4th of July in Alabama "Down on the Farm"

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~Albert Einstein

Forest Church
Enjoying some farm-fresh food down on the Farm

All of the extended Chandos and Mark's Melissa traveled a little over 3 hours south to spend some quality time down on the farm together. This old farm house on Robin Road in Ethelsville, Alabama belonged to my great-grandmother and grandfather Johnson from the late 1800s and is part of my earliest memories. I remember when it was a working farm and there were chickens in the yard and horses and cows in the barn. In more recent years my parents spend the summer here and plant a big garden to eat and share with family and friends. Forest United Methodist Church is where my parents married and most of my relatives are buried in this church yard. It was little Preston Field's first trip to the farm and we all wanted to show him off in church!

One of the fringe benefits of a trip to the "Farm" is the fresh vegetables we bring back home with us. Carl and I put up green beans and made homemade salsa with the tomatoes and hot peppers we brought back.

MAH00017.MP4 Molly and Natalie in Dublin Irish dance class

MAH00015.MP4 Amy Cluck- Irish dance teacher's pet!

Dancing in Dublin June 2011

Book of Kells
"bog" man 400BC
U-2 Studio
St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin



“One hundred thousand welcomes” spoken to us in Gaelic.

“There are no strangers here- only friends you’ve yet to meet.”

So true! We arrived in Dublin and went to our hotel- the Best Western Academy- another very good location and a very nice hotel. Dinner in the hotel that night was superb! Trout or chicken as the main entree. After dinner we went straight away to the Irish dance lesson at the Music community center on a beautiful square in a suburb of Dublin. The ride there was along the Irish Sea. This was beautiful at sunset with sailboats on the water and homes facing the sea. There was an unusual tree I asked about and the bus driver called it a Monkeypuzzle tree. He told us we would have some good craic (good fun) tonight in the Monkstown area on the southside of Dublin. We drove past the 60s era architecture of the American Embassy and saw the Four Seasons Hotel where Bon Jovi was staying before his concert the next night.

The dance master at the musical community center was excellent and used Amy as his assistant and dance partner to demonstrate- I took video of this and be sure you watch it!

The students learned the Irish jig and the following dances:

Walls of Limerick and the Siege of Innis

These are couples dances with floor patterns as well as steps
In the bar area there were local Irish musicians playing together some traditional music- we had a great time at our dance lessons!


The Dublin City Guided TourThe first stop was The Children of Lior- a swan story and the gardens have a sculpture of the swan changelings in the Garden of Remembrance. Across the street is the writer’s museum of Dublin. The Parnell Square district and the Gate Theatre are near our hotel. Charles Stuart Parnell is known as the uncrowned King of Ireland. We drove by the Spire Monument and the General Post Office- GPO- A site of rebellion here in Dublin.

In the 18th century Dublin was a wealthy town, but earlier it was a wooden Viking city of the 9th century. So much of the old sites are destroyed here in Dublin.

In 1591 Elizabeth I, the Protestant Queen, started a Protestant university- Trinity College. Many famous writers attended this college ex. Jonathan Swift.
There are 15,000 students on a 40 acre campus.

We drove by the Molly Malone Statue- the Tart with the Cart-look her up!

We saw Marion Square of the 1750s with Georgian style architecture and then went to a garden memorial for Oscar Wilde with a statue from 1997 made of jade, porcelain and tulite- he wrote A Picture of Dorian Grey and has many famous quotes.
On Fitzwilliam Square there is a doorway that is frequently photographed for postcards :#46 a double doorway decorated for the King’s visit which has 5” high steps so ladies did not show too much ankle when they approached the door. The social season then went from January to March. The 1798 Rebellion resulted in the British closing the Irish Parliament and property values in Dublin fell in the 1800s because there was no social season anymore.

UNESCO Named Dublin a world site for literature because it has produced so many fine writers throughout history. James Joyce wrote “Ulysses” 1904 and the 16th of June is called Bloomsday to remember this work.


It is said that there are 700 churches and 1000 pubs in Dublin!

Christ Church 1172 is restored and has a Dublinia exhibit that is really good. Here is the crypt and the old city gates of 1240 with part of the original walls. We drove by there on our way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This is early English Gothic Style- Jonathan Swift was a Dean of the Church and he wrote Gulliver’s Travels. St. Patrick’s gardens were lovely.We saw magpie’s here—there is a superstition saying here about magpies and pregnancy:
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy!

On our city tour we drove by the 1800s red brick buildings of Guinness factory- St. James Gate Brewery is the entrance to the factory.The Brazen Head of 1198 is the oldest pub in Dublin.

The River Liffey separates Dublin into North and South sides.

Phoenix Park in Dublin is 4 times larger than Central Park in NY and contains the zoo which is one of the oldest in Europe. It was once a royal park in the mid 1500s and totally private until the 18th century. In this park is the Papal Cross where Pope John Paul II held outdoor mass in 1979 with 1 million people in attendance. Here is also the Ambassador’s Residence for the US which is much prettier than the embassy and the President of Ireland's House- this is also a deer park.

