A hike in the Rockies

I see it has been nearly three weeks since I added to the blog. While we were in the States, I pretty much dropped everything and focused on being with Emily, Jay, Hilary, and friends while in Colorado and then my mom, friends, and other family while in Harper, KS. Thank you to those who hosted us while we were home. We have some wonderful friends and family!

Here are a few more pictures of our time at our home in Colorado. Ed helped me to place these trough type planters on our deck which came with straw like liners to hold the soil and plants. I didn't plant anything in them right away as you can see because of the snow. The next morning we found a stellar blue jay stealing some of the lining for her nesting material. We also put up a hummingbird feeder which was fun to watch.

We took a hike behind our house and these next pictures are of what we came across. This is "lichen"(sp) growing on the rocks. The camera didn't quite catch the true green color of it.
I haven't taken the time to look up what this flower is.
This is the path we took on our hike.

And this is the view of Pikes Peak at the top of our hike. It would have been great to build the house here for the view, but it's not our land and the accessibility is not so good.

Day one of our Vacation in the States

This is our first day in the States in this picture. We woke up to a marvelous day.....all blue skies and warm weather. We had coffee on our deck which was the first thing Ed said he wanted to do.
The next day however, we got snow! Nothing that piled up but it was rather nice.
Since then we have had a mix of cool and warm, sunny and cloudy. When we were in Kansas, we had some nice warm weather along with dusty wind while trying to drive on I70 from Colorado to Kansas.


Here is a picture of our finished house. Emily and I want to plant some flowers in pots on the deck but it's still a little too chilly at night to do that.

Take me out to the Ball Game!!

One of the trauma surgeons that Emily works with at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs gave her four of his season tickets to the Rockies game on Thursday. So Ed, me, Hilary and Emily went. JJ had to work. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the Rockies beat the Cardinals 9-3.
We were sitting in row 17 of the first section and about 30 feet back from third base. It was a great view.

This was the pitcher and the "Player of the Game".

Hilary Graduates from Hesston College

Congrats to Hilary! Graduated from Hesston College on Sunday, May 4th.

After the ceremony we loaded all her stuff into two cars and headed for Harper. Our plans were to travel on to Colorado on Monday, but discovered that one of the wheel bearings on Hilary's car was worn badly and very noisy. Ed is staying in Kansas now until Wednesday when he can get the wheel bearing replaced. He also had more time with friends and even had a chance to play golf on Tuesday. Hilary, Emily and Phyllis headed back to Colorado as planned and encountered a massive hail storm which put dents in the car and cracked the windshield. Yikes! In addition, Emily got sick from something she ate on the way.

Finally, One apple blossom

This blossom - I'm calling it my miracle blossom, is the first to appear on an old apple tree here at the LMC. It is a Bramley apple tree that used to produce many nice apples, but over the years stopped producing. I gave it a severe pruning last summer to try to shock it back to life and "Voilà"- one lonely blossom. I am hopeful that, with this publicity, other - more shy blossoms will be inspired to appear as well. Aaaaaa, the joys of being an English gardener.....

A few more pictures from the Graber's visit

We looked around but we couldn't find the "muffin man"!

We were waiting around to get onto the London eye and Tonya found a friend.......I do believe that James Bond (aka Pierce Brosnan) is sweating!




Natalie was keen to get her picture with a Picasso. We tried to sneak this picture but got caught. At least they didn't try to take the camera or memory card. Taken at the Tate Modern.

Here are some wheels......

Okay, all you Mike Reber types, what kind of car is this? It is really a slightly over-grown go-cart.

Here is another door I forgot to put on the previous entry of "Doors of London" I believe in the Covent Garden area.

