London Calling

London Walks: South Kensington Museum Walk

2008-11-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

I already enjoyed this part of town but I really fell in love with it as I walked through it more carefully. I decided that I would like to live here, here are the reasons why:

1. The church is so handy- no cabs on Sunday!

2. Look at this adorable street, I would choose the green one on the left!

3. Just around the corner is one of the secret parks of London, which I love!

4. This church is not LDS but I love it all the same, it is beautiful and the people are super nice!

5. Field trips to the V&A? who would not want to live here?

6. I may not qualify for admittance to the Royal College of Music but it is a nice dream.

7. Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, and if I can afford to live in South Kensington I will definitely have front row tickets!

8. I love, love, love Kensington Gardens, especially at sunrise or sunset!

London Walks: Chelsea-Walk of the Superstars

2008-11-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Hailee and I CHOOSING to be enthused about the election outcome!

Death site of authoress, George Eliot, she wrote Mill on the Floss which I have officially read!

Flood street, Margaret Thatcher lived here sometimes (when not on Downing street)

Oscar Wilde, wit and dramatist lived here: 1854-1900 according to the London City Council.

One of the amusing signs to be found about London!

The birthplace of Dracula?? Or at least the home of Bram Stoker!

Sir Laurence Olivier, great Shakespearean actor once resided here!

Our own BYU Superstar: Hailee Anderson!

Back to the classics!

The Michelin Man? In stained glass?

Religion Field Study: Gadfield Elm Chapel

2008-11-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

The Gadfield Chapel was out in an isolated location so it had a special lock on it to allow members of the Church to visit. It was a bit of a questionare of questions only a LDS person would know, I had the extreme privilege and honor of testing my knowledge to let everyone in, do not worry, I succeeded. This chapel was one of the places that the early saints in this area met and held meetings but it was lost after many of them left for the US. What I loved was the diligence of the modern saints as they took it into their own hands to insure that the property once again belonged to the church. The was the building was so beautifully reconstructed made it easy for me to imagine Elder Woodruff standing at the pulpit preaching the doctrines of the gospel to the faithful saints of this area that has waited for so long to have these truths in their lives. It must have been
wonderful to have been there!

Religion Field Study; Benbow Farm

2008-11-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

I loved visiting the Church history sites in the Herefordshire area! As we approached the farm I imagined Wilford Woodruff, William Benbow and his son walking to the farm, walking away from all the brand new converts towards something totally new for Wilford Woodruff. I could see them knocking on the door and being welcomed by John and his wife Jane. The faith of these two people amazed, as well as that of their fellow United Brethren. These people had the courage to leave their previous church to seek after the true church upon the earth, when Wilford Woodruff appeared upon their doorstep they had the faith to recognize and accept this truth! Only two days after his arrival Jane and John Benbow were baptized in the pond on their farm, shortly to be followed by hundreds of their fellow United Brethren. After looking at the house we were able to walk down at the pond where these amazing early saints were baptized before many of them left to head for the Salt Lake valley! This country was beautiful, very different from the place they would trek thousands of miles to.

Religion Field Study: Westminster Cathedral

2008-11-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

This is a very striking cathedral at first glance with the brick laid in red and white stripes and the large courtyard in front of it. My favorite part of visiting these cathedrals is when I walk inside and the peace and quietness of the buildings come over you. This cathedral was especially that was as there were so many people there to worship, it felt like a real church and not just a touristy cathedral.

There were people occupied in prayer and meditation throughout the chapels, still more sat in a long line waiting for Confession. The candles burning everywhere added to the spirit and beauty of the building. As I examined the building (what I could see of it anyways because the interior was covered in scaffolding!) it looked as if the building had been constructed of brick and stone and all the elaborate decor and marble had been added years later as almost an afterthought. The marble that formed many of the smaller chapels was amazingly beautiful and came from all over, for example the Chapel dedicated to the Saints of Ireland was constructed using marble from Ireland, and it was mostly green! One of the chapels that I loved especially well was the Chapel of Saint Andrew and the Saints of Scotland was beautiful. This chapel, similar to much of the cathedral, had beautiful mosaics on the high parts of the walls and lower parts of the ceilings. The mosaics were colorful and had lots of gold in them, the one I loved in this small chapel portrayed the city of "Constantinopol". It was beautiful.

The Abreviated North Trip

2008-10-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Leverpool docks

The Beatles Museum: HELP!

Aren't we sweet?

My friend: Billy Fury

Francis and I at the Preston Temple

Hailee and I

Old living space of first Elders to Great Britain which included Heber C Kimball. It was here that the missionaries were overwhelmed with dark spirits attempting to stop them.

This is the allwey space where we all stood to look up at the missionaries window, we got funny looks!

The River Ribble where the first Baptism in Great Britain took place.

Windermere...

Seats of Power:Whitehall and the Mall

2008-10-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

I loved this walk!! It was an unusally sunny day and tons of tourists were out (it was also a Saturday). It was fun to walk around amongst them and know where I was going without pulling out my map! I love London!

P.S. The Queen was in!

Walking among the Scholars: Bloomsbury/St.Pancras

2008-10-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

This is the lovely walk I took this Friday. We had some difficulties finding our way mostly because we could not agree which way was the correct way but we took turns being right! My favorite part about doing these walks is seeing how all the different places are in relation together, when you take the tube you have no idea that Bayswater turns into Oxford or that Trafalger Square is straight up the street from Westminster!

The outset of our Walk...guess who!

I love the red phone booths!

Ghandi!

The dorms of the University of London.

The University of London

British Library

St. Pancras Station

King's Cross Station

A Stroll In the Country?

