Airborne!

John and grandson David had a thrill of a lifetime with Gil, a church friend. Having heard John talk about the train club in Tennessee, Gil offered to fly them down for a meeting. Fog was a concern until the last minute, but it was clear enough for them to take off. They flew around fluffy clouds and looked down on the mountains. The views were magnificent. John was impressed with how many huge homes were built high on the sides of mountains. Both liked seeing the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs along the ridges. Here are a few of the photos David took.

Blue Ridge Parkway with an overlook near the wheel

Because of this special adventure, Gil was not with his wife Linda on her birthday. She told John not to change anything, since Gil promised to take her out both before and after her special day. They were free the day after, so we went out to lunch after church to celebrate.

England 40 Years Ago — July 9, 1981

John $ has been trying to say “Mr. Clewes”. His best effort resulted in calling the man to his face, “Cuckoo”!

We’ve had a heat wave. At least that’s what the natives say. John, in London, was under heavy skies. He had two inches of rain and some hail and lightning so close it made the hair on his neck stand up. We in Walton were outside chasing $ in the sunshine, and we’re only 15 to 20 miles away. We heard no thunder.

Since the temperature was so warm, we’ve spent time outdoors. $ loves to lull you into thinking he will stay put, and then streak off under full steam. We found a way to slow him down. Simply removing his shoes prevents him from running on the gravel. At first he stayed on the lawn, but has gradually ventured further, though not at high speed.

Our nasturtiums are blooming! Granted, Mr. Clewes did dig up the ground and plant the seeds, but I watered, weeded and fed them. I’m still surprised my black thumb didn’t do them in.

With the car in the shop, nowhere to go and nothing to do, John $ was at loose ends. I gave in and let him play with water in the kitchen sink. It would have been a good selling point for a new mop! He flicked water a radius of five feet. I’m sure at times he looked like a magnified version of a bird taking a bath.

While walking home from town, I met the lady who’d invited me to see her back garden. She introduced herself to me – Mrs. Gilder, said with a hard “G”. I took her some warm bread, and her husband retaliated with another lettuce and spinach. They told me to send the children up on Saturday for a cabbage. I sent the three off with Brownies to give the couple, and they returned with lettuce, cabbage and a cucumber! The girls were shown the garden and a marvelous clock in the sitting room while Mrs. Gilder enjoyed grappling with $.

John and I were invited to a social party at the house behind us, where the donations were to support the conservative party. We met a commercial artist who came from the small village of Ockley noted for a band of pilgrims who left there to settle Guildford, CT. Also met Mr. Gardiner, the MP, who during the party got up on a strong box and made a speech about the riots going on in this country. I thought it slightly incongruous of us to ponder on disorder while standing in a lovely rose garden under a clear sky. The other guests didn’t seem surprised at the speech, so I presume it was the proper thing to do. The audience whiled away the speech time with men rattling the change in their pockets and ladies shifting feet balanced on heels in soft grass. Had it been a religious meeting, there would have been murmured “Amens”. What we heard were softly spoken “Here! Here!” rumblings to signify agreement.

Yesterday we went to the school open day where all the rooms were open for inspection by parents. Last year we went to this function, and I was scared silly at all the work staring the girls in the face. It isn’t so frightening when you consider that it’s a show of all that has gone on for a whole school year. The walls were covered from floor to high ceiling with art work, term papers exams, needlework, student drawn maps, charts of class projects and exhibits. All rooms had fresh flowers that had been arranged by the children, and Lisa’s room had an impressive display of pottery. A separate room held the samplers, pillows, and clothes made by the upper forms in their sewing classes.

After viewing the children’s work and speaking to their teachers, we went to Priory Park in Reigate for the Olde English Fayre. We didn’t have time to go through it, but walked on the edges seeing the various stalls of games, cake sales, bicycle proficiency contests, hamburger stands, floats, ice cream hawkers, second hand books for sale, new cars on display, and antique stalls. From a distance we saw the jousting! The horses the men rode were dressed in the colours of their clothes and shields. Horses thundered down the course, while the men used their skill to hit targets with their long poles. Many people involved in the fair were dressed in costume; we even saw the court jester! It was a most colourful affair.

Last night the girls and I were awakened by terrific wailing. I opened the door to $’s room, and he crawled out of the wreckage of his cot. He was shaking so much that I tucked him in bed with his dad where he wriggled down and pretended to sleep while I put the cot back together again without the help of all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. $ kept playing possum until I got settled for sleep, at which time he exploded into action. It was quickly to bed for him then.

