News of the Week 8/31/08

Things were quiet at our house until Friday, when Rob and Colette arrived for the Labor Day weekend. Nicolle and Johnathan are visiting her family in Texas (we miss them dreadfully) and Rob was lonely in Salt Lake, as well as having gigs in Provo, so it worked out well. I took a lot of photos of Colette at the Scera park in Orem while Rob played at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, but it is very hard to catch her on camera--she's a speedy girl who doesn't stop to pose for photos--that's why it's a little out of focus. She climbed the highest slide at the playground about 45 times. "I did it, I did it!" she chanted.

Our garden is still lovely, if a little exuberant. There are squash and pumpkin blossoms, for example, in the peach trees and roses, and on top of the grape arbor. Our neat little knot garden that is so tidy in the winter time looks like this by the end of August. What's that extra large tomato with the bucket--oh, sorry, that's Chris.I told him he looks like a dahlia. I eat about five tomatoes per meal, and we have buckets and buckets of table grapes. Soon it will be time to make purple grape juice. Here are some more photos of the roses. When it cools down just a little, as it has, the roses put out another flush of blossoms.
Dave called tonight and said he and Devon are in their Philadelphia apartment, within a half mile of the Mint, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. Dave has a part-time blogging job, and is looking at other options, including private practice. Devon's classes don't start for a few weeks.

Amy and Jamison are settled in their new place in Chicago. I can't wait until they send more photos. She enjoys her classes and will be painting by Friday--she meets with her advisor on Tuesday. We look forward to our visit in February.

We haven't heard much from Betsy and Brett--I think they are in full-out school mode. We'll see them tomorrow at our Labor Day Barbeque, and hopefully have more pictures then. Chris is doing well in all his classes (two weeks into the school year), and John starts teaching on Tuesday. I feel sort of left out not to be doing anything with school. I'll survive it though. I bumble along with my work, still trying to figure out how to be an effective businesswoman. I'm grateful for help from Betsy and Rob. I'm also glad that the BYU swimming pool will be open again this week--I really miss swimming. I do OK riding my exercise bike, but swimming is more fun and more of a workout.

We're happy to hear from Tena of the new little (or not so little) Mo'unga baby Elias. We're sad to hear of Justin's accident and pray for his recovery.

News of the Week 8/24/08

A lot of changes this past week. Last Sunday Amy headed off to Chicago in the moving van with Anna and Eric, friends who are going to graduate school at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. She has been staying with friends of Jamison in Hyde Park near the University of Chicago, and found an apartment nearby. She has been painting and fixing it up, and Jamison flies out tomorrow early--I know she has missed him and will be glad to see him. She sent some photos of the place, but I think she'll have to send more with the paint job, new blinds, and the little bit of furniture they have. It's pretty exciting. And now that she has a place to live, she can start to think about school. Several years ago John and I were at a conference in Chicago and visited Trent, a former student at the Art Institute. We saw the building where the art students have classes and their working studios. And we plan to visit A&J in February when John has another conference in Chicago. But it's still a long time away from them. Thank goodness for inexpensive cell phone calls.

Dave and Devon are planning to move into their new place in Philadelphia on Labor Day. I think they're both pretty busy. He's planning a quick trip out in September--just a few days, but some is better than none. We wish Devon could come, but she'll just be starting her new classes.

Chris started school last Tuesday. Brett and Betsy start school this week. John goes to his faculty meetings this week and starts teaching again after Labor Day. My life goes on the same with therapy clients and testing. I'm trying to get back into writing (vampire story) more regularly. Basically I think age has slowed me down. Or maybe laziness.

It's always great to have Rob and Nicolle and the babies visit, as they did this weekend. This time I was sick with some kind of 24 hour bug, and after Friday night just stayed in bed and slept. I'm hoping I didn't give the bug to anybody else. Before I got sick, though, we took the babies out for pizza and spaghetti alfredo while Rob was at a gig and Nicolle at her cousin's wedding. Here are photos of Spaghetti Girl doing her thing, serious Johnathan, and Chris. We sat outside on the patio. It was fun.

