A man walking by window just now was whistling a John Denver tune, Annie's Song, in perfect pitch. I just caught a glimpse of him... He looks about 65 or 70 years old, but walks more feebly than that. He was wearing a "bear bryant" style hat, shuffling along with his newspaper under one arm and an umbrella in the other hand. I wish I could pop out and introduce myself to him without seeming a complete crazy.
I can hear church bells ringing around the corner. The trees in the park across the street are turning golden and red brown. They'll have lost all their leaves soon. The pub man across the corner has swept up from the night before (the rugby world cup semi-finals were on over the weekend) and is now washing down the sidewalks. The borough's rubbish collectors are coming round to the dumpsters and recycling bins. A laundry truck just rumbled by and the cabs are picking up tourists and dropping them off again. There are a half dozen small-ish hotels within a block of us, so the drumming of luggage wheels bouncing over the pavement stones is a common sound. Many different languages and accents all converge on our little street each day and night.
The morning sun has burned off the foggy clouds that covered the city in a misty blanket at dawn. It looks like the afternoon will be beautiful. I predict that Brooks and I will head to Kensington Park Gardens to the playground swings after he wakes from his nap. Maybe we'll meet a friend there.
The start of another week in London...
Monday, October 15, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Church Hunting in London
Today we went back to a church just about four blocks from our flat, up in Westbourne Grove. It's a small Anglican (church of England) congregation, a plant of Holy Trinity Brompton, that meets in a beautiful old stone neighborhood church building complete with stained glass windows and a pipe organ. We went there last week, but as the vicar was in Boston marrying one of the church leaders to an American fiance, we realized that we hadn't gotten the full picture of the church on our first visit. So we decided to give it another try.
The church body there is quite small. Today the vicar counted 54 adults and 21 children in attendence. It's also very diverse. People from lots of different places and age groups make up the congregation and there's something really lovely about singing old hymns between a child and an elderly African woman. I also met a young woman named "Rejoice" today. What a great name!! It reminded me of the Old Testament characters whose names matched their characters and hearts. The people we've met there are very friendly. Several people came up to introduce themselves after the service and almost everything there lives within 4 or 5 blocks of the church.
The message was solid, though Eric was able to get more out of it than I could, as I spent the sermon portion of the service wrangling a squirmy almost 11-month old (there is no nursery volunteer). The music selection was good, a nice mix of hymns from my childhood, plus some worship songs that I knew and one or two new ones for us. It definitely lacked the "polish" of worship at all the other churches I've attended, but as Eric pointed out, it would be an easy area for me to jump in and serve the church! :) Their communion seemed very community-focused, social rather than solemn, with the older woman in front of us turning around to chat with Brooks. She was enchanted with him and tried to give him cough drop "candies"...
Honestly, though, I'm a bit hesitant about plugging in there. Will it ever feel like our church family if the rest of the church is as transient as we are? (According to one member, this whole area struggles with having short-term attendees actually plug in. Sound familiar, PCC friends?!) Will we be able to find a couple friend or two to pal around with in the city or even another mom for me to connect with during the week? Will we find the fellowship of a small group or the ability to use our gifts at this church? It's so small, I really don't know.
We met the vicar and his wife and had a lovely chat with each of them during the coffee/tea hour after the service. We were warmly greeted by three woman that we spoke to at length last week, particularly welcomed by one of them who remembered all three of our names. They seemed so excited to see us returning.
I guess the decision is now ours - thankfully, I believe we have found two churches where we *could* go, now it's just a question of which one to dive into. Thoughts or advice are welcomed. And please pray with us that we'd make a good decision.
The church body there is quite small. Today the vicar counted 54 adults and 21 children in attendence. It's also very diverse. People from lots of different places and age groups make up the congregation and there's something really lovely about singing old hymns between a child and an elderly African woman. I also met a young woman named "Rejoice" today. What a great name!! It reminded me of the Old Testament characters whose names matched their characters and hearts. The people we've met there are very friendly. Several people came up to introduce themselves after the service and almost everything there lives within 4 or 5 blocks of the church.
