Fresh Blackberry Pie

This has been a busy week with work and also spending good time with Daryl's parents before they head back to the states in a few days, so i'm a little delayed in posting this. We had a great weekend, finishing our visit with our good friend Philip and then having a family day in the park on Sunday.

Setting out on our adventure, picnic packed in the back pack, sun is shinning... it's going to be a good day.

We return to our fort that Dad has been building only to find that Alas! it needs repair! Daryl spends the next hour putting it up again while the girls and i hunt for dear, make mud ... i mean "chocolate" bread pudding and clear smooth paths outside our house for natania to ride her bike.

Daryl is finally done with the house and can help us cook the meat over the fire.

we start our ride home and find... a huge patch of blackberries! we start picking the sweet juicy berries and suddenly instead of picking a few to snack on, we are filling our large tupperware and are set on getting enough to make pie!

With plenty of berries and scratches on our arms, we head home to put together our pie! I used the recipe for the blackberry pie filling from Epicurious here (we did a crumb topping)...it was wonderful. Even though i didn't have many tools that might seem important for making pie (rolling pin, pie dish, etc) with a little creativity and hands on approach it worked out just fine. We liked it so much that the next day, Daryl and the girls went back and picked enough berries to make two more pies!

One reason I am happy to be in England this summer: three words- Fresh blackberry pie.

Not everything is as it seems...

So far I think if you have been reading our blog from the beginning of our England trip you probably have the impression that life for us is full of delightful adventures; Wimbledon (that was cool), Wales (incredible!!) tea time, ballet class for the girls… the list goes on. Ok, all those things have been really great. But it’s only telling part of the story. The reality is that there are some things we are really struggling with and that we don’t enjoy. One of the biggest is loneliness. Most of you know that in southern California we live in an awesome apartment complex with great friends as our neighbors… to go from that to being totally alone above a busy street in a small town in England, though surrounded by beauty, we are relationally dry. When we went to Eastern Europe for a little under a year, we had plenty of time to get to know people and develop relationships, here with only 3 months it’s not enough time. Whenever I say to someone “til the end of the summer” to the inevitable question of how long we’re here for, I find myself cringing inside because I know I just shot down the possibility of them being interested in getting to know me more.

I think when I looked forward to coming to England for the summer, I focused mostly on the adventure of being in another country and getting to experience the culture. I don’t think I realized the reality that living somewhere for 3 months on your own would potentially be a lonely experience.

So today, when we had the chance to go visit some people we already knew from the US in a “nearby” town we eagerly planned the trip. We got the privilege of going to Cambridge to visit Fred and Susan Sanders who are currently teaching a Torrey course together with the Spears, another family from our church. Tom and Sue Kimbers were also dropping by for a visit today and Philip Massey was there (because he’s visiting us right now!) It was a “Grace EVFree England reunion!” Daryl and I had a delightful time. Of course it goes without saying that Cambridge was absolutely beautiful, we got to view many of the colleges by punting along the river Cam (punting is a small boat that a guide pushes with a long poll… no sorry he didn’t sing, wrong country) and we had afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream. But more than the fun activities, we just thoroughly enjoyed the company. I don’t know how to fully explain it; it was so refreshing to be with real friends and to speak to other Americans in “our language.” Seriously… even though we “share a common language” with our English friends, the longer we are here, the more we agree with the saying that we are “divided by a common language!”

We did it! Drove there and back in our rental car without getting lost! Only one wrong turn the whole day! It was pretty good considering we didn't have a GPS or a good map! (not recommended)

on the punting boat

our mates in the boat next to us!

Claire by "Clare College" (it's never too young to start planting seeds is it? "oh claire... wouldn't that be fun to go to Clare collage?")

the men's table at tea

Sue Kimber with Breanna, one of the Biola students attending the Torrey class and she also goes to our church! She was very sweet; Natania and Claire enjoyed playing with her this afternoon... we have a new friend!

Tea with warm scones!

A wonderful day!

Dear Great Grandma...

We put these in the mail last week to my grandma.

Claire is packed and ready for a sleepover at Grandma's. Her bag carries a variety of useful things: dolls and clothes. Our "16 seater" van (if you think you see eight seats, it's because each is two seats!) is ready to take her.

Natania drew the Spradley house in England "on a sunny day." you can see that we have the best house on the block... just look at our fancy door.

