the sign thing

OK, yes, I blew it on the video when I told you about the picture on the wall behind me. I forgot to turn the library lights back on before the video so you could see it. Here's a picture of it. It's the original sign from the Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings met. Ind Coope is the name of the brewery from which the pub got its beer. You can read more about Ind Coope here.

Thanksgiving Week - video

Nine-hour days

I just noticed on my "world clock" program that sunrise this morning was at 7:23 and sunset at 4:15. I didn't realize it was getting dark that quickly! Ah, well, we are a good bit farther north than Chattanooga.

Things are rather quiet here at The Kilns for the present.  For some reason, we only have one scholar living with us right now.  She is speaking at the C. S. Lewis Society meeting this week.  We are looking forward to that.  Week after next - the week of Thanksgiving - we will at one point have 3 other people staying with us.  Our guests for Thanksgiving Day have now reached about 9 or 10, I believe.  The quiet will soon dispel. :-)

Sheila has had to spend a lot of time and effort trying to get a turkey.  It seems that people over here will order turkeys for Christmas, so the demand rises in December.  But the meat dealers are used to Americans asking about turkeys in November.  We have finally narrowed things down to the turkeys in the freezer at the "Super Sainsbury" store, and she is relieved!

We had three tours last week, totaling around 35 people.  I lead them all.  One group was made up of college kids from Abilene, Texas.  We had another "small world" incident that day.  Among some other guests on the tour was a couple in the U.S. Air Force.  He was beside himself with happiness to be in C. S. Lewis' house.  He was also thrilled to be able to talk with other C. S. Lewis fans, because he didn't know any other Lewis fans back at their base in Europe.  Well, it turns out that next year, when this couple moves back to the States, they are going to be posted to an airbase very near Abilene.  Crazy.

You will recall reading in a previous post about the retired CofE clergyman living in our neighbourhood.  Sheila is going to go over to their house tomorrow morning to pray with his wife.  She is such a sweet little saint. 

One of the things I'm doing this week is having coffee with the curate of St Ebbe's, Headington.  He is in charge of reaching out to the college campus near the church.  I hope to get some pointers from him about college ministry.

Speaking of neighbours, we had one neighbour invite us and a few others over to her house last night.  You would not believe the food!  For "starters," she served us these small, crumpet looking things, with smoked salmon, caviar, and cream on them.  In addition, she had these deep fried prawn balls (they call shrimp, prawns), and ball-shaped, breaded pieces of haddock - both with toothpicks in them to dip in a chili sauce - similar to cocktail sauce back home.  Then the main meal was a piece of baked salmon with mixed vegetables.  Afterwards, she brought out a desert - a bread and butter pudding with some kind of cream concoction served on the side with pieces of fruit and marshmellow in it.  Then!  Out came the cheese board - beautiful stuff; with crackers.  And when we were thoroughly miserable, she offered us coffee and truffles.  Amazing! 

It is very common to find people standing at the gate, looking at the house.  One day this past week, I came back from a bike ride (yes! I eventually found a bike - thank you for praying; more on that later) and there was a young couple by the gate.  I went over to them and started talking to them about Lewis and the house.  They were locals, but they knew little about the house.  He had read a few books and she had seen the Narnia movies.  They were so glad to have someone talk to them about the place.

A very important item on my list for this coming week is nailing down a date for the replacement of our shower.  We do have a "bath room," with a nice, old, long tub and sink in it.  But when the house was restored, a shower was put into one of the small areas off the kitchen.  Well, it is now caput!  Water runs out from under it.  Dr. Matson is trying to raise the money for it, and I'm supposed to get the plumbers out here to do the work.  Thankfully, the former Warden had already had some folks to come out and look at the thing, so I'm working with one of those tradesmen. 

As I said, it's quiet now, but I hear we will be very, very busy in the spring and summer.  In the meantime, we have more neighbours to meet.  Do please pray for us as we meet these people and have them over for tea or dinner.  We want so much to be Christ to them and honour him in our behaviour and conversation.  Some of these people are not believers and we want to encourage them to know our loving Lord. 

Mormons for Lewis! - And the mole is back

Among the many we had through the house last week, we had a group of students from BYU. It's great to see the broad influence and appreciation of Lewis and his writings.

The kids (yeah, I call them kids, but considering how old I look in the photo I can probably do that! :-)) wanted pictures in Lewis' dining room.

In the meantime, a guest of ours this past Sunday noted, as we stepped out the front door, that we had moles! I looked and, sure enough, there were three more hills. Hm. Something must be done!

thank you

For those of you who have prayed for "my spirits" - thank you! I think things have leveled out now! PTL!