2008-10-04T04:18:00.000-07:00

We got to go out in the countyr for a nine mile wlk last week, it was beautiful and the weather cooperated! We started out at this little parrish church, we could hear the choir rehearsing as we walked up to it, it was perfect.

The picteresque cemetery surrounding the old church.

McKenzie shows her skill at chooding a ripe blackberry, we were thrilled to discover that our pathway was lined with bush after bush of them and they slowed our pace quite a bit.

I know everyone keeps giving me a hard time about my sideways photos but I like them that way! This old man made me laugh, this is not a good photo but he rode fast! We were just walking along and suddenly this old man zooms across the bridge right out of an old WWII film, he was wearing a furlined leather jacket ancient helmet with gogles. I loved it!

This is one of the lovely fields that had been freshly harvested, they were everywhere!

Kayla, Tracy, and Proff. Benfell are posing in a kissing gate, thus named becasue they only allow one person to pass through at a time and apparantly young men used to trap an unwitting young lady in them and kiss her! Shocking is not it? That is the story our guide told us, I believe it.

This is the station we traveled to for our walk, it is one of the many little country stations that exist surprising ly close to the city center, the one I use go to for church is similar to this.

Gardens of England: Kensington and Stourhead

2008-09-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

Stourhead gardens was one of my favorite stops on our recent trip west, they were beautiful! I decided that when I live in London it will be here- and I will spend all my time in with Kiera Knightly).

Kensington Gardens has also become a favorite of mine, and it is far more convenient then Stourhead, just down the street. I love to go and read there, that is I will so long as the weather stays as beautiful as it has been, and despite the killer swans that reside in the Round Pond- the ones in the Serpentine seem to be much more docile. It is a bustling place at all timthe gardens. If it rains too hard I will kip out in the temple to Apollo. I could have spent days there but was limited to a few hours. Stourhead is actually home to a now famous building, the aforementioned temple of Apollo is where the climactic scene from the newer Pride and Prejudice was filmed(the onee, in the morning with joggers and bikers, in the afternoon with schoolchildren, and at all times with Londoners and tourists (I fit under the category of "Londoner").

There are three memorials or statues in the gardens that I particularly enjoy looking at: Queen Victoria near Kensington Palace (V for Victoria), the Prince Albert Memorial, and the Statue of Peter Pan. The Prince Albert Memorial is incredibly ornate and ridiculous (poor Prince Albert) but fascinating to look at, my favorite sculpture on it was that of the elephant that was part of the sculpture representing Asia. Peter Pan is my favorite one of all!! The statue is in a little out of the way place and it is said that

magically appeared overnight and no one knows who did it! That is what I heard at first and was horribly disappointed to hear the true story so I will not enlighten you!

English 375: Lyme-Regis

2008-09-20T12:58:00.001-07:00

Lyme-Regis was one of the few places on our trip west that I really new
anything about previous to visiting. Lyme is the setting of Anne Eliot’s famous trip in Persuasion, it was in Lyme that Louisa Musgrove falls, Captain Wentworth realizes his feelings, and Anne first lays eyes on Mr. Eliot. I had always imagined Lyme as being a cloudy, windy place (perhaps because that is how it appears in all the films) but it was quite the reverse this Friday. It was the most beautiful, sunny, warm day that could only be topped by today’s weather, not exactly what I came to England expecting but enjoyable nonetheless. Today the beach was full of swimmers and lined with shops, the same was probably true in the time of Austen but without the Speedos and gelato. The most memorable spot was the cob where Louisa Musgrove fell in her foolishness, those steps in the movies? They are really there! I am not entirely sure how Jane Austen felt about Lyme but it seemed like a for simple pleasure, fun to visit but for a short time.

English 375: Bath ( Bawth) and Austen

2008-09-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

Bath was beautiful! It was fun to walk around and imagine it in the days of Jane Austen as a resort and retreat. One of the most insightful places to visit was No. 1 Royal Cres Georgian townhouse on the famous Royal Crescent designed by John Wood Jr.. The Royal Crescent is cent, a restoreda lovely design and area but the inside of the house was fascinating. The house provided insight to how the households would have been run in Jane Austen's time. Most of the home in Bath were not owned by the people that stayed there, instead they were rented out for the "season" to various families. Families such as the Eliot's or the Allen's. It was interesting to see the segregation between both the genders and the statuses that were made evident by the various rooms. There was a drawing room for the ladies to sit in and have tea, it was the most elaborate room in the building, there was the sturdy for the gentlemen to sit in. The study had such things as writing desks, the few books brought to Bath with the family, a gaming table, and of course their liquor. The rooms where the servants alone worked were not fancy in any way, merely
functional. I loved to visit the places in Bath that I remembered from her novels. One of these is Great Pulteney St. where Catherine Morland lives when she goes to stay with Mr. an Mrs. Allen, seeing the buildings I could just imagine her spotting Mr. Tilney as she is rushed away in a carriage by Mr. Thorpe... how thrilling! The most exciting places for me to visit in connection with Jane Austen though were the Assembly Rooms and the Pump Room. The Assembly Rooms were where all the Bath visitors would congregate in the evening for dancing and cards. The high beautiful rooms were the place that many couples met and gossip was exchanged, it was the highlight of many of Austen's heroine's visits in Bath. Finally- the Pump Room. This room has now been converted into a tea room, which is an adventure in and of itself, but the room held both the water which was the original attraction to Bath and all the splendor and society that would later become the a draw, I loved it!

London at Last

2008-09-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

I have now been in London for approximately 5 days and I have fallen in love with it!! My very first night I took the tube down to Westminster and walked along the river... so I am in love!! This is a poor beginning to a blog - but a beginning!!!