People, Look East ~ Hymn

People, Look East

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.

Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.

Birds, though you long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledging time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.

Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.

Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.

Words: Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965), 1928

HT: Nikkipolani and Shoreacres

The Cherry on Top!

We only had a few hours on Monday morning of our last day in London before we would be picked up by our taxi and swooped to Heathrow Airport. We had noticed this restaurant upon exiting the Notting Hill tube station one night and I knew I wouldn’t be happy with myself if I didn’t make it back there when it was open to enjoy a meal.

It was so worth the walk there and back again for our breakfast. Quite a delight. I’ve followed and enjoyed Jamie Oliver from his debut on U.S. food channels. When Dear and I were in London in 2003 we ventured out to Fifteen his restaurant in North/East London that trained young unemployed people to work in the restaurant industry. That restaurant started in 2002.

The hostess sat us at a nice table in the back end of the 2nd floor of Recipease. We ordered off the great breakfast menu and as we waited for our food Josh said “So, do you think Jamie will be here soon?” Just as he said that I looked behind Josh and said “well there he is coming up the stairs right now!!!” We remained cool and collected as he passed our table and sat at a table right behind us for a breakfast meeting.

When the waiter brought us our drinks we asked him if he thought it would be okay for us to ask Jamie to take a photo with us. The waiter assured us that it would be cool. He said to let him get further in to his breakfast meeting and then to ask him.

The food was delicious and the presentation was top notch. I didn’t expect anything less. After we were done with our food, Jamie got up from his meeting and walked past our table. At this point Josh asked if he would be so kind as to take a photo with us. Jamie said of course and one of the waitresses offered to take the shot and Jamie even gave her suggestions as to the best angle to shoot the photo from. I only had my little camera with me.

Our waiter photo bombed the picture! We were cracking up when we saw that. We were wondering why he asked us “so, how did that photo turn out?”

Jamie Oliver is a very genuine person and it was fun to meet him and to talk to him. He stood at our table for a long time asking us questions and answering our questions about his restaurants. On the way back to our flat we kept pinching ourselves amazed at the fun “coincidence” of this meeting.

This little out of the blue experience was a wonderful wonderful ending to our England experience! It was the “Cherry on Top” for me.

Recipease is a food and kitchen shop where you can learn to cook right on the premises. There are take away options as well as a cafe on the upper level.

So farewell London and Piccadilly Circus where all the “humanity” seems to gather. And farewell to beautiful England with all your history and beautiful countryside and hedgerows and churches and graveyards and cobblestones. I could go on and on but until next time...”Parting is such sweet sorrow”.

So I am now officially done with my posts about our trip to England this past September.

This Friday I’m recuperating from a wonderful Christmas party we had here last night with our small group. We had a build your own soft taco/burrito meal with so many wonderful toppings to add to the Carnitas (pulled pork) that I had cooking in the slow cooker all day long. I’ll share the recipe later in December on Mennonite Girls Can Cook. I’m sorry I didn’t take one photo of the toppings all in a row. Oye!

Besides being done with my England posts, I am done done done with my Christmas decorations. Now I’ll just sit back and enjoy the twinkle here and there. I love all the twinkle (to shine with a flickering gleam of light, as a star or distant light) that this time of year brings for us to enjoy. Are you twinkling?

Fortnum & Mason

I enjoy walking through this department store in London. It’s been on Piccadilly since 1707! The Queen and Duchesses made a special visit here.

There are 6 floors of merchandise in the store.

I suffer a lot from sticker shock in London so needless to say I wasn’t filling any shopping baskets!

Before I got my hand slapped by a sales lady in the hat section of the store, I managed to get a photo of Laura in one of the hats! The sales lady said no photos but we could try on any hat we wished to…

When we were done at Fortnum and Mason we walked over to Selfridge & Co. to meet Josh who had gone to an Arsenal Soccer game at Emirates Stadium. It was interesting to see the store after watching some of Mr. Selfridge but…this store was not my cup of tea. And to quote my dear daughter in law…”oh the humanity!”