A busy week

Dear friends, I've been trying to find time to write about what's been going on lately, but it's been very difficult.  Tonight things have calmed down enough - and Sheila is watching the latest Downton Abbey with one of our scholars! - so I'm going to write.

I think I'll go back to Sunday.  Michael Ward - local C. S. Lewis scholar (he's the lecturer for the UTC annual lecture in March, btw) invited us to go to church with him.  He goes to the Tolkiens' church, Saints Gregory and Augustine.  Since we are good friends, we invited him to come over for lunch afterward.  Well!  Of all days to go to a Roman church, we go on All Saints Day.  I've never been in a service with so much incense!  I liked it, but poor Sheila was having to hold a kleenex over her face - she's got a touch of asthma.  Needless to say, we won't be going back any time soon!

The sanctuary of SS. Gregory and Augustine.  If it looks a little cloudy up front, well, you know why!

After Michael left the house, his priest, Fr. Saward, and the new head of the St. Barnabas Society here in Oxford - who had been having lunch with the Father - came by to visit.  Turns out, that they live in our neighbourhood.  They had not sat down for long when another neighbour, Fr. Andy Edwards, came to visit.  Fr. Edwards is a retired Church of England priest from up in Cumbria.  So, we had a very ecumenical clerical conclave going on in the common room of the house for Sunday afternoon.

We met Fr. Andy at St. Ebbe's Headington church.  Many of you will be interested to know that his son, Tim  Edwards, has just gone to New St. Andrew's College in Idaho to teach theology.  Anyhow, I would like for you to pray for Andy.  He had a stroke about 6 months ago and struggles with the after-effects.  He's also new to Oxford, having recently retired.  We hope to befriend him and his wife Jill.  They live just around the corner.

This very sociable Sunday got us off to a very busy next two days.  Sally Clarkson, of Whole Heart Ministries, is in Oxford visiting her daughters.  She mentioned something on her Facebook page about being willing to meet with some ladies at the Kilns, if they were interested.  The result was 30+ women from all over the UK, except Ireland, gathered in our library for tea and two hours with Sally.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, but it was a lot of work for us.  We got to spend a good bit of time with Sally and we think we could be good friends.

By the way, one of the ladies who came is here in Oxford with her husband from VA Univ., but he's a South Carolinian and she's from Maryville! :-)

This is Sally in our library; you can see Sheila standing in the corner by the tea-table.

Today, in the morning, we had a tour with a few people who were friends of Peter Greyling and his wife, who head up Christian Heritage London, the sister ministry of Christian Heritage Cambridge, where Ranald Macaulay works.  It was great meeting them and learning more about this really good ministry. 

In the afternoon, we were briefly visited by some truly Irish folks!  Loved their accents.  Sandy Smith, author, and a couple of young people who work for the BBC, stopped through so the younger folk could see the house briefly.  Sandy and his team are making 3 documentaries on Irish aspects of C. S. Lewis' life.  They were in France just today filming in the area where Paddy Moore died.  We enjoyed getting to meet Sandy and the young folks had a really great Facebook sharing time in the house! :-)  They want us to come over and visit them in Belfast.  Hm.  We'll have to think about that one.

Tomorrow, after I give a tour, Sheila and I plan to take a little trip west of Oxford to visit a fellow who restores bicycles - I'm still without wheels and I'm dying!!!  Hopefully, he'll have something for us.  It just so happens that I found out there's a pottery manufacturer in the small village near the bicycle fellow, and so I thought I needed to take Sheila along so she can enjoy the pottery thing.  It should rain some, but you won't do anything around here if you let the rain stop you!

As I write, fireworks are going off in the neighbourhood.  This week is the week of Guy Fawkes Day and Saturday evening there will be a big bonfire and fireworks, which should be a good time to meet some more people. 

Please pray for:
1. Our spirits - we struggle with some things, especially me.  I need my equilibrium restored after the summer and all that's been involved in getting here.  I think I've got the Elijah-post-Carmel syndrome.
2. Our local church involvement; we're down to considering two places and may need to connect with both.
3. Our support needs to improve so we can keep our State-side bills paid.
4. Wisdom with those we live with, that we will be a benefit to them, and not otherwise.
5. Obviously, we need grace with all the people coming and going, that we will be to them what we need to be.
6. Pray for the healing of A., and for Fr. Andy, recovering from his stroke.
7. Pray for clear priorities with all we have to do.

Enough!