TheSecondTimeAroundEngland

There is a bustler who lives above us.  I have been fascinated for months by this person's habits.  I have no idea if it is a man or woman (There is a couple above us, and a single woman above and to the side, and we don't know which ones live where according to the apartment layouts.), but I often hear someone pacing.  Back and forth the length of the apartment at a fast clip.  I have heard it at 3:30 in the morning, and often throughout the day.  Sometimes it will go on for ten minutes or more. I wonder if the person is exercising, or furiously pacing/thinking.  I can't quite picture what they are doing, I only know they are bustling. Something neither SK nor I have done today.  In fact, this is the first day since we arrived in Oxford that we haven't been outside of our flat.  SK had an unsettling night with heartburn (it may have had something to do with the half-pound bar of white chocolate he ate after dinner) and a headache.  He st...

It is about 8 p.m. and I long for sleep!  I will type this up and then crawl under that wonderful down comforter and drift off. It has been a lovely day, a quiet day, an unrushed day.  It was filled with things to be done and errands to take care of.  It also included a walk through the town square, where once again we saw Elders Hathaway and Greene out speaking to individuals as they passed. It was gray and cool with a steady drizzle of rain falling.  I always hold on to SK to steady myself.  He is quite remarkable at age 76 in that he can put 10 miles on his fitbit in a day without complaint.  We walked over to get his prescription from a pharmacy nearby and took several little side trips because he was in the mood to explore.  Even then, we logged less than 2 miles, but I'm kind of done in, and I think a good night's sleep will be just the thing to rejuvenate me. I've been asked to give the art presentation in our ward Relief Society meeting i...

I thought this morning would be a slam-dunk.   I was going to serve the missionaries lunch, as on every Wednesday, and when we are very lucky, there are enough left-overs from Monday night to serve for lunch on Wednesday.  But today, our zone leaders joined us, and I began to look at the little bowl of chili as a topping for baked potatoes.  It just didn't seem like enough for four young elders and two young sisters. Consequently, SK hoofed it over to the grocery store at 9 a.m. to pick up another pound of hamburger and a large onion.  I cooked that up and added it and another two cans of beans and a can of tomatoes to the left over chili, adding in all of the seasoning as well.  I made a green salad, and I also had the brilliant idea of making brownie waffles for dessert.  I have done that before with marvelous results.  But that was when I made my own batter.  Today, I took a shortcut and used Giradelli Brownie Mix.  I think it w...

It felt good to get out and walk today.  I was overdue for a haircut, and the salon is over a mile away.  However, I didn't walk there.  SK drove me there and then went on to an appointment with a doctor - another mile farther.  He needed to have prescriptions refilled. I sat in the salon, a sleek beauty of a mixture of old and new.  One entire wall was windows, as well as a window skylight, all of which brought beautiful old trees and shrubs into the interior, which was black shiny floors, white walls and gleaming steel accents.  Yet, from the outside, it is a cheery little old storefront that looks like it could have once been featured in a Dickens novel (with older windows of course.) This is the interior of a neighboring shop...tiny.  The other wall has a host of cheeses of every size and shape.  I love this place!  It can't be any larger than 10 by 15 feet. A young man met me at the front desk.  He looks all of sixteen, alt...

Monday Monday....beautiful Monday.  And it truly was.  The sun shone brilliantly over the puddles, the dew-glistening surfaces of fields, grass and trees.  It was a great morning to tackle some cleaning and the ever-present laundry.  Six loads and I will do a couple more tomorrow.  There was the requisite shopping, then home to make a dessert and a big pot of chili, ready potatoes for baking, and get things prepared to serve dinner.  I think I am beginning to get the hang of this.  I love the point at which everyone who will be there is there, the blessing has been said and everyone has dished up their plates and are sitting visiting.  It feels like home and family, and I love to just sit and look around the room and listen to bits of conversation here and there. We had a book-recommendation family home evening activity tonight.  So I have 14 recommendations that I noted, and will hopefully tackle at some point in the future.  I have...

