Spell-check Amusement

I was extolling the pleasures of grandparenthood when the spell checker flagged the word “grandparenting”. It suggested I add a hyphen to make it grand-parenting.

The second choice made me laugh. It was “grandpa-renting”.

John has 49 cumulative years of grandpa experience. How much do you think I could get to rent John out as an experienced grandpa???

Celebrating Nathaniel’s Graduation

Nathaniel and friend Sarah came for almost 24 hours so that we could celebrate his university graduation. This was my favorite photo of the two of them.

We had the celebratory meal at the Blue Rooster where we could hear and see each other.

Nathaniel sat right under one of the blue roosters in the dining room.

A Nathaniel creation was planned from the beginning, and he made a strawberry shortcake with the berries he, Sarah, and friend Dakota picked the day before. Sarah did a beautiful job of preparing the berries.

When the cake was half way finished, I asked them to pose with it.

Everyone waited patiently for the official photo and a close-up of students and cake.

What you can’t see or hear was all the cheerful chatter. It was wonderful to have these hours with them, and I think we made the most of it. Congratulations on your graduation, Nathaniel!! We are very, very proud of you.

Kate is Here!

Want to walk with us to the creek? Daughter Kate is with us for a week, and we are loving every minute. I won’t take photos of our sitting and talking, but we have recorded things we’ve seen outside.

The first amusing thing we passed was a neighbor’s vegetable garden. I always wave to the scarecrow the first time I see him in the Spring, not realizing that it isn’t a real person. This year Warren added two pink flamingos, which made us laugh. In the middle is a sprinkler he has hooked up to a pump in the little stream that runs beside his property. I’ve never seen it operating, but his plants are never thirsty.

CAT greeted John and Kate, then walked with us for a while.

Kate found just the right spot to scratch her neck.

At the firehouse we found the first rosebud of the year.

We took the obligatory selfie at the creek.

I was pleased to find a cluster of blooms of the horse chestnut tree on the way home.

Kate posed with Park Branch that flows through our area. It is so small that it is called a branch rather than a stream.

At home, we found the lilac bush blooming and scenting the air all around it.

England 40 Years Ago — May 2, 1982

While Pastor and Louise toured Hampton Court, John $ and I saw the lock on the River Thames and walked along the tow path. We found a park; $ tried out every piece of equipment and had a wonderful time. That day John was in London and the girls relaxing at home, seeing to Mr. Clewes’ (the gardener) lunch.

John insisted he could hold the fort with all three children while the Koepchens and I went to London. I had a good time and came home to find them happier than usual; must have done them good to be away from me! In town we saw the Tower of London, the Crown Jewels, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Cathedral. I was so glad to see the beat-up coronation chair with the Stone of Scone underneath it and the tombs of Mary, Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, several Edwards and several Henrys.

Besides the above, we happened by the race track just in time to see a race at Epsom Downs, went through Canterbury Cathedral, saw the white cliffs of Dover, and rode the little trains in New Romney. The photos show our looking at the engine, boarding the train, and watching the midget who was the train driver. I’m not sure the man was technically a midget, but he was about as tall as the engine. In the last picture he is ready to move the train.

The Koepchens hired a car and kept first one and then the other of our girls on the way to the Lake District in the northwest corner of England. Stopping for church on the way, we landed in a founder’s day dry sermon in Magdalene College, Oxford. I didn’t feel guilty at being bored when Pastor began looking for something more interesting by leafing through the prayer book! After lunch from a pub, eaten outside by a nice stream, we drove hard to put the miles behind us. We stayed that night in a pleasant, expensive little hotel in the resort of Bowness on Windermere.

Part of the joy of being in this area is to admire God’s creation of soft mountains, muted colours, blue waters of small lakes, and rushing streams. The other is surely the pleasure of seeing this beauty with dear friends, as did Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy, and Coleridge. In reflection, I want to burst forth in poetry myself. If only I could transmit to you the smell of the air, damp with mist, from a waterfall!

Or paint a grey slate house settled into its hill with smoke showing signs of life within! When the light was gone, dinner eaten, and children tucked in bed, we adults could laugh and talk freely over leisurely pots of coffee as only friends can do.