The message was solid, though Eric was able to get more out of it than I could, as I spent the sermon portion of the service wrangling a squirmy almost 11-month old (there is no nursery volunteer). The music selection was good, a nice mix of hymns from my childhood, plus some worship songs that I knew and one or two new ones for us. It definitely lacked the "polish" of worship at all the other churches I've attended, but as Eric pointed out, it would be an easy area for me to jump in and serve the church! :) Their communion seemed very community-focused, social rather than solemn, with the older woman in front of us turning around to chat with Brooks. She was enchanted with him and tried to give him cough drop "candies"...
Honestly, though, I'm a bit hesitant about plugging in there. Will it ever feel like our church family if the rest of the church is as transient as we are? (According to one member, this whole area struggles with having short-term attendees actually plug in. Sound familiar, PCC friends?!) Will we be able to find a couple friend or two to pal around with in the city or even another mom for me to connect with during the week? Will we find the fellowship of a small group or the ability to use our gifts at this church? It's so small, I really don't know.
We met the vicar and his wife and had a lovely chat with each of them during the coffee/tea hour after the service. We were warmly greeted by three woman that we spoke to at length last week, particularly welcomed by one of them who remembered all three of our names. They seemed so excited to see us returning.
I guess the decision is now ours - thankfully, I believe we have found two churches where we *could* go, now it's just a question of which one to dive into. Thoughts or advice are welcomed. And please pray with us that we'd make a good decision.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Amazing Grace
Tonight we saw this movie for the first time.
It tells an inspiring story of the passionate evangelical Christian William Wilberforce, the man primarily responsible for the abolition of the British slave trade in the 1830s. His dedication and conviction and vision were all at the heart of the movie (along with a TON of parliamentary details), but I was really struck by one thing. He gave himself entirely away to what he believed in. He spent so many years fighting this freedom battle, he faced so much opposition and endured so many disappointments, yet he did not give up. He kept fighting and kept pushing.
I want to be a person of that kind of courage. And I want to raise children who will take on the wrongs of their society with the same sense of purpose. And I want to support and encourage my husband's efforts to change the world as God calls him. I don't want a boring comfortable existence but want to live a life of meaning.
Eric and I have wondered aloud at times if this stint in London is just the prologue for another story, one of the first steps to moving out of our place of comfort and convenience and following His lead. I wonder...
As of right now, we believe our calling is to make our home here for a few years and to invest in this little family of ours. But I trust that the Lord will continue to speak to us and show us where He wants us to go. May we always be willing, no matter what the cost.
It tells an inspiring story of the passionate evangelical Christian William Wilberforce, the man primarily responsible for the abolition of the British slave trade in the 1830s. His dedication and conviction and vision were all at the heart of the movie (along with a TON of parliamentary details), but I was really struck by one thing. He gave himself entirely away to what he believed in. He spent so many years fighting this freedom battle, he faced so much opposition and endured so many disappointments, yet he did not give up. He kept fighting and kept pushing.
I want to be a person of that kind of courage. And I want to raise children who will take on the wrongs of their society with the same sense of purpose. And I want to support and encourage my husband's efforts to change the world as God calls him. I don't want a boring comfortable existence but want to live a life of meaning.
Eric and I have wondered aloud at times if this stint in London is just the prologue for another story, one of the first steps to moving out of our place of comfort and convenience and following His lead. I wonder...
As of right now, we believe our calling is to make our home here for a few years and to invest in this little family of ours. But I trust that the Lord will continue to speak to us and show us where He wants us to go. May we always be willing, no matter what the cost.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Germany & Luxembourg - 27-28 Sept 07
A few weeks ago, I asked Eric what he wanted for his 32nd birthday (30 Sept) and he answered that he wanted to visit a new country. We started looking online for discount flights and determined that we could fly into Dussledorf, Germany and be just a short road trip away from Luxembourg, which neither of us had seen. Given that there were all kind of great things to see on the way through Germany, we booked it!
We landed early in the morning in Weeze, Germany (what's up with this airport in the middle of the rural nothingness?! Is there a town anywhere nearby?) and drove straight to Koln (Cologne on an English map). The first highlight of the trip was the Dom Kolner.
(Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com)
Photo from our camera. Brooks loved his rain shield that day! :)
This is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and it was begun in 1248 AD to appropriately house the Shrine of the Three Wise Men (a gift to the city of Koln from the Holy Roman Emperor in the 1100s).