Michelle and Trent

While parked across from our house in North Cedar Valley, we saw that Trent was playing softball at the church, and Michelle and the kids were there too. Here's Michelle and Adam,and here are Ava, Esther, and Bennett. It was fun to see them for a few minutes. They live not far from where we lived when I was a teenager. Trent has a job teaching in St. George.

Nostalgia, Again

Saturday morning we had some extra time and I made John, Chris, and Sergene drive around with me to visit old haunts (they made me go to DI and the dollar store, so we're even). Here is our old house in Cedar City, where we lived when I was in the 9th grade. Here's our house out in north Cedar Valley. Here's the Enoch Ward Church where I was Primary accompanist and played the pump organ in the basement, and then ward organist and played Bridge Over Troubled Water and Let It Be for prelude music. Nobody ever said anything. Here's Cedar High and the seminary building. I had a pretty good adolescence, all things considered, and I felt very nostalgic and happy on this trip.

Shakespeare in Cedar City

John and I went down to the Shakespeare Festival with Chris and Grandma Gene. Our friends Bruce and Donna went too (Donna lived with J, C, and me during our UK 2007 trip). We saw a really great production of Cyrano de Bergerac in the Adams Theater, and an OK Two Gentlemen of Verona in the auditorium the next day. Chris said Two Gentlemen is like a sit com, which it is--one of Shakespeare's earlier works and not his best. The dog Crab is cute though.

Houston, Mike, Texas BBQ, and The Woodlands

We had an 8-hour layover in Houston on the return trip (which turned into a 12-hour layover when our flight was postponed, but the less said about that the better), and arranged to meet Mike Olsen for lunch. But first we drove out to The Woodlands to see the house we were living in 19-22 years ago. The Woodlands has certainly changed. It took a lot of driving around to reorient ourselves, but we finally got more and more near to recognizable street names--Panther Creek Village, Holly Creek Apartments--I knew our house was just behind the apartments, so we cast around, and found it! Number 5 Capewoood Court. The new owner came out as we stopped in front to take photos, and showed us around. The trees are so tall! Here are John and Mike in the driveway: Here is John on the street in front of the house--you kids will remember a photo of you and all the neighborhood kids lined up across this street. We passed the park and swimming pool, and drove into the Sally K. Ride Elementary parking lot.

It was great to see Mike. We drove back down I-45 looking for places to eat, and ended up at a BBQ place on FM 1960 which previously was Luther's but is now Poppa's. I remember eating there with Mike and Liza and kids before. We stayed for several hours, talking about old days, kids, job problems--particularly the drawbacks and advantages of private practice. It was generous of Mike to give us his entire afternoon.

August 11 Gripe About Flying

It is better than the immigrant ships. There is less likelihood of death. Right now I don’t really care. It is absolute hell to sit for so long, sleep deprived but unable to sleep, trapped in one position, earphones don’t work, magazines are boring, watching the minutes creep by. I can’t work on a plane, can’t think, can’t talk, can only endure to the end, like a terminal disease. I look forward to seeing Mike Olsen in Houston. Only another hour, maybe I’ll survive.

Helen and Gary

We met Helen and Gary at the Hyde Park Ward during our 2001 stay in the BYU Centre at Palace Court. They had recently moved to London from Sydney. Our similar family situations give us much in common--we are near the same age, both couples married quite young, both have two boys and two girls (we have one more--Chris). Their boys were in Australia then, but daughters Michal and Briony were living with them at the time, while all our kids were with us, and the children hit it off.

