My God, I Thank Thee ~ Hymn

My God, I Thank Thee

My God, I thank Thee, who hast made
The earth so bright,
So full of splendor and of joy,
Beauty and light;
So many glorious things are here,
Noble and right.

I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
Joy to abound;
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round,
That in the darkest spot of earth
Some love is found.

I thank Thee more that all our joy
Is touched with pain,
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain;
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain.

For thou who knowest, Lord, how soon
Our weak heart clings,
Hast given us joys, tender and true,
Yet all with wings;
So that we see gleaming on high
Diviner things.

I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept
The best in store;
We have enough, yet not too much
To long for more:
A yearning for a deeper peace
Not known before.

I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls
Though amply blessed,
Can never find, although they seek
A perfect rest;
Nor ever shall, until they lean
On Jesus’ breast.

Words: Adelaide A. Procter, 1858.

I’d like to wish my Canadian friends a very Happy Thanksgiving!

InSPIREd Sunday ~ Windsor

The last two days of our trip to England this past July were spent in Windsor. After touring Windsor Castle we walked down High street and spotted The Parish church of St. John the Baptist.

From the Lectern, look down the centre aisle and observe in the West Gallery a painting of The Last Supper. This is a national treasure. The picture was originally presented to the Royal Chapel c. 1660 by Brian Duppa, Bishop of Winchester, Prelate of the Order of the Garter. It was “bought by him beyond the sea”. Another tradition ascribes it to Franz de Cleyn (1588-1658), Rostock, Mecklenburg, Court painter to James I. It was rolled up and buried “in the plumery” (plumbers workshop?) in the Great Rebellion. It hung over the altar at St George’s, Windsor in 1702, and can be seen there in Sandby’s drawing dated 1786.

In my reading about this church after the fact I found that this and the next mosaics were by Antonio Salviati (1816-1890), who adorned The Altar of Westminster Abbey. Adoring Angels flank the Lamb with flag, and a pelican feeding its young, symbols of Humility and Sacrifice. Here are the adoring Angels.

This church like many churches in England is steeped in history. You can read more about it here.

On our tour of Windsor Castle we walked through St. George’s chapel which was amazing but they did not allow photographs inside so I will leave you with the outside shot of the Chapel.

We really enjoyed our time in Windsor and I’ll be sharing more from Windsor Castle and The River Thames in the future.

I’m linking to InSPIREd Sunday hosted by Beth and Sally.

InSPIREd Sunday ~ Henley-on-Thames

The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Henley-on-Thames, England.

“The exact origin of St. Mary’s is unknown, but is likely to be around 1000, and the first recorded priest is Aumericus de Harcourt, in 1204.”

Linking up with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday.

Gates ~ Hereford Cathedral

For Good Fences which also includes Gates here are some beauties from the inside and outside of Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England. In the next few posts I’ll show more architectural wonder from this amazing structure.

Dear and I visited the town of Hereford on a Sunday in July and we really enjoyed our visit to the Cathedral.

These gates were the entrance to the beautiful cloisters courtyard.

We made the mistake of visiting this cathedral on Sunday instead of a weekday or Saturday when the Chained Library is open and the Mappa Mundi exhibition is open for viewing. Arrgh! I was very disappointed. The other thing that we missed was a good meal at the Cathedral Cloister Cafe. We did enjoy the amazing history and architecture and beauty throughout the cathedral!

Thank you to TexWisGirl from Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting this weekly meme.

Ross on Wye ~

Our second self-catering experience in England was in Ross-on-Wye. It was so different from our first cottage experience. The amenities were more modern overall and the location was on a “B” road so there was traffic and easier access to other major roads. The River Wye is the fifth-longest river in the UK, stretching some 130 miles from source to sea. For much of its length the river forms part of the border between England and Wales. Ross-on-Wye was in England and from this location we would travel to Hay-on-Wye in Wales and to Hereford.

That spiral staircase took us up to the bedroom. We were happy to have a night light to help us find the bathroom which was on the main floor.