An hour in the car got us back to Reading this morning, over hill and dale, in the misty mist, with all 6'4" of Elder Hathaway in the back seat with Elder Tshendabo.  They are such fun to talk with about everything.  Elder Tshendabo is being transferred this week.  He has been in Oxford since we arrived.  He is the last young missionary to be with us so long.  As of Tuesday there will be a replacement for him.  Elder Tshendabo is from Congo, and we love him.  He is full of faith, and meticulously obedient to the covenants he has made with the Lord.  He is earnest and gentle when he bears testimony.  His native language is French and so he has that lovely French accent, and he speaks very softly. Stake Conference was excellent.  Dave and Deb spoke.  They followed a member of the stake presidency who gave a very scholarly talk.  I don't remember much about his topic but I do remember that he announced that there is no Santa....

I am not a morning person....even though when I get up very early, I invariably enjoy being up at that time of the day.  The problem is that I love those quiet late night hours, when I can think and write and concentrate on reading.  I can't seem to break myself of the habit of pushing myself into the wee hours of the morning to get things done that I didn't finish earlier in the day.  But this morning, I was up early, so that we could drive to the temple with our three newest members.  Leticia is from Dominican Republic, a doctor who is trying to get a license here, Vir who is from London and a beautiful young student in some branch of the medical world at Oxford, and Riccardo from South Africa who is a researcher at one of the universities here.  Leticia was baptized in the Birmingham mission 3 months ago.  It is her birthday and her fondest desire was to go to the temple with her mother's name.  As it turned out, she also had her father's name....

We were on the road again early to inspect a missionary apartment.  We are getting to know these flats, and often the missionaries.  Every six weeks there are "transfers" where many in the mission are reassigned.  We always hope the missionaries we have come to know and love in our district (Oxford) and our zone (Reading - pronounced Redding) will stay where they are.  The only up side to transfers is that we meet more and new young missionaries.   This is the last of the group to get lemon bars.  I will make lemon bars for dessert for Family Home Evening on Monday, and then I think I will be done making them for a few months.  I have already made about 6 batches, and will make a couple more.  I think I just may have mastered it with the oven here.  Donna and Melissa should be proud of me. These two young elders are sooo cute!...and so good.  They are both from Brazil, which is almost like saying they are both from the U.S...

I awakened energized this morning.  I organized some cupboards and drawers, cleaned the bathrooms, cleaned out the bathtub drain in one of them with my new "drain weasel" which really works, made yet another batch of lemon bars for the missionaries we will visit tomorrow, and then SK and I took a walk, because I need to walk, and we saw some incredible sights.  This is why we have to keep pinching ourselves to make sure we are really here in England...in Oxford. Just meander through these shots of this historic little city. This has been described as one of the most famous little shops in the world.  It has all things Alice in Wonderland.

Our young missionaries came for their district conference today at 10:30.  Elder Hathaway, the district leader is precise and on time.  He starts right at 10:30, and he ends at exactly noon.  The hour and a half meeting is always packed with good missionary stuff. We start out with a hymn and sing all the verses.  Sometimes Sister Marinello plays the keyboard and sometimes Elder Hathaway pulls out his phone and queues up the accompaniment.  Someone says a prayer and then we recite the mission theme.  One of the missionaries will teach another missionary a discussion as though that missionary is not a member and is looking in to the church.  We are all invited to say what we liked about the way it was presented and offer positive ideas about how it could be improved. The young missionaries are always upbeat, and seem grateful for the opportunity to improve.  After that, one of them will give a lesson out of the handbook or "Preach My Gospel."...

Inspecting missionary apartments took the better part of our day.  We left our apartment first thing this morning and returned home after 5.  It was a glorious day....clear blue blue sky and chilly.  Our first stop was the Oxford elders.  Next stop Oxford sisters.  We walked to both.  Look at this beautiful little flower box we passed on the way....Middle of winter and these beautiful little shoots are making an appearance! The sisters' apartment has a history of all kinds of problems.  As you might guess, this is the apartment that waged war against the mice population and won.  8 casualties on the side of the mice and only minor trauma to the sisters. They are currently experiencing odd problems that can only happen in an old old building.  There is a rusty red substance slowly oozing down outside their front door.  There is a skylight in the bedroom that blows in enough cold wind to ruffle their hair.  They have learned by...