Seeing the house where Beatrix Potter wrote Peter Rabbit makes it come alive. Her original drawings exhibited there are so lively and fresh.

We reached out to touch Wordsworth, seeing the lakes he saw and the homes he lived in at Ambleside and Grasmere. Keswick was lovely beside her lake, and red sandstone Carlisle Castle seemed to brood over the memory of Mary, Queen of Scots.

We walked on Hadrian’s Wall late in the day when the light was fading, the wind rising, and thoughts of busy Romans hurrying about their business came unbidden to mind.

One last dinner and cozy evening together passed quickly; breakfast brought shouts of laughter amid somber Englishmen when Lisa relayed a funny dream and Pastor said, “With John, it’s England on $3,000 a day!”

The girls waved goodbye for five miles, and we turned toward the grand topiary garden of Levens Hall designed in the 1600’s. Walking among those fantastically shaped hedges made me feel like Alice in Wonderland. Meanwhile, the Koepchens continued north to Scotland.

Sitting in the car seven hours can cramp the feet and curl the mind, but we made it home safely. The next day I said I wouldn’t plan to go further than 10 miles in any one direction for a whole month!

You know when someone gets out a ruler to measure a bloom, they’ve been bitten by the growing bug. My prize pansy measures three inches! Most things I try to grow just keel over and die, but these plants I started from seed last summer, transplanted outside last autumn (Fall doesn’t exist here) and have to pick daily. Each one has a personality of its own, but I don’t have time to get to know them before they get pitched to make room for more. I could wish there is a pansy heaven.

Surely you all know that the split-up of our family at the present time was not our first choice. It’s a bit late for John to go running back to his parents! However, I do wonder what the effect will be. John might come to prefer the paper me – the one whose disasters can re-emerge as jokes after a week – to the real me who shrieks at spiders and wants people ready to sit for a meal before they’re called. Sweet comfort; it’s “for better, for worse” instead of “for better THEN worse!”

A big hit with English adults and children was a taste of jelly beans sent by the Mehrlings via the Koepchens. Lisa talked about the treat next door, and the grown-ups knew it from Reagan Presidential fame but had never tasted one. The closest things here are jelly babies – a softer and more Jello-like.

I even surprised myself today when I got the children and breakfast organized in time to get to Guildford Cathedral for the sung Eucharist. Philippa had spent the night with us and went with us to church. The three girls sat forward while I supervised John $’s playing with the hymn books and prayer books three rows from the get-away door. He seems to have learned from all the Sundays John has had him that he is not to talk aloud, so we made it through the whole service. I thought he was going to act up when Lisa took advantage of the general exodus just before communion, to move to the back of the church where I made the three of them sit. The people were just going to fetch their children from Sunday School to go forward for a blessing. Soon I joined the queue with $, and he was very patient waiting for our turn. He stood very quietly while I had communion; wonder what went through his head when the minister put his hand on him and blessed him??

At times I feel like an explorer charting unknown seas when I drive. Yesterday I made one wrong turn after leaving John at Heathrow, made a large circle through the countryside, and came back to the airport to have another go. I tried a different exit on the roundabout and discovered the sign that should have been before the circle was after it. Phew! You’d think I’d have learned my lesson and taken a map to Guildford the day before. I got to the cathedral with just one u-turn and scared Lisa by striking out in the general direction I thought we should go after church. We were able to figure that one out without making a turn. It keeps life exciting!

Just a Silly Second

Most folks know I am challenged by numbers in many ways. Carrying a number in my mind across a room is almost impossible. Remembering a six-digit number from one screen to another is not easy, particularly if they should be in the same order. Today I hit a new low. I was hurrying to go out to walk, looked at the digital clock at 7:11 and said in my head, “Seven eleven-teen.”

Bob Repairs the Pergola

On Easter Sunday, John and grandson David propped the sagging beam that held up the Wicked Wisteria. In other places, wisteria vines have beautiful clusters of lavender flowers. Ours refuses to bloom, has produced velvety seeds only once, and is burrowing under the ground in every direction to take over our property and kill us. If left alone, the pergola would have collapsed. Son John $pencer had strengthened the outer part of the structure, and we couldn’t let his good work go to waste, could we?

