Breakfast at the Feathers Hotel

Breakfast was included with our stay at the Feathers Hotel September 21st-23rd. We enjoyed some nice options they gave us.

‘Soft’ boiled eggs and Soldiers. A soldier is a thin strip of toasted bread, reminiscent of a soldier on parade. The shape lends itself to dipping into a soft-boiled egg that has had the top removed. Sadly my eggs were far from soft boiled.

On our second morning at breakfast I went for a Benedict. While on the subject of food we had another nice meal at The King’s Arms on Thursday of our stay in Woodstock.

Back to the Present: We are plugging away at February. Dear and I have a 30 minute walking routine through our home most mornings. I follow him with music on nice and loud to encourage us along our route. He commented one morning that we must look like the pirates on the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ride at Disneyland. That gave us a chuckle. If you’ve been on that ride you might get the correct picture idea in your head. We are looking forward to being able to walk the Rotary trail again as soon as the worst of winter is over.

Happy Presidents Day to those of you who live in the U.S. of A. and Happy Family Day for our Canadian friends!

Mighty Army of the Young ~ Hymn

Mighty Army of the Young

Mighty army of the young,
Lift your voice in cheerful song,
Send the welcome word along,
Jesus lives!
Once He died for you and me,
Bore our sins upon the tree,
Now He lives to make us free,
Jesus lives!

Refrain

Wait not till the shadows lengthen,
Till you older grow,
Rally now and sing for Jesus,
Everywhere you go;
Lift your joyful voices high,
Ringing clear thro’ earth and sky,
Let the blessèd tidings fly,
Jesus lives!

Voice of youth so glad and free,
Sing your song of victory;
Sing to all on land and sea,
Jesus lives!
Light for you and all mankind,
Sight of all by sin made blind,
Life in Jesus all may find,
Jesus lives!

Refrain

Jesus lives, O blessèd words!
King of kings, and Lord of lords!
Lift the cross and sheathe the swords,
Jesus lives!
See, He breaks the prison wall,
Throws aside the dreadful pall,
Conquers death at once for all,
Jesus lives!

Refrain

Words: John R. Colgan (1891)

Chicken Tetrazzini Soup

I saw this soup in a grocery store magazine and the ingredients sounded good so I made a smaller portion for my husband and me. I had Bucatini on hand and used that instead of spaghetti. Regular spaghetti or angel hair pasta would be easier to manage in this great flavored soup. Don’t forget the lemon zest, it really adds a nice finish to the soup.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 4 cups of chicken broth
  • 4 ounces spaghetti, broken in half
  • 1 cup chopped fully cooked chicken
  • 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
  • 1/4 cup half and half
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped, fresh parsley (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. In large soup pot melt the butter over medium heat.
  2. Add the onion and mushrooms seasoning with a little salt and pepper, cooking and stirring occasionally until soft, 8-10 minutes.
  3. Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds.
  4. Add chicken broth and spaghetti, increasing the heat to medium high and bring to a boil.
  5. Reduce the heat to a gentle boil and cook until pasta is tender, about 10 minutes.
  6. Add the chicken, peas and half and half, and cook until heated through.
  7. Just before serving, stir in the lemon zest, Parmesan, and parsley.
  8. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.
  9. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Serves: 4-5

Tea for Two at The Feathers

 

After some time walking about the town of Woodstock we were able to check into our room and get freshened up for our High Tea reservations in the hotel dining room.

 

 

Earl Grey was my choice for tea.

After our tea we took a leisurely stroll to get a glimpse of Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill.

We walked to the end of High Street where these gates to enter the Palace grounds were. Happy to see a side gate open for us to get onto the property.

The end of a long day of walking we headed back to the hotel for the evening.

On Thursday September 22nd we planned to visit Blenheim Palace outer grounds more thoroughly and pay to enter the Palace grounds, too.

Truth for Today #43

Thursday February 16th

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during the week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth again this year!

