Tag Archives: Stratford Upon Avon

Singing Across England

The summers of 1973 and 1974 were highlighted by tours in England with the Contemporaries. The Contemporaries were a Christian Rock Group on a mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ with concerts and personal testimonies. This last weekend some of the members of this group from forty some years ago got together for a reunion in Southern California. Dear and I were not able to attend but we were texted photos of the event.

Five of these members that got together this past weekend are in the photo below from the seventies.

We are all a little bit older today.  Dear and I are in the upper row on the right.

My pop and me at the airport before we left for one of our tours to England in 1973.

Tea was delivered to our bedroom door each morning and I enjoyed it in bed…

I was always taken aback when we’d be surrounded by school children wanting our autographs.

Chalk Church in Gravesend

Canterbury

A drawing by one of our fans!

London

Stonehenge

Tintagel

The coast in Cornwall.

1974 departure from LAX to London.

Windsor

Stratford Upon Avon

An early wedding gift from our dear hosts in England.

Once in a while I’ll be posting flashbacks on Fridays as I catch up on scanning old photos. It’s another way to document some of the events in our lives. Wow! It’s Labor Day Weekend already. We will mostly stay at home except for a Sounders Soccer game on Saturday night and church on Sunday. What do you have planned? Do you get Monday off?

Repetition…

For my flashback this week I’m going back to England in 1973/1974. When we travel to England this coming July we hope to duplicate some of our visits from the 70’s.

img511Chalk Church Gravesend

img514This might be Canterbury.

img521Stonehenge

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img530img534Windsor

img535Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

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england raspberries

img507Maybe I’ll get tea in bed, too.

If you could travel anywhere for 2 weeks where would you choose to go?

Before They’re Lost…

One of my favorite experiences of 2013 was our trip to Jolly Old England. Here are some photos that our son and daughter in law took that I’ve just downloaded. I’m tying up some loose ends before I move full bore ahead into 2014!J & L's England 002Setting up the SatNav for our trip to the Manchester United Soccer game in Manchester, England. J & L's England 004At the Emma Bridgewater Factory store. Can you see Josh inside? J & L's England 009Interesting Road signs. J & L's England 020Stratford Upon Avon J & L's England 027Small grocers in Chipping Campden. J & L's England 040St. James Church in Chipping Campden

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J & L's England 053Wells Cathedral and reflection at the Bishop’s Palace Grounds

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photo (1)The Bishop’s Close in Wells

photo (2)The west coast of Cornwall

J & L's England 108Josh and Laura managed to get a photo of our great tour guide in London. He really made the tour a highlight of ours with all his knowledge.

I got to write 2014 on a check today. Katie and I had our hair done and her red hair is more vibrant and my grey hairs are covered up. She’s heading to California this weekend to spend some time with her cousins. She’ll get to visit Disneyland before all the Christmas decorations are taken down. She’ll also be able to visit my dear old pop. Dear mentioned that he gets 2 Mondays this week and 2 Fridays. Makes for a bit of disorientation on what day of the week it really is. How are you managing with Christmas and New Year’s landing on Wednesdays?

Stratford Upon Avon…

On our way to the Old Manor House in Halford on the edge of the Cotswolds we stopped for a couple of hours in Shakespeare’s Stratford Upon Avon.

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We were intrigued with a property that had both the Union Flag and the U.S. flag and walked in to tour the property. Here’s a link that gives the history of this property.

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Alton to Cotswolds 025An old fashioned confectioners on High Street.

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Alton to Cotswolds 084This is Shakespeare’s birthplace right in the middle of town on Henley Street right across the street from Peter Rabbit!

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This town is a full vibrant town with plenty of history, shops and eateries to enjoy. This was a Sunday so some shops were closed and many were closing at five. We had our fill of being on the road and shopping on this day and headed a little south in search of our Bed and Breakfast. I’ll devote a full post to the Old Manor House in Halford as it was our favorite B & B experience this time around in England.

One of the shops that I wish was open was this shop. I really wanted that tea bag holder…

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We’ve had several days of sunshine here in the Seattle area and took care of some outdoor work we needed to do. First load of leaves, mostly what we call helicopter seeds, have fallen from the huge maple in our neighbor’s yard on to our drive and lawns. Very soon we’ll have several more leaves fall that will need to be taken care of. For a day or two we are enjoying a nice neat and tidy yard. We pulled out 3 arbor vitae and took them back to Home Depot for a refund since they didn’t do well and had turned brown.

Hope you had a nice October weekend!