John mentioned the problem to neighbor Bob. A few days later he came over to size up the job while John was away. I went out to check on him a couple of times, intending to take a picture or video. In no time, Bob finished the repairs and disappeared! Didn’t he do a marvelous job?

Bob’s was not the only disappearing act. The next morning when I went out to walk, I discovered the dead Christmas tree on the porch was gone. Bob took it to his burn pile to get rid of it! There are not enough words in the dictionary to thank him properly for such kindness. Our neighbors are irreplaceable – the absolute best in the world!

England 40 Years Ago — April 25, 1982

Salzburg was interesting for the girls because we tried to find the real scenes and the filmed scenes from The Sound of Music. $ loved the funicular ride up to the medieval fortress where we had excellent views of the city and the surrounding mountains.

Abbey where Maria lived (Sound of Music)

That evening we found a large Gosthaus outside Salzburg; as we looked out our windows, we saw many families leaving the church in large groups. After dinner we walked in that direction and found a most interesting churchyard. We wondered if the gathering had had anything to do with many candles burning on the graves. Some candle holders were portable, but others were built into the head stones. We found as we looked closer that most head stones had pictures of the deceased permanently bonded onto the marble.

In Vienna the girls stayed in Maria’s house, while John, $, and I went to a small neighborhood hotel. [Maria was an exchange student in college with us. We were visiting her, her husband Franz and three sons.] Their house is marvelously designed with a grate to help remove snow at the entrance, double-doored foyer, spiral marble steps to the bedrooms, fireplace to divide living room and sturdy, huge breakfast table, separate utility room, etc. I took no photos!!!

In Vienna we found the cathedral, the Plague Column, a house where Mozart lived, saw the most beautiful library in the world, visited the crypt where all the Kaisers are elaborately coffined, and saw the outside of the opera. The opera house was closed to tours because they were recording. Just across the street from the opera was the Sacher Hotel, famous for Sacher Torte. Not pictured below are the crypt and the Sacher Hotel.

The imperial state apartments were as lavish as any in France and England. I loved the stoves! At first I didn’t know what these elaborate white and gold porcelain-looking things were until we saw the smoke pipe on several. They were filled and tended from behind by the army of servants. That’s class!

We spent all one morning watching the training of the horses of the Spanish Riding School. What precision! The men worked these horses individually, making them skitter carefully sideways and do fancy steps.

We enjoyed the little quiet parks, archways, and large palaces scattered everywhere. One long building had a sign that it was where Beethoven died.

Several afternoons we had coffee and delicious pastries at cafes. We voted Vienna tops in the coffee world. Beans are usually ground seconds before they make the brew; it is strong, but not bitter like in England or overpowering as in Italy. Maria served us a farmer’s dinner of roast pork, ham, wieners, kraut and big dumplings she made while we watched.

We went to a restaurant for a Viennese meal, having the famous Wiener Schnitzel. Superb! That restaurant was on top of a tiny mountain – the tail end of the Alps – with the Danube and Vienna laid at its feet.

We toured Shonnberg Palace, almost a rival for Versailles. I thought the original elaborate inlaid floors were superb, as well as much of the paneling, hand-painted wall paper, and art done by the royal families. We saw the room where Kruschev met Kennedy and the room where Mozart first performed for the Emperor when he was six years old.

Part of the grounds of this palace included the oldest zoo in Europe – a place adjacent to the palace where the royals had their private zoo – and a carriage museum that we all enjoyed.

Maria served us cold cuts for supper – some we’ve missed for two years and some we’ve never had before. One had cheese in it, another, mushrooms.

We spent all Sunday with Maria’s family traveling in two cars, swapping children at every stop. At Eisenstadt we went into the church that Haydn had worked in and were just in time for the service that included a mass by Haydn. He is buried in a side chapel. The organ is the very one played by Haydn, Schubert, and Beethoven. Marvelous!

Down the street was the palace of the Esterhazy family who had employed Haydn. The building is still owned by the family living in Switzerland, though the state administers the building.

We ate near the quarry where they get stones for repairing the cathedral in Vienna. Since this was near the Hungarian border, we ate goulash soup and paprika-spicy sausages with white grape juice to drink. At the big craft store next door, Maria bought Lisa and Kate each a necklace of serpentine gem stone mined nearby; and we bought a pottery covered bowl made from local clay.