We walked through one other shop that the younger duchess is said to enjoy and then headed to the underground dragging our tired feet. We picked up a take away pizza for dinner and enjoyed eating with our feet up in our flat. The next day we would spend our last few hours in London and we had a special destination for breakfast that will be my last post about our trip to England. Here are some views on our way back to the underground…

I’m happy to report that our Christmas tree is decorated to the point that it is going to be decorated. Translation: I didn’t put all the ornaments on the tree cuz I just wasn’t up to it and it is what it is…

Thursday night is our Small Group Christmas dinner and White Elephant Exchange here at this old house so I’ll be busy doing a little clean up before our company arrives.

How are things progressing at your house?

O Mystery Tree, O Mystery Tree…

Our Mystery Tree tradition is continuing this year. On Sunday we put the back seat down in the jeep and headed to the Home Depot to pick out our tree. Our round trip from home to the store and back again took a little under 45 minutes total! We arrive, we spy out the trunks of the trees in our height range in the piles where the trees are still all tied up, we pick one, buy it, throw it into the back of the jeep and head home where the stand is ready and waiting. Dear cuts off a portion of the trunk and gives it a good thrust into the stand. Tighten the screws on the trunk and get ready for the reveal…

It’s so much fun to stand back and watch as Dear cuts the string off the branches.

Tah Dah!

When I got home late last night Dear had put the lights on the tree so I can now finish decorating it. We’ll see what gets done today.

Little by little it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around this old house.

Life continues to keep us on our knees in the midst of this joyful time of Advent and more and more we look to the Hope we have in Christ. We had one of those 3 A.M. phone calls where you know the news can’t be good. A Brother in law had a heart attack that was caught in time and arteries were cleared. He’ll be home soon. We know the reality of how fragile life can be. We always wait for good news from Afghanistan. “Made it back from the Mission, I’m O.K., going to bed now, talk more later.” We rally around each other supporting each other in whatever life throws our way.

Faith

I will have faith,
However dreams are shattered;
I will have faith that righteousness can live;
I will have faith e’en when my heart is breaking,
To work and pray and give!

I will have faith
When troubled is life’s ocean,
When low-blown clouds the Pilot’s face shall hide;
I will have faith when my fair ship is battered;
I will await the turning of the tide!

I will have faith
That God is still in Heaven;
I will have faith that He is by my side;
I will have faith though every star is darkened,
That He and truth abide!

The Residence, Denver

Buckingham Palace

The walk from the underground to Buckingham Palace was lovely. I thought of Ents from the Lord of the Rings.

Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence of Britain’s sovereigns since 1837 and today is the administrative headquarters of the Monarch.

The Queen Victoria Memorial

Standing 25 meter (82 feet) high and made of 2,300 tons of gleaming white marble, the Victoria Memorial pays homage to Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901.

Victoria, of course, was the reason for the monument, but there’s much more to see than just the queen, who faces eastward away from Buckingham Palace with the words “Victoria, Regina Imperatrix” (Victoria, Queen and Emperor) placed below her.
On the north side of the monument you’ll find the Angel of Justice and on the opposite side, the Angel of Truth. On the western side, looking towards Buckingham Palace, is a statue of Charity. All of that is topped off with a gilded statue of Victory, sitting atop the pinnacle with a seated figure on either side, said to represent Courage and Constancy.

Four massive lions, each with a monumental figure, stand to the four sides of the monument, the gift of New Zealand. I missed getting a photo of one of the four of the bronzes. Agriculture and Manufacture are naturalistic, turn of the century figures. Manufacture is a tough workman, muscular, bearded and heavily muscled, wearing an apron and holding a mallet and some rolled up scroll. Peace and Progress bring us back to the classical ideal, Greek rather than Roman again. Peace recalls the summit Victory, with her light garment outlining her form, and a heavier cloak with a bold sweep over the arm and across the legs as she strides forward. In her hand, a sprig of olive leaves. Progress, a young Greek athlete, strides forward holding a torch aloft. All four figures are excellent, appearing monumental even beyond their size, and the lions, carefully modeled after live ones at London Zoo, are suitably fierce.