According to tradition, the bones of the Magi are *in there*. It's HUGE and covered in gold. (The candles nearby are over three feet tall just to give you an idea of scale...)
The church wasn't finished until 1880 when it was officially the tallest building in the world, (surpassed only by the Washington Monument in DC a few years later). Our impression upon entering the church was just WOW... It was a rainy gloomy day outside, but even after that, silently stepping into the darkness required our eyes to adjust. It was impossible not to look up at the ceiling and gawk. How did the Medieval architects even dream to build this?! It's bigger than Notre Dame, but the same idea - tall interwoven arches, stained glass reaching to the ceiling, huge columns and an impressive view up the center aisle. The church is bathed in candlelight - prayers of the faithful warm the altar area, making the gold shimmer and softening all the stone around it. The largest surviving Medieval statue is on display in a side chapel and original choir stalls line the sides of the front and center altar. Really impressive. Even better, they don't offer tourist descriptions, they hand out prayer booklets, so you can pray as you visit, assuming you read German.
From Koln, we headed to German wine country to take a meandering rode along the Moselle River Valley on our way to Luxembourg. One cute town after another lined the drive and we only got turned around two or three times! (We blamed our directional challenges on my cold, which was at its worst on our first day, but got better each day.) By the time we turned our car towards Luxembourg, it was close to supper time and we weren't exactly sure where we were heading that night. After examining the map more thoroughly, we realized that we were actually hours from our hotel - doh! We avoided minor roads, with the expectation that the Luxembourg interstates would be fastest, but no ... loads of construction meant that we didn't get into Vianden until after 8pm, starving, and with a confused, but still miraculously happy baby. We savored a great dinner (as much as you can savor a meal with an active 10.5 month old in your lap!) and then collapsed into a comfortable charming BnB/Hotel.
Friday we spent the day touring around Luxembourg. What's there to see in Luxembourg, you ask? Castles. Castles, castles, and more castles. Without much planning on our part, the sites actually got better as the day went on as they got more "ruined". While I appreciated the inside warmth (castle #1) and the occasional helpful tidbits from the audio tour (castle #2), I think Eric particularly liked exploring the more rustic, less restored versions of these medieval fortresses. Castle #3 had no entrance fee, you just parked at the bottom of the hill, wandered up through the town, and climbed around on the rocks and tried to figure out what you were looking at. It was very cool and easy to see why the lord of the town choose that spot for his castle. Amazing views.... Here are some of the best pictures.
Strolling up the hill to the first castle. All these castles were at the tops of mini-mountains - better security for the lords of the day. Just means a good view (and work-out!) for the visiting tourists now! :)
Misty fall day, from castle #1.
Dad was teaching the little guy how to look out the fortress window for baddies... LOVE this shot from Castle #2!
The rare group family shot. Brooks hasn't yet figured out how to handle the camera timer. (Don't look at Daddy when he's not behind the camera!! Look at the camera!)
Brooks' favorite seat in the whole castle! (still at #2)
At the top of the keep of Castle #2
Can you see how the river bends into a horseshoe at the base of the castle?! Gorgeous!!
That's our car in the parking lot at the top of the picture. Obviously not a lot of tourists out today... alternating gloom, mist, and rain.
But boy, with the leaves changing and the mist falling, it was certainly picturesque.
Hiking up through the town to Castle #3 (can you tell what essential piece of baby gear we left at the hotel that morning?! The wrap! Oops!)
Keep walking, cause you won't knock down our wall. Keep walking, but she isn't going to fall!
This was the most rugged and ruined of all the castles we saw, and by far was Eric's favorite.
Eric says "One day lad, all this will be yours."
"What, the curtains?!" says Brooks.
"No! Not the curtains!" replies his father.
Can't I just chew on my paci for a sec while you guys look at these old rocks?
Castle #3 as we head out of town, back to our village.
Castle #1 definitely gets my vote for best exterior. This is the view as we drove back home that afternoon (we were staying in the village down below)... LOVED the trees. Em, if I do get to become the Princess of Luxembourg one day, then I pick THIS as my castle! :)
Brooks in his new big-boy car seat at the end of a long day of touring...
So tuckered out! Man, does he look grown up or what?! What a cute little.