We’ve rented a video recorder so we’ll be sure to see some of the Royal Wedding. There was a mix-up about the delivery of it. I waited all one day for a truck that didn’t show up. When the clerk at the store found we live on the same street as he does, he offered to bring it by. Normally these things are installed by the delivery man, but we were assured that it integrated with the TV so that the TV works, but we can’t seem to activate the system that preempts a channel. If we fail to get it going, we’ll have to call someone from the shop for help. There must be some simple thing we aren’t doing right. Grrrr!

I forgot to tell you the temperature of the day that was the hottest here. The English people were mopping their brows when the mercury sat at 84 degrees. They didn’t seem to understand that it would have been considered a cooler day to those battling steady 90’s. If there is one thing I could choose to bring back to the U.S., it’s the weather!

Few hours later: John rechecked all the connections to that recorder, and I turned a few dials. Suddenly we had the thing in tune. We’re not sure what did the trick, but we’re in business now.

[Can you believe I went a whole month without taking a photo? Maybe some were lost, because I thought I took the camera to the Olde English Fayre.]

Process in Writing a Post

Chrissie at Word Quilt (https://chrissie.blog/2021/07/06/posting-process/) wrote a post about her method of writing a story about a vacation with lots of photos and stories. She’s an expert with WordPress. I knew I would learn new ways to do things, and I did. She asked that readers share their process. This is mine, and I encourage you to skip it if you aren’t interested in technical things. Do read Chrissie’s method, complete with video.

My procedure differs from hers, because I write where I am most comfortable – with a word processor. Following is my list of things to do:

Upload photos to the computer. Put ones I want to use in a folder and rename them with date and brief description.

Open the word processor and begin writing the story. I flip back and forth from photos to words by pressing the alt key and tapping the tab key. (That action switches between the last two windows opened.)

Write a paragraph about each picture or set of pictures.

Copy the words and paste in the WordPress block editor. (Highlight the whole document and press Control/C. In the block editor press Control/V.)

Put the cursor at the end of the first paragraph and click on the + sign to add a block. Change it to an image block. Go to the photos, making the explorer window small, and drag and drop the photo into the image block. I usually click on the image and use the menu bar to center it. Go to the next paragraph and repeat as needed.

If there are several photos to go with one paragraph, I choose Gallery and drag them in. It’s also fun to use Columns, using three columns for three photos. (Change each column to image before dragging a picture to it.) I also use Columns to put words in one and a photo in the other. It looks prettier to center the words vertically.

Talking to Sadie

Our grand-dog gets lots of attention. It struck me that we all have different ways of speaking to her. See if you can guess whether it is I greeting her or John, John $pencer, or David.

In a normal voice, “Whompers!”

Whispering, “Lady Sadie Sunshine. She was such a good dog, she was. Sadie-kins. What a sweet girl you are!”

In a low, conversational tone, “You’re on the bed again, dog.”

In a high-pitched, teasing manner, “Where’s my baby girl? Bug. Bug. Whompertown! You’re gonna get got!”

This is Sadie’s silent communication.

“You are going to give me something from your plate, aren’t you? I am being perfectly still. Not begging. Not wagging my tail. Just waiting. And waiting. And waiting.”

If you feel compelled to talk to Sadie, I’ll pass your message along.

Celebrating the Fourth of July

We went to church with Logan, because he was reading the lesson for the day at his church. We thought the way it was put in the service was lovely. Shawn came from the choir and joined Logan at the microphone. She led the congregation in prayer after he read the lesson.

Mid-afternoon, the neighbors met in the street for a cook-out. This photo includes everyone who was there. There was no favoritism, just a distant shot that showed no one to advantage. We had a wonderful time being able to mingle freely. It was the first time we had seen Frankie in over a year, because of COVID 19.

Frankie, John, Dawn, Jeff, David, Logan, Shawn, Bob

David and Logan played the card game Set, taking time out to eat a few bites. They hadn’t played against each other for weeks, and they were merciless. After the party broke up, they let me find a few sets in several games as they continued the fierce competition in our house.

After dark, Shawn and Logan brought chairs to our driveway and joined us to watch lovely fireworks set off by neighbors up the mountain. That was a lovely close to a very pleasant day.