HT: Bob Speel’s Website

The gates around the palace were very spectacular.

When we were done at the palace we headed out to the British Library where there is a treasures room filled with manuscripts and books and music from Shakespeare, Chaucer, the Beatles, The Magna Carta, Gutenberg Bible and so many more amazing things to see all in one large room in this library. Of course photos were not allowed. If they caught you they might just chain you to this bench!

Back to the Seattle area…

We are sitting in a freeze pattern here. Brrr…

We had to let our Christmas tree thaw out after we brought it home today. We continued the tradition of buying a “Mystery Tree”. We don’t take the string off the tree until we bring it home and then the tree is revealed with all it’s good sides and bad sides! Kind of like us! The lights and decorations will have to wait until tomorrow. Thankfully we have a Christmas party here for our Small Group on Thursday night so I won’t put this last task off for too long. How are things coming at your place?

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Refrain

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Refrain

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Refrain

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Refrain

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Refrain

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Refrain

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Refrain

Words: Unknown

Thirty Nine Years Strong…

Dear and I are at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine Washington celebrating our anniversary. That’s White Rock Canada across the Salish Sea/Strait of Georgia/Semiahmoo Bay! We headed out for a morning walk but the wind chill factor threatened to freeze our faces off so we didn’t last long. I did manage to get some photos of the lovely views we have from this resort which sits on a spit between Drayton Harbor and the Strait of Georgia.

This was the view from our room last night when we arrived just before sunset. We headed to the restaurant to meet friends of ours from Birch Bay for Happy Hour.

When we got back to our room the hotel had left a nice little treat for us to help our anniversary celebration.

Back to this mornings freezing walk…

I thought of Vee when I saw this bush with the red berries.

We’re so close to White Rock, Canada that my cell phone company sent me a text warning me about international roaming fees. I called them immediately and told them I was still in the U.S.A. and they better not charge me for roaming fees. They were happy to oblige…

This building is the restaurant at Semiahmoo where we had our meal last night. Semiahmoo resort was closed for many months and was re-opened in August of this year. There are still several million dollars worth of renovations that they are in process of including renovating the rooms and the restaurants. We took advantage of the lower rates while they are in process.

In this next photo I tried to capture the stiff wind that was threatening to freeze our faces. I think the high today is only suppose to reach 28 degrees!

We have massages booked today at 2:00 in the Resort’s Spa. I’m really looking forward to that. We will be here one more night and then we’ll meander southward home tomorrow. Hope you all have a nice weekend.

Cookies!

We Gathered.

We huddled, prepared, and watched.

All hands in!

These hands made Lovella’s Nanaimo Bars, Marg’s Tee Gebaeck-Linzer Cookies, Anneliese’s Peppermint Cookies, Judy’s Peppernuts/Pfeffernuesse, Julie’s Chocolate Chocolate Gluten Free Cookies, Bev’s Honey Cookies. We also served appetizers (Red Pepper Jelly tarts, Judy’s Christmas Tree cheese board, Lepp’s prepared platters of cured meats, and Marg’s Apple Spiced Cider that was posted on the blog yesterday)

Each baker had her time in the spotlight!

Work continued out of the spotlight.

Judy had her own personal sous chef.

Even though I didn’t bake any of the cookies I got to stir!

I watched and smiled because for a change I brought along my own personal photographer. Note to sassy looking self standing behind Lovella: When you are behind the scenes and someone is taking photos you should always remember your weird expressions will get caught on film.

Favorite moment of the night…laughing about Anneliese’s good old pans!

When everything was said and done each guest at the cooking class got to take home one of these beautiful baskets of cookies the the girls had prepared ahead of time! All profits from last nights cooking class will be going to Matthew’s House in Abbotsford a non-profit help to families of children with disabilities.

Lovella took this next photo of Katie, my personal photographer for the evening. It was wonderful to have a traveling companion for the 200 mile round trip to the cooking class.

