Ye Olde Fighting Cocks for 8 Years

Tuesday night, we went out to dinner with the girls for our anniversary. We ate at Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, one of the oldest pubs in England and located in the town next to us. The girls surprised us with homemade cards wrapped in homemade wrapping paper, and a paper kite that they had secretly been working on during they day. That is probably one of my best memories from the evening. Seeing how excited they were and being genuinely surprised by their thoughtfulness! the other best moment was when the Sticky Toffee Pudding came... oh man, the whole meal was great, but that pudding made me want to run home and look up the recipe! i'll probably check with my sister as i remember her making it several years back and it was delicious then too.

At the end of the evening, we drove by the St. Albans Cathedral; it looked so beautiful lit in the night sky. Our camera makes it seem much lighter than it was, in reality it was hard to get clear photo. It was a beautiful end to a special evening.

Our 8th Anniversary: My Wife's Smile

Today is the 16th of August, 2011 and it marks Becky's and my eighth anniversary. As a celebration of our marriage and in gratitude for my beautiful bride, I am posting one of my journal entries from last month.

On a breathless July evening in England, Becky and I went for a walk. There was not a hint of wind and the temperature, if there was a word to describe it, would tell of something between cool and warm. We ducked out of town and strolled up the hallway of swaying giants that leads through Rothamsted Park. We passed under the leafy branches like a bride and groom walking beneath an arch of swords.

Passing from the soft hue of green bathing the arch, we opened a kissing gate and walked into a weary field. There we watched an unfurling blanket of mist tucking the field in for the night. We walked apart, each of us immersed in the solemn serenity that accompanies such unearthly twilight stillness. Then we drew near through the misty veil, doubling the delight of the experience as we shared it together.

Becky and I walked on, captivated by the blanketed field. A large manor house stood off to one side with an iron rooster gazing down on our dreamy delight from his pinnacle. It was as if we were lingering in a dream trying to allow the misty scene to settle so we could recall it when we awoke.

Tinged with the slight sorrow that comes from the knowledge all such dreams much pass, we headed back to our flat. As we strolled by a patch of willows dozing in a nearby field, Becky spotted a fox. We watched as it scampered around and whispered off through the grass. Moments later we noticed a pair of foxes alternately frolicking and resting in their sleepy field. They paused, staring at us as we looked back; mirrored stares.

To use a phrase that Claire surprised us with the other day, the beauty we behold was so bright that “it stung our eyes.” Our very souls had been refreshed by this evening amble. As we passed back through the arch of swords on a now damp sidewalk, I mentioned to Becky how exquisite the pleasure was that I enjoyed in her company. And then it came like the glorious flames of a sunrise, lighting up the then dusky evening; Becky turned and smiled up at me. The holy delight was as much in her eyes as it was in her lips. Her countenance was layered with meaning.

If I were an ancient theologian I may attempt to draw out the meaning of her look by searching for the literal, metaphorical and spiritual meanings.

As it was, I was able to glean from her holy treatise several revelations. The first was a pure delight in the love she recieved from me. Secondly, her eyes gave a lyrical look that sang of her own vivid love for me. The third I perceived to be a stream of admiration and respect. Beyond these three was a mixture of other sentiments coming from the mysterious depths her heart. My soul smiled up at God expressing gratitude for such an undeserved gift I had received in Becky. Turning this gratitude towards her I said, “such is the greatest smile that a man can experience on this earth."

Oxford!

We have a co-workers car this week to use and Saturday we drove to Oxford! we walked around the town a bit; it's busy right now in the summer season with tourists. Then we drove over to The Kilns, where C.S. Lewis lived. we almost didn't find it because our directions were not adequate, which would have been very disapointing as this was one of the main places I really wanted to see. We hadn't made an appointment in advance to see the inside of the house so we viewed it from the road and then walked around the nature reserve / pond next door, thinking about woodland creatures and St. Annes and Belbury (from That Hideous Strength) As we were returning to our car to leave, we met a local resident and started talking to him. He told us we should knock on the door since we'd come from far away. We knew it was by appointment only so we said it was ok, we didn't want to bother the permanent residents. In the end, the neighbor (who as out walking his dog) ended up seeing Stan, who turned out to be none other than the director of the C.S. Lewis foundation (who owns the Kilns)! He was there in Oxford finishing up a three week summer institute program they hold triennially. The C.S. Lewis foundation is based in Redlands, California! (where my grandmother lives) We had a nice conversation and he let us see more of the grounds. What a pleasure!

Ten Surprises from our time in England

1. Friendly glances on the street are very rare. We thought this was particular to Eastern Europe. We miss the pleasantness of a smile when you pass a stranger.

2. That we love bike rides as a family. South Whittier is not conducive to pleasant bike rides, while our small town surrounded by farmland is very conducive. We plan on bringing this new love home with us and try to overcome the obstacles of South Whittier to continue our family bike rides.

3. The grocery stores are stocked with gluten-free and dairy-free products. It puts the United States grocery stores to shame. I have been thinking of packing an extra suitcase with Daryl’s favorite GF bread! (just kidding… we don’t have a big enough freezer for it at home)

4. Blackberries ripening in late July and early August were a surprise to us and to all of the locals. I made 4 pies in one week!

5. How Daryl’s health has been relatively good.

6. How much we would miss our community even though we were only away for the summer.

7. How you really can get by with less kitchen gadgets (ok I do miss my food processer, my sharp chef’s knife, and my digital scale to name a few!)

8. That your kids can get by with less toys! I know this is a no brainer… but they simply don’t need too much. We have had a lot of fun making our own “paperdolls” (ie. They draw pictures and then cut them out.) We borrow lots of books from the library. And we play a lot of pretend. Today they excitedly invited me up to their room to visit “Disneyland” I had to pay a 2 pence entrance fee (they said it could be anything up to a pound… what a deal!) and then they gave me a grand tour of the park. Play area on the bottom bunk with castle toys (Sleeping Beauty’s castle maybe?) Natania had a food shop at the back of the room with real fruit and veggies nicked from the kitchen. There was even a resting area with nice pillows and blankets after you were tired from playing in the park. Seeing this Disneyland you might think my girls had never been to the real thing the similarities were so slim, but Daryl and I told them we like their Disneyland better because in theirs you got to use your imagination, while Disneyland does it all for you.

9. How different our English is. We may speak the same language but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way!

10. That Daryl likes milk chocolate! Yes, usually he avoids dairy, but the big Cadburys Milk chocolate and hazelnut bars doesn’t seem to bother him! I guess I didn’t realize that his strong remarks in the past about how chocolate was like eating batteries, was actually only about Dark chocolate!

London Riots

Just a quick one to let you know that the area we are in is quiet and untouched by the riots that have been taking place over the last couple days here in London etc.

here is a link to a UK news source covering the riots: UK telegraph

My Tooth! How about my old tooth brush for the Fairy?

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!