Okay, this is getting really long. The next post will have the rest of our trip...
We landed early in the morning in Weeze, Germany (what's up with this airport in the middle of the rural nothingness?! Is there a town anywhere nearby?) and drove straight to Koln (Cologne on an English map). The first highlight of the trip was the Dom Kolner.
(Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com)
Photo from our camera. Brooks loved his rain shield that day! :)
This is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and it was begun in 1248 AD to appropriately house the Shrine of the Three Wise Men (a gift to the city of Koln from the Holy Roman Emperor in the 1100s).
According to tradition, the bones of the Magi are *in there*. It's HUGE and covered in gold. (The candles nearby are over three feet tall just to give you an idea of scale...)
The church wasn't finished until 1880 when it was officially the tallest building in the world, (surpassed only by the Washington Monument in DC a few years later). Our impression upon entering the church was just WOW... It was a rainy gloomy day outside, but even after that, silently stepping into the darkness required our eyes to adjust. It was impossible not to look up at the ceiling and gawk. How did the Medieval architects even dream to build this?! It's bigger than Notre Dame, but the same idea - tall interwoven arches, stained glass reaching to the ceiling, huge columns and an impressive view up the center aisle. The church is bathed in candlelight - prayers of the faithful warm the altar area, making the gold shimmer and softening all the stone around it. The largest surviving Medieval statue is on display in a side chapel and original choir stalls line the sides of the front and center altar. Really impressive. Even better, they don't offer tourist descriptions, they hand out prayer booklets, so you can pray as you visit, assuming you read German.
From Koln, we headed to German wine country to take a meandering rode along the Moselle River Valley on our way to Luxembourg. One cute town after another lined the drive and we only got turned around two or three times! (We blamed our directional challenges on my cold, which was at its worst on our first day, but got better each day.) By the time we turned our car towards Luxembourg, it was close to supper time and we weren't exactly sure where we were heading that night. After examining the map more thoroughly, we realized that we were actually hours from our hotel - doh! We avoided minor roads, with the expectation that the Luxembourg interstates would be fastest, but no ... loads of construction meant that we didn't get into Vianden until after 8pm, starving, and with a confused, but still miraculously happy baby. We savored a great dinner (as much as you can savor a meal with an active 10.5 month old in your lap!) and then collapsed into a comfortable charming BnB/Hotel.
Friday we spent the day touring around Luxembourg. What's there to see in Luxembourg, you ask? Castles. Castles, castles, and more castles. Without much planning on our part, the sites actually got better as the day went on as they got more "ruined". While I appreciated the inside warmth (castle #1) and the occasional helpful tidbits from the audio tour (castle #2), I think Eric particularly liked exploring the more rustic, less restored versions of these medieval fortresses. Castle #3 had no entrance fee, you just parked at the bottom of the hill, wandered up through the town, and climbed around on the rocks and tried to figure out what you were looking at. It was very cool and easy to see why the lord of the town choose that spot for his castle. Amazing views.... Here are some of the best pictures.
Strolling up the hill to the first castle. All these castles were at the tops of mini-mountains - better security for the lords of the day. Just means a good view (and work-out!) for the visiting tourists now! :)
Misty fall day, from castle #1.
Dad was teaching the little guy how to look out the fortress window for baddies... LOVE this shot from Castle #2!
The rare group family shot. Brooks hasn't yet figured out how to handle the camera timer. (Don't look at Daddy when he's not behind the camera!! Look at the camera!)
Brooks' favorite seat in the whole castle! (still at #2)
At the top of the keep of Castle #2
Can you see how the river bends into a horseshoe at the base of the castle?! Gorgeous!!
That's our car in the parking lot at the top of the picture. Obviously not a lot of tourists out today... alternating gloom, mist, and rain.
But boy, with the leaves changing and the mist falling, it was certainly picturesque.
Hiking up through the town to Castle #3 (can you tell what essential piece of baby gear we left at the hotel that morning?! The wrap! Oops!)
Keep walking, cause you won't knock down our wall. Keep walking, but she isn't going to fall!
This was the most rugged and ruined of all the castles we saw, and by far was Eric's favorite.
Eric says "One day lad, all this will be yours."
"What, the curtains?!" says Brooks.
