W#4 Mary Poppins By P.L. Travers (and Poppies too)

So I borrowed a collage from our family section to introduce this weeks English Book, Mary Poppins.  On the left we Barb and Randy's daughter Kyle and her husband John dressed up for the Halloween party they hosted for their extended family.  I grabbed a picture of dancers at Disneyland to show how perfect their costumes were.

And really is anything more quintessentially English than Mary Poppins. 

And further, I'd like to tie the theme to Poppies, you know Poppins and Poppies, jusr one letter difference, because poppies have filled our week this week as we head into Remembrance Sunday next week as the Brits celebrate what we call Veterans day with much more enthusiasm than we Americans do.  Since I have two brothers born on that day, November 11, I have always paid attention to what events celebrated the day.  I just have to say, I love how the Brits do it. 

 Next Sunday our ward will meet at our normal time, then we'll walk as a congregation, across the street to a park where there will be a remembrance program.  Our ward will present a wreath, along with other church congregations.  Thinking of it gives me the shivers.  Then we'll walk back to the church, en masse, and have our regular meetings.  

The poppies on the fence are 6 inch wide crocheted poppies that covers about 30 feet of this fence, in front of a municipal building.  It did my heart good.

And now onto the week. Good morning Monday, here I am with Krystin Fletcher, because she is in the auditing department and Dad thought, hmmm Seth VanCott (husband to Stina VanCott the Finn) worked as an auditor for the church, I wonder if they know each other.  She knew him well, as it turns out, having traveled with him and others on auditing trips all around the world that are necessary for The Church of Jesus Christ to keep things straight for overseeing governments. Fun Moment, she is expecting her first baby the first of the year, what a wonderful time for her.

Here is my desk, yep, that's herb tea.  Michela who is two desks away in our office, asked if I would like some tea.  She showed me how to use the electric kettle, which comes to a boil in about 2 minutes (Something about higher voltage electricity here)  There was a drawer with tea bags, but no artificial sugar for this sugar free girl.  I drank it straight, and found it very comfortable.  Ever since I learned that hot herb tea is good for digestion, I've thought I should be drinking it.  Other benefits include some teas with natural  antioxidants.

In the lunch room I hooked up with Kathrine, one of the two widowed sisters who are humanitarian missionaries.  She always wears black and white and red, which I actually did for many years, as my homies know.  I did happen to wear it that day, and she's such a good sport she let me take a coordinated picture with her.  She's just adorable. Oh and we are the same age.

I heard her telling someone that that night at our Seniors FHE they could see her ankles ... I thought that was funny, and said, "I can see your ankles now, why wait until tonight.  She laughed and said she had said, "Angles"  Her furniture is set up as an smaller rectangle in the rectangle of her living room, but that is set at an angle inside the room.  Its very charming ... when I saw it I wondered if she been an interior designer.  Nope, she's an accountant, but then angles really are related to math and numbers right?

Here we are gathered at her apartment, she is in the red at the back of this picture.

Here we see me, then the mission secretaries, the Pace.  Elder Pace was the General Sunday School president at one time.  He had some excellent booklets regarding teaching that had been printed when he was working with the Sunday School.  He went through the book and shared the best bits.  It was lovely.

This shot shows a few more people at the far end of the room.

Here we see Elder Pace teaching the lesson.

And speaking of Elders, here is a picture that LaVern Posted this week, as they come to the close of their mission in Nauvoo.  They had a fun parade too, if you know her and want to check out her Facebook page.

In the lunch room at the office they have this display that flits though a dozen or so quotes by apostles.  This one is by my favorite general authority, Elder Eyring, and I love the hand cart pioneer illustration just brings it close to my heart.  (You may recall that our Hand Cart Re-enactment Service Mission was served with LaVern and Ron Crump)

On Wednesday there was a choir practice for the Remembrance Day Program that is coming up on November 11th.  Of course Scott's in the choir.