I managed to get one photo of my personal photographer before the class when we stopped for tea at Clayburn Village Candy shop where we had a lovely meal and we shared sticky toffee pudding for sweets before the sweets!

Dear and I are headed North again today. I’ll share more tomorrow on our adventure. I’m real happy someone else will be doing the driving the next couple of days.

Hope you all are enjoying some sweet moments in the bustle of this joyful time of year! Blessings…

Tower Bridge…

and the Tower of London.

Along with Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge tops Great Britain’s list of architectural icons that make up London’s distinctive skyline. While not the first bridge to span the Thames, Tower Bridge is the most recognizable and is often mistakenly referred to as “London Bridge.” While Tower Bridge is one of the world’s most famous bridges, few know its rich history.

During its original construction, Tower Bridge was considered the most impressive and advanced of bascule bridges. At the time, the hydraulics used to open the bridge were powered by steam yet still able to complete the feat within one minute. In 1976, the steam-powered pumping engines were replaced by ones powered by electricity and oil.

Tower Bridge is the only bridge on the Thames that can be raised and lowered to allow ships to pass. Supposedly, witnessing the Tower Bridge opening brings good luck because it’s such a rare occurrence. Visitors can ensure their luck by checking the Bridge Lift Times on the official Tower Bridge website.

For many, the famous nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling Down” conjures up images of the Tower Bridge. These individuals assume the rhyme refers to the raising and lowering of the bridge, but they are mistaken. The real London Bridge was located approximately a mile to the west of where Tower Bridge was constructed.
Throughout the centuries, a number of bridges have been constructed on the site of the actual London Bridge, some of which did fall into disrepair before being replaced. One of these bridges was sold to an American entrepreneur by the name of Robert P. McCulloch in 1968. McCulloch reconstructed the bridge as a tourist attraction in the desert city of Lake Havasu, Arizona.

The Tower of London has a rich and brutal history. You can read all about it on links at this page and others.

The Crown Jewels are housed at the Tower of London. You can read about the history and meaning behind many of the jewels here.

Today Katie and I are on the road to that foreign country to our North! We love to use our passports. We’re having quite a cold snap here and I hope our trip will be without snow. We are looking forward to being at Lepp Farm Market in Abbotsford ringing in the season with our Old Fashioned Cookie class. I guess we’ll need to choose a couple of our favorite Christmas Cd’s to enjoy on the road.

It’s a Christmas miracle at this old house. I mailed all my Christmas cards yesterday and now I feel I can relax for the rest of this week until we pick up our tree on Sunday! What do you like to see behind you during this busy time of year?

Birthday Celebrations!

Our DIL’s birthday is today and we got together this past Sunday to celebrate. We thought it would be fun to re-visit our most excellent England experience and headed to a British Restaurant in Redmond Washington for brunch/lunch. Neville’s is located in a trio of store fronts joined together in a strip mall in Redmond, Washington. There’s Nevile’s and then the British Pantry and the 3 Lions Pub. We had fun shopping in the British pantry after we had our meal.

We are so thankful to God for Laura and her all she adds to our family. Happy Birthday dear Laura. May God bless you dearly in your new year!

I’m happy to report on this Tuesday that our Christmas letter is done and copied off. I picked up our photo collage from Costco to pop in our Christmas cards along with the letter. That’s a load off. Now to address all the envelopes and stuff them. Tomorrow Katie and I head to Abbotsford, Canada to attend and participate in the Old Fashioned Cookie demonstration class that the Mennonite Girls are teaching at Lepp Farm Market. Fun times! Hope we don’t encounter snow. On Thursday Dear and I are headed to Semiahmoo Resort to celebrate for 2 nights. I’ll tell you what we are celebrating on Friday!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

People, Look East ~ Hymn

People, Look East

The Cherry on Top!

Fortnum & Mason

O Mystery Tree, O Mystery Tree…

Buckingham Palace

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Thirty Nine Years Strong…

Tower Bridge…

Birthday Celebrations!