Kevin, Coral, & India are skiing at Sundance today.
These look like photos from a tourism brochure-amazing scenery, cute girls!

"I saw something nasty in the woodshed..."

I hosted our neighborhood book club last night. After Atlas Shrugged last month, I chose something a bit lighter- Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. After reading the book and watching the 'amusing' & 'diverting' film, we agreed that the book is much more 'amusing & diverting'. Although the film is quite faithful, it seems as if it were impossible to include everything.

I served TAZO Wild Sweet Orange tea with cream and sugar, English tea biscuits, a steamed marmalade pudding, and oranges with sugar. Daphne lent me her tea and snack plates and I served it all in a Japanese Nasco 'Springtime' pattern tea set from my late Grandmother. It was all very 'tidy' & lady-like. Kevin was in the house to lend a bit of 'Seth & Rueben' influence. If you have not read this book, or seen the film, I highly recommend them both.

I am the official 'Art' lady in Niall's class at school. Periodically, I go in and lead the class in a brief discussion of a famous artist and in a corresponding project. This week, I worked with them on Impressionism. The idea of 23 children(+ Leith) all painting in any style is terrifying to me, but they all worked relatively neatly and carefully- all except Niall.
The project was to dab primary colors with the sides of cotton swabs in order to blend the colors while painting an 'Impressionistic' tree. The first time I glanced over at Niall, he had the swabs under his top lip, hanging down, like small tusks. Then he moved on to putting them in his nose and waiting for the girls to object. Then he used them to outline one of his nostrils with red paint, producing a very convincing 'nosebleed'. He spent a few minutes holding a paper towel under his nose, dabbing the 'blood' around his face.
He did find time to paint his tree, which came out much more like a Jackson Pollock painting than a Monet. What a nut!
After the project, Mrs Hanberg returned to take over again. When she saw Niall, she just quietly instructed him to go wash his face- no questions, no visible reaction. Nothing fazes her.

Night Skiing with Kevin

Kevin and I went night skiing at Brighton in Big Cottonwood Canyon last night. It snowed on us a bit, but without wind, we were not uncomfortable. We spent time on the lifts checking out the designs of the snowflakes landing on our gloves. The tops of the lifts were actually in the clouds.

I ski so seldom that I feel like I am learning again each time- this needs to change. With more regular practice, I think I could become a competent skier. Kevin skis beautifully, of course. I love watching him. He did, however, spend quite a bit of his time skiing backwards while watching me pick my way down the runs. I am glad that he wants to ski with me in spite of my lack of skill, but he couldn't resist making 'Obi-Wan' type comments like "You need to be one with the snow". I actually felt very close to the snow as I fell a few times- nothing spectacular, no ski patrol, lost skis or cheering from the lifts.

It was a great time- thanks, Kevin.

Niall just finished his 'Junior Jazz' B-ball season. He is pretty aggressive on defense. Check out the photos from the last game-

It is snowing again......

Digging out!

Check out Niall playing while Kevin, India & I shovel. Poor Leith had to stay in and protect his lungs.

Telecommuting to Church

Live church services are only available today to those with 4x4's or chains who feel the need to mount a major winter campaign to attend Sacrament Meeting only. Those of us with mini-vans are not 'chosen' to attend today. Coral got ready before she got the news- India didn't even get up. When asked about it, she said that she got up with her alarm, looked outside, and mentally declared her own snow day before returning to bed. We will worship at home while monitoring Leith's recovery from a bout of pneumonia- we caught it Friday before it turned into a hospital event- and watching the snow come down.
We are still riding a wave of emotion from viewing the funeral services for President Hinckley yesterday. The last musical number by the choir, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, was accompanied by a video look back at his life. We have been checking the replays of the funeral to catch this part of the service again and again- so beautiful, sad, and sweet.
Kevin and I do have to get dressed in a few minutes and walk down the hill to the McGill's house where they will bless their very juicy baby at home since the church building is inaccessible through the blizzard. Depending on the wind we may have to build an ice cave half-way down the street and wait to be rescued.

Return to Childhood

This is a bit roundabout, but while looking for the lyrics to Third Carol for Christmas Day, I noticed an article on an Irish historical site about holy wells throughout Ireland. This triggered memories of the small village in England where I lived as a child. It is called Needingworth but is closely connected to an even smaller village, Holywell. I spent a lovely half-hour finding and enjoying maps and historical information about the area.

When Kevin and I visited the UK in 2003, we spent a day driving from Brett & Gretchen Seamons home in Surrey to this area to see my childhood home and also take a look around Cambridge.

As we drove and walked around the village of Needingworth, details, murky in memory, returned to clarity as I saw again the streets I walked every day to the Holywell School, a Church-of-England Primary School. I saw the thatch hooks, used for removing thatch from burning buildings, on the wall in the High Street. When I was young, the wall was very old and bowed in the middle. Now, the historical hooks hang on a newer wall. There are still several beautiful thatched homes in the village.

I showed Kevin the tiny village 'lock-up' that I used to stare, horrified, into on the way to school. The old, Victorian, I think, school building is gone, but the the wall around the schoolyard is still there. I used to clamber over this wall to grab horse chestnuts with which to play 'conkers'. The game was played by poking a hole through the 'conker' through which a knotted string was threaded. One player held his/her 'conker' by the string while another player tried to hit it with his or her own 'conker'. The player with the harder, and typically larger, 'conker', would eventually break the others and remain champion until another child found a stronger nut- thus the temptation to leave the schoolyard in search of a winning 'conker'. The chestnut trees were huge and over-hung much of the schoolyard and some of the orchard on the other side of the wall.

We used to have religious instruction each morning at school, complete with hymn singing and occasional visits from the Rector. We sang the Psalm, The Lord is My Shepherd, to a tune different from the one in our current Church Hymnbook. I remember preferring it infinitely and singing it in my head after I moved from England so I wouldn't forget. Sadly, time has erased it from my mind.

Kevin and I made our way out of the village to the Pike and Eel Pub on the banks of the River Ouse. My parents used to eat out there. The pub is in an incredibly old building(with additions) that looks a lot like the house in the movie Cold Comfort Farm. The food was very English and really good, but apparantly they are not used to serving 'outsiders' there and we were stared at and treated quite rudely.

We drove by my childhood friend, Katie Weston's house on Bluntisham Rd, and looked for, but didn't see, the house and chicken farm of the Bates-the older couple that babysat me and my siblings as children.

Yesterday, as I read the historical sketch of the area, I wished I could return again and really explore it. It never occured to me over the years that the name of the school and neighboring village, Holywell, actually referred to a well with a historical and religious tradition, and I am now fascinated with the idea. Here are some links if anyone wants to check it out:

http://www.holywell-cum-needingworthparishcouncil.co.uk/history.htm

http://www.british-towns.net/en/level_4_display.asp?GetL3=4438