But afterwards we had a special treat when this gal sang several songs operatic style. She is currently getting her law degree in London and is working as an intern at the office. But she also has a masters degree in Opera that she received in Italy, after serving a mission there.  It was lovely.  I also love that as Sister Pace played her accompaniment, he husband turned the pages. What a treat.

On Thursday Scott got his goodie box from Amazon ... yep, all those things we forgot to bring, or didn't know we would want.

Later Paulo came in to help with some tech stuff.  I am sure he gets tired of helping us, but he is always so upbeat and kind.

After lunch we took a few minutes to run over to the 'little free library exchange" that we'd seen the first day we were here, when James took us on a tour of nearby Wooburn Green.

Quite a few books crammed into the phone box.

I'd brought books from home I'd finished to change out.

When we got home we had a second queen size bed in our second bedroom.  Yeah.  That will come in handy for visitors.  We had quite a few on our first mission, which we loved.  Because of Covid happening near the start of our second mission to Finland we had nary a visitor.

That night we had the general area meeting, with more than 25 in attendance.  We learned about the latest project that the Church History Department will be doing.  We're excited to be a part of it, and you will hear more about it in future blogs posts.

The Gough's who are serving over in Bristol were at that meeting.  James was on vacation for a week and left them in charge.  Since we had several questions we called them on Friday.  They had many good suggestions, and invited us to call them with other concerns, which might be a relief for James as he is so very busy.

One of the things we do is collect artifacts for the RPCs or Regional Preservation Centers.  They received a donation from the ward where they serve.  Its a sacrament kit that has been used to take the sacrament to shut ins.  Its a lovely homemade set, and there are two of them in that ward, but they only ever need one.  See the box, with a kitchen cabinet handle, a small wood sacrament water tray, a flat wood bread tray, and a tiny card with the prayers printed on either side.  What a gift of love.

They also had some great stories to share.

First thing on Saturday Scott headed of to do a 5K on a local Cricket Field, that he found last week.

He saw the results from last week, and counting the people in the picture last week did not do the job, there were actually over 500.  Dad will be able to see how he did next week when he goes to run again,

Because it was Halloween, many people ran in costume.  How fun is this.

Dad made salsa that day as it can't be found at the stores, at least not in the sizes Scott needs.

I filled my own 'needs' by making sugar free lemon curd.

Out shopping the charity shops I ran into this cute chair on display.

And while waiting for Scott to check out at another charity shop, I sat outside with our goodies from other shops, and saw this ... 

I just love details like this and they're not hard to find.

Later we went to get gas and a curling iron for me and a hair cutting set for Scott, when we found young cadets collecting donations for the armed services charity, used to fund special needs for individuals past or currently serving in the armed services.  Its part of the poppy remembrance that is so fun for us to see throughout our time here so far.

We drove over to the town where Scott had his second flat last week, kind of a hair of the dog thing, and shopped the small village streets.  So charming.  Loved this.

Store windows celebrated Halloween and Remembrance day.

Look at the amazing color we are starting to see in spots.

The light isn't good on this cathedral, but the spires reminds me of the spires on the Salt Lake Temple.  I just wish a bit of a breeze was blowing out the Union Jack.

That night we watched the movie The Queen and Abdul, which I loved.  This scene of having tea in the cold on moors of Scotland was priceless.

Then on our way to church on London road we saw this gal with her Pony and Trap.  I was making a Marco Polo for friends and was able to get a shot, though it did need a bit of cleaning up.  Made me smile.

Before church I had put up some command strip hooks that needed an hour to affix.  When I got home I was able to hang them.  This is an antique original painting, that was 20 Pounds or about $27.  I was so thrilled.  My best find so far. 

