English Muffins

During my placement at New City of David in Leeds I had the chance to stay with my friend, Fiona and her housemate Heather (and Heather's cat, Ralph).

There are many benefits to staying with Fi and Heather and aside from their great hospitality there were the following perks: plenty of bathroom products, baking together, lots of tea, painting nails, delicious vegetarian food, impromptu meals out, watching Benedict Cumberbatch act as Sherlock Holmes, and long conversations about the difference between American and British words. In the states I have always enjoyed a fork-split English muffin, turns out there is no such thing and that the branding was simply a marketing tool used against anglophiles like myself. It is like the banoffee pie scandal in reverse. My fellow Americans, English people eat many bread products, but what we have come to know as the English muffin is not one of them. I submit the following evidence:

Here is what Tesco sells as a "muffin" looks similar to the English muffins we have come to know and love and nothing like the muffins which we Americans eat for breakfast (you know the ones: cupcakes without frosting)

But then when you open it up there are no crumpet like caverns, there is the density, but no place for the butter to seep in, one of my favorite parts of English muffins.

For emphasis, here is an English person holding a muffin. This is the closest one shall get to what we, in America, brand as "English muffins."

and this is what Fiona would look like if she were a dinosaur. Also what happens when both of us are laughing and I am trying to take a photo. Another benefit of time with friends, laughter... and lots of it.

Lake District 2012- Happy New Year!

2012 is off to a great start! Beginning in this little village near Appleby in the Lake District we stayed in a holiday let called Harry's Barn. My2012, thus far, is filled with friends, laughter, board games, and delicious food.... not too shabby!

Though there were great plans to go hill walking and exploring the countryside, the short daylight hours, rain and wind storms (not to mention the jet-lag) made for a much more relaxed in-door and less outdoorsy trip. Which was fine with me because I enjoy curling up with a good book next to a wood-burning stove as much as the next person. I was given a stove top coffee maker for Christmas and put it to full use in this little converted barn made into a snuggly cottage.

Did manage a little walk to the neighboring town where we saw loads of ducks! Of course, I thought of my niece who loves ducks very much. The picture of teeny tiny ducks is for you Bea! xx

Everything in this little village was quaint and cozy. It is an ideal place to raise kids (little kids.) Mostly because I would put them in waterproofs and wellies and send them running around through the forest until dinner time. Let's be honest, I would probably put on my wellies and run with them. :)

1953 is not old for English standards, but I liked it anyway.

On our last day in the lake district we had incredible sunshine! It was a glorious day, So we took the long way around Lake Windermere and explored Coniston Water.

Coniston is surrounded by these fells that are any outdoor enthusiast's dream. Definitely put Coniston on your must visit list next you are in the Lake District. :)

Coniston is surrounded by these fells that are any outdoor enthusiast's dream. Definitely put Coniston on your must visit list next you are in the Lake District. :) Caught some beautiful views and sunshine as my last memory on the way home. All in all, a pretty nice way to start out the New Year. Happy 2012 everyone!

Christmas Eve Fondue Fantasticness 2011

Huzzah! Christmas Crackers this year! Complete with party jokes, little hats and a toy! I had very much wanted Christmas crackers last year because I really enjoyed them the Christmas I was in the UK. Seemed a festive way to celebrate and not take yourselves too seriously... plus... did you read it? little toy? joke? Fun for everyone. Erik and I tried to get the perfect Christmas Eve dinner photo...I think the one above is the best, but perhaps the three below are tied for a close second?

The "sleeping Rachel and genuine Erik smile while talking" entry... pretty good.

The "Rachel compensating for her eyes being shut in the previous photo and Erik laughing" photo. not bad... not bad at all.

British Smiles- enough said.

Kelly had a great idea to have cheese fondue for dinner Christmas Eve and after I royally botched up the readings at the Christmas Eve service (I embrace my role as a living example of the fact that you don't have to be perfect for God to love you! (I just happen to be particularly lucky because my family loves me too. :))) Above are Jonathan and Kelly enjoying our Christmas eve feast (with festive hats.)

Beatrice also liked to wear her party hat and she did wear it for most of dinner. It was adorable! Though this is the best shot that I got of her from the other side of the dinner table. :)

Okay... enough about hats and back to the fondue. As I said, it was delicious. These next photos are probably my favorite shots of Christmas Eve. I like to call them: "Ron and Linda: Fondustic!" My mom said I couldn't put them on facebook, but she didn't say no to me putting them on my blog; that is like saying yes.
First they dip the bread into the cheese...

Quick like a bunny dad pops the tasty cheese covered vegetable in his mouth... might have been a bit too warm.

Mom tries a different strategy with the over the head positioning of the cheese... probably to cool it down.
I would really recommend Fondue for your Christmas meal. It is vegetarian friendly, a great laugh and darn tasty! If you are thinking that it would not be filling enough then I have a tin of cookies for you to augment your meal (seriously, we have so many cookies.)