We continued on to one of the largest lakes in Europe that is also very shallow – not more than three to four feet deep. Rushes are the big harvest crop used in matting for plaster work. Rust, the nearby town, is noted for stork nests on rooftops; we saw numerous nests and storks on two of them.

Franz said Hungarians do escape over the lake, part of which is on the border. Since Hungary is fairly prosperous now, not many are coming over.

On Sundays, the news shops are closed, so newspapers are hung in plastic bags on sign posts and light poles. The bag and little money box are held in place with a metal band and small padlock. Not many papers fit in the bags, therefore, there are many bags, making papers more accessible on Sundays than weekdays.

We visited an old mountain castle which had never been sacked by the Turks, also still owned by the Esterhazy family. It was full of portraits, saddles, guns, sabers, spears, helmets, breastplates, a Turkish tent, flags, and books. It was really a contrast to the Rococo palaces we’d seen recently.

On the way back to Vienna, Franz had a word with several army guards and escorted us into the church of the military academy where he had gone to school and had stood guard duty himself. He explained that Emperor Maximillian I erected a super fancy tomb for himself in Innsbrook, so that most people think he is there. He isn’t. He is buried under the steps to the altar in this church, having expressed a wish to lie where a priest would stand over his heart when saying Mass.

We returned to Vienna, and Maria prepared soup with semolina dumplings, a platter of cold meats, and son Franz cooked crepes. Then they presented us with gifts – the necklaces for the girls, a record of Austrian music for John, a Viennese cookbook in English for me, a tin of chocolates for $, and from the boys one of their super trucks and a metal car from their own collection!

We stopped in Nuremberg just long enough to buy supplies for the LGB trains.

After a LONG drive to Calais and the dash home, we pulled in at 10 p.m. We had enough time to make a mess of the house by dumping laundry all over and to get it cleaned up by the time our New York pastor and his wife arrived 17 hours later. The nice thing about that timing is that we didn’t have any let-down as often happens when returning from a nice vacation.

Logan Stays the Night

Neighbors Shawn and Bob were given marvelous tickets to a sold-out concert, and we were the lucky ones who kept Logan (11). What a delight! We picked him up at the tennis court, arriving in time to watch him practice. On the way home, he talked about the coach who is also his teacher for most academic subjects. She is the kind who inspires students wherever she goes.

I was impressed with Logan’s taking care of his two dogs. As soon as we got home, he let the dogs out, fed them exactly what they needed, and let them out again – all part of their routine. I glanced at the floors to make sure the dogs hadn’t pooped inside. Seeing a dark spot in the hall, I asked Logan to check it. My depth perception isn’t what it used to be. He knew it wasn’t three-dimensional and put his foot right on it. Whew! Logan tended the dogs again at night and in the morning

The short afternoon was gone far too quickly. John and I had found a toy airplane that we thought might be fun. I asked John if he wanted to go out with Logan, and Logan quickly said, “I can play by myself. I’m used to playing alone.”

He is always accommodating. I wanted a video of the action, so I was outside with him. The plane was a total dud, not having a single noteworthy flight, not a single one!! Oldsters tend to think things in the past were glorious, but we remember airplanes that glided through the air and gently landed in the grass.

An airplane that refused to fly

Logan plays Wordle now, and he knew where to find unlimited games on the computer. We worked two together. Having talked with friend Susan, I knew people often have a favorite word to start. You choose one with most-used consonants and vowels. Logan’s is adieu, and mine is ideal. What amused me was the difference in our strategy. His mind is very quick, so he guessed words using letters he knew were correct. I didn’t repeat those on the second line, choosing to try out a different array to find more letters in the word. As in the game of Set, we both get the right answer, only he does it ten times quicker than I can. I stand in awe of his brain.

There was no time for play in the morning. After breakfast, Logan took care of the dogs, and we drove to school. I knew everyone would want to see his face and had to make do with a photo inside the car.

Logan always puts on his seat belt without being reminded.

Logan’s manners are impeccable. He holds good conversations with everyone, knows proper table manners, helps clear the table, says thank you for everything done for him, and his sense of humor is delightful. If every neighborhood had a Logan, what a marvelous world this would be! [Kudos to Shawn and Bob, once again, parents of the year.]