Blood Pressure

A routine visit to a doctor’s office brought unexpected laughter. The technician rolled the blood pressure machine in and slapped the cuff around my arm. It seemed to go through its program normally. She looked at the display and exclaimed, “All zeroes!”

I asked, “Does that mean I’m dead?”

“No!” she replied. IT’S dead!”

Photographs of a Thank You

We were quite busy before Logan’s birthday, and we did not buy him a gift ahead of time. He had been visibly excited about playing the card game Set that daughter Lise showed him before she went back to Denmark. The day before his birthday, I told him that I would check with his parents. If no one was planning to give him the game, I would order it immediately. The package arrived a few days later. By then, his house was full of company – two aunts and a cousin. John saw the cousin outside playing and asked him to send Logan over. That is where this story begins.

John handed Logan the gift, which though wrapped, was not a surprise.

Logan turned to John to say thank you. Can you see the intensity in that straight back? He said the words clearly and with feeling. He couldn’t have practiced to say it more perfectly.

John nodded toward me as Logan was turning to repeat his thanks. Seeing the camera, he flashed a brilliant smile and posed with the game. Ah! A boy after my own heart! There were years of training behind that smooth, sincere expression of gratitude. Let’s have a round of applause for Shawn and Bob! Good job! Well done!

England 40 Years Ago — June 28, 1981

We’ve had a full week with my folks still here. We went to Wakehurst Place Gardens in West Sussex. The mansion seems to be unoccupied, but the grounds are gorgeous. The place is kept up by the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew and administered by the National Trust. I liked the water way where the little stream fell over rocks in many falls and rested in pools before continuing downwards. One pool had the largest goldfish I’ve ever seen in my life.

One afternoon we got the girls from school just as they finished lunch to go to a National Trust house that is close to here. [Judging by the photos, we must have seen Polesden Lacy.] Since the place only opens at 2, we couldn’t see the house and get back to Reigate by 3:15. Lisa was thrilled to be getting out of school even though they missed no classroom work; on Tuesdays they have triple games, meaning three periods that the whole school troops up to playing fields for organized games. Kate was a little concerned that she would miss a break in school, but she enjoyed changing out of her uniform and looking like a tourist. We had seen the house when we first came here, but my folks hadn’t. I saw things this time around that I’d missed before – traveling cosmetic box and a lady’s “necessary” (tiny sewing and repair kit). $ liked figurines displayed on his level and pushing his own stroller in the garden. He didn’t last too long in the house, so we went out to the entrance hall and chatted with the lady collecting tickets. She and her husband do the cleaning of the place! She was filling in for a vacationing ticket taker. She said, “We give it a proper do every Monday and Friday when the house is closed to the public.” The roses and the peonies in the gardens were superb.

John and I both passed our stiff English driving test one day before the law stated that we had to. If you stay here for more than a year, you are supposed to have taken your test before that first year is up. We now feel like quite superior people! Mother and Dad have now “done time”; they kept $ from 9:15 – 11:45 during the tests and from 3 – 5:30 while I was getting Lisa’s new Dunottar uniform from the outfitters who supply the school. That poor baby would have become glued to his push chair if I’d had to drag him everywhere. At left is a photo of our having tea outside at our house.

We went a second time to the open air market, buying a few things for them to take home and enjoying seeing all that is for sale. We ate lunch at a National Trust house, Clandon Park. The lunch was delicious; $ behaved nicely until we went through the house, and my folks got a chance to wander through an historic building by themselves while $ and I gamboled on the lawn. His attention was soon riveted on two horses; he practiced saying “horse” until I think anyone could understand him.

Yesterday we drove to Bath (be sure to put “ah” in that name) and first went through Bath Abbey. For over 1200 years a Christian church has been on that site. St. Augustine was in Bath in 603! The present church was begun in 1499 and completed in the 17^th century. Further back in history, the Romans built baths to take advantage of the only hot springs in Britain soon after AD 43. Amazing! These buildings were covered over with later construction and not discovered until 1878. We could see where excavating continues today along with displays of Roman coins, statues, and mosaic tiles. Most of the rest of Bath is Georgian – the time when it became a spa for the upper classes. The streets are unusually wide for England and the buildings much like those in the Federal style in the U.S.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the Pump Room where people gathered to drink the waters and socialize and the Assembly Rooms where dances and concerts were held. These two places feature in almost every Georgian and Regency novel. I felt like I was seeing places where my friends had been! We tasted the mineral-laced water and were glad we didn’t have to drink much of it. Under the Assembly rooms is a museum of costume. Clothes were displayed beautifully on models, and many were grouped in room settings. The old court dresses looked as if yokes had dropped from shoulders to hips and were covered by the fancy dresses. Some were over a yard wide flaring out from 18 inch waists; from the side they appeared to be only five inches wide. There were quite a few things from the 1700’s up to winners of last year’s fashion awards. I thought the dresses from Queen Mary, the Queen Mother and the Queen were most interesting.

