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.

An Earthquake in London!

Evidently we had an earthquake in the UK measuring around 4.5. We did feel it at the LMC. Ed and I had a visitor in our flat watching a documentary on TV and we were having a heated discussion about it which meant the discussion lasted until 12:30 in the morning. So we didn't get to bed until 1am. Soon after we hit our pillows, we heard something either hit the floor or move around. We didn't know what to make of it but we didn't think it was enough of a deal to get up and investigate. Then the next day a few others in the house said that their beds were shaking and had read that we had an earthquake. Well that's a first for us.

The pictures: Matt and Emily are a couple that have been attending our church for a number of months now. They are both working on their PhD's. Emily uses our library frequently. She presented the sermon last week and Matt gives one in a couple of weeks. Matt's dad is British and his mom is American. He lived his early life in England then his teen years and onwards in the states. Emily is from the states. They are a real assets to our church and great fun to be with. They've been in Africa for studies and want to go back to Africa to do more for her research.

Dutch Blitz time! I (Phyllis) got beaten so soundly the last time I played that I sat out this round.

More Flowers

Mini Daffodils

A weed

Crocuses

February Flowers

January showers bring February flowers.... Hey, its England!

One down, two to go!

We have been here for a year now with two more to go. It's gone fast for the most part. I can't say that it has been easy. Mostly because of missing family and friends. But we are having a great time here. It has been a good time of meeting new people from all over the world, serving God in a new way, learning how to do "more with less" in many ways, and mostly a time of reflection. You know the saying 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks', well that's not true. I came into this position not really knowing much about how to operate a computer other than how to read my email. I am much more proficient in my abilities there although I still have to nudge Ed a lot to show me how to navigate around the system. I also thought that it was going to be nearly impossible to create a balanced, appetizing meal for vegetarians but have done quite well. I wasn't so sure how we were going to make it with a closet for a bathroom.....and were Ed and I going to be able to work together so much and still like each other? Well, we are still together and still like each other!

The other adjustment is living with other people. We do have our own space but we share the laundry facilities, outdoor space, work space, and are around each other a lot. It feels like living in a dorm again....sort of.

So if I thought that I might be heading towards a mid life crisis with all the thoughts that go along with that term, then this was the right way to go! I have felt challenged in both my spiritual and worldly life with much to do and think about. It has been extremely rewarding and humbling to be here and serve God in this way.

We both are very thankful to all of you, our families and friends for praying for us, keeping in contact with us via skype, email, letters, packages, and phone calls and for those who have actually flown here to visit with us (and for those who have plans to do so) because we know that it is not cheap to travel here. We love sharing our lives with you in these ways.

We think of you all a lot. I must go now as our church has a "bring and share" meal today at the Centre (another way to say pot luck or carry in meal).

Ode to Old Geek Shoes

Ode to Old Geek Shoes
by Ed Shirk

They were good
They were tough
They gave me comfort when times were rough.

From a day when all they saw
was polish, pavement and wall-to-wall.
....To the mountains where the air was dry and scarce
....on to London thick and soggy.

They were born in England
These shoes, rarely tied.
Uppers, fine, could buff right up
Soles, not so much
....Collecting soil samples in the garden
....Squishing sounds for hours in the rain
Noses, keep your distance!

I miss em, sure
they were the best
But they went the distance and deserve their rest
Rest in Peace, geek shoes of mine
You saw me through a relished time.

A new face at the LMC

As of February 1, we have a new person living at the London Mennonite Centre. She is Emilie Bourdages (I think I spelled that right). She is the one on the left. She is French-Canadian from just outside of Montreal. She is 20 years old and has come to London on a work/travel visa which allows her to work for a total of 12 months and travel the rest of the time. Since Canada is a commonwealth country, like Australia, Virgin Islands, India, etc. their residents can get a visa like this where as it is more difficult for a US person to obtain a visa to work. Anyway.... this is just something she has wanted to do and she knew Dora-Marie who is at the Centre. So she is renting our tiny guest room on the lower level here. She is a lot of fun. Her English is pretty good and she is getting better every day. She is pictured here with Nina who you may remember is German. So since they can't talk each others language, they speak English to each other and it is funny sometimes when they can't come up with a word to describe something.

Partners in Mission

There is a program called Partners in Mission. I believe that it is through a Virginia mission (Mennonite) program but I'm not sure what the exact name or affiliation is. Sharon Kniss is the 23 year old that works at the Centre and she is from Harrisonburg VA. PIM decided to do some work at the Centre to support her efforts. After months of planning, they ended up with four young men from the Harrisonburg area. These are the four guys that came to do some work projects at the Centre. Ed picked them up on Monday morning at Heathrow, brought them back to rest a little. Then after lunch, he went with them to Central London for the second half of the day.
These are a few of the things they were intrigued with. All the red phone booths.....
....this post box.........and that we are having mild enough weather to have blooming flowers. These are primroses.

They got a kick out of the milk trucks here. Many people still get milk delivered to their door in glass bottles. You can buy milk off the truck if you catch them on their route. I will post more pictures of their week with us in the next few days.

Day Two: Work at The Centre

Two of the guys started working on the Prayer Hut in the back garden. It needs a new roof so they are ripping off the old one here.
When they started working on Tuesday morning it is very foggy. Here two of the guys are digging out a bunch of dirt to move to the back where it will be used to reset some patio stones that are used for a small patio and also a walk way which is very uneven and trecherous to walk on, especially in the dark. This picture is in the front of the Centre, next to the walkway/street. The area that they are digging out is where we keep the trash bins. It has been an elevated area that you have to lift the bins up to put them away. So they are leveling it out to make it easier to put the bins back. Plus they are using the dirt for another project.
This is in the back of the Centre where they are relaying the patio stones.
This is Richard (Rich) working on the stone path.

Hoxton

We took another city walk, this one in East London. The neighborhood is called Hoxton. This is the discription: "The coolest neighborhood of the 1990's is still growing, changing, and trying to hang on to its hip status."

We walked past some great eating places and hip clubs and also an art gallery that was free and we slipped in to view some fantastic photography. The gallery is called "The White Cube". I didn't get a picture of it though. Halfway through the walk, and seeming utterly out of place (as East London is the poorer part of the city) is the Geffrye Museum. The museum is set in the former almshouses of the Ironmongers' company - beautiful 18th century buildings surrounded by mature trees and attractive gardens. There is a walled herb garden in the back but of course this time of year it was not as nice as it will be in a few months.

The Geffrye is a museum that specialises in the furniture and domestic interiors of the urban middle classes. Its displays span from 1600 to the present day, forming a sequence of period rooms which capture the essence of English interior style. There is a contemporary wing with 20th century displays, a design centre and an exhibition gallery for the best in contemporary design and craft from East London.
This is Geffryes, the founder of the hospital.