Windsor Palace

On Friday, Eric, Jim and I headed to Windsor Palace to meet the Queen~

Actually, she was there, as this flag attests~when the Royal Standard flies above the round tower the Queen is in residence. I believe that she spends most of her weekends at Windsor Castle.


Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures inside, but we really enjoyed seeing many of the treasures within.

We walked around the State Apartments, which are extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the palace. (There are 1,000 rooms at Windsor Castle, by the way!) We also saw the Semi State rooms, which are furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Rembrandt, Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck and Lawrence, fine tapestries and porcelain, sculpture and armour. As you can imagine, it felt more like a museum~


After all the planes at Duxford, I teased Eric and Jim that now it was my turn! There were many treasures at Windsor that really interested me~

We saw Queen Mary's dolls' house (complete with electricity and plumbing, things like the tiny vacuum cleaner and lawn mower worked!) Many leading artisans and painters contributed to this doll house. They did their work on simply a much smaller scale. The paintings in the house are original works of art, simply very small. The tiny books in the library have real, complete stories in them. The wine cellar in the basement has tiny bottles with actual wine in them. Even the garden was designed by a famous garden designer, and it pulls out from the bottom drawer of the doll house.

Next, we saw two magnificent Jumeau dolls, 'France' and 'Marianne'. These dolls were given to the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret by the children of France in 1938. The dolls’ clothes were made by the leading Parisian couturiers of the day. (There was a necklace by Cartier for instance, furs, silks, shoes, etc. there were probably 15 outfits a piece for each doll, and each also had their own car~)

Then, it was a room filled with all the Royal wedding pictures~

And then, to cap off the feminine favorites, CHINA! Pieces from the many (I want to say 43 sets) of china that belong to the royal family. Very beautiful, all hand painted and unique custom pieces of china.

Speaking of china, in the picture below the wall to the right of the square tower belongs to St. George's Hall, a huge, long room where they can seat 160 people at one long table for major state dinners! Each place setting is laid out with a ruler--cutlery, plates and goblets each precisely lined up. Sounds impressive~



St. George's Chapel, also within the castle walls, which was absolutely breath-taking! 10 of the more recent monarch's are buried there, including Henry VIII.


Jim and Eric became friends with the chap below, the only thing is, he didn't say much.

If you haven't been to Windsor, and you are coming to visit, we would love to go again, let us know when you will be in town!

Spiritual Grit

"Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone." John 16:32 (Jesus speaking to his disciples)

Have we left Jesus alone by the scattering of His providence? Because we do not see God in our circumstances? Darkness comes by the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do as He likes with us--prepared to be separated from conscious blessings? Until Jesus Christ is Lord, we all have ends of our own to serve; our faith is real, but it is not permanent yet. God is never in a hurry; if we wait, we shall see that God is pointing out that we have not been interested in Himself but only in His blessings. The sense of God's blessing is elemental.

"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Spiritual grit is what we need.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest. April 4

Imperial War Museum Duxford

We have been busy these last few days! Duxford (an outstanding aviation musuem) has been something Jim has wanted to see for months, and Eric was a perfect person to take with us to see it~




These guys were like kids in a candy store, they couldn't get enough of all the planes,






and if that weren't enough, Duxford houses one of the finest collections of tanks, military vehicles and naval exhibits in the country.



We raced home for Jim and Eric to go and see Ely Cathedral, but ALAS! They forgot the camera, you must ask them both about it~

How is Jim doing?

Jim is a happy man. All day he has walked around with a smile on his face and a sense of relief in his voice. Why, do you ask? See below:


~Last night he finished chapter 8

~This means only ONE MORE CHAPTER to go! (One 30 page paper!) One more chapter, plus, the intro/conclusion and the bibliography. He is on track to finish on time~something one is never sure of until the end of a project, or in this case, a dissertation.

~His advisor likes what he is writing, calling it 'methodical and sound' (imagine the alternative: scattered and unsound?) You see why this is such a relief!

~He was able to finish this chapter more quickly because he found 5 pages he had written last fall but had set aside for later. They were exactly what he needed for the part of the chapter he was finishing~such good news! This directly affects the next point, which is:

~Eric is visiting and now Jim can spend more time with him! He is taking today and tomorrow off, (a luxury in our world) to spend some fun time with all of us.

~ALSO, we are also both excited to see what the Lord is doing with our future. We are thankful to see God's hand leading us forward with several great options. More on this later.

Thank you all dear friends and family as you have prayed us through these last months here in Cambridge. God has indeed been faithful.

Eric is here!

Our good friend Eric (or 'Uncle Eric') is here visiting from Minnesota. What a treat for us! Everyone is so pleased to have him here~look at these happy children!


We took a walk down to the market (to keep him awake!) Check out these trees!


The children like to scooter downtown, but one of their scooters was stolen from them~


King's College bridge, good friends, and a happy husband~

How good it is to see old friends!

To Pray

"Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of Thee, let my first impulse be to worship Thee, let my first speech be Thy name, let my first action be to kneel before Thee in prayer.

For Thy perfect wisdom and perfect goodness:
For the love wherewith Thou lovest mankind:
For the love wherewith Thou lovest me:
For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life:
For the indwelling of Thy Spirit in my heart:
For the sevenfold gifts of Thy Spirit:
I praise and worship Thee, O Lord."

excerpt from John Baillie's "A Diary of Private Prayer" morning prayer, First Day

Beginning to stitch~

Each girl had a 'lesson' in needlepoint today. Our friend Dorinda taught each of them to cross stitch beginning with their first initial. Even Sarah enjoyed herself! The girls went to their room tonight to "play like we lived in old-fashioned time, doing our stitching" and were quite happy.