Where There’s A Will…

Our trips to England over the years have been planned around different interests and purposes. Dear traveled 4 summers in a row in the early seventies with a Christian music group that started at Biola College. This group soon warped into a Christian Rock Band. I joined the group in it’s Rock Band Stage for Dear’s last two summers in England with the band. These trips in the seventies had us traveling from school to school singing and sharing during the school’s religious education time slot. In the evenings we would sing in a public hall or church in the same area with many of the kids from the schools coming out to listen again. Usually we’d tack on a few days at the end of the tour to sight see in different areas of Great Britain.

“Hymns give way to Jesus Rock in morning assembly at St. George’s Church of England School, in Meadow Road, Gravesend yesterday. The concert was given by the Contemporaries, 14 musicians from the United States who are in the middle of a world tour. They have already completed a number of successful “gigs” in Liverpool. They are all professional musicians but they are giving their services free”…

Dear and I are in the center of the photo on the bottom row. 1974 was the last summer tour Dear and I participated in.

The next time we would travel to England was in February of 2003. Dear’s company was sold and before he moved on to another job we decided to take a trip to London. While based in London we took day trips out by train to Cambridge for a day and to Watford to attend a evening worship conference at Tim Hughes (Here I Am to Worship) church. We enjoyed the London Eye which opened in 2000. We also visited the National Gallery, Westminster, St. Paul’s, and other great landmarks. We enjoyed a Gilbert and Sullivan production of HMS Pinafore on Valentine’s day. On this trip we stayed in So. Kensington a short walk to the underground for our many trips around London. At our hotel in Kensington was where Dear watched the bartender make a Kensington Dream for me which became my signature celebration drink that Dear prepares for me.

In April of 2004 we planned a high school graduation gift trip for our daughter Katie centered around her favorite authors (Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Austen) and Monty Python.

Here is a tiny photo of Dear and Katie outside The Eagle and Child (Bird and Baby) of C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Sayers (Inklings) fame. We enjoyed walks about Oxford that Tolkien and Lewis took together. We traveled to Bath to see some Jane Austen haunts. We drove around the Cotswolds where some Hobbit inspiration was gained. We traveled out to “Pemberly” (Chatsworth House) and to Bakewell of “Pride and Prejudice” fame and when in Scotland we traveled to Doune Castle and asked for coconuts to clip clop around the castle grounds where scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed.

In 2006 we joined two couples who are our very good friends on a semi walking tour of some areas of Wales, the Lake District, Oban, Edinburgh, and York. The photo above is of the Derwent in the Lake District. For this trip we just had to show up as Jody masterfully booked all our lodgings for us in advance. The highlight of this trip for me was our time on the island of Iona.

That brings us to 2013 and the trip we planned with our oldest son Josh and our daughter in law, Laura. This trip needed to have something for both of them in mind. The main thing in our son Josh’s mind was to attend Premier League soccer matches so that’s where the title of this post comes to be. The first choice team to see was Manchester United in the famed Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England. We would try to get tickets for Saturday September 14th the day after we arrived in England. Josh went online at the Manchester United official site and was shocked to see the tickets released and sold out within seconds. Oh boy…now what? We found a secondary resale sight for tickets and were pleased to find 4 tickets available. They were pricey but we hit the buy button knowing this was something that was important for our “England Experience” this time around. Now we had to contact our B&B and see if it was OK to have the tickets delivered there. We got the correct address and then started the “wondering game” in our heads. I wonder if the tickets will arrive in time? I wonder if the tickets are official?” I wonder, I wonder….

We arrived at the Bed and Breakfast Friday night and our host immediately said to us, “I have a parcel I think you’ll be pleased to see” Josh ripped it open and there were 4 official looking tickets for the game on Saturday. We sighed in relief and thanked the Lord.

My next post will be about our experience at “Old Trafford”.

This is one of those posts to document history for me and my family. So many things are forgotten as time goes on.