2 Peter 3:13-18 (ESV)

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

From Vera:

‭‭Amos‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)

“For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!”

From Karen:

Joshua 1:9

Have not I commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage;
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:
for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

From Nikkipolani:

John 21:25 NKJV

And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

“I’m An American” Hodgepodge

It’s Wednesday so it’s time for the Hodgepodge with thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond who delivers the questions.

1. Pantone’s color of the year for 2023 is Viva Magenta. Etsy’s color(s) of the year are indigo and honeycomb. Your thoughts? Would we find any of these three shades in your home or wardrobe? Is there a room in your house that needs painting this year? Will you do it yourself or hire out? 

Yes to these colors in clothing. Maybe on one wall as an accent. I really love indigo on dishes, as in the photo at the top of this post.

There are no rooms in our home that need a total paint job because in the four years we’ve lived here all the walls have been repainted by Dear. He also painted the exterior of our home in 2022. Dear was a house painter in his younger years so we do not hire out. We own all the ladders, etc. needed for any paint job. We just have to buy the paint. He has some trim to still complete in some rooms.

2. Something you had to do recently that could be described ‘as exciting as watching paint dry’? 

My phrase while Dear was in the hospital after his stroke was, “hurry up and wait”. Hours of waiting for a room to open up in the surgical ward, a surgeon to come in and discuss the surgery procedure, someone to bring the discharge paper work, etc. etc. All the waiting was done with no comfortable chairs for a loved one who was advocating to sit in.

3. Who would you most like to sit beside on a 10-hour flight? Tell us why? Have you ever taken a 10-hour flight? 

Not chatty Kathy but someone I could enjoy a meaningful conversation with like my sister-in-law, Mandy, who knows how to purposefully lead a conversation to what matters. That said, on a 10 hour flight it is helpful to be able to sleep for some of the hours.

We have taken 10 hour flights.

4. What’s something you did growing up that would get you into trouble? 

Hiding from my parents when it was time to leave for Russian school on Saturday mornings. When they found me I’d stomp my foot exclaiming, “I’m an American”! In hindsight I wish I would have been more diligent in learning Russian. Below is one of my school books that I still have. My name is written lightly with pencil in Russian.

Родная Речь ~ Native Speech

Book for teaching second level class beginners school

If you know Russian feel free to correct my translation.

5. According to Google the top searches in 2022 were- Wordle, election results, Betty White, Queen Elizabeth, Bob Saget, Ukraine, Mega Millions, Powerball numbers, Anne Heche, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Hmmm…what does this say about us? How many of these words did you search last year? What would you guess was your most ‘googled’ word/phrase/question.

Queen Elizabeth is the only one off that list that I googled and my most googled phrase was probably Colville Weather or WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) conditions on Snoqualmie Pass.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I posted this on Facebook this week and decided to share it here, too.

“Let’s be cheerful! We have no more right to steal the brightness out of the day for our own family than we have to steal the purse of a stranger. Let us be as careful that our homes are furnished with pleasant and happy thoughts as we are that the rugs are the right color and texture and the furniture comfortable and beautiful.”

~~Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Kneelers ~ Woodstock

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to walk through the older churches and cathedrals. This is the easiest when traveling in England because there are so many and they seem to be more readily open to visitors. One of the things that has stood out when walking through are beautifully stitched kneelers. At St Mary Magdalene in Woodstock there are over 200 kneelers! That is the most I’ve seen anywhere in my travels and visits to churches.

The brochure I picked up in the church about the kneelers was photographed so I could share the information easier for my record here. I was going to make collages of the kneelers that caught my eye but after reading about all the work involved in creating one of them it seemed to me they were worthy of being presented singly.

Here is the church tower kneeler, the Winston Churchill and one I think might be part of the Blenheim Connection

The following give honor to the Lord, the Bible and Prayer.