Doors of London

I've been thinking for some time that I would like to photograph alot of the different doors that I see when we walk around London. So here are a few of the ones I've gotten so far.
One of the really fun parts of this position is meeting all the people that come through the Centre. This week there was a young family of five, mom, dad, and three little ones, who had her parents with them to visit London for a few days. This family is from Oregon but he is a pilot who is working for an airline in Ireland. They are there for 3-5 years. They found our Centre in the Mennonite Your Way book. Turns out the parents are from Sweet Home Oregon where I've been with my friend Tami Schrock when we were in Jr. High to visit her family there. They know her Aunt & Uncle and their family. It's a lot of fun to talk with people: where they are from or where they are going and what's going on in their lives.















This is the door to the Knight's Templar in London's Temple square. It was recently made famous by The Da Vinci Code.

So 'Cricket' - what's with that game?

Rules of Cricket

(nilesfunnies)

You have two sides, one out on the field and the other in.

Each man in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in, and the next man goes out till he's out.

When the side that's in is all out, the side that been out comes in and the side that been in goes out and tries to get out the side that's coming in.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out when the side that is in is finally out. When both sides have been in and out, including those who are in and not out, that's the end of the game.

I hope this answers that burning question in your mind.

This sounds like a joke, but if you do know how the game is played, it actually is true.

Two VERY Happy Campers

We are two very happy campers here

in London! Phyllis is thrilled that her Kansas Jayhawks have taken the national championship in College basketball last night. The game started at 2:21 AM (notice the clock) Ed got up for a bit of the game but KS started losing so he went back to bed. What a game!

Ed had his big day today. After

months of studying, a driving theory test, and hours of tedious driving instruction, he finally got to take the practical driving exam. Only 47% of candidates pass on the first try but, with the help, advice, and encouragement of lots of people - including my driving instructor Alexander Frederick (cool name, huh) WE DID IT!!! The permanent licence will arrive in a few weeks.

Grabers Were Here...

Here is a picture you should always take whenever you come to London. We had a great time with the Grabers and we did everything we knew to do with the age range. Turns out the Brits know how to care for whole families. All of the attractions had special little "distractions" for the kids, that kept them involved. Pretty neat!

A walk on the South Bank

We have Corbin and Tonya Graber here visiting from Colorado along with their kids Natalie, Andrew, and Emma. On Sunday we ventured to Central London as it was a really pleasant day.
While Ed, Corbin and the kids went to the play ground in Highgate Woods, then to the transportation museum, Tonya and I went to Spitalfields Market, Petticoat lane market, Covent Garden Market, and topped it off with a walk along part of the Thames on the South Bank. Here are a few pictures of some buskers. There were many more that I didn't get pictures of.
As this guy was playing music, he was pumping a control behind the curtain with his right foot which made all the puppets move around like they were dancing and playing instruments.

I'm not sure what this guy is trying to say.

This picture was actually on Petticoat Lane which is a very large market of textiles. This is a man roasting chestnuts over a fire. They didn't really look good but did smell good.

This is a skate board area along the South Bank.

Easter Morning....The Lord is risen...He is risen indeed!

After practically no snow for our first year in London, we were greeted Easter morning to fluffy snow flakes slowly falling to the earth. For the whole of the morning the snow remained on the ground, not enough to measure but enough to give it the look of a layer of cotton balls. It was quite beautiful even though most Easters for me are associated with warm weather.
By the time our church breakfast, Easter service and tea were over, the snow was gone. It seemed appropriate somehow to have this blanket of white snow covering everything on the morning we celebrate our risen Lord. A new, fresh beginning of life.




I hope you all had a good Easter time celebrating the miracle of our risen Lord with family and friends.

These pictures are from our flat: The first is the view from sitting at our desk in the living room. The second picture is looking out of our kitchen window and the last is the view from the window just outside of the door to our flat.

Prayer Hut Project

The LMC Prayer Hut was constructed about 20 years ago by volunteers to be used by pastors and church leaders or anyone needing it as a place of solitude and contemplation. It gets used at least one day a week and the users value the time they spend there.

When it was constructed they placed the Hut on a wooden foundation - which has now rotted away along with some of the other lumber at the base of the building.

Here is Jim placing a jack to lift the Hut so we can dig new footers. We lifted it up about 6 inches and removed the rotted lumber (2nd pic) which used to be the foundation. The building was surprisingly rigid and stable. I expected it to creak and groan as we lifted but it didn't.