"No! Not the curtains!" replies his father.
Can't I just chew on my paci for a sec while you guys look at these old rocks?
Castle #3 as we head out of town, back to our village.
Castle #1 definitely gets my vote for best exterior. This is the view as we drove back home that afternoon (we were staying in the village down below)... LOVED the trees. Em, if I do get to become the Princess of Luxembourg one day, then I pick THIS as my castle! :)
Brooks in his new big-boy car seat at the end of a long day of touring...
So tuckered out! Man, does he look grown up or what?! What a cute little.
Okay, this is getting really long. The next post will have the rest of our trip...
Thursday, October 4, 2007
First Real Word
Ma-Ma!
Brooks was strapped into his stroller, we were ready for our outing to Hyde Park, but I forgot something. I ran back to the bedroom to grab the final item, and all of a sudden Brooks stopped squealing and called out for me.
Ma-Ma!
His first word. My name. Clearly meant to communicate "Hey you! Where are you? Where did you go? Come back!"
My heart melted. Happy day.
Ma-Ma!
Brooks was strapped into his stroller, we were ready for our outing to Hyde Park, but I forgot something. I ran back to the bedroom to grab the final item, and all of a sudden Brooks stopped squealing and called out for me.
Ma-Ma!
His first word. My name. Clearly meant to communicate "Hey you! Where are you? Where did you go? Come back!"
My heart melted. Happy day.
Ma-Ma!
Setting up house
Brooks and I have been having a great time getting our flat in order the past few days. We spend several hours most days going in search of things at the little shops near our place, or taking the bus down to High Street Kensington where I've found that we can get almost anything we need. It's been fun/funny/frustrating (depending on the day) trying to locate the items that we need to manage a house... Last week, I made a 45 minute visit to a housewares store in order to learn all about UK cleaning supplies & laundry detergents. Yesterday was a special trip to the lightbulb store to get a lesson in volts/wattage and try to figure out how to get our crazy UK lightbulbs changed (they don't have our standard screw in kind here). I even made several trips in and out of Argos trying to make sense of that place - it's a catalog ordering company, a la the old school Service Merchandise, where you flip through catalogs, write down the product number on a slip of paper, pay for the item at a kiosk or till (cash register) and then they pull your order off the hidden shelves in the back and send it up to the collection point via conveyor belts. It's really quite efficient, and I should have just asked someone how it worked the first time! And they seem to have at least one of just about everything.
You might have laughed (or cried) if you had seen us on the street yesterday evening. Brooks was riding in his stroller, my purse and some light bulbs were slung over the handlebars, three bags of groceries were stuffed in the underseat stroller basket, and drapped over my forearms were two enormous plastic Argos bags holding the following - a wood and metal telephone table, a two basket stacked cabinet for the bathroom, a "tidy rail" (a hanging clothes rack), a metal over-door coat rack, and a waterproof cover for Eric's bike. Thankfully none of the furniture was assembled, but I'm literally attempting to walk down High Street Ken like this while pushing Brooks' stroller. I was thinking that my arms were going to fall off! In that moment, I so missed my Camry and the ease and convenience of a run to Target!! As I got to the bus stop and took the bags off my arms, my bus was JUST rolling up. Thankfully another woman had mercy on me, and offered to help get Brooks up and onto the bus, so I could just manage the bags. (I think moms worldwide have a special radar out for helping other moms... it's universal.) By the time I got home, I was sweaty and tired, but feeling oh so proud of myself!!
Eric put everything together last night after supper, then we sorted through the remaining boxes of clothes and things from home, and he made a big pile of household goods that our landlady still needs to remove (as this was a very furnished apartment, we ended up having lots of duplicates in the way of kitchenwares and linens, once our goods from Chicago arrived). Since a shipment of things for Brooks and me arrived today (thanks Mom!), the moving company is coming back to remove the boxes and wrapping papers, and the landlady is coming to take away her things, we are so close to having our house mostly "set".
I'll post some pictures as soon as we're done, I promise! We have room for guests... come and see us!!