Then we move on to more community minded themes…

 

And from the state where Dear and I were born and raised. We were surprised when we spotted the California Kneeler.

 

That’s just a small sampling of the kneelers during our visit on Wednesday September 21st, 2022.

Do you enjoy needlework?

Back to the Present: On Sunday we enjoyed our Sunday services and made a stop on the way home to buy some Deli Salads to go with the 2 racks of ribs we put in the oven. The ribs were pre-seasoned from Costco and turned out fall off the bone delicious. We watched the first half of the Super Bowl game and then hit the record button. Since 2 racks of ribs are more than we could eat, we dropped a rack off at our Colville kids for their dinner before we headed to our Evening service at church. Back at home after church we watched the last 10 seconds of the game and saw that the Kansas Chiefs won. Congratulations to them. I’ve got to say that I really didn’t understand half of the commercials and we didn’t watch the half time show. We got a text with photos of our Grands enjoyed the ribs!

Ribs enjoyed in two households for the win!

Begin, My Tongue, Some Heav’nly Theme ~ Hymn

Begin, My Tongue, Some Heav’nly Theme

Begin, my tongue, some heav’nly theme
And speak some boundless thing;
The mighty works, or mightier name
Of our eternal king.

Tell of His wondrous faithfulness
And sound His power abroad;
Sing the sweet promise of His grace,
And the performing God.

Proclaim salvation from the Lord
For wretched, dying men;
His hand has writ the sacred Word
With an immortal pen.

Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines.

He that can dash whole worlds to death,
And make them when He please,
He speaks, and that almighty breath
Fulfills His great decrees.

His very word of grace is strong
As that which built the skies;
The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.

He said, Let the wide heav’n be spread,
And heav’n was stretched abroad:
Abram, I’ll be thy God, He said,
And He was Abram’s God.

O might I hear Thine heav’nly tongue
But whisper, Thou art Mine!
Those gentle words shall raise my song
To notes almost divine.

How would my leaping heart rejoice,
And think my heav’n secure!
I trust the all-creating voice,
And faith desires no more.

Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

St. Mary Magdalene Church ~ Woodstock

Much history of the church and of the photos I’m sharing can be found here.

The church was built during the reign of Henry II (1154-1189) as a chapel of ease so that local people, including members of the royal court, did not have to travel to the parish church at nearby Bladon to worship.

Later in the 13th century the church was enlarged and a bell tower and burial ground were added.

The only parts of that original chapel of ease to survive are a section on the south nave wall and a beautifully carved round-headed 12th-century doorway set into the south wall. The doorway is carved with two orders of traditional Norman zig-zag pattern separated by moulding. Unusually, the zig-zag carving extends all the way to the ground.

The above photo is of that ancient door from the outside and below from the inside.

Separating the church porch from the nave is a wooden screen, carved in the early 16th century. The screen was originally installed in the traditional place between the nave and chancel, but was moved to the west end of the nave in 1999 to make the high altar more easily visible.

This flying eagle lectern is like several others I’ve seen in churches in Great Britain. I think they are so cool.

The superb column capitals on the south nave arcade are one of the church’s best features. There are 23 carved heads incorporated into the design of the capitals, interspersed with foliage.

Each capital is different and the heads are all unique.

All of the stained glass is Victorian.

The angels at the top have banners that read: Let us love one another ~ For love is of God.

Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

Over 200 kneelers are in this church of which I photographed quite a few. That will be another post.

Inching along to complete posts about our last few days in Oxfordshire in September of 2022.

Back to the present here in the U. S. of A. Yesterday, Friday February 10th, we traveled to Spokane to do some shopping at places we do not have here in Colville. After our stops at Home Depot, T.J.Maxx, Costco, Hobby Lobby, and Trader Joe’s we tried a new to us Chinese Restaurant called the Red Dragon. We had the best Hot and Sour soup and some good potstickers. After we ate we made one more stop at Fred Meyer before we headed home.

Happy Saturday to you.