Long Sutton

Ron has been reading a library book about the village of Long Sutton (population about 800), which is not too far from Martock. So Saturday when we were driving around, we went there.



The most interesting part of the town was the church, which was built in 1490, not as old as some of the churches we have visited, but very old by U.S. standards! There was an earlier church, from the 9th century, on the site before the current one was built. The current one was built of local stones with trim made of Hamstone. (The Hamstone is the yellow-looking stone quarried from Ham Hill near Martock.) These are pictures of the church.





The figures in the following photo are holding different tools and items representing the jobs and interests of the local people.


The church and the church school are at one end of the village green and there is an old hotel at the other end. The village green has lime trees in each of the four corners and a chestnut tree in the middle.
The town has always been an agricultural town. One of the main crops was "woad". (That one was new to me!) The woad plant is a source of blue dye. In fact, it was the only source for blue dye in Europe until the end of the 16th century, when indigo was brought in from the Far East. Politicians of that time tried to protect the woad industry by calling indigo "evil". Woad production is making a resurrgence, as it is biodegradable and is being used for ink for inkjet printers. Extracts from the woad plant are thought to have some medicinal and cancer preventative qualities.

"Heavy" Rain in England

As always, there has been rainy weather in England in the last week.
Last Thursday/Friday there was rain off and on here in the Yeovil area, but at Bristol (an hour's north of here and where we go to church), there was rain and some snow. Because of the saturated ground, the rain last Friday caused there to be some street flooding in low places and lots of water standing in fields. We took these pictures of fields on Saturday.







Yesterday was mostly sunny, but I heard a weather forecaster last night saying that there was "very heavy rain driving its way toward southwest England" and that we could expect more flooding problems because of the possibility of getting "up to one inch of rain"! Does that sound like "very heavy" rainfall in Texas???
This morning there is very strong wind and what we would call "sprinkles".

Our Friendspeak Friends

During the Christmas holidays Ron and I got to see our "other children", our current Friendspeak students that we read with every Sunday afternoon when we are at home. (For those of you who do not know about Friendspeak, it is the domestic branch of Let's Start Talking. We help UTA foreign students with conversational English through reading from the New Testament.)

We got to go out to eat with Andy and Leslie, their son Nathan, and Leslie's father, who was visiting from Korea. We were so happy to get to see all of them! We did not have a camera, so I have written to Leslie to send a current picture of them that I can post.

It did not work out that we could visit with our other students while Ron was home (he left for England a week earlier than I did), but I got to see them before I left the States.
This is Eunice and Stephen (from Taiwan) with their baby girl, Kathryn, who is 7 months old. It was really fun getting to see Kathryn, as I had not seen her since May, when she was only a day old and still at the hospital! She is beautiful! Stephen completed his Master's Degree this past summer and has a job in Dallas. I am so glad that they are staying in Texas, as least for a few years!



This is Jasmine, also from Taiwan. It was so good to get to see her, too!! I really miss our weekly visits. She is working on her PhD in biomedical engineering.



Ron and I look forward to our return to Texas and getting to see our friends every week!
Thanks to Jasmine for having her camera with her and sending me these pictures!!

Christmas 2007

Ron and I are back in England, and I am back to the world of blogging!
Ron and I both had a really good time being home for the Christmas holidays and getting to spend time with family and friends. For some reason we did not use the camera too much while at home, and we did not ever get a family picture either at Arlington or at Gunter. We will have to do better the next time our family is all together! But in the mean time, I will post a few pictures of the kids----and apologize ahead of time that some of the pictures are not the best!

First for our children and their spouses..... The first photo is of Julie with Collin, her youngest. (Josh is in the background.) Next is Julie's husband Matt with Collin and Lauren. Then there is a photo of Lauren and Katelyn with the fancy dolls that their great grandmother, G.G., gave them and a photo of Lauren and Katelyn learning about the world. Collin is also in that picture.







Next is Jon with his wife Cindy.






Next is Josh, who is putting together a tractor for Collin.




This is Brody, son of Staci and first grandbaby of my sister Joan, and my grandson, Collin. They were both born the summer of 2006. Aren't they cute together!



Here are Collin, Lauren, Brody,and Katelyn under the Christmas tree at my house.




At Gunter Collin got to play with his other cousin, Braden (Ron's brother's grandson). Braden was also born the summer of 2006! They are enjoying the tractors from their Aunt Debbie. (Can you tell that Collin liked Braden's blanket??)



The next photos show Alex and Ashley, who are Braden's big brother and sister.



It was such fun watching all of the children at Christmas!

Boxing Day Holiday

Have you ever heard of a national holiday called "Boxing Day"? I certainly had not ever heard of it!
December 26 is known as Boxing Day in the U.K. and in most of the other commonwealth countries. Most people are off work----except nowdays the stores are open for the after-Christmas sales! (Sales in England are not nearly as good as ones in the U.S.--mostly because prices start out at least double the prices here!)

There are many theories as to how Boxing Day got started. Here are some of the better known theories:

1. It is a day when, in years past, people gave Christmas presents, or boxes, to those who had worked for them throughout the year (such as postmen, newspaper boys, etc.). (Today such gifts are given before Christmas.)

2. Traditionally, the day after Christmas the lords of estates would give practical gifts to the serfs. Each serf family would get a box full of goods.

3. Many years ago it was common for servants to carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for work on Dec. 26. The employers would put coins in the boxes----sort of like Christmas bonuses.

4. Churches opened their donation boxes on Christmas Day, and then, the next day, the 26th, the money was distributed to the poor. Through the years, the poor began to beg and cause problems in the streets for several weeks after Christmas, so the churches put real limits on the money being distributed and let the people know that "Boxing Day" was only one day, the 26th of December.
(This explanation is the most widespread of the theories of the beginning of Boxing Day.)

5. Servants had to work on Christmas Day. The leftover food would be boxed up and eaten by the servants on Dec. 26, which was their day off.

6. An old story tells about Dec 26 being the day when the wren, the king of the birds, was captured and put in a box. He was then taken around to each household, where he would be asked for a successful year and good harvest.

You can take your pick of which story you like--that seems to be what the English do! I think that they really don't care how the day got started------they just like the holiday!

Restaurants and Signs

This resturant is on the way from Martock to Bristol.

Many pubs and resturants put signs outside on the sidewalks. These are in Martock.
A Sunday carvery is a buffet, usually with roast beef, yorkshire pudding, and vegetables (but not as good as food from home!).
The price on the next sign is in English pounds. You have to double that to see what it is in dollars.


This is a pub/resturant that we saw one day while we were out driving. We had to take a photo of the name!

One restaurant has a sign advertising "Bangers and Mash". I am sure that you knew right away that this would be sausage and mashed potatoes! That is a very common meal in England.

Interesting Town Names

As we were driving one day we came to a town called Lothian. Guess what the next town was......Middle Lothian. Does that sound like a Texas town?
It is very common in England for there to be a town name, such as Hamdon, then other towns near it named East Hamdon, West Hamdon, North Hamdon, and Middle Hamdon. That makes for some confusion for visitors!

Some of the other interesting town names that we have seen lately are------
Queen Camel (I wonder if there is a King Camel.....), Henlade, Cricket St. Thomas, and Ugborough.

Lots of the towns have the word "stoke" in them, such as Stoke SubHamdon or Bassingstoke, etc. The word "stoke" means place or farm or field. In old times the word stoke was commonly used, and then when a community developed, the people added more of a description to the word "stoke", which then became the name of the town. Sometimes the name of a river or stream was added to "stoke".

I guess if someone were driving through Texas, especially for the first time, he would see many interesting town names, too!