The views from the back of our little 2 story apartment were delightful.

I still have several posts from our time in England…can you believe it?

Things keep moving ahead here at this old house with bathroom renovations. We have one more piece of baseboard to be delivered by the renovation company and we will never have to see them again. A job promised to be done in two weeks has taken nine weeks to complete. Yes…we are fed up with them. But soon with Dear’s expertise and fixes the bathroom will be ready to show to you all. Dear is also progressing with the siding. I’m happy to be home this weekend, the last weekend of summer!

What are you doing this last weekend of Summer!?

Broadway in the Cotswolds

On day 7 of our trip to England in July we decided to visit the little town of Broadway in the Cotswolds. We arrived early which is always a good plan when you know big tourist buses would probably arrive at noon.

There are just enough shops to enjoy strolling through without feeling overwhelmed.

Plenty of Inns with pubs and other types of restaurants to eat in.

I enjoyed seeing this old couple heading over to the Tea Room.

We decided to eat at the Crown & Trumpet before we left Broadway.

We enjoyed chatting with the locals who gave us many recommendations and opinions about a good brew, good food, politics, and good places to visit in England.

Some people might find some pubs to be a little too cozy. We enjoy the atmosphere in most of the older pubs. We avoid the newer ones.

I better keep moving along or I’ll never be done with my posts from our time in England. This was our last full day in the Cotswolds and on our way to our next self-catering location in Ross-on-Wye we made two stops. One of the stops was in Bourton-on-the-Water and then we stopped at Gloucester Cathedral.

Today back in the real world it’s Friday and I’ve got to get outside and mow the lawn and tidy up a bit. We have a quiet weekend ahead. On Sunday our church will not have regular services. We’ve been called to go out into our neighborhood schools and help the teachers and staff get the grounds and classrooms ready for the school year. We will scrub desks, clean out planters, pressure wash, and do other projects as a support of the communities we live in. We call it Community Serve Day. Hope you all have a nice weekend.

Fox Cottage ~ Cotswolds

ABC Wednesday is on the letter F this week.

Thank you to Denise Nesbitt and the ABC team for keeping the meme alive.

Our first self-catering experience in England was at Fox Cottage so…

…F is for Fox Cottage

First and foremost is a fair warning that this post is full of fotos of the Fox inside and out!

We had our own mostly private area between the cottage and stables across from the cottage.

I believe our side of this U shaped space were stables in the past, too, which have been converted and upgraded to a living space.

For those of you not familiar with the term self-catering it means you take care of yourself while you rent a property. Generally there is no daily maid service and no breakfast provided. We enjoyed making our own “Full English” and when the fragrance of those sausages hit the air we had several visitors arrive at our door begging!

When we arrived we were greeted with fresh flowers and a sweet loaf that I didn’t get a foto (spelling in honor of F) of.

Free wifi and lots of channels on the telly. Kinda funny that places advertise wifi as being free when you know you are paying for it anyway in the full price of the property. I did specifically choose properties while in England that advertised free wifi. Since we weren’t using our cell phones we wanted to feel connected to home and family whenever we could.

We fully appreciated the fabulous exposed rough beams throughout the Fox.

The old features that were worked into the space were enjoyed.

The mix of old and new was just right. There were interesting things to try to figure out and some quirky frustrating things to deal with but our overall experience was very nice.

Our views were very peaceful. During our time at the cottage there was only one day in a downpour that we shut all the windows.

We had to go out to the pump room to get our ice from the deep freeze.

The peace and quiet of this spot was so lovely. We could hear water flow through the farm. The birds were our alarm clock in the morning. It would be so dark at night we had to use a night light to make it safely to the bathroom which was a step down from our bedroom. No city lights, no street lights and no porch lights. I really was hoping to maybe see an owl but that didn’t happen except for this one.

The owners of the farm and cottage live in the house you see next to the owl and behind this view of the cottage.

The outside view to our space.The view out to the land between us and the little lane at the entrance to the farm.

Getting to and from the Fox is a whole other story for another day.

