Off to London

Maurene and I will be heading to London in the morning to attend a course entitled Finding God at the Movies: A Weekend on Film and Spirituality. So, maybe I'll bring some photos or video back from London.

This evening the Brownie leader at Central URC asked me to come and talk with the Brownies about Holy Week. Of the 19 girls that were there it seemed like only two had much contact with the church. I read them Brian Wildsmith's, Story of Easter. Its a great picture book which takes a few liberties with the story of Holy Week which makes it quite appealing. Did you know a donkey followed Jesus that entire week? Anyway, they all moved forward and got very wide eyed for the gory parts, Maundy Thursday through the body being placed in the tomb. They liked that part much more than the resurrection. I know there must be a lesson in that for all of us. They also like the chocolate bunnies that I distributed at the end of the story. Crucifixion and chocolate. . .hmmmmmm.

I have also added my final lenten contribution! May you each have a meaningful Holy Week.

Ron's Bath Walking Tour: Part 5
The beginning of this is slightly messed up (somehow I got some Abbey footage mixed in) but I wanted to give you a feel for the streets of Bath. Some buskers, a performance artist, and some children taking great delight in feeding the Seagulls and Pidgeons. I love the two little boys laughing on the one bench.

Ron's Bath Walking Tour: Part 4
I finish a stroll around the outside of the Abbey and head indoors to show you the inside of the Abbey where King Edgar (the first King of England) was crowned.

Yan Yan -dead. Just like it's cousin the Chicago Bear

Knut -cute

Today's Newspapers

Several stories from today's Bath Chronicle and The Times left me scratching my head.

The lead story in the Chronicle began with this rather unfortunate wording: "Stay away" -that is the message from Bath's main hospital after more than 50 people were struck down by a diarrhoea and vomiting bug. I think I know what they meant but I couldn't help thinking that the hospital needed to call Orkin.

From the Times comes a story about Knut the cuddly little polar bear in the Berlin Zoo that was abandoned by its mother. The Times reports: Up to 30,000 people a day have been queueing for a glimpse of the cub who has been bottle fed since his mother, a surly ex-East German circus animal, rejected him.

As many visitors were unable to see Knut through the crowds, they moved on to pay their respects to Yan Yan, the Panda Bear who until Knut's arrival was the zoo's most popular resident. Flash bulbs popped from dawn to dusk. That, according to Bild (a German newspaper) may have been too much for Yan Yan to bear. "She seemed nervous and intimidated, " the newspaper said. The verdict: fatal stress induced by Knut, or at least by his fans.

Yan Yan spent much of her time lying on her back chomping at bamboo shoots and was by all accounts a happy panda. But something changed on Monday, days after Knut's introduction to tumultuous crowds, and Yan Yan lay down and died.

And finally, also from the Times: Hotels in Britain are the costliest in Europe, with the price of an overnight stay in London averaging £107 ($210 USD) but Bath, at an average of £114 ($224 USD) per night, offers the nation's most expensive lodging. We're thinking about renting out the spare bedrooms!

Ron's Bath Walking Tour: Part 3

Ron's Bath Walking Tour: Part 2

Ron's Bath Walking Tour: Part 1

One reason mothers are so loving to their children.

Happy Mothering Sunday!

Today was Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom. It is always celebrated on the Fourth Sunday of Lent. It earlier times, village churches closed on this particular Sunday and everyone went to the nearest Cathedral to worship in the 'Mother' church. It was also time when daughters who had moved from home and were working as household servants we're allowed to return home and spend the day with their mothers.

Mothering Sunday is still celebrated but not to the level it used to be. We gave bunches of flowers to all the women and girls in our churches.

Christmas comes early for the Bulldogs!

A questionable offensive foul late in the game possibly saved Butler from a loss! But, who cares. I'd rather they win than Maryland.

The sickeningly saccharine ride at Disney World

It's a small world, after all. . .

It's Saturday evening and I'm sitting at my computer watching Butler take on Maryland live! Technology continues to amaze me!