There was some serious spider activity under there, but UK does not have termites, so the damage was only from normally rotting wood. (PS from Phyllis) Not only does the UK not have termites but of the spiders they do have, none are poisonous... and they have no snakes! Although since a Brit told me these facts, someone else thought there may be some snakes in places but not like I was used to in my back yard in Harper, KS.

With the Hut all jacked up we were able to build some forms to pour into. The concrete we used was "post mix". It sets VERY quickly and we never got the first batch out of the mixer before it set up. I spent an hour chipping hard concrete out of the mixer which set us back on our schedule and we didn't get done in one day like I had hoped. In the end we simply mixed the cement in the forms by adding water and cement together and mixed them with gardening trowels. It was clumsy and time consuming, but I think we got a good pour.

Next we replaced the rotted plates at the bottom of the walls and measured for new siding to replace the bottom row on each wall. I'll lower the hut into place in a few days when I know the cement is hard enough.

That should last another 20 years or so.

Special thanks to Jim Bare and Ed Sirett for all their work.

The following pictures are out of order. The picture of Alexandra Palace and the dogs were to be first as that was the first place we went. Then we went to the Farmers Market. This blog isn't always blogger friendly.

Farmers market

After walking around the palace, we went through a farmers market on the way home. Here Ed is getting a cup of Jo.











I choose some "savory flat bread" from an African food booth.

A walk to Alexandra Palace

Last Sunday we took a walk to Alexandra Palace which is just north of where we live. It's set within 196 acres of parkland. First opened in 1873 as the people's palace & provided a recreation centre. 16 days after opening there was a large fire. It reopened in 2 years but had financial problems. In 1900 it came under the Park Trust which makes it available for the free use & recreation of the public forever. It houses an ice skating rink, cafes, areas to rent for receptions plus other uses. In 1935 the BBC leased part of the building which is where the first public television transmissions were made.
We walked around the palace outside then fairly close by there was a farmers market. Here are a couple of shots of dogs along the way. There were plenty more but we didn't always have the camera ready.



These guys were really "meaty" looking.

Weird mail & 'taking on' not 'giving up'

This piece of mail came in the post the other day. What about this envelope looks different to you? Is there something about a certain way to handle mail that I don't know about?
It's Lent and for some that means a time when you 'give up' something, a time of penitence, an introspective period during which we take stock of our lives. In years past, I've tried to give up something, but I've not been very good at it. Here at the Centre, we've talked about doing something different. Instead of giving up something, we are taking on something. The Thiessen family and Dora-Marie go to the Archway tube station every Wednesday over the lunch hour and pass out fliers asking for an end to the occupation and war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have decided to take on reading something other than fiction in my spare time. So this is my choice out of our library. It's going well, and now some of my spare time is spent taking on something which helps me think more about worship.
So what are you doing during Lent this year?

Charing Cross Bookshop

Saturday we took the tube to Leicester Square (sounds like Lester) to go to a photo gallery. Sharon went with us. The gallery was good but most of the pictures were quite depressing. One section was a slide show of pics taken across America during the 60's of extreme poverty situations. Another was pictures about life for women and children in India. There was written commentary which was about how women are often beaten if they don't produce boy babies and how often girl babies are killed just for being a girl. So we were needing a little of a boost. So after a coffee in an Italian cafe, we went to a quaint little bookshop on Charing Cross road. Charing Cross is famous for it's bookshops. This one is really old and it was like going through a maze once you were inside. It continued to weave down to the basement where we found books for 1/2 off the marked price, and often the marked price was already 1/2 off. The floors were old and dipped and creaky. And I found a book for only 3 1/2 pounds. ($7) So I had something to read on the way home on the tube. Here is Ed and Sharon in the basement looking through all the deals.


It had a real musty smell to it which made it feel even more like an old shop.
If someone would come through the hall, you had to either squeeze up against the books or find a little nook to step into so they could pass by.