Since we were so close to the Potteries we decided to at least make 2 stops on our way from Alton to the Cotswolds on Sunday. Emma Bridgewater was our #1 choice and Aynsley was close by so we stopped there, too.
Upon our arrival in Stratford Upon Avon Dear and Josh were called into service to the Crown…
All is well now so Keep Calm and Carry On…
We are on the west coast of Cornwall these days enjoying the wind and spray off the sea…
We are enjoying our Pub experiences and are rating them as we go along. The Bulls Head in Alton, Staffordshire was a huge improvement over the Boat Inn (1877) in Stoke Bruerne in Northhamptonshire.
Cheerio…
We are having a most lovely time seeing, eating, and meeting….
Looking forward to sharing when we return home. Cheerio!
I enjoyed reading the origins of adieu this morning.
This was taken at the Hailes Abbey (a 13th century Cistercian Abbey) nr. Winchcombe, Gloucester, England in 2004.
We board a British Airways flight today for London. My posting will be scarce if at all. I’m hoping to try to post a few postcards like Judy at My Front Porch. Time will tell. In the meantime you will know why I’m not visiting your blogs during this time. Blessings!
Photobucket replaced many of my photos with blurred out versions and photobucket stamped versions. They are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.
We are aware of some things that September holds for us and we aren’t naive enough to think we know all that it holds.
My mom’s life is still in the balance.
Here are some things we are looking forward to…
A milestone birthday for Dear on September 9th.
My parents 70th wedding anniversary.
(Technically they have already been married for 70 years since their wedding in Iran was in mid summer but the official date on their U.S. papers says September 13th)
A milestone trip to England with our son Josh and DIL Laura from September 12th thru the 23rd.
We know we’ll be seeing so many wonderful sites. I’m so excited to be going again with a digital camera this time. It will be Josh and Laura’s first time there. EXCITED!
Some of the planned events are:
Going to Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester for the Manchester United ~ Crystal Palace soccer game on Saturday the 14th.
A night in the Cotswolds.
A night in Wells so we can explore the cathedral and walk around the castle moat.
3 nights in Southwest Cornwall doing whatever we decide to do which will include hikes to the beach and St. Michael’s Mount.
Ending our trip with a weekend in London where we have rented an apartment home near Portabello Road. We will try to get in as many landmark London sites as possible and hope to be able to also see a play or musical.
Other things to look forward to in September after our trip are:
Day trip adventures with our daughter Katie while she is living with us for this new season which may or may not include tea. I’m also going to take advantage of Katie’s technical skills to help me hook up our new slide and photo scanner and for her to help me learn to use it!
Starting up our weekly Small group meetings again.
Our Fall Women’s Bible Study at church.
What are you looking forward to in this month of September?
My sister Lana calls me when she sees bumper stickers that make her laugh. She just called me to read a bumper sticker on the car in front of her in traffic. It reads: “Do you follow Jesus this close?” Love it. That would make you think.
My mom is still having her ups and downs and food requests. She mentioned she’d enjoy some fried chicken. My sister Lana decided to drive to the place where my parents first experienced fried chicken to pick some up for them, Knott’s Berry Farm. She ordered the whole meal plus a Boysenberry Pie for dessert. I’m hoping to see a photo soon of them enjoying the meal. I do not need to wish any further. This photo just popped up on Facebook!!
Katie and Andrew are enjoying their bittersweet days here before they are separated for 6 to 7 months. They’ve planned some fun things with family and friends the rest of the week. When God puts our Andrew on your mind please pray for his safety and for the loneliness both he and Katie will be experiencing…Thank you.
The last days of August are ticking away! What do you have going?
We are flying to Southern California for a wedding on a Blueberry Ranch Northeast of Santa Barbara. We meet up at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) with our daughter Katie who is flying from North Carolina. Our flights arrive 30 minutes apart. We’ll head north to our hotel and then on Saturday go farther North picking up Josh and Laura who are flying into Santa Barbara and on to the wedding we will go.
On Sunday we will trek across L.A. headed east to visit with my mom and pop before we fly home on Sunday evening. A whirlwind trip covering many miles on the 101 Fwy and interstate 5. It will be nice to be with my family and friends at Caleb and Marie’s wedding and have a visit with my mom and pop before we all head home on Sunday night. Katie will head back to North Carolina just in time for Andrew’s return from a month long training. As a dear friend of mine has coined…”Life is Rich”!
The photo above was taken by my sister Lana on Thursday night at the apartment. My niece Melissa was celebrating her birthday with my mom and enjoying strawberry cupcakes! A very special birthday to remember…
I’ll be sharing lots of photos of the newlyweds soon…
My computer will not be traveling with me so I’ll check in with y’all on Monday! Have a lovely weekend!
It’s almost time for Vee’s Notecard Party and I picked a theme so my choices would be easier. All of these photos are from North Carolina on Emerald Isle in early December of 2011.
This trip came about because Katie was moving into Base housing a month before Andrew would be returning from Afghanistan on his first deployment there.