Warning: This man has the ear of the President

Revd. R. Albert Mohler Jr. has finally accepted the fact that homosexuality might just be biological. As president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a leading Evangelical spokesperson, this is startling development. But of course, with his newly enlightened understanding comes the kicker. In his opinion being gay or lesbian is still a sin. But, he does offer redemption for these prodigal fetuses. We'll just let a doctor go into mom's tummy and fool around with the genetic code a bit. So, what God created isn't good enough for you, huh, Rev? What an utter tool!

Thus said the Lord who made you, who formed you in the womb and will help you. . . Isaiah 44.2

And on the sixth day, after God had created man and woman, he created Labrador Retrievers. And then God said, 'Finally, I got it right!'

Springtime thoughts on mowing the lawn, again!

I can't believe it, but I'm going to have to mow the lawn for the second time in four days. I think that like Alaska, because of the reduced winter sunlight, things grow very quickly when the days lengthen. Wish I was back in London where we had a gardener. But, I've got to keep the garden spiffy, or the neighbours will complain. I've also included a lovely photograph that I pulled off of AOL. Reminds me of my beloved Bonnie! RIP, old girl.

Don't mess with an Icon

I usually don't read British tabloids but I couldn't help but pick up this edition of the Daily Mirror on Monday. Heather Mills-McCartney has been vilified by the tabloids since her split with Sir Paul. Of course, she has been quite vocal about her opposition to the wearing of furs. You didn't find out until the last couple of paragraphs of the article that this photograph was taken many years ago, before she become an anti-fur activist. Moral of the story: Don't mess with a former Beatle, and don't buy a tabloid based on its cover.

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,

A beautiful day for a neighbor.

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?...

Back gardens

Looking across Penn Lea Road

Scaffold in place

Chimney: Part II

As promised, the scaffold for our chimney repair went up on Monday. So much scaffold for such a little job. After the stone masons inspected the chimney they decided that the stone and brick also involved the chimney pot next to the leaning one. This belongs to our neighbours and so I am waiting for Louise or Duncan to come home so I can share the good news. The church has decided to pay for the entire job, but we must get their permission to put scaffolding on their side of the chimney and to repair their side.

Anyway, I decided to climb up the ladders and get a seagull's eye view of the neighbourhood. We often have seagulls perched on our roof. When I got up there I was quite impressed with how beautiful our neighbourhood was. I thought of (you guessed it) Fred Rogers.

Eib with her 'pride and joy'.

Eib with her two of her sons. Ron looks quite cute; Bob, well, Bob looks like Bob.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Maurene!
May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His (or Her) hand.

traditional gaelic blessing

Although his Cockney accent was deplorable, the man wasn't afraid of heights!

Dick Van Dyke didn't need scaffolding. . .

The chimneys on Victorian Houses are like those made famous in the movie, Mary Poppins. An eagle-eyed neighbour put a note through our door informing us that one of our 'chimney pots' was leaning. Since they are quite heavy the next gale could bring it crashing down through our roof and cause significant damage. So, I informed the chairman of our building committee who came out and discovered that the masonry that surrounds the chimney pot had separated and would need to be repaired. As a side note, the Church Treasurer preferred that we wait till the chimney pot fell through the roof so that 'the insurance company would have to pay for it'. Since our bed is directly below the chimney I decided that was not an appropriate solution.

If you remember our collapsed garden wall last year (12 September and 20 October entries), you will also remember that the work of masons in a city like Bath, where everything is stone, doesn't come cheap. My estimate in US dollars was $317 per hour for that minor repair. Well, now the same masons have been assigned the job of repairing the chimney pot. But they have decided that the slope in the roof will require scaffolding instead of a ladder. They thought a ladder would be too dangerous. I think you can see where this is going. Add the cost of putting scaffolding up, taking it down, etc and this bill is going to be 'over the moon', or should I say 'over the roof'. Work starts Monday. I'm glad I don't have to come up with the money. I think we might need to have an extra collection or two.

