2023/35 IF YOU HAVE A CASTLE YOU DON'T NEED ANYMORE....

If you inherit a castle, say, one that was built five thousand years ago, and even though its been improved through the centuries it has become perhaps a bit too much to keep up, or you have received a golden heart and want to give the castle away, it might behoove you to offer it to the people of Wales. Welsh folk are beautiful people, from my experience. They will take that castle and make of it the perfect place to do magical things. Even more magical than a mere castle might afford. Because your castle has with it a nice piece of land, and some waters, and is comfortably located, you might be wise to let those Welsh people build an historic village around it where they can take their children and grandparents to walk hand in hand and pretend.

The people of Wales will put that castle and grounds into a National Trust and call it St Fagans National Museum of History. They will allocate enough funds to its preservation to make it look and feel authentic on every level. Then they will open the doors to everyone, at no cost, so that whole families with their aunties and grandparents and wee ones can stroll through the streets imagining together that they lived there and then. Princesses and princes will gaze into medieval fishponds situated below the castle. Their rubber boots will skip along the slate and wood floors. Baby squeals will echo through ancient chambers as if they are calling to children in the distant past. And old men will sigh for times gone by.

Your castle will become a nobleman's house
after all the conquering is over.

There will be an avenue of trees leading to the doorway...

...and a mighty fortress all around the courtyard.

It will have a parlor filled with music for the making.

... and a large gathering hall.
(I do appreciate how the benches
 are stored under the long table.)

...that gathering hall will have a massive fireplace...

... and there will be multiple grand staircases.

If you decide to carry the traditions of the generations before you, at your new old castle, then let me tell you how to prune your apple trees:

First, it appears you'll need to plant the
trees close to the fortress wall.

Then you'll need to drill some iron nails into the stonework.

Tie your tender branches to wires strung along those nails.
They'll grow right against the wall.

You can build a nice walkway between the castle and the
fish ponds that were made in the 1500's.

The walking paths will lead down to the village.

Walk down the pathway, through the hedgerows...

See how they weave the branches of the
hedges to keep them tight?

Go past the rope training course they have erected for the kids that visit St Fagans...

Can you see the kid in there?

Down below you will find friendly folk, housed in buildings moved to the castle property from all over Wales.

Careful when you walk past the pig stye.

Pigs were housed in round houses because they like to burrow in corners.
For the roof, slate was laid moving slightly inward with every layer then topped with a round stone.

Head on over to the red farmhouse, where you're sure to find some sort of pot simmering over the fire inside.

They say the longer the pheasant hangs from the rafters,
the better tasting it becomes.

You can make cheese in one of these presses if you want,
though I hear it's a smelly process.

Back in the day people and their animals shared the same house.
Same door even.

I know, this is not a typical farmhouse bed,
but its the one I'd want. Even though it would kill my back.
Ticking cloth filled with straw set on top of tight ropes between bed posts.
And check out the groovy hand hewn beam design you could lay in bed and look at.

Friendly neighbors would come to visit.
(My sister AM)

You will set out your best dishes when you neighbors come.

And seat them closest to the warm fire.

You'll offer them your one extra guest spoon,
and if there are not enough, you'll go without and they can use yours.

You will have baked your bread on Tuesday,
because that is your day to use the community oven.
Thank goodness it is only Wednesday and its still fairly fresh.

You'll send one of the children down to the neighborhood pump
to draw fresh water for your dinner.

See how easy it is to pretend when you inherit a castle? You don't even have to be a princess. Princesses, however, can afford to go to the village baker and purchase bread if necessary. Sometimes that is where you'll bake your bread if its not your baking day and you need someplace hot.

The village baker uses wheat ground on site in the mill house.
She bakes in this 200 year old oven.

The scones are pretty darn yummy.

Over by the blacksmith shop...

 ... is a row of old miner's houses. Each of them is furnished as it would have been between 1805 and 1985. What a remarkable aesthetic time line is had by walking through those spaces through so many generations and so much change.

at some point the Methodists won the hearts of the miners.
The mine owners were happy about that, because
they taught temperance, and they didn't have drunk miners.

Cozy rooms and sunken beds.

One fireplace to heat the whole house. 
One bedroom downstairs. No water until the 20th century.
no dedicated kitchen.

and staircases I would not fit up.

Supplies, in the new century, could finally be purchased and not just grown.
(Note my sister's beef)

Should you decide to reroof your farmhouse, erected in the 1500's but remodeled in 1774, then you'll need to do this:

First, gather some thatch from the woodlands.
You're gonna need a lot!

