We Thank Thee, Our Father ~ Hymn

We Thank Thee, Our Father

For the fruits of the earth,
And the sky and the sea,
For the bountiful harvests
So wondrously free,
For the gold of the autumn,
The sear and the brown,
For the bloom of the flower
When winter is flown,
For the work and the play,
For the night and the day,

Refrain

We thank Thee, our Father,
Yea, praise and extol;
We thank Thee, our Father,
Great God of us all.

For the touch of wee hands,
In the tender caress,
For the lips of the fairest,
And dearest we press,
For the strength of our fathers,
Whose vigor we share,
For the faith of our mothers,
For love that they bear—
For the friends of tried worth,
For the land of our birth,

Refrain

For the toil of our hands,
For the task that commands,
For the field that is white
Unto harvest demands,
For the hope of the triumph
Of peace o’er the sword,
For the Son of High Heaven,
Our Savior and Lord,
For the crown that He wore,
For the cross that He bore,

Refrain

Words: Daniel L. Poling, 1917.

Porthtowan, Cornwall, England

We stopped at Blue and had a pint with a beautiful view of Porthtowan beach before we headed out on a hike up the beach trail. This will be a photo overload post.

One and three quarter miles SW of St Agnes, Cornwall.
Named in Dines as Great Wheal Charlotte, there is a wide area of barren ground which appears to consist mostly of old mine waste material. The area overlooks the sea and is popular with walkers, it is easily reached by an old trackway from the nearby coast road or via the coastal footpath network.

Back to our car parked at Blue and home for some leftover Chicken Noodle soup. The wonderful end to a day filled with beautiful views of God’s creation.

On Sunday we are having our friend from Porthtowan whose parent’s home we stayed in while we were in Cornwall over for a meal. Our meal might just have something to do with Jolly Old England…

What are your plans for this weekend. Do any of you get Monday off for Veteran’s Day, Remembrance Day, Armistice Day?

Steep and Crumbling…

We had a very nice scenic ride from St. Ives back to Porthtowan along the coastal cliffs. We stopped along the way to peek over the cliffs to the sea.

It was very windy and I tried to capture how the wind was whipping the grass and bending it over.

Did I mention it was windy?

Later when we finally reached Porthtowan we had a little something to stave off our dehydration and then we took a nice hike along the cliffs.

I am happy to announce that my little sewing projects are now completed. I even managed to dig out my MIL’s old sewing box and use some of her bias tape (she had about 50 packages from Penny’s for 6 cents each) to do a couple extra projects. Oh I’m looking forward to showing you all the fun things we have going for our time here on Sunday. I hope when I finally show and tell it’s not anti-climactic.

I almost forgot…head over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook today to see my Butter Pecan Pumpkin Squares. Yum…

St. Ives Deux…

It was such a beautiful warm day in St. Ives and I took so many photos. I mentioned in my previous post that the tide was out when we arrived.

We enjoyed seeing some residences that peaked our curiosity.

I have never read any novels by Daphne Du Maurier. Have you?

The tide started rolling in while we took a stroll around the town.

We followed the cobbled and narrow streets back to the train station with one last view of the tide that had rolled in.

St. Ives is the last stop on this line so as soon as the train comes in and empties it reverses it’s course to the north…

When we made it back to our car Jeeves took us on a sea cliff route back to Porthtowen via Portreath. We stopped along the way and enjoyed some wind whipped views of the sea on high.

Back here in the Northwest we put our sewing mojo to the test and Katie and I managed to thread a bobbin and thread the sewing machine so that it actually sewed a nice zig zag on the project I’m attempting. The first step was cutting the fabric into 14 inch squares that worked nicely with a rotary cutter and cutting board. We had to stop at a sewing store so I could buy some thread that was not of the cheap variety I was using. Have I mentioned in the past that my dear mom and older sisters did the sewing in my family and I was actually kicked out of my sewing class in Junior High…oye. Well that doesn’t mean I can’t complete some sewing projects of the simple variety… I’ll be sharing soon.

I talked to my dear old pop today and he was quite pleased with some chicken wings he managed to make. He marinated them, browned them on the stove top and then finished them off in the oven. He said they were delicious. He’s managing with his cooking like I’m managing with my sewing projects. My pop never had to cook all his 70 years of marriage except for barbecuing meat.

Do you have a sewing machine? Do you sew? Did your mother sew for you?

As I Was Going to St. Ives…

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits,
kits, cats, sacks, wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

There are differing views as to which St. Ives this nursery rhyme/riddle was referring to but many believe that St. Ives in Cornwall is a good choice because it was a busy fishing port and they would need many cats to help with the rats and mice destroying the fishing gear.

We took the advice of our friend who lived in Cornwall to take the train to St. Ives because it could be hard to find parking in this busy port destination. The day before had been so gloomy and rainy so when we woke up to beautiful sunshine on September 18th we let Jeeves lead us to the railway stop. We met up with quite a crowd who had the same idea as us and were ready to enjoy the seaside in the sunshine. Thankfully we found the last parking spot in the train waiting area.

Here we are waiting in the que for the next train to arrive.

We had beautiful views of the sea as we rode the train on the short trip to St. Ives.

When we arrived our first order of business was to find the Tea Room where we had decided to eat a meal and enjoy our first Cornish cream tea.