You might have laughed (or cried) if you had seen us on the street yesterday evening. Brooks was riding in his stroller, my purse and some light bulbs were slung over the handlebars, three bags of groceries were stuffed in the underseat stroller basket, and drapped over my forearms were two enormous plastic Argos bags holding the following - a wood and metal telephone table, a two basket stacked cabinet for the bathroom, a "tidy rail" (a hanging clothes rack), a metal over-door coat rack, and a waterproof cover for Eric's bike. Thankfully none of the furniture was assembled, but I'm literally attempting to walk down High Street Ken like this while pushing Brooks' stroller. I was thinking that my arms were going to fall off! In that moment, I so missed my Camry and the ease and convenience of a run to Target!! As I got to the bus stop and took the bags off my arms, my bus was JUST rolling up. Thankfully another woman had mercy on me, and offered to help get Brooks up and onto the bus, so I could just manage the bags. (I think moms worldwide have a special radar out for helping other moms... it's universal.) By the time I got home, I was sweaty and tired, but feeling oh so proud of myself!!
Eric put everything together last night after supper, then we sorted through the remaining boxes of clothes and things from home, and he made a big pile of household goods that our landlady still needs to remove (as this was a very furnished apartment, we ended up having lots of duplicates in the way of kitchenwares and linens, once our goods from Chicago arrived). Since a shipment of things for Brooks and me arrived today (thanks Mom!), the moving company is coming back to remove the boxes and wrapping papers, and the landlady is coming to take away her things, we are so close to having our house mostly "set".
I'll post some pictures as soon as we're done, I promise! We have room for guests... come and see us!!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Blenheim - 15 Sept 07
Eric and I decided at the last minute (ie, at 11:00pm the night before) that we were going to head up to the Cotswolds for the weekend. Well, it wasn't entirely last minute - we knew we were going to do something, but weren't quite sure what. It feels like such an amazing luxury to have an entire weekend with no plans ... I'm not sure we had three of those weekends in Chicago ever! We reserved a car Friday night and set out in search of it Saturday morning. After a little bit of craziness trying to get going (FYI Dollar's Rental Car "Heathrow" desk is actually at a hotel approximately 5 miles, and requires a very expensive shuttle bus from the airport to find it), we were on our way. We found ourselves at Blenheim Palace on Saturday afternoon.
Um, WOW!
Blenheim (pronounced BLEN-um) is Britain's only privately-owned palace and it's just enormous. We spent three hours there and could have easily stayed three or four more. The sprawling palace (which reminded me over and over again of Versailles, France) was built in the first part of the 18th century for the Churchill family. It was Queen Anne's thanks to General John Churchill (1st Duke of Marlborough) for a war victory in Blenheim, Germany. The building itself covers 7 acres (of the 2100 acres bequeathed to the family) and was once described by a writer as a "petrified dinosaur or beached whale" - yep, it's that big. But the interiors are lovely, and the beautifully landscaped grounds are even better. Winston Churchill was born (prematurely) in the west wing of the palace. He was the first cousin of Duke #9, the one who married Consuela Vanderbilt (all kinds of juicy gossip in our tour about the young, rich, beautiful American heiress) and spent a lot of time there over the years. The WW2 hero also proposed to his bride Clementine on the grounds, in this little temple...
over-looking this lake ....
It was lovely. As Eric has been reading about Winston Churchill for over a year (a massive biography!) he particularly enjoyed the Churchill rooms with some unique memorabilia from his life. I really liked the library at the west end of the building ... It was designed as a winter "ladies room" so the lady of the house could get exercise walking laps in this ridiculously long room while enjoying the sunshine through the upper windows.
This is about 1/3 of the room's length. Note the huge statue of Queen Anne - giver of this great gift of a house - at the end of the room.
Eric also enjoyed figuring out the current cost of the land and building... Apparently in today's dollars, it would have cost several billion dollars just to build this house, in *addition* to the cost of the land given. Amazing! We decided that if we're ever invited to a wedding here (the family still lives there, but they rent out the gardens and public rooms for private functions) we are definitely going!
Anyway, I leave you with a few more pictures.
The organ at the far end of the library is exquisite, and the ornate ceiling above it is painted in over a dozen different shades of apricot, to highlight the rich texturing of the ceiling patterns.
The high windows, the old books, the classic architecture and fine paintings... I couldn't believe that this is actually someone's HOME. Duke #11 still lives here. Crazy. The tables and things are temporary... the library was being set up for a charity event later that evening.