The New Wembley Stadium with its distinctive arch (Web Cam Capture)

The Old Twin Towers

Interior shot of Wembley Stadium. Seating Capacity -90,000

Finally!

Those of you who visited us when we lived in London will remember the view that we had from the second floor of the house. We looked out across Northwest London and could see Wembley Stadium in the distance. We were still living there when the old stadium was demolished and watched as the new stadium slowly begin to take shape. The arch that marked the skyline above the new stadium was an ample replacement for the old iconic Twin Towers.

Today, the stadium was finally completed to a degree that the developer could hand over the keys. After many long delays in its construction, Wembley is already being touted as the best sports venue in the world.

During this year's Super Bowl festivities it was announced that the NFL will be bringing a regular season game to London and the new stadium on October 28th. The teams will be the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants. Rumour has it that they thought about having the Chicago Bears come over, but the CIA and Pentagon were worried that if the Brits saw how weak they were on defense, they might decide it was time to re-start the Revolutionary War.

But Dad, it's just a little scratch.

No mere fender bender. . .

The Bugatti Veyron is the world's most expensive and fastest road car. Capable of speeds of 235 mph it is nearly as powerful as a modern Formula 1 car. So, when a young man smashed up a Bugatti Veyron in Middlesex, England, it became the most expensive road accident ever. You see the Bugatti Veyron has a sticker price of £840,000 GBP (that's $1,623,870 USD). For some strange reason the man who owned this particular Bugatti paid £925,000 ($1, 788,500 USD) for this one. And he didn't even get the pleasure of destroying it. He had only owned it for a week and rented it to a young man for the day for £20,000. The young man was going 100 mph in a 40 mph zone when he lost control, spun the car around three times, hit another car and smashed into a tree. Let's just hope the owner wasn't insured by State Farm.

Actually, I can't think of anything to say. . .

Really great eclipse montage posted on BBC website (appropriately taken by George Lovely)

Really crappy eclipse photograph posted on Ron's blog

Lunar eclipse: 3 March 2007

On Saturday evening I had to meet with a family to discuss a pending funeral. Then our friend David and I went out for a late dinner (we really felt like Europeans). The pub that we went to was far enough outside of Bath that the light pollution was at a minimum. Along with several other diners we spent some quality time in the car park watching the progress of the shadow moving across the moon. When it was at totality, the moon took on a copper red colour.

I remembered that I had my camera in the boot of the car, but didn't have a telephoto lens or a tripod. I thought you might like to compare my photographic efforts with those of a professional. Yes, I believe that green glow near the bottom centre of my photograph might be a UFO.

Daffodils in Henrietta Park (click on photo for full effect)

Daffodils, Part II

After our recent trip to Minehead I posted a rather pathetic photograph of some Daffodils blooming that we discovered during one of our daily treks. Well, here is a photograph of Daffodils-Bath style. I took this photo today whilst David and I were on the Mayor's Walking Tour of Bath. If you are still waiting for that last bit of snow to melt, I send you my sincere apologies.

The usual suspects

Phil, Kevin, Virginia and Me

A blast from the past. . .

Revd. David Moyer, the Conference Minister for the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ is visiting the South Western Synod of the United Reformed Church. Maurene and I are hosting David for his first two days in the UK.

David will be preaching at Central URC tomorrow morning giving Maurene a break from preaching whilst still officiating at Communion. David was instrumental in guiding me through United Theological Seminary, offering me my student pastorate, and shepherding me through the ordination process. He was the Association Minister at the time of the Northwest Association of the United Church of Christ so he had supervisory responsibilities for me. No easy task.

We sat around last night and reminisced for a time about the good old days. I suddenly realised that 2007 is the 15th anniversary of my ordination. So, I rummaged through an old scrapbook and pulled out two photographs. One taken at my graduation from seminary in Minneapolis; the other taken with Mom and Dad on the day of my ordination in Humbird, Wisconsin a few weeks after graduation.