The Village…

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 Early 1940’s

In our organizing and cleaning we came across a photo album from Dear’s father with photos from Illinois from early days of Rex (Dear’s father) and Verna’s (Dear’s mother) courtship before Rex was called up for service in World War II. Rex and Verna’s granddaughters have a certain photogenic quality with one of them cashing in on modeling opportunities. I found it telling that Verna has some model poses that I think carried down to her granddaughters. Not so much on my side of the family! We have a lot of Russian Baptist modesty that goes deep…

This is my personal favorite!

This is Dear’s father’s mom and dad and a sister.

Dear’s dad after a hunting trip. Another gene handed down to our son’s…hunting. Is that a gene?

More of the modeling genes?…

May is escaping fast. How will you be spending the last couple days of May?

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing ~ Hymn

Wesley wrote this hymn to commemorate the first anniversary of his conversion to Christ. This origin is reflected in the lyrics, “On this glad day the glorious Sun of Righteousness arose.” The stanza that begins “O for a thousand tongues to sing” is verse seven of Wesley’s original poem. This work first appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1740.

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ your Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife,
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.

Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Savior mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true,
Ascertained of my part,
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart.

Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Æthiop white.

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew
In holy triumph join!
Believe the Savior died for you;
For me the Savior died.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

ht: Cyberhymnal

Within the Duomo

With a cathedral as old and magnificent as this one the history connected is too much to share in a blog post. One of the interesting side notes we heard is that the sanctuary was designed to be able to hold 40,000 parishioners at one time. It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the second largest Catholic cathedral in the world.

The inside of Milan’s Cathedral is expansive but rather dark. There are five large naves divided by 52 pillars – one for each week of the year – that support the cross vaulted ceiling.

We arrived too late to the Duomo to investigate the Crypt and Treasury.

How are your plans for Easter shaping up? Although I’m feeling better I’m still not at a productive state. I’ll be taking it easy for a few more days.

Adventures in Eating…

Since my parents lived in Persia (Iran) from the early 1930’s till 1947 they learned to enjoy Persian cuisine and to cook many dishes. We finally found a Persian restaurant we enjoyed in Bellevue, Washington.

Dear had the lamb kabobs.

I had the Ghormeh Sabzi. Chopped and sauteed parsley, spinach and leeks, simmered with stew beef, herbs and red beans.

Katie had Chicken Vegetable Curry. All entrees were served with basmati rice with saffron.

This is my all time favorite salad. So simple and fresh and delicious. It was called Shirazi at this restaurant.

We would recommend Caspian.

Do you have an international food favorite?

Oakland Cemetery ~ Atlanta

“Less than a mile from the heart of downtown Atlanta, a hidden treasure, a secret sanctuary, welcomes you. This garden cemetery, founded in 1850, is the final resting place of many of Atlanta’s settlers, builders, and most noted citizens like Bobby Jones, Margaret Mitchell, and Maynard Jackson. It is also a showplace of sculpture and architecture, and a botanical preserve with ancient oaks and magnolias. Here in this peaceful place the full scope of the city’s rich and fascinating history unfolds before you.”

Bobby Jones, the golf legend. How do you like the golf balls?

I was surprised to see that Margaret Mitchell died at 49 years old. She was struck by a speeding vehicle on Peachtree Street in Atlanta and died later of her injuries.

Margaret Mitchell was no ordinary writer. The one book she published in her lifetime – Gone With the Wind – sold millions of copies at the height of the Great Depression in America and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, 75 years ago. With over 30 million copies sold to date, it is one of the world’s best-selling novels.

I’ve mentioned before that I really enjoy walking through cemeteries. Not new cemeteries but very old cemeteries. The Oakland Cemetery is my favorite so far.

There will be more to come from Oakland Cemetery.

We have had a productive week so far and already have the car packed and snow chains bought for our trip across the mountains on Friday. They are forecasting some snow for us so we will pack warm clothes. How is the weather treating you?