The formal "water gardens"...
The rose garden is spectacular! I thought over and over again that I needed to show this to my dad. Mounds of plants, all exploding with color, and the fragrance is just heavenly...
The petals beneath these particular bushes reminded me of bridal paths. The earth seemed carpeted in white velvet instead of grass...
One blossom of more than a million... This rose was growing up the side of one of the arches that you can see were circling the whole garden.
Brooks kept trying to pick the petals off... He will not be distracted from his task for a photo!
There were so many big beautiful old trees. This one made me feel like I was walking through the set of "Emma" and wondered where Mr Knightley was... (remember the scene under the trees at the very end, with the really gorgeous glooming light?!)
How much of the entrance can we squeeze into one shot? Not much unless we walk reeeeeally far back into the courtyard. (And yes, the weather really was that perfect!)
Um, WOW!
Blenheim (pronounced BLEN-um) is Britain's only privately-owned palace and it's just enormous. We spent three hours there and could have easily stayed three or four more. The sprawling palace (which reminded me over and over again of Versailles, France) was built in the first part of the 18th century for the Churchill family. It was Queen Anne's thanks to General John Churchill (1st Duke of Marlborough) for a war victory in Blenheim, Germany. The building itself covers 7 acres (of the 2100 acres bequeathed to the family) and was once described by a writer as a "petrified dinosaur or beached whale" - yep, it's that big. But the interiors are lovely, and the beautifully landscaped grounds are even better. Winston Churchill was born (prematurely) in the west wing of the palace. He was the first cousin of Duke #9, the one who married Consuela Vanderbilt (all kinds of juicy gossip in our tour about the young, rich, beautiful American heiress) and spent a lot of time there over the years. The WW2 hero also proposed to his bride Clementine on the grounds, in this little temple...
over-looking this lake ....
It was lovely. As Eric has been reading about Winston Churchill for over a year (a massive biography!) he particularly enjoyed the Churchill rooms with some unique memorabilia from his life. I really liked the library at the west end of the building ... It was designed as a winter "ladies room" so the lady of the house could get exercise walking laps in this ridiculously long room while enjoying the sunshine through the upper windows.
This is about 1/3 of the room's length. Note the huge statue of Queen Anne - giver of this great gift of a house - at the end of the room.
Eric also enjoyed figuring out the current cost of the land and building... Apparently in today's dollars, it would have cost several billion dollars just to build this house, in *addition* to the cost of the land given. Amazing! We decided that if we're ever invited to a wedding here (the family still lives there, but they rent out the gardens and public rooms for private functions) we are definitely going!
Anyway, I leave you with a few more pictures.
The organ at the far end of the library is exquisite, and the ornate ceiling above it is painted in over a dozen different shades of apricot, to highlight the rich texturing of the ceiling patterns.
The high windows, the old books, the classic architecture and fine paintings... I couldn't believe that this is actually someone's HOME. Duke #11 still lives here. Crazy. The tables and things are temporary... the library was being set up for a charity event later that evening.
The formal "water gardens"...
The rose garden is spectacular! I thought over and over again that I needed to show this to my dad. Mounds of plants, all exploding with color, and the fragrance is just heavenly...
The petals beneath these particular bushes reminded me of bridal paths. The earth seemed carpeted in white velvet instead of grass...
One blossom of more than a million... This rose was growing up the side of one of the arches that you can see were circling the whole garden.
Brooks kept trying to pick the petals off... He will not be distracted from his task for a photo!
There were so many big beautiful old trees. This one made me feel like I was walking through the set of "Emma" and wondered where Mr Knightley was... (remember the scene under the trees at the very end, with the really gorgeous glooming light?!)
How much of the entrance can we squeeze into one shot? Not much unless we walk reeeeeally far back into the courtyard. (And yes, the weather really was that perfect!)
A visit to Ashford - 23 Sept 07
Last Sunday Eric, Brooks and I went to Ashford, England to visit the Wilson family whom we know from Park. At Waterloo station, we bumped into Joe and Denise Durkin who were on the tail end of their month long honeymoon and were headed to the same place. What fun to hear about their wedding and travel adventures as we rode the train down together.