England 40 Years Ago — April 18, 1982

I expected Venice to smell, but I didn’t think it would almost knock me over. The problem was this. We’d walked and walked on empty stomachs, and the tangy spiciness of pizza and the aroma of freshly ground coffee was terribly tantalizing. Venice smelled heavenly!!

$ wanted to run, so John ran with him through the crowded streets. $ stopped to get his breath, put up his arms to be picked up, nestled into his dad’s arms and said, “Run!!”

Venice has a perpetual carnival atmosphere, because everyone walks (no cars allowed), stalls and shops glitter with cheap glass souvenirs, tourists in high spirits surge through narrow passages, and restaurants lure people in for gastronomic treats.

We liked the large trolleys that porters use. Large wheels are toward the middle and small ones on the end so they can be levered and rolled over the steps spanning the canals.

We saw a demonstration of glass blowing on the island of Murano. At first the glass was a red-hot blob, then vase-shaped, reheated and put in a mold, blown again, heated, shaped, then flattened into a plate! The children loved taking the water taxi there.

Tourists were so thick once in San Marco plaza that we could hardly move. St. Mark’s was also thronged with tourists. The mosaic floors were so uneven that we thought we’d get sea sick if we walked on them long enough. The marble pillars, balustrades, and mosaics were second only to the gold mosaics in all the domes. Still, the basilica has an intimate style, and you could see how the antiphonal choirs used by Monteverdi would be purely delightful.

Though we’d not drunk any water in Italy, $ got diarrhea in San Marco. I had supplies with me, John found a secluded alley, and we changed the mess on someone’s doorstep, carefully removing our debris afterwards. Lisa spotted a sign that said, “Do not abandon any litter.” We didn’t.

The Ducal Palace beside St. Mark’s was full of precious paintings and Baroque golden ceilings. Those rooms were as sumptuous as any at Windsor Castle or Hampton Court. The tour ended with a long walk doubling back on itself through seemingly endless dungeons.

Bus service is by big boat, either regular or express. John grasped the idea of the system and could get us from one place to another easily.

I liked the road signs in Venice – international symbols posted for boats on the canals. It was odd to see “no entrance” signs on bridges, “no turn” signs at corners, and traffic lights over the water at blind junctions! I had wondered why motorboats sometimes passed on the left and other times on the right. It’s because gondolas are paddled on only one side and must be given room to maneuver. Two powered boats pass port to port; a gondola passes a motorboat starboard to starboard.

Easter Sunday at St. Mark’s in Venice!! John agreed with my statement that for him it was a pilgrimage. We saw the bishop in his golden finery, pointy hat, and huge gold shepherd’s crook. To hear Monteverdi’s music in his home church was an uplifting experience. We laughed that John took $ duty for the service, and people insisted he have a seat with the toddler. In another part of the church, the girls and I had to stand up for the entire service, and men pinched Lise’s bottom! The hotel had also spruced up its restaurant for Easter with a huge decorated egg and lots of real ones. They were featuring lamb and fish. The children were given pieces of chocolate to eat and an egg with a face, hat and stand to take away.

We spent a long time in the railroad station satisfying certain menfolk. Lisa and I sat watching people stream by and discovered a man with a neat way of supplying the loos. He was cleaning cars and carrying a broom with toilet paper rolls stacked on the handle.

Almost as soon as we left Venice, we were in mountains. We’ve seen beautiful scenery in every country, but this was something else again. At every bend there was a new vista that you’d like to photograph and hang on the wall.

$ loved our special train ride. Because of the heights, the road ends at one town where we drove on a train of flat cars covered with wire cage-like things to travel ten minutes in a tunnel under the mountain. We drove off at the other end. It was in total darkness, darkness you could almost feel as in one of the plagues of Egypt!

On the other side of the mountains we saw a ski lift carrying people higher than we could see and many people clonking around in ski boots toting skis. Then we noticed fresh snow on the evergreen trees further up.

The Italian mountains were dry; as soon as we hit Austria, clear mountain streams were gushing down.

What contrasts in weather we had! We slept with open windows in Venice and drove through snow storms in the Alps.