Bliss! I have to admit it wasn’t easy to find the tea room in this bustling humanity filled town. With narrow cobbled streets filled to the brim we made our way to the end of the sea walk. When we finally spotted “the Tea Room” and got our seats we could finally…”Keep calm and carry on”

It’s amazing how a satisfying meal can make your outlook so much better and the crowds so much easier to coexist with.

The tea room was at the far end of the town and the next photo shows the view of the harbor with the tide out looking out from the tea room. I’ll be sharing photos of the harbor after the tide rolls in soon with more of the great views we enjoyed in St. Ives along St. Ives Bay.

I’m heading outside in the brisk sunny weather to try to gather up some of the leaves that fell over the weekend. The rains are headed our way again soon and I want to take advantage of this dry window before the leaves get real soggy. I’m hoping to get more creative mojo this week, too, with some final preparations for a get together at this old house on Sunday November 10th.

Blessings!

The Road to Porthtowan

After we finished at the Bishop’s Palace we traveled on the M-5 and A-30 south and found our way to the home we would be staying at in Porthtowan with the help of our SatNav Jeeves. It was a rough day of traveling because of a steady downpour of rain. The kind of rain that even the windshield wipers can’t manage. We sighed in relief while we unpacked the car and then made our way to the Tesco in Redruth for supplies for dinner and breakfast. We would be staying in Cornwall for three nights.

The view from our front porch was so calming and lovely.

After our trip to the grocery store we came back to the house and Josh made us a a wonderful pot of chicken soup. It was a nice change to eat a homemade meal and to have a kitchen at our disposal.

So happy to eat this bowl of goodness after our long day that I didn’t even stage it for the photo. This was Tuesday September 17th. On Wednesday we had a new adventure that would give us views of the Celtic Sea…

Back here in the Pacific Northwest we really had a rainy windy day here on Saturday. The leaves were blowing around with a vengeance. Most of our leafy trees are now bare which means our yard is full of leaves. The apple tree is still hanging on to it’s leaves and will be the last to let them go. The next dry spell here will be a fall clean up day at this old house. What’s happening the first full week of November at your place?

Rejoice Today With One Accord ~ Hymn

Rejoice Today With One Accord

Rejoice today with one accord,
Sing out with exultation;
Rejoice and praise our mighty Lord,
Whose arm hath brought salvation;
His works of love proclaim
The greatness of His name;
For He is God alone
Who hath His mercy shown;
Let all His saints adore Him!

When in distress to Him we cried,
He heard our sad complaining;
O trust in Him, whate’er betide,
His love is all sustaining;
Triumphant songs of praise
To Him our hearts shall raise;
Now every voice shall say,
O praise our God alway;
Let all His saints adore Him!

Words: Henry W. Baker, 1861.

Timely Advice…

Several of these photos were taken from our stop at a roadside Inn on our way to Cornwall.

The rest of the photos are some advice from other parts of England…

My last bit of timely advice to you is this…Set your clocks back tonight or you will be way too early for Church tomorrow!

Faeries and Banners…

Our daughter made her face up to hand out candy to the little neighborhood kids that would stop by last night.

We finished the night off at 7:54 P.M. with 57 little trick or treaters. All very polite and gracious.

Earlier in the day I completed a little project for an upcoming event at our house in November. It was a simple cut and clip project but I was still proud of myself to get it done. Now I’m talking myself into making some napkins from some fabric I bought to go along with our theme. Once the event is over I’ll share the decor and the theme.

How did things go at your place last night?

It’s November and I finally got the Thanksgiving bin down from the attic. We will be celebrating two Thanksgivings this year. One early on the weekend of the fifteenth with our kids (that’s the weekend our son and his girlfriend can join us) and one with friends on the actual day set aside by the U.S.A.

The Vicars Close

Vicars’ Close next to Wells Cathedral is a stunning medieval cobbled street. It is said to be the oldest continually occupied street in Europe. It was built in 1360s as an extension of the cathedral by Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury. He built the Vicar’s Hall and Close to give the men of the quire secure accommodation away from the temptations of the town. The Close and Cathedral are linked by a bridge.

It still houses members of the choir today and has remained unchanged in nearly 700 years.

This door intrigued me so I tried it and it opened. It was the entrance to a small chapel. Later I found this description on line.

The quadrangle was finally completed with the building of the Chapel at the north end in the early fifteenth century. The Chapel was dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Katherine, and it is first mentioned in a charter of 1479, but shields on the Chapel door carry the arms of Bishops Bubwith and Stafford, suggesting that the chapel was begun in the episcopate of the former and finished under the latter, giving it a date of c.1424-30. A room over the Chapel served as the Vicars’ Library.

We were constantly amazed at the history and at how old things are in England compared to the United States. We were happy to find the Vicars Close and walk along the cobbles of the oldest continually occupied street in Europe!

My back is all better with a day of rest and thank you for asking! Today is Halloween and I’m already wondering if I have enough treats to go around. I have a package of goodies with 60 individual treats. We’ll keep count and let you know how many little trick or treaters we get at our door. Katie is with us this Halloween so she’ll be the treat giver and she’ll be dressed as a faerie. I’ll take a photo…

Do you get Trick or Treaters at your door?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

We Thank Thee, Our Father ~ Hymn