So after such a very, very quintessential British week, I thought that an English dinner was perfect.  I even had 2 Yorkshire puddings left. When we picked up our son Trevor from his mission in Birmingham, a member family fed us on a Sunday, and fixed this, except they had roast beef instead of a 'faux chicken roll'.  The potatoes are par boiled but then are put in the oven on a cookie sheet with melted butter.  Assorted veggies filled out the menu then and now.  We loved it, and when we came home we often had 'English dinner, and it became a favorite.  When we became vegetarian, we kind of dropped the tradition, but now we are loving it, with the one important substitution its as delicious as ever ... and oh, did I mention gravy?

... and now for some family memories

This week I've been thinking about when you all come to visit us here.  Because the housing supervisors accepted our request for a second bed in our second bedroom, I started imagining rooms fill with make shift beds ... that reminded me of when we picked up Davin from his mission in Bolivia.  Emily and Brittany, two of my travelers went with us, we were five in total.  Davin had arranged for us to go up in the Mountains to see some ruins.

I was not prepared for the charming little town.  I took pictures of door after door.  Hey were bright colors, and chippy paint, and antique too.  My favorite combination.  That night we slept in Hostel, that was a room with beds spaced so tightly there really wasn't room to walk between them.  We all slept in that room, no one else was there, we laughed and giggled all night.  If you know Davin you know that he has the power to make everything fun.  Its one of my favorite memories.  

I tried to find picture of us all from 20 years ago, so I could make a faux pics with the help of AI.

Unfortunately, the ap lost Britt's face during in its initial change, but the rest of us have a bit of our real selves.  We ate dinner at a tiny restaurant that night where the owner sat with us and shared his history of growing up somewhere in Europe and then moving here.  Thanks for the memories y'all. The charming town is called Samaipata.

We had a delightful surprise this week when Ashley called for a nice long visit.  She said she called to thank us for having foreign exchange students.  She said that it helped her to understand that all people are people, and there is so much good in the world.  She was the one who suggested we get our first exchange student. That was Marilena from Venezuela, who we all loved, and who loved and adored Spencer, since he was under 5, and she was the youngest in her family.  Several years later we had Danny, who was an equal joy to get to know.  He was from the Netherlands, and was one of the happiest people I have ever met.  The third was Rui, who was from Japan.  Emily had known her family, and we loved having her.  Emily started doing translating work on line that year and Rui was a huge help.  Besides these three, we also had an Indian Placement student for 2 years. Her name is Genevieve, and we called her Ginny.  All the girls were in Elementary School at the time, and she fit right in with the other four.  We have such fond memories of her time with us as well.

Thanks Ashley for bringing back such great memories.

Meanwhile, back in the present, he we see our granddaughter Bekie, who dressed like her Dad for 'Dress like your Hero' day.  Since her Dad is the Superintendent of the schools in their district, and is temporarily replacing her principal it was super fun for both of them

Other fun was had when Trevor invited his cousin Jon to come down to BYU from SLC for a game.  They've been friends since childhood, and now they have the added connection of both having a child serving in the California, Roseville mission.

In other fun, Penny dressed up as Cruelly Deville as a zombie for a Halloween event.  How perfect is that?

Trevor was Gru, a favorite alter ego of his, for the ward Trunk or Treat ...

And here's the family on pumpkin carving day,

More fun was hand by Titan, the youngest of the Triplet cousins to turn 16! In the bottom right hand corner you can see the other two.

and in other BYU/Halloween fun, this is Titan's family celebrating.

And though there cousin Ian, was not specifically doing a Halloween theme, I think these pictures he recently posted fit right in.  He is Ashley's second child of three.

And in the midst of all the fun, Emily turned 40 this past week, and made it fun for everyone, because that is what she always does.

and I not only have fun kids ... my friends have fun kids too.  Thanks Kylie for providing me with a title for my blog this week.  The video your mom took of all the fun decor, activities and costumes at the Party you and John put together, was nothing short of amazing.  I love you girl, and your husband is pretty amazing too.

By the way, Barb's daughter-in-law dressed as Bellatrix and that little Hermione is pretty dang cute too!

Well thanks to you all who made contact this week, we loved the family group on messenger and facetime.  We love you all and pray for each of you daily.