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Before there were lighthouses on the Peninsula, ships bound for Portland and Astoria navigated their way through the high waves and shifting sandbars, focusing on fluttering white flags and notched trees along the shoreline by day and flickering signal fires by night. These methods were crude at best and, despite heroic efforts, the sea offshore of the Long Beach Peninsula became known as ‘The Graveyard of the Pacific’.

In 1788, British fur trader John Meares named the area Cape Disappointment after his inability to locate the river’s mouth.

The Peninsula’s first lighthouse, Cape Disappointment, had a bumpy beginning. As early as 1848, a government survey had recommended a lighthouse due to the great number of shipwrecks. Lighthouse construction materials were underway in 1853, stashed in the hull of the ship Oriole when it sank two miles off shore. While a few items were salvaged, the bulk of the shipment was lost.

We got the tip to head to Waikiki Beach in Cape Disappointment State Park to get a nice view of the lighthouse from the visitor’s center in Ocean Park.

Both Cape Disappointment Lighthouse and North Head Lighthouse were taken under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939. In the early 1990s the Cape Disappointment light underwent a major renovation, complete with a new paint job with black and white stripes with a dark green top.

Cape Disappointment is the oldest functioning lighthouse on the west coast. I will share my photos from the North Head Lighthouse soon. You will need a Discovery Pass to get close to each of these lighthouses.

ht: Funbeach.com

Fort Macon, North Carolina

We all really enjoyed this sign. Finally a site with some common sense signage…

We are approaching the main entrance to the citadel.

This is called the sally port. It is the primary entrance to Fort Macon. The three sets of original doors date from 1843-44.

This is the inner court known as the parade ground. On either side of the parade are vaulted rooms known as casemates.

The upper area is called the Covertway. This is where the original cannon emplacements stood. This is also the best place to view the surrounding area.

The danger of naval attack along the North Carolina coast seems remote now but during the 18th and 19th centuries the region around Beaufort was extremely vulnerable to attack. Blackbeard and other pirates passed through Beaufort Inlet at will and successive wars with Spain, France and Great Britain during the Colonial Period provided a constant threat of coastal raids by enemy warships.

This area is the ditch and moat. This sunken area was deeper and could be turned into a moat by flooding it with sea water from a nearby canal. The moat posed an obstacle to an enemy assault.

Fort Macon was designed by Brig. Gen. Simon Bernard and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was named after North Carolina’s eminent statesman of the period, Nathaniel Macon.

And now back to Christmas preparations…

I managed to get down a few boxes from the attic and finally have our wreath on our front door. Are you sitting down? I don’t know how to explain it except for it being a God thing, our Christmas cards are in the mail. My roots were all fixed up by my great hairdresser today and I even got a last minute doctor appointment to check some nasty moles on my head that the hairdresser was concerned about. All is well, sigh of relief. I truly hope all is well with all of you, too! Blessings.

Seaplanes

“Kenmore Air was founded in 1946 by three high school friends, reunited after
World War II. With one airplane, and a single hangar near a swamp at the North
end of Lake Washington, Bob Munro, Reg Collins, and Jack Mines gave birth to
what was to become one of the largest and most respected seaplane operations in
the world.

Today, Kenmore Air is among the best-known and most respected float
plane operations in the world, flying an eclectic mix of piston Beavers and
turbine Otters and Caravans, landing passengers on glaciers, lakes and harbors
among the mist-shrouded fjords and islands of the U.S. and Canadian northwest. “

One of the options for my daughter and son-in-law’s get-away from their wedding site is to leave on a seaplane. Wouldn’t that be dramatic and fun?! Might be a little hard to tuck the wedding dress in while she boarded, though. Tomorrow we get the fun task of tasting several menu choices for the wedding. They told us to come hungry. We are really looking forward to seeing and tasting the choices we have.

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: History