enjoy the soccer went back to the UK being vastly impressed by the US. This, even now, has an abundance, opportunity and freedom which seems to baffle visitors. Like what, you can buy a gun at Walmart and then go and eat BBQ and fried catfish before being amazed by a rodeo and the friendliness and patriotism of a people who aren't constantly apologizing for who they are. And on.
Take note, all you whining Leftist mountebanks who hate your countries and the West itself. You're like spoiled tantrum children raging against their parents because you've got a bed time and no candy before that either.
You get the parable, we're up against infantile nihilists. Problem. Solution? A sound spanking. Let's see it.
Well it was all go here, a neat small town parade, what's not to love, handing out kiddy Bibles, prayer cards and candy and waving or saluting all the patriots on parade. Quite a collection, Fire Brigade, Police, Veterans, several squadrons of mounted cav, vintage cars, including 2 Corvettes(!) from the church, collectible tractors and all 'round good fun.
Oh, there was an aged Democrat float too, which threw out candy to eager children. "Don't touch that," hissed a young Mother to her innocent child, "It has COVID or some weird flea-borne disease." I agreed with her, ever the thoughtful Pastor, and cautioned the toddler accordingly.
So Mission #1 represented and it was a beautiful thing. You gotta love a small town parade and, let's be honest, the day itself. Here we are, celebrating this country's 250th birthday. No small thing by any reckoning. And to all you Marxists and killjoy Rainbow Puritans? Take your miserable insanity somewhere else, like New York, Austin, Oregon or San Francisco.
But let's leave on an uplifting note, here's LL: "Celebration reinforces joy and our joy and our hope defines us. It clarifies who we are and what we hold sacred." Well said, turn that frown upside down.
Happy 4th, Punters,
LSP
Just taking it easy on the back deck and getting ready for tomorrow. It's an opportunity for Mission #1 because the parade passes right by the church. We'll be handing out all kinds of goodies in celebration of the nation's 250th birthday.
Some people scorn this holiday because they hate America, which is odd, given they live here and benefit from the place they despise. But we're not like that, patriots, you see.
Cheers,
LSP
You see there's this:
And there's this:
Ad Astra,
LSP
Here's a Canada Day treat, old but gold. Behold the epic glory of Elizabeth May, what can I say? Words fail:
Pretty special, eh? And that was 11 years ago, imagine if you can, how much worse it is now. Alberta has to go, please.
A Mare Usque Ad Mare,
LSP
Well yes, if you're in the Diocese of Peterborough and busy welcoming Debbie Sellin to one of the COE's pointed hat top jobs. Debbie will become one of the shrinking denom's small cadre of wymxn bishops, presently numbering 7 out of 22 diocesans. Hardly enough, it must be said.
In the old days they used to argue that if we didn't ordain wymxn no one would take us seriously. We did and they didn't, hence today's pivot; wymxn in Holy Orders is a fundamental right, per equity, As in, if you don't do this you're evil.
So what does that make Christ and the Apostles, who famously didn't ordain wymxn? Bad sinners. And what does that make of Christ's divinity? Not very much, they don't believe in it much anyway. That in mind, an Anglo-Catholic in the COE has to consider this.
Before so very long every new COE priest will have been ordained, directly or indirectly, by a womxn bishop. Are they validly ordained? Good question and it raises a serious flag for Anglo-Catholics. We've always asserted Catholicism for our part of the Church, and we could do so, not least, because our orders were valid. Not anymore, not going into the future, and therein lies another and uncertain story.
Your Pal,
LSP
Fast forward to today and the English monarch still retains Pope Leo's honorific, Fidei Defensor, FD; well kind of. King Charles III's broadened the title's definition to mean "protecting the space of Faith." Protecting the space of Faith.
There he is, the anointed King of England, crowned in Westminster Abbey, announcing to all the world that his protectorate extends not just to any one Faith or even all of them, but to the space in which they exist. What does this even mean?
Most obviously, that the King is a Space Protector and the icy vacuum of the interstellar void springs to mind. According to Charles, he's defending or protecting nothing, not Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or anything else, just empty space. Don't say vacuous. But of course we can put it another way, more bluntly.
He's an apostate traitor to the Faith he swore at his coronation to defend, the Christian Faith which is whole, complete and entire, the Catholic Faith given once for all by Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. Not one way amongst many, the way. But the current monarch can't bring himself to come down on the side of this and what can we say? It's hard, right about now, to be a monarchist.
OK, salute the uniform not the man, don't be a Donatist, but please, can we not have a Christian ruler in the UK to lead and rally the faithful, to undo, even, the rapacious crime of the Tudor despot. Clearly not yet. We wait in hope.
Yours,
LSP
Look's good, right? But maybe I should hold out for an awesome High Standard. Hey, why not both, to maximize benefit, there is that. In other news, the ridiculously behind the cultural 8 Ball King of England has declared he's the "Defender of Faith" in a multi-faith kingdom. Hate to say it, and I really do, but the monarchy's obviously part of the problem in Rainbow Utopia UK.
That aside, surely a new Ruger IV makes sense,
LSP
Dear friends, expect the Left to double and triple down. Remember too that everything they enact or intend produces the opposite of its stated effect. In this case, a beautiful, rainbow flag, they/them multicultural utopia. Yes indeed, lots of cash and votes in that cunning green energy equation. But beloved Overlords, do you think the people caught in the midst of your experiment in power will take it lying down?