But as Ryan said at dinner last night, there’s something spooky about how alike we are. John and I are friends with many couples, but usually one of us is first a friend of one of them, and spouses are included incidentally. But with Helen and Gary, Gary and I are most interested in politics and government, John and Gary most interested in publishing, Helen and I most interested in science fiction/fantasy (which we just discovered last night), John and Helen most interested in art, Helen and I most interested in psychology, John and Helen most interested in integrating the arts in a creative program or space, John and Gary most interest in Mormon issues, Gary and I most interested in history--and yet we’re all interested in all of it, and everything else, and can go for a year without communicating and then talk all night (which is why I’m so sleepy now on the flight home).

Our differences are interesting as well. John is an academic and a writer, I’m a psychologist and homemaker, Gary is an attorney and ethical advisor to a company which privatizes government functions (after working as a critic and advisor within the Labour government in Australia), Helen is an art grad student at the Slade in London after a BA in psychology, a diverse work history, and raising the kids. Gary’s book, which he has been working on for some time, has evolved into three (or four) projects--from a finely researched look at the convict ships to Australia to the history of Wells Fargo in the American West. They (and I suppose we) are quirky, even eccentric, passionate about many things, and supportive of many people. They are hospitable, generous, and gracious. I hope that I am also, at my best. I love and admire Helen and Gary for being what I aspire to. I look forward very much to seeing them again next year and taking up the conversation where we left off.

August 10 Sunday at Hyde Park

Gary drove us to the Wimbledon stop on the District Line, and we made it to church only one minute late. We saw a few of the people we’ve known at the Hyde Park ward over the years, but it is a very transient ward, and much has changed. It is still friendly and welcoming to the traveler, however. After church, John and I had lunch in the Science Museum café across the road, then walked up to the park and sat by the Round Pond watching the birds and the people. The North Fleet Brass Band was setting up in the bandstand, and when the band began to play, all the geese waddled out of the pond and honked back at them. It was most interesting.

We walked through the park to Queensway past the Princess Diana playground--another huge flash of nostalgia--switched to Jubilee at Bond Street, and took the train from Waterloo to Norbiton again. We ate at a nice Chinese place again in Wimbledon Village with Gary and Helen and their son Ryan, who is here from Australia studying 3D graphic design. We talked about video gaming, city planning, escapist movies, Oliver Sacks and neuroscience, etc. etc. etc. until midnight.

August 9 Driving into London

The last time I tried to navigate John into London was at the end of our trip to Dorset in 2001, when coming east along the M4 inside the Orbital instead of turning north on Kensington Church Street and safely east again on Notting Hill Gate to Palace Court, I sent him right past Kensington into Knightsbridge and we ended up at Apsley House and that horrible multi-lane roundabout between Hyde Park and Green Park. At least then was before the congestion zone charge.

So this time, driving back from Suffolk with nothing so simple as a return trip on the M4, but first looking for Kingston Upon Thames from Leatherhead in the south to drop off our luggage at the Sturgess’, and then picking our way north by one of several alternative routes through Kingston and Richmond and New Malden to the Great Western Road, or Cromwell Road, or whatever it is, and finding Warwick Road, which is one-way, so if we miss it we can’t just turn around--anyway, we drove straight there. Of course. With 45 minutes to spare before the car rental place closed. Since we were right there, we walked on down to the Tesco for snacks and took the District Line from Earls Court to Embankment to eat our lunch in the gardens. It was raining, but that’s England. The trees offer some protection. This was new. We walked across Waterloo Bridge in the rain, taking in Parliament on the right and St. Paul’s on the left, and rode the Jubilee Line one stop to Southwark to wait for stand-by tickets for a fringe-theatre Mikado by an all male cast. We made it in, yeay! And it was the best theatre this trip.

And then we took the train from Waterloo to Norbiton and walked to the Sturgess’ house, before dinner with them at Tootsies in Wimbledon Village, and long talking, and now I’m so tired I must say good night, dear reader, as John wants to be up and at church on Exhibition Road by 9 a.m.