The Americans stand out ... in Pink!

If you asked Natania and Claire what has been the highlight so far of their time in England, they would undoubtedly tell you... "Ballet!!!" We were fortunate to be able to join a class of 5/6 year olds for the last 4 weeks of their ballet class before it let out for the summer holiday. So last Wednesday the mums got to stay and watch the last class and it gave me a chance to snap some shots of the girls "first ballet class" that we will all enjoy looking back on when they are Prima ballerinas! We may have to find them a dancing class when we return to the US, but i'm kidding about them being professional dancers... we're too committed to the violin! You can call me Tiger mom!... again... totally kidding!

This week it was a small class as many students are already on holiday. Usually it is double the size and so you can see that it would be easy for Natania and Claire to get lost among the many girls. I took care of that, as you'll be able to see from the pictures.

roll call... to which the girls learned to reply "Good afternoon Miss Anna" when their name was called

Claire is one of the first ready: feet together, standing tall, holding skirt out!

Skipping!

Reach, reach!

End of term, teacher hands out "dancing star" ribbons. the girls are very proud.

(Random foot in photo belongs to the squirmy younger brother sitting in front of me- parents were seated on the stage)

side note:

Actually the real reason my girls are wearing bright pink while all the others are in baby blue is that we had brought our own leotards with us from the US, (for playing dress up) and when we signed up for ballet, they said we didn't need to buy the whole costume kit since we were only committing to 4 weeks of classes! i'm sure it helped their teacher out... "let's see, where are those new girls..."

Poetry and Prose

"Oh, it's all so romantic," breathed Anne to Marilla that night. "If I hadn't taken the wrong path that day we went to Mr. Kimball's I'd never have known Miss Lavendar; and if I hadn't met her I'd never have taken Paul there. . .and he'd never have written to his father about visiting Miss Lavendar just as Mr. Irving was starting for San Francisco. Mr. Irving says whenever he got that letter he made up his mind to send his partner to San Francisco and come here instead. He hadn't heard anything of Miss Lavendar for fifteen years. Somebody had told him then that she was to be married and he thought she was and never asked anybody anything about her. And now everything has come right. And I had a hand in bringing it about. Perhaps, as Mrs. Lynde says, everything is foreordained and it was bound to happen anyway. But even so, it's nice to think one was an instrument used by predestination. Yes indeed, it's very romantic."

"I can't see that it's so terribly romantic at all," said Marilla rather crisply. Marilla thought Anne was too worked up about it and had plenty to do with getting ready for college without "traipsing" to Echo Lodge two days out of three helping Miss Lavendar. "In the first place two young fools quarrel and turn sulky; then Steve Irving goes to the States and after a spell gets married up there and is perfectly happy from all accounts. Then his wife dies and after a decent interval he thinks he'll come home and see if his first fancy'll have him. Meanwhile, she's been living single, probably because nobody nice enough came along to want her, and they meet and agree to be married after all. Now, where is the romance in all that?"

"Oh, there isn't any, when you put it that way," gasped Anne, rather as if somebody had thrown cold water over her. "I suppose that's how it looks in prose. But it's very different if you look at it through poetry. . .and I think it's nicer. . ." Anne recovered herself and her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed. . ."to look at it through poetry."

Marilla glanced at the radiant young face and refrained from further sarcastic comments. Perhaps some realization came to her that after all it was better to have, like Anne, "the vision and the faculty divine". . .that gift which the world cannot bestow or take away, of looking at life through some transfiguring. . .or revealing?. . .medium, whereby everything seemed apparelled in celestial light, wearing a glory and a freshness not visible to those who, like herself and Charlotta the Fourth, looked at things only through prose.

Quoted from Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery from the chapter entitles "Poetry and Prose"

Instead of water, Natania brought me wine

On Sunday we went to a Scottish Highland Festival. Hands down, it was the best festival that we had ever been to. There were Scottish activities galore: caber tossing, dogs hearding ducks, falcon shows, dancing contests, bagpipe contests, live 1740’s infantry display, and much more.