England 40 Years Ago — April 12, 1982

From a high highway we saw Monte Carlo and Monaco lapped by the blue-green Mediterranean Sea. The mountains were much steeper than I would have thought. As we passed from France to Italy in a tunnel, Kate took a look on the other side and said, “Italy isn’t all flat!!” Indeed it wasn’t! Before we’d traveled very far, we saw that the people seemed to be much poorer. Buildings were shabby and garbage strewn around. Genoa was just plain dirty.

John says there is just no excuse for waxed paper instead of toilet paper. Even the Romans used soft sponges. They’ve been going downhill ever since.

One thing we did admire about Italy – the roads. In the mountains, we were in and out of tunnels and straight onto great bridges spanning the valleys. We shudder to think how long it would have taken to travel on local roads.

Italy is short of many things – coins (you have to buy discs to activate a Coke machine), electricity (power is off several hours twice a week); we conclude they are also short on good government. Things are so backward they can’t get the color of their oranges right! We ordered orange juice, and the waiter brought red juice, insisting it was orange juice. It was! Delicious, too! They were so amused at our ignorance of blood oranges that they brought us an orange cut in half. It was orange outside and bloody looking inside.

We rode a funicular railway up a mountain to see Genoa and the harbor laid at our feet. We also walked to old city gates and the areas where Christopher Columbus lived. [I didn’t find any photos taken in Genoa.]

Most post cards don’t really show the leaning tower of Pisa as dramatically as it appears in person – you need to see the upright buildings around it to make the contrast.

We went to Rome and saw the Pope – almost as easy as that! As we walked into St. Peter’s square, we noticed many people sitting in chairs before a grey draped stage. Soon there was a white robed figure clearly visible, blessing the crowds. We were allowed to walk much closer than many people sitting down. The pope sat to read a long address in Italian, and after we left, he spoke in several different languages.

We saw the Borgia apartments, many works by Raphael, and the Sistine Chapel. The chapel was bigger and the ceiling higher than we’d imagined. At first the Basilica didn’t seem as large as some English churches until we’d wandered a bit. The enormous barrel vaulted ceilings were gorgeous and all the domes of the side chapels higher than many churches have. We sat down to look at the big dome – Michelangelo’s – and at the altar by Bernini. The walls and floors were covered in many colours and patterns of marble. The Pieta appeared bigger and much more impressive than when we saw it at the World’s Fair 18 years ago. When we came out to head back to the hotel, visitors were being turned away. What excellent timing we had all day, thanks to John!

Italy was certainly THE place to take a little blond fellow. People smiled at him, waved, stroked him, pretended to poke him with rolled up posters, talked to him and about him, and a guard offered to swap him for his 21-year-old son! They looked at us as if we were the luckiest people alive to have him. Wow! How different from England!

We poked around the Roman Forum, identifying various public buildings, the temple and home of the Vestal Virgins, and other temples. In England I was impressed by mosaics laid during the life-time of St. Paul. In Rome I saw columns and arches he must have laid his eyes on! Wow! There is still excavation going on.

We have several photos taken in the Forum, but this was the only one with our family tucked in like an afterthought. How magnificent it must have been when it was new!

Just a stone’s throw away was the magnificent Colosseum. The size of it was mind-boggling. We climbed up as high as we were allowed and down to the floor of the arena, imagining lions chasing Christians. Can you believe they had awnings to go over the spectators? The stones that held posts supporting the shades are still there.

This is the most unusual photo we took inside the Colosseum. They were filming an ad while tourists were wandering about.

Quite a distance outside Rome was Hadrian’s villa – town is more like it! There were 2,000 servants and a thousand other residents living there all the time. The area covered over four square miles including one private bath, two public ones, one Greek theater, one Roman theater, and miles of underground passages for the servants who were not seen mingling with the guests and residents.

After searching for tiny signs in the fading light, we found the Appian Way and drove on it. The girls hopped out of the car once just to be able to say they’d walked on the Queen of Roads – pride of Rome.

Italian drivers are something else again. In rush hour on a ring road we heard of a head-on collision, went the other way and saw a five-car pile-up, a two-car fender-bender, and a serious crash where a tiny car had tackled a van from the rear. John wondered if there was any driver near Rome who has never been involved in an accident in some way.