On a side note, Beatrice the great in her Christmas dress loved staring at the fire. I like this photo because I like to watch fire that intently too. Christmas Eve with the Family- win.

Snowy Adventures!

It has been a lovely holiday break in Washington. The few short days I've been here I managed to go out into the woods twice to enjoy the snow and fresh air. Both times were up near Snoqualmie and with great fun-loving ladies. I thank my lucky stars to have such lovely outdoorsy women in my life. Tracey and I headed up with little Sylas for some snow shoeing only to discover the lodge was closed on that particular Tuesday so it wasn't possible for me to rent snow shoes. Luckily, we found a trail just across from the alpine center where the snow was perfectly trek worthy with just hiking boots and waterproofs. Fantastic!

This is Sylas running his fingers through my hair where we stopped for lunch.

Sylas loves to fly.

The gang starting out. Sylas is making a little snack out of his carrier, but Tracey assures me that is what those Velcro-on-fabric-bits are for... snacking and then washing. He seemed pretty content.

Another adventure! Cross Country Skiing on Iron Horse up near Snoqualmie. Both days of snowtastic fun involved GREAT weather.

This picture above is totally posed, but we really did ski the whole day. I saw people using this ski skate things and I think I would really like them. It looked like rollerblading on the snow! How great is that? Maybe next year. :)

Always a pleasure to hang out with my cousin, Krissy and her friend, Val. They are a hoot. :)

Jurgen Moltmann and the end

I'm working on my Systematic Theology final and reading some work by Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope. I really like it, here's a snippet:

“The Christian hope is directed towards a novum ultimum, towards a new creation of all things by the God of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It thereby opens a future outlook that embraces all things, including also death, and into this it can and must also take the limited hopes of a renewal of life, stimulating them, relativizing them, and giving them direction.” (Moltmann, p. 33-34)

pretty beautiful and a nice balance to reading stuff like this (which is from another book for same essay):

"Posttribulationism, like pretribulationism, is primarily a subdivision of premillennialism. Technically all nonpremillennialists are posttribulationists. Few nonpremillinnialists, however, concern themselves with the idea of a tribulation. Thus we may safely limit our treatment of posttribulationism to posttribulationists of premillinnial variety."

When coming across the second section at 10:30pm after working on a paper for hours it is entirely possible that I uttered "s&it" and laughed at the same time. In fact, that is exactly what happened. Then I made another cup of tea. I certainly won't use that quote in my essay, but I have taken some time to parse it out and it is not so crazy as it first reads. But, I won't leave you with that one, here is another from Moltmann:

“Finally, the believing hope will itself provide inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love.” (Moltmann, p. 34)

Wish I would have read that before sending out my Christmas cards. That's all... short blog post as I must return to this essay.

Danny Macaskill - Industrial Revolutions

Apparently, the UK, Danny Macaskill a "household name" according to my friend Jim. However, his cycling trick skills were new to me and I am really enjoying using this video as a study break during finals week. The beauty in the connection between rider in bike is what keeps me cycling. As if my bike where as part of me as my foot or arm. I can't do tricks like Mr. Macaskill is able, but I certainly love the way this video presents the playful interdependence between a bike and its rider... it is a video of what it feels like for me to be sailing down through the streets of Berkeley- a little bit of bliss in this world... Poetry in motion.

It was also great to discover the musician featured in this video. Ben Howard, also new to me, is the music you hear in the background of Macaskill's magic. His album, Every Kingdom, has been the soundtrack to the essay writing marathon that is my life this week. Check him out. If you live in Europe, you might be able to catch a show. If you live in the states, you can listen to him on spotify for free. :) If you live anywhere else... well... there is always his myspace page, I like "The Wolves" (which is what is on the video) and "Old Pine" best thus far.

Laughter came from every brick

During Clinical Pastoral Education last summer (my internship as a hospital chaplain) I spent a good deal of time reading poems and practicing yoga. As I had mentioned in a previous post, Advent seems to be filled with poetry for me, and I have frequently turned to one of my favorite recently acquired collections of poetry edited by Daniel Landinsky called Love Poems from God (which I purchased at my yoga studio.) I have frequently turned to its pages for words from Rumi, St Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila to fill my spare moments. It is really easy this time of year to surrender to the stress of finals and the end of the semester... to focus on making plans instead of living out the plan that God set in place for me... let me tell you, so much easier to focus on the doing than the being. Poetry helps keep me in check remember to enjoy the passing moments even if they are filled with essays, research, sleepless nights... they can also be filled with nights out to dinner with friends, making Christmas cards, singing carols, bike rides in the winter sunshine and moments of peace... I've found that moments of peace arrive in the most surprising places.

LAUGHTER CAME FROM EVERY BRICK

by: St Teresa of Avila

Just these two words He spoke
changed my life,

"Enjoy Me."

What a burden I thought I was to carry -
a crucifix, as did He.

Love once said to me, "I know a song,
would you like to hear it?"

And laughter came from every brick in the street
and from every pore
in the sky.

After a night of prayer, He
changed my life when
He sang,

"Enjoy Me."