We didn’t bring any water so by the end I was quite thirsty. On the way out there was a stall intended to raise support for clean water in Africa. You could pay a pound and select from a few dozen mystery bags to see if you would get the “dirty river water,” a bottle of water, or a spe

cial bottle of wine. I handed Natania a pound and asked if she could pick out one of the bags with bottled water in it. It just so happened that the one bag she picked had the wine in it. It was the first and only time that I will ever have slight remorse after winning a contest. We’ll enjoy the wine sometime, but when you want water, wine doesn’t cut it.

The Pier House Cafe - Isle of Anglesey

(Lunch)

(I want a some tier trays like this for my counter top at home... "Becky's Homemade scones coming right up!")

For a restaurant, it is a great compliment when you return the same day to eat again at their establishment. If you return a third time in one day like we did during our anniversary trip, well, it felt a little embarrassing. But honestly the Pier House Cafe in Beaumaris was a lovely restaurant! Great variety in their menu (we should know by now!) friendly wait staff, clean bathrooms, and a great location by the waterfront. The spot overlooking the water is what sold me on wanting to return the second time. We'd already had a nice lunch there and had been to the local castle when it was time for a coffee break. Sitting watching families stroll by with their dogs, and kids lick their ice cream cones, the boats stuck up on the shore because the tide was low... so much to see sitting outside the cafe. Later on we did end up getting our dinner here as well, although we did "take away" so that we could have a picnic back in the gardens of our estate.

(accompanying "tea cake" not pictured)

(this is where we sat outside)

Too Cool

Here is something I appreciate about the English. From my perspective they do not appear to be as concerned about being "cool," as Americans seem to be. For example, take a look at one of their favorite vacuum cleaners, the male and female versions. Maybe having one of these is "cool" here and I just don't get it. We have a Henry, and cool or not, it works better than most vacuums.

Fairies, a Garden, and Dogma

Have you ever read C.S. Lewis' space trilogy? Becky and I believe that is a misleading name for it. It is not about “space” in the sense that we use the term. If you haven’t heard of the trilogy, here are the names of the books; Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. These books have completely captivated us. In them, Lewis is able to portray certain Biblical truths in a way that enlighten our minds and cause our hearts to hunger for heavenly things. After reading the series through a few times I wanted to discover what inspired Lewis’ ability to convey divine truths with such potency. I learned that two books had been particularly influential for Lewis: Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton and Phantastes by George MacDonald. I set out to read them both. It didn’t take long before I completed Phantastes; and was converted. Like the surprising way in which Lewis found himself converted to Christianity, here I was converted to believing in fairies.

In Phantastes, a young man journeys through fairyland and makes both outward and inward discoveries. While reading, I was made my own discoveries. I was beginning to understand what C.S. Lewis meant when he said that to convey certain truths a person needed to use myths. As Lewis used the term, myths, convey divine truths in a manner that preserves their mysterious quality, similarly to poetry. A divine mystery stripped down by bare prose can miss the truth in a critical way. It can leave you like the modern scientist, thinking that you have mastered the object of your study. We think that we understand the phenomena “instinct” or “birth” because we have defined them with concise definitions. Yet, this scientific mindset has enslaved our brains to petty conceptions of reality rather than causing us to truly perceive reality.

C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald have taught me that there is truth to be found but it cannot be known in a manner that excludes mystery. It is here, in the humility before truth itself that we need to be like children and believe in the enchantment of reality.

Thus, I set out to encourage "make believe" play with my girls. Claire, more mature in this journey than I, led me on the way when I said we were going to the park to play "Fairies." But Natania, like her “black and white” thinking father, agreed to go on one condition: "I will play 'fairies'" she said, "but I will NOT believe in them." That was a start.

We all enjoyed looking for fairies at Creek Park, but when we came to the land of fairies and castles here in England I wondered what we might find. For me, the impact was keenly felt when I walked in the country garden (it would be better to think of it as an arboretum) at the cottages that Becky and I stayed at in Wales. The entire garden was enchanting, but one part of it was indescribably beautiful. It was like the land of the Elves in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." It had a stone stairway descending into something like a cathedral in a forest

In that cathedral I saw, felt, and smelled why people have told fairy stories. I was in the presence of beauty that exceeded the ability of my five senses to take in, let alone to adequately describe it with words.

Still skeptical about my conversion? I will leave you with one last dogmatic word. In a lecture (click here for the lecture), Peter Kreeft explains that the term "Dogma," which in recent times has come to mean a “hard and almost legalistic truth,” originally carried a meaning closer to the idea of “mysterious truth.” Truths, if they be truly known, will retain a holy mystery!