Apparently they do. Uwe Bolls describes a different reality and both timelines are unsettling at best. If Europe and the UK's ascendant rainbow-hued elitocracy wins, then their countries will descend into an Islamic sub-Detroit. Worse than that, the erasure of what's left of national European/UK identity, all for short term profit and power. That's one scenario. The other is that people get fed up with imported savages raping their daughters and get kinetic. Not as though the cops are gonna do it, eh?
I predict, for what little it's worth, that this will end in tears, per Mr Powell, "rivers of blood," and I hope I'm wrong. In the meanwhile, check out Citizen Vigilante, it's alright, not least for being banned in Germany. Here at the Compound we give it a sturdy 4 stars.
Your Old Friend,
LSP
One of the several benefits of country life in Texas is porches, front porches, back porches, wrap 'round porches and all of that. So pleasant; get out on your porch with a cold drink and take it easy while cocks crow, hawks swoop overhead, cicadas susurrate from the trees, and all is good.
If your house is smart, its architects designed it East/West facing so your front porch remains in shade during the morning heat of the day, and shields the front of the house from burning late afternoon sun. Use those periods wisely, shade's a valuable commodity in the pre-heating oven that is a Texan summer.
Here at the Compound we're blessed with a substantial front porch, essentially an open air room, and would've been more blessed before the place was remodeled in the '80s and a wrap 'round porch was turned into a large room, aka 'church hall.' Back in the day, people used part of the porch, it would've been screened in, to sleep on in the summer. Who can blame them, beat the heat in the days before AC.
We have AC now, unlike Europe, and thank God for that. Still, when you've just unleashed two flea foggers in the hall you can always retreat out of the toxic house and set up on the dam porch. No bad thing. In less pleasant news, the UK's student union commie government's fixing to tax capital gains at the same rate as their already high income tax.
This means UK money will leave the UK, tax revenue will shrink and taxes will rise to cover the shortfall until the whole poverty stricken economics of envy place collapses under the weight of fiscal insanity. See every Dem run US city for reference. Here? I'm going to step off this porch and see if the foggers have done their trick. So far they have.
Stay tuned,
LSP
This used to be a country Texas blog, so what happened? Got diverted by geostrat above my paygrade and egregious liturgical and doctrinal abuse. Hey, easy ongoing target, but what about all that country life? To be honest, I live it daily and like it a lot, so much better than the "Spawl, but you gotta focus.
To that end or Ï„Îλος we loaded up the rig with a couple of rods and headed out to the lake. Would the fish bite or would they not? Perennial question. Dam straight they bit, Bluegill after Bluegill, I lost count, just a whole lot of fish.
Didn't keep any, too small, those kids went back to fight again another day. And what a good morning, by the water, on the fish and lots of action, albeit small fish on a light rod. Good for mind, body and soul. Then it was back to the Compound for chicken thighs on the grill and cold white wine. Hey, all's right with the world.
And now? Grilled chicken, the dinner of winners.
Tight Lines,
LSP
Britain's most hated Prime Minister in the history of history has resigned. Two-Tier Kier, 2TK, announced his resignation this morning from the steps of 10 Downing Street and the free world heaved a sigh of relief.
What a disastrous mountebank who famously hounded veterans in court, as a hobby, took away pensioners' winter fuel allowance, tried to tax farmers out of existence, had people arrested for having the brazen, literal temerity to complain on the internet about imported head-chopping savages. The same 2TK who did his worst to wreck UK energy independence with idiotic and corrupt Net Zero climate cultism, all the while importing thousands of Moslem votes into a country the size of a shoebox. Don't you dare complain, serfs.
Wow, the list goes on and on. What gets me, as a loyal expat, is the betrayal of a great country by the people who lead it. In this case, by a gang of 1980s Student Union commies who hate their country, its people, its past and its heritage. No wonder, punters, that the British Army, Navy and Air Force are hollowed out simulacra of what they once were. No point in defending an island you despise, is there, when the cash to do so can be spent on importing foreign votes. The votes of people who scorn your country's culture almost as much as you do yourself.
Mini rant over, let's return to 2TK. He's gone or outgoing. Who will replace this unparalleled, unpopular buffoon? Evidently some leftist grifter from Wigan called Andy Burnham. Expect more of the same with, perhaps, a smiley face. So there we have it, unless a snap election's called the UK's left with the Nu-Left 'til the '29 election. A lot can happen in those years, no doubt about it.
Who did this? 😂 pic.twitter.com/dgUS0lgtAm
— Dominik TarczyÅ„ski MEP (@D_Tarczynski) June 22, 2026
Perhaps, US friends, you're a little baffled by UK politics, understandably. Look at it this way: imagine Kamala had won. Same playbook entirely, but with vastly more cash. We dodged that bullet. Good luck, UK.
Europoors will hate this.
OK, so maybe the UK's sunk beneath the waves of a rainbow caliphate. Problem. Solution? Launch USMC at the Sceptered Isle. Reliable sources tell me more than a few members of UKLF would support such a thing when they're not busy bulling boots.
LSP
Just for kix
Den. Hmmm, for me that'd be some club on Pall Mall. Perhaps we're one, eh?
See you in Clubland,
LSP