Then you need to weave an underlay between
the thatch and the inside of the house.

Tack that up to the rafters.

Now wrap that thatch tight in bundles and lay it on top 
of the underlayer. Make sure its thick and tight!

I don't actually know anything about how they did thatched roofs. I'm kind of guessing.

I have many more photos of our one day adventure, pretending we lived long ago in Wales. Thanks, people of Wales, for making it so easy to pretend. I'll be back!

2023/34 FLEXIBILITY

Before we left Utah for this trip to the UK I told Dave we needed to make a pact that we would be flexible. He is, thankfully, used to having this foundational attitude. We would not be a happy pair otherwise. So, we walk that fine line between not having tickets, or a place to sleep, or even gas in the car and feeling fancy free. 

It's been a great trip so far. We are today in Cardiff Wales, where we spent the day at St Fagans National History Museum. It was beautiful in every way, with an unusual appearance of sunshine. I have many a photo, and many a memory to preserve. But as I sat to edit photos and write about the day, I got some messages from home that our dear friend and sister in the Lord, Kathy Oleson, who had open heart surgery today, has had complications, went back into surgery and is in critical condition.

This is where flexibility flexes her arm. The recollections of the past day stopped and supplications for the present and future began. We stopped, mid dinner at a wonderful French restaurant, and bowed our heads, the four of us offering our own silent prayers for Kathy, when she heard she was going back into surgery. Then, back at our hotel, and coming upon midnight (which is seven hours later in the day compared to Utah) my fingers, instead of my Lent writing, tapped a message on my phone and sent it to every faithful member of our ward back in Farmington. 

I've done this before, called upon our friends to offer prayer on behalf of other friends. I've seen it do a number of things:

First, it uses the tool of united faith, which we believe is powerful.

Second, it binds us in spirit to the person for whom we pray.

Third, it binds us to our Lord as we acknowledge his ultimate power and our need for him.

Fourth, it binds us to each other, as worshipers in common.

We are a better unit of saints because we unite this way. We are sealed together in one heart and one mind.

So tonight I will keep my photos and thoughts for another day, and try to share tomorrow. We leave early morning to catch the ferry to Ireland, so I will allow my body to get a few hours sleep. But before then, for sure, my good husband and I... and my good sister and her good husband, will be whispering the name of Kathy Oleson before our Lord.

 

 

2023/33 PATTERNS

The thing about an island is that there is a lot of coast, there for the taking if you choose to see it. So we chose. And what a view we had! 

This morning I made a quick breakfast of porridge, rashers, berries and scones before we loaded up the carriage and drove up through Cornwall and Devon. Eventually we crossed over the river to Wales, stopping along the way to catch our breath from the excessive sighs the beauty demanded of us.

In our journey I found myself keenly aware of the marked contrast between the wild natural beauty of the landscape and the patterns that added edges and definition to the wildness. All day long I kept seeing patterns, some man made, and some springing from the fingertips of God.

Slate, gathered from the land, cut in squares and laid in precise patterns.
Miles and miles of it. I wondered how long it took to create this wall,
and whose hands did the work, and what those hands might have done when they were not
laying stone on stone.

How rough the hands of stone masons must have been.

Heather hanging over rock work.
God and Man.

Patterns under our feet.

rock, plaster, wood, glass, metal...all in patterns.

The tops of all these slate walls are unique.

I suppose they ran out of the white granite and continued with what they had.
Either that, or part of this land belonged to one brother and the other to another.

Even the hillsides were patterned.

So much rock!

At some point they built up the land on one side of this river,
which leads out to the sea. The water runs across large slate stones.

How old does a roof have to be to start sinking like this?

Lovely patterns make way for water.

The long thin hedgerows gave way to curbs and lines. Gravel and dirt became crumbling asphalt, which turned to lined concrete and steel girders. Once you start looking for patterns you’ll find them everywhere.

The hedgerows gave way to woodlands...

...which became towns ...

... which led to cities. (crossing over into Wales)

The roads became wider, and faster.
we are thankful for GPS.

While we drove we followed another pattern, over the airwaves, listening to witnesses and wisdom from our church leaders in LDS General Conference.

Listening to General Conference many miles away.

Those words brought our thoughts to other patterns, divine ones set in scriptural stone and in the crevices of our hearts.

Palm patterned wallpaper

Another pattern of palms.

A perfect pattern to follow.

A blessed Palm Sunday.