Keith Wilson is the head pastor of Ashford Community Church, a small congregation in a charming little village just a few minutes from the Thames. We all enjoyed the members’ warm greetings - I particularly appreciated all the doting on Brooks. I also noticed that the average age seemed to be several decades older than Park’s! Keith did a great job leading the service, including engaging with the young people and bringing his family up on stage to lead the congregation in a new song. Brooks played happily in the crèche and we all stayed for the social hour afterwards and met some of the congregation.
After church, we walked around the church to the parsonage next door to hang out with Keith, Caroline, and their family for the afternoon. What fun!! It was great to see their home and their four kids who have grown up so much in the last couple of years. Brooks napped on the floor of Jesse and Luke’s room (surrounded by Cubs décor, and laying on a Cubs blanket – awesome!) while we gathered around the table and ate and talked about Park, and Ashford, and business, and family, and education, and the difference in the life in the US and UK… Cag makes fantastic “puddings” (the English word for any sort of dessert) and I savored every minute and each bite.
I also loved our stroll along the Thames with Keith, Cag, Abby and Sampson (their beautiful, sweet, enormous “puppy”) later that afternoon and the chance for more conversation. Eric and Keith discussed ministry while Cag and I talked about family life and how both families are adjusting to the UK. She had some great tips for shopping and bargain hunting in London (hurray!) And just hearing a few snip-its of her own challenges was such a privilege.
It’s quite obvious that most of their family would prefer to be in the states again (they all miss Chicago very much!). Understanding their collective and individual struggles as they settle back in UK life somehow soothed me as we headed back into London that evening. Perhaps simply considering other people’s challenges was good perspective. But more than that… there was a real joy in their house despite some very intense - but thwarted – longings. I loved watching how the whole family related to each other and I thought several times – I hope my kids are this helpful, kind, articulate, engaging... The desires for their circumstances to change were real, but the healthy family interactions were, too.
Once again, it was a gift to see their family in action and the entire visit was just so good for my heart! Thanks again, Wilsons!
Jesse and Brooks talk some baseball ...
I couldn't get over how grown up Abby was?!? Wow!
I hope we can see you again soon!
Keith Wilson is the head pastor of Ashford Community Church, a small congregation in a charming little village just a few minutes from the Thames. We all enjoyed the members’ warm greetings - I particularly appreciated all the doting on Brooks. I also noticed that the average age seemed to be several decades older than Park’s! Keith did a great job leading the service, including engaging with the young people and bringing his family up on stage to lead the congregation in a new song. Brooks played happily in the crèche and we all stayed for the social hour afterwards and met some of the congregation.
After church, we walked around the church to the parsonage next door to hang out with Keith, Caroline, and their family for the afternoon. What fun!! It was great to see their home and their four kids who have grown up so much in the last couple of years. Brooks napped on the floor of Jesse and Luke’s room (surrounded by Cubs décor, and laying on a Cubs blanket – awesome!) while we gathered around the table and ate and talked about Park, and Ashford, and business, and family, and education, and the difference in the life in the US and UK… Cag makes fantastic “puddings” (the English word for any sort of dessert) and I savored every minute and each bite.
I also loved our stroll along the Thames with Keith, Cag, Abby and Sampson (their beautiful, sweet, enormous “puppy”) later that afternoon and the chance for more conversation. Eric and Keith discussed ministry while Cag and I talked about family life and how both families are adjusting to the UK. She had some great tips for shopping and bargain hunting in London (hurray!) And just hearing a few snip-its of her own challenges was such a privilege.
It’s quite obvious that most of their family would prefer to be in the states again (they all miss Chicago very much!). Understanding their collective and individual struggles as they settle back in UK life somehow soothed me as we headed back into London that evening. Perhaps simply considering other people’s challenges was good perspective. But more than that… there was a real joy in their house despite some very intense - but thwarted – longings. I loved watching how the whole family related to each other and I thought several times – I hope my kids are this helpful, kind, articulate, engaging... The desires for their circumstances to change were real, but the healthy family interactions were, too.
Once again, it was a gift to see their family in action and the entire visit was just so good for my heart! Thanks again, Wilsons!
Jesse and Brooks talk some baseball ...
I couldn't get over how grown up Abby was?!? Wow!
I hope we can see you again soon!
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