Things around our “cottage” here in the states are a little hectic right now with our kids from the East Coast staying with us as they move into their new apartment and life on the West Coast. I hope to get around to as many of the ABC “F” posts as possible between loading and unloading boxes…

Hope your festivities this week are full of fun and frolic with friends and family.

E is for Ellen…

ABC Wednesday is already on the letter E. Thank you to Denise Nesbitt the proud founder and to the whole ABC team!

E is for ellen b. and a few of her favorite things…

This is a theater on Main Street in Bozeman, Montana spotted by daughter Katie on our cross country road trip back in April.

Ellen loves and enjoys spending time with her family.

Ellen loves her brothers and sisters and her dear old pop. This photo was taken last September at my dear old mom’s funeral.

Ellen loves her nieces and nephews. These cousins have so much fun together!

Ellen b. with her sisters and mom enjoying each other 6 months before her mom died.

Ellen loves Dear’s brother’s family to the left of the groom and below.

Ellen loves her whole big family including her brother in laws and sister in laws.

Ellen loves the girls from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and is so thankful to have them as her true blue friends.

Ellen loves to travel to England and all of the United Kingdom.

Ellen loves Soccer/Futbol and has been to games in Manchester and Milan. Her favorite team is the home team, the Seattle Sounders.

Ellen is a Seattle Sounders season ticket holder along with her son and daughter in law.

Ellen loves Dear. Their 40th wedding anniversary celebrations have begun already.

Ellen B. and Dear started celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary with a trip to England in July where they spent one of their days in Oxford.

Ellen likes to read Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers and a little Chesterton so it was a treat to eat in the Pub where these authors were known to meet.

Ellen loves God and His son Jesus who has given her eternal life through his death and resurrection.

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this very long post!

Good Fences ~ England

The first two photos are from Kiftsgate Court Gardens in the Cotswolds and the last few are from Hidcote Manor Garden in the Cotswolds.

These two gardens are just across the road from each other in the Chipping Camden area of the Cotswolds in England.

I have a lot of fences and gates to share from the two weeks we spent in England the beginning of July.

I’m joining in with TexWisGirl at Run*A*Round Ranch for Good Fences #18.

If you want to see more from Kiftsgate Court Gardens or Hidcote Manor Garden click on the links.

Banbury ~ Oxfordshire

Continuing on my retracing posts from our time in England, on Sunday July 6th we made a short drive through Shipston-on-Stour to Banbury.
The town of Banbury in Oxfordshire dates back much further than the nursery rhyme dedicated to it.

When our three children were babes we would recite this nursery rhyme to them while bouncing them on our knees. It brings back such good memories that when I found out this statue was erected in Banbury we decided it was worth the trip to see it.

Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross to See a Fine Lady Upon a White Horse

With Rings on Her Fingers

And Bells on Her Toes

She Shall Have Music Wherever She Goes

Nowadays the only cross gracing Banbury lies at the intersection of four major roads – those to Oxford, Warwick, Shipston-on-Stour and the High Street, which leads to the shopping area and the old heart of the town. It was erected in 1859 to commemorate the marriage of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa to Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia on 25th January 1858. It stands 52feet 6inches high to the top of its gilt cross and is of a neo-Gothic design. Originally six niches for statues were planned, but this was later reduced to three.

It was fun to learn all about the history surrounding this nursery rhyme and the town of Banbury.

We walked around town, had some lunch and picked up some sweet treats to take back to the cottage.

The sweet treats weren’t from this Olde Sweet Shoppe but from a bakery in town…

B is for Banbury, Banbury Cross, Bells and Baked goods!

This was a timely post featuring the letter B so I’m linking up with ABC Wednesday which was begun by Mrs. Nesbitt and continues on with the help of the ABC team.

Speaking of B, the bathroom renovators arrived this morning to begin the finish work on our bathroom remodel. In 10 to 12 days it should all be done and we will be done with the construction zone mode and back to our quiet home mode until the next project.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: England

My God, I Thank Thee ~ Hymn