Lost in Suffolk continued…

We decided the Norfolk Broads and the Fens were too far to drive this afternoon, and driving much is itself too harrowing, and so we got out the East Anglia guide and went looking for Constable scenery at Dedham and Stoke by Nayland in the Stour River Valley. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, our directions were not precise and I didn’t review them anyway before we left, so we wandered up and down country lanes looking for cows under big trees, pretty St. Mary’s church, and old farm houses with hay wains nearby to take pictures of. Which we did find more or less. I took this nice photo of a church called St. Mary’s, but it was in the wrong town, I discovered later upon re-reading the guidebook. We got some pictures of friendly cows and a nice farmstead, but never figured out where the famous scene is at Stoke by Nayland called The Hay Wain. Oh well.

Lost in Suffolk

We didn’t leave Cambridge until nearly 11 p.m., and we had no trouble on the A14 east to Felixstowe on the coast, but we believed the Google map John printed out before leaving home, which was a mistake. I meticulously guided John to the very street indicated on the map, but it was in the middle of a residential area and at about 1:30 a.m. we had to give it up as a lost cause and phone the hotel. The night porter is Hungarian, with not a lot of English. He managed to convey his incredulity that we did not look for a sea front hotel on Sea Front Road on the actual sea front (we had driven partway down that road but turned around as not matching the Google map). So we went to bed at about 2 a.m., got up at 9 for another Full English Breakfast minus the sausages, and then went back to bed until about 2 p.m. Or at least I did--after a nap John did his yoga on the beach and went for a dip.

Here is the view from our window, and here is John sitting on a bench on the promenade in front of our hotel. We went out for a walk along the beachfront and ate our last fish and chips until next year. The seawall is there for a reason, as this sign reminds us: we are not exactly next to the English Channel anymore, but on the verge of the North Sea. The ferries go to Hamburg, the Netherlands, and Denmark, I believe--here is a vessel of the Norfolk Line coming in from a crossing.

New Friends at Cambridge

John’s student from spring term’s project met us at the gate of Kings College for a visit, bringing a friend, William, from Northern Ireland. Here are William, Travis, and John in front of Kings College library. We ate at a pretty Italian restaurant on the Cam. We finished the appetizer and dashed indoors with our plates and glasses as lightning lit the sky and the rain poured down, and then just as we finished dessert the clouds cleared for a beautiful sunset. Walking back to Kings College (through The Backs), we ran into Ruth, a former Kings/BYU student now doing graduate work at Oxford, jogging on the path, and she came punting with us from Kings to Jesus Green and back. We talked mostly about the British class system and the history of the women’s colleges at Oxbridge, and John arranged for Ruth to talk to the students next spring when we’re in Oxford. Last year when Ruth was at Cambridge studying, she played the organ regularly in the Kings College Chapel, and she knows Harrison (Tom) and Ellen Powley from 1997 London, and her sister lives in Annabella, Utah. How’s that for a small world? Travis did a great job punting, given that it was only his third time and he fell in the last time he did it. (I'm not sure what his pose means in this photo).I didn’t get a lot of photos because it was dusk. Here is the Bodily (sp?) quad or square where the BYU students live--Ruth said they are the most luxurious accommodations she has ever lived in--each student has two rooms (bedroom and sitting room), with special dispensation from the College for separate male/female floors for the BYU students. And here is Kings College Chapel and the Cam. I was trying to remember why I love Cambridge more than Oxford, and it’s because it is so open and gracious and beautiful.

More Gardens

We found Cambridge with no problem, but finding things in Cambridge and then finding parking for them was more of a challenge. We decided to visit the Botanic Garden first, and made several casts into town--circles, figure eights--before snagging a parking spot right in front of the Bateman Street gate. Success! And the guidebook claims there’s no parking. Here are Fen Hen chicks, ducks, and Old Man Willow. Here is John in the garden, John at the fountain, John with giant fig leaf, Karla by the roses, Karla by the lavender, etc. Very relaxing and inspirational, although John laughed to see the English version of a dry garden.