Katie and I traveled together with 11 suitcases right after Thanksgiving of that year and Dear joined us the Saturday after and stayed a week. We got the house all moved in and organized and then had time for some little adventures. Andrew arrived home that year on Christmas Day. A wonderful Christmas gift for Katie and Andrew.
We will have Katie and Andrew visiting most likely the end of August or early September and then Katie will stay on with us as Andrew is deployed again sometime in the Fall. They are moving out of their Base housing before his deployment.
Oops! After visiting many of the Notecard participants I noticed I blew it and posted 5 instead of 4. I’m blaming it on hormonies…
This and that from the rest of our time in Manitoba…and of course food is involved. These events are not in any particular order.
This was the Retreat Center that we stayed in during our time in Manitoba. Our last morning there we took our coffee out on the wrap around porch.
Betty is keeping an eye on me as I trek through the tall grass and weeds over to the church next door to take a stroll through their cemetery. She was hoping I wouldn’t end up with ticks on my legs. Yikes!
Here I go…
When I got back from my trek I found most of the girls having their coffee on the porch while we waited to enjoy our breakfast. Or maybe this was after breakfast. Anyhoo I won’t say out loud on my blog what I said to make them laugh.
One thing for sure is that we did not go hungry on any day or for any meal!
We were able to make a quick stop at Betty’s home and have a little tour to see where she cooks. While we were there a storm blew through and Lovella was excited to get out into it. The reason she’s toting that hanging plant is a whole other story.
While in Betty’s community we stopped at Main Bread & Butter Co. so some of the girls could buy some famous Bothwell Squeaky Cheese. We were excited to see our book for sale on one of their displays.
Now we are all the way back to the beginning of our time in Manitoba and our first night at the Women Refreshed at the Well Retreat Center. We pretty much started with good food and ended with good food. After all…it was a cookbook signing tour.
This was Charlotte’s Cake that she made for our dessert on our first evening.
We are grateful to God for all he has done in each of our lives and the great times that we enjoy together.
It’s been good to have a large chunk of this week without any plans or appointments. The next thing on the calendar is a bridal shower on Saturday for my nephew’s future bride. Those of us up here in the PNW are happy to be able to attend a family shower without having to fly. We will be flying to the wedding in August that will be in the Santa Barbara area.
I’m experimenting with a new way to make ribs in the oven and if the recipe turns out well I’ll be sharing it on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook website on the 4th of July. Time will tell since I’m cooking it low and slow…
The Mennonite Heritage Village helps preserve the history of the Russian Mennonites.
The outdoor village takes you back to 1874 when the first Mennonites arrived in Manitoba. Over twenty historic buildings, including Mennonite homes, schools, churches, and small businesses line the village street. You can absorb the history as you walk through the village and the buildings.
This is a replica of the turn of the century General Store.
The original Klass Reimer general store was the first in the village of Steinbach back in 1884.
Lichtenau Church was built in 1930 by Mennonites who emigrated from Russia in the 1920’s.
We had an appointment at the Livery Barn Restaurant for lunch so I’ll stop here for a bit before we continue our village tour. This is Betty and her daughter Allison.
All of us chose to order the Bestje Dit enn Daut. Sample of a little this and that. All of this plus it came with a slice of rhubarb plautz. A very traditional Mennonite sampling.
Marg decided we could all sample the Cinnamon roll, too. Yummy!
Mennonites used windmills to grind grains and drain marshes throughout their history in Europe and Russia. The first windmill in Steinbach was built in 1877 by Abraham S. Friesen. A replica was built at the museum in 1972 but was destroyed by fire in 2000. Now Canada’s only operational windmill, reconstructed in 2001, is an exact replica of the 1877 windmill of Steinbach and sits in this village.
We didn’t have enough time to walk into all the buildings but I was interested in seeing the inside of one of the school buildings. This school was built in the village of Blumenhof, near Altona, in 1885.
Dear’s mother taught in a one room school house and I can imagine it was not unlike this one.
Lunch boxes or I suppose they should be called Lunch cans!
The teacher could live right in the school in an adjoining room. I think I would have preferred to have quarters elsewhere.
Old Colony Worship House
The house and barn connection and dwelling layout of this home can be traced back to Prussia/Poland, where the Mennonites settled from the 1500’s onward.
This is a Semlin which was made of sod, soil, grass and wood. These were the materials used in the first homes built by Mennonite immigrants in 1874. Although very crude, these sod buildings provided the shelter necessary for survival on the Manitoba plains. The house above and below this Semlin was a vast improvement built with oak logs and larger rooms. 
Hope you enjoyed my little tour of the Mennonite Heritage Village. Putting something together on this scale must have taken lots of hard work and volunteer hours. From what I’ve seen and experienced, Mennonites aren’t afraid of hard work. Volunteers put in hours to mow the lawns on this 40 acre site, too. It really is a great destination to visit if you travel in this area.
I have one more post to wrap up our time in Manitoba.
Hope all is well in your corner of the world.
Ht: Mennonite Heritage Village Brochure
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 