Windmill Lane- U2’s Recording Studio- photo stop- they now have a new one nearby. The graffiti on the walls here are works of art- amazing!
Saw the wooden ship Jenny Johnson which is a replica of the type that sailed to the US after the potato famine

Our visit to Trinity College and the Book of Kells 800AD manuscripts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in Latin on vellum of calf skins. It took 180 calves skins for 1 book. There are two pages open and on display at a time. A page from Matthew was on display with very intricate artwork. Peacocks were a symbol of the incorruptibility of Christ, peacocks were said to not putrefy after death and their feathers regenerate too. Snakes were a symbol of renewal and rebirth because they shed their skins. There are lots of these symbols on ancient texts.

Trinity College Library is most impressive! When you walk in you think, 'Now THIS is a library!" -A long narrow room with a very tall ceiling/barrel with busts of Homer, Aristotle, Socrates, Boyle, etc. The very oldest books in the library are in the room and also the oldest harp in Ireland made of maple and willow.There was an exhibit on medical practice and the history of the medical college at Trinity College- very interesting documents and pictures.

Free time after the college tour-so we went to Grafton Street for lunch. We ate at Davy Byrnes- Panini sandwiches, soup, and roast beef sandwiches. All very good and there we lots of locals dining in this restaurant.

We walked to the National Museum of Archeology and History- beautiful displays of gold artifacts, jewelry, hairpieces, coins. Many of these objects were found in hoards and discovered on farms or during turf cutting. Outstanding “bog” men- total of 41- we took pictures of many of these men and their information from the year 400 BC.


St. Stephen’s Green Park was perfect for a rest so we sat by the pond to watch ducks and swans + a lot of pigeons (males trying to impress the females-hubba hubba) sea gulls landed and stole the pigeon bread and broke up the party. Lots of young people in this park enjoying the pretty weather. We met the group at Trinity College and walked back to our hotel- about a 20 minute walk- watch the dodgy traffic lights ya’ll- very short and fake you out on the beeps. People are KILLED here while crossing the street.


For dinner we walked to The Shack Restaurant in a trendy restaurant area near Fleet Street. We heard a Scottish bagpipe band perform near the restaurant in a square. The food was traditional Irish and there was an 18th century crack in the wall which was labeled- deco was neat with books and plates on shelves.

Some Irish/Gaelic vernacular we learned on this trip:
Craic= having a good time
Pog Mo Thoin= kiss my --- in Gaelic
One-two-tree, one-two-tree! That is waltz or jig time for your information!

MAH00008.MP4 Molly on Victoria Street Edinburgh

MAH00011.MP4 Natalie at The Beehive Inn on Grassmarket in Edinburgh

MAH00012.MP4 '"ROCKY " scene on the steps in Edinburgh- go Amy and Natalie!

Edinburgh, Scotland June 2011

Auld Reekie Tours Ad
spit here for luck
Castle at the top of the Royal Mile
















We rolled across the border into Scotland and did a photo stop. Once in Edinburgh we checked into King James Thistle Hotel **** at Princes Street & Leith Street-a perfect location to walk a couple of blocks to the Royal Mile.

A city tour of Edinburgh really helped to orient us to this city. Edinburgh is at 56* North Latitude which is the same Alaska. The weather was brisk this morning.
We drove around the corner from the hotel and there was a Catholic church with a relic of St. Andrew inside. Most of the churches here in Scotland are Presbyterian.
We went by the Bank of Scotland- they have their own currency recognized by the Bank of England. Finance is a big deal in Edinburgh with 25% of the population dealing with financial matters.

A lot of the architecture in Edinburgh is Neoclassical from 1776 and the time of George III. On the tour we saw Robert Louis Stevenson's home: wrote Treasure Island and Child’s Garden of Verses-a row house with a blue door.There are cobblestone streets here in this district.#51 Albyn Place is the former home of Sir James Young Simpson-the inventor of chloroform.

The Edinburgh Medical School is premier in the world—there are 4 universities here with a total of 45,000 students. The New Town District and Charlottes Square are famous because Alexander Graham Bell was born here in 1847. There is a high tourism rate in Edinburgh.

The Balmoral Hotel is almost across the street from our hotel and is very famous- near the rail lines too. There is a statue of the Duke of Wellington on the corner next to our hotel. There are 5 million people living in Scotland. High Street is known as the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and is the connector between Holyrood Castle and EdinbUrgh Castle up on the top of the hill. It is the main shopping street of Edinburgh.Down at the Queens Gallery of Holyrood Palace at the foot of the Royal Mile there are wooden doors with unicorns and lions and flora like the thistle for Scotland and the rose for England. There is an old 12th century Augustinian Abby ruin which had no roof from the time of Henry VIII and a hunting park legend about a threatening stag that was stopped by a cross appearing so the monks marked this space as holy.


When the Queen comes to Edinburgh there is a ceremony of keys to admit her- the Queen gets keys