Our new favorite holiday!

Plas Cadnant on the Isle of Anglesey is now officially at the top of our list when Daryl and I think back to the wonderful places we've stayed at. If we lived closer to the area, i would be tempted not to even mention the actual name of our holiday cottage because there is always a temptation when you find a gem to keep it to yourself. (why do we do that???)

Anglesey itself is a beautiful area. Everyone who we've talked to says Northern Wales (and Scotland) are the most beautiful areas of the UK. The country estate that we stayed at is surrounded by soft green hills of bleating sheep. The whole gardens and estate are in the process of being restored. Originally built in the 1600s, the cottages combine old classic style with modern comfort and convenience.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to return to Wales, but if we do, we'll definetly be coming back to Plas Cadnant.

9 Rules to Remember when Driving in the UK

While we were in Wales Daryl got to try out driving in the UK for the first time. Here are some insights we'd like to pass along.

1. Do not start your left-side-of-the-road driving experience in London or any other big city. Start out in a smaller town or rural area..

2. 2. Watch out for Old People (Bless their hearts!)

3. After you turn left onto a new street and your wife says with increasing force, “Left…. Left! … LEFT!!!.... DARYL LEFT!!!!” then that probably means you should move over to the left lane and not for you to turn left again!

4. Don’t go into auto-drive mode, you WILL end up driving on the right side of the road. Driving requires your brain to multi-task and when you neglect to focus on driving on the left side, your auto-drive will turn you onto the right side.

5. Be ready for roundabouts. They don’t have many stop signs, at least I cannot recall any. Figure out the etiquette of turn signals in the roundabouts before driving (I still don’t get it.)

6. Even if you do figure out the etiquette of turn signals, you may not be able to apply it. Most cars here are manual and your left hand must multi-task with shifting gears and hitting your turn switch (a skill I have yet to learn.) I am not sure why the turn signal is not on the right side where your free hand is; maybe it was just the car that we had rented.

7. Do not forget, as we did, to ask for an automatic transmission car from the rental agency.

8. 8. Be ready for NARROW streets. If cars are parked on the street, be prepared to take turns with oncoming traffic to make it through. Even if there isn’t a car parked there you still may need to take turns getting through.

9.If you are out in the country and you see a sign that says “for narrow cars only” avoid it! Even though you are driving a very narrow car, the lovely bushes on each side scrapping against your rental car will cause nervous tension to exceed the pleasure of enjoying the beautiful countryside, as you stress about the £600 liability charge that you may have to pay.

Reflections on My First Visit to a Medieval castle.

The castle was in ruins centuries ago. Castles were outdated after gunpowder and canons came. Thus, most all the castles ceased as military powers well before the United States was even an idea.

I found it odd that there was a little chapel built into the walls of the castle. It made me think of having a prayer room built into an army tank. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in praying at all times. Nevertheless, the juxtaposition of a castle built to expand an earthly kingdom by ruling others against their will (in this case the Welsh) and a chapel made to worship Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world, seemed askew.

The castle is a draw for tourists in this Welsh community but it also stands as a constant reminder that they (the Welsh) were defeated and ruled by the English. Most Welsh embrace the unity of Wales and England with its many economic benefits, while others despise the “occupation.”

From what I’ve read and seen of what it was like to live in a Castle when they were just built, I am inclined to think that my little apartment in Whittier is in many ways a far more comfortable place to live.

It’s hard to put into words just how beautiful Northern Wales is and in particular, the holiday cottage and gardens we stayed at over this weekend. For an early 8th anniversary trip, Daryl and I just returned today from 3 nights and 4 days on the Isle of Anglesey, arguably one of the most beautiful parts of the United Kingdom. We felt like little kids who’d stumbled into a sweet shop, overcome by the variety and beauty. Even the train ride from London to Wales was wonderful; we saw coastal towns, castles, farmland, little lazy rivers with those long canal boats ... it was great!

The whole trip would be too much to fit into one blog post, at least for the average person's attention span! So we decided that over the next several days, Daryl and I will take turns posting about several of the different experiences we enjoyed from Wales. If you look at our links on righthand side you'll see all our videos on youTube, one of them shows the place we stayed. you can also click here. more about it in the days to come!

(you can see the boats out the window!)