W#5 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Looking at pictures this week I ran across what my granddaughter Eva wore to our Bethlehem dinner last year ... it seems pretty important now.  But we had no idea that we would end up here before another year was out.  She is serving her own mission in the California Roseville mission.  She went out 3 months before us, so we hope she can come and visit us after her mission. She already has the right shirt!

Monday was good, James was done with his week of yearly vacation, and we had two meetings with him that day.  That was good, as we work on becoming more helpful to him.

This was not good ... this cup has a narrow base and it tipped over flooding my keyboard, which I caught up immediately and then the girls in the office came and helped me mop up.

Lindsey was one of the mopper uppers, and she showed me the kind of mug I need.  This one was made by Emma Bridgewater, a famous English potter. It was made to not tip over ... yep.  BTW the tech guys came over and declared my computer a survivor.

Later when went into the hallway to find a booth to listen to an Oral History we'd been sent by another Senior Couple, the only booth nearby was this single.  Dad was sure we would fit.

But not so much, it was Lindsey and Michela, from our office who were having a discussion in the big booth and ran out of their booth laughing, saying, there's another booth in the travel department and more upstairs ... then Lindsey said, "I wish I had a pic of that..." as she walked away, so we arranged it, as you see.

These are the people that the oral history was about.  The man on the right baptized the mother of the man to the left.  The man to the left was named for his mother's missionary.  The two families met up on vacations, wrote to each other, and sent their kids to stay with each other over the years.  So the man to left, knew his mother's missionary very well.  Well, the man on the left is currently servings as a mission president in England, and the couple on the right decided to come and serve their 6th mission under him and his wife.  What a great story.

Mr pigeon stopped by to say hello.

Last Sunday we were invited to the Summergill's house for lunch on Wednesday.  Here is their welcoming door.

Here is the beautiful table setting.

Sister Summersgill serving up butternut squash soup.

They often feed missionaries on Wednesday, but they had also invited Norma, a ward member.  That's super fun since my middle name is Norma.

Of course the Sister Missionaries love to come for lunch.  There was an extensive menu

Here is Scott with Brother Summersgill.

Their lovely home is just around the corner from the church where we attend.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we stayed two hours without being aware of it, and that meant I was late for my appointment with a very interesting young lady.  I am assigned 3 articles for the inhouse newsletter per month, so I did a bit of a bio on Erica.  She is a legal intern with the area legal team, as she attends law school at the BYU center in London.  She also happens to have classical opera training. 

Such a darling girl.

On Thursday we picked up the new missionary couple and drove them to work, since they didn't have their car yet. They are the Binghams. They've lived all over the world, being heavily involved in managing various charities, which made them a shoo in for Public Affairs at the office.

We invited them over for dinner that night, and made English roasted dinner.

On Friday we stopped by my favorite charity shop and found these two 1800's oak carved figures, that are about 10 inches tall.

In googling I found that they were likely the pillars between the top and bottom of an antique French cupboard like this one.

Dad got this waterproof jacket for running and wore it to the park run 5K the next day.

After he went out for his run we headed out to see a local tourist attraction.

For the last several years we have been watching the accumulated 25 years worth of episodes of Midsomer Murders after our friends the Kews suggested we might like them. In one episode, shown above during filming, a man is murdered in a small town, and his body is tied down in the manner that Gulliver was tied down by the Lilliputians, in Gulliver's Travels. The village fascinated me in the episode, but I didn't think I'd ever actually see it.

When we got lost a couple of weeks ago, we saw a sign off the freeway to the Model Village.  After googling we knew that it was the same village, so Saturday was the day.

This beautiful church is just up the street from the village.

I always love a statue in a niche.

Here is Scott  by the sign.

The archway into t he village.

a hunting party ... English riding for my daughter Darby.

Always a fan of half timbering.

A lovely church.

another view.

A vernacular.

Scott watches one of many trains.

Another church

This one with a cemetery, and grave diggers at work.

I liked the archaeology dig.

I'm definitely a fan of the churches. It was a great day.

Afterwards we went thrifting in the same town, and I finally found a winter jacket.  Here's another poppy display as Remembrance Sunday is nearly up us.

After shopping we bought our first fish and chips.  Yep, yummy.

We gave the Binghams a ride to our ward on assignment from Sister Pace, our office secretary.

Sister Flannigan had given me poppies for the missionaries, they had none last week.  Now they each have 3 or so.  

Here is Peter Summersgill with the poppy wreath for the community Remembrance Day ceremony in the nearby park. The entire ward walked about a half mile to the park where the service would be held.

This is the WWI war memorial.

Here's the beribboned presenter reading off the names of 50 organizations who contributed.  This is a representative from the local police. There were girl and boys scout troops, choirs, old military associations, churches, soccer clubs, dance groups etc.

The man in the cap, with his son, who has a friend's hand on his shoulder holding the wreath will represent our ward.

Close up of the soldier.

Most wreath were like ours, this one was different.  The purple flowers evidently commemorate animals that were killed in wars, as I was told by a woman wearing a red poppy as well as a purple poppy.

This tattered Union Jack was either a relic of WW1 or possibly tattered on purpose to symbolize the wars.

This man placed a wreath for the Sikh Community.

This lady was a member of the Parrish counsel. Note her 'Lord Mayor of London', type Livery Collar.

Here we see the father and son from our ward, standing for a moment to honor the dead, after placing our wreath.

Beribboned.

A local clergyman said a very long formal prayer in honor of the ward dead.

Afterward, there was the traditions minutes of silence, then the bell rang from this near by church.

Thanks for following along, it was a very interesting week, and we are learning more and more about our responsibilities here, Scott's also feeling a lot more confident about driving.

Now for memorable moments from home.

We got to visit with Trevor ....

Emily took her kids to the temple open house in Fort Worth.

Kimberly and Chase loved the outcome of the BYU-Utes game.

Johnny had a great birthday and his family went to the zoo to help him celebrate.

While in Fort Worth Emily took the kids to an art gallery as well.

Abby likes Monet

And William, with his love of the Percy Jackson books, loved this ancient Roman vase.

It was great to also get to talk to Spencer.  

But best of all, Kim and Chase face timed with Ashley to tell us that their marriage has not only given us our first Great Granddaughter, with Chase bringing his 8 year old daughter Lydia into the marriage, they are also going to have a baby next June.  We are so excited about being great grandparents, we just wish we could be there to meet this cute little.  But at least we'll be home before the munchkin is even a year old.  Congrats to Ashley and Andy, and Kim, Chase and Lydia.