The ancient Roman baths were fantastic. We understand people are allowed to swim here one day a year.

On the way home we stopped to see a country mansion, Dyrham Park built by a minister of William III. The feature the children enjoyed most was a couple of 3-day-old peacocks. [At some point we saw a hand-cranked merry-go-round. I think this was near Hampton Court, and therefore out of order here.]

Mr. Clewes had told us that there was to be an air show this weekend, but of course we made no attempt to find out where it was to be. We saw some of it! Out on the open road, we happened to look round to see six to nine planes performing fancy stunts in the air.

Today we went to Westminster Abbey for the morning service. We sat in the second row in the nave; I was first in and so almost on the steps to the altar. I could have reached out and tickled the feet of the man reading the scripture lessons. The choir was superb, as usual. We did notice the novice choir boys dressed in red robes, but without the white tops, sitting near the organ console. We haven’t seen them there before. I saw the man in charge of them tap one boy on the shoulder during the service. Wonder what he did wrong. John said these very young boys were brought out of the service after the anthem was sung; they had black capes to wear over their red robes as they were marched back to their dorm.

The shortest and quickest way to London on Sunday mornings goes just on the edge of the suburb of Wimbledon. John kindly drove us by the tennis club since there were no games today and no traffic. Our neighbors who had seats on the center court said they spent an hour trying to get out of their car park! We noticed signs at the stadium stating the price of admission is two pounds. That is really cheap. You wouldn’t be allowed in the center court, but could wander around to any of the other 12 to 18 courts where many of the famous players would be playing. Of course, the best way to see tennis is to sit in front of the TV set where they broadcast hours and hours every day. I think they are on live from 2:30 until 7:30 and then begin the reruns of all the important games of the day. It was fun to see in person where all this activity takes place.

Perfect Pitch

I’ve just listened to the first podcast of Perfect Pitch and want to recommend it to anyone and everyone. What a marvel! I first met Nick as a blogger who wrote Manuscript Notes on WordPress. The podcast is a sparkling version of the same magic. The link is here.

Nick talks about music in words everyone can understand, and he picks marvelous pieces to illustrate his points. In the first podcast he tells how he started listening to classical music and how he pronounced Chopin’s name. Included are selections of Bach, Schubert, Chopin, and Beethoven.

If I were a Victorian lady, I’d swoon over his lovely English accent. His words and the music he chose are superb. Please do listen and prepare to be entranced.

Logan’s Birthday Eve

We knew neighbor Logan was going to spend the day with us while his parents had appointments, but we didn’t expect him to walk to the creek with us. He left his house wearing slippers on his feet and caught up to us at the top of the street. We waited as he ran back home for shoes and rejoined us. He has an inventive mind, so a walk with him instantly becomes a fun adventure. Did I say walk? Logan hardly ever walks. Here is a video clip of his running down the steep hill. By running ahead and coming back, he easily doubles the mileage we walk.

Once at the creek, Logan found a stick that became his silent saxophone for a few moments.

Sadie loves to play with Logan, even though he tricked her to pick up a stick. She won, because she stopped him from throwing it into the stream.

On the way home, Logan slid down a banister. Life is more exciting when his feet are off the ground.

Former neighbor Connie was here for lunch while dog Albert was being groomed. We turned it into a birthday party for Logan. Connie was telling him about her gift as he opened it at the table.

Logan waited patiently for us to sing Happy Birthday to him before we cut the cake.

I thought he would tumble to the fact that we were celebrating his birthday as soon as he came in the house, because the balloon was on the kitchen counter before lunch. As John fixed it to his chair, he asked, “That’s for me?” He assumed it belonged to John, along with the huge balloons that showed 80 for his future birthday. We all enjoyed the pre-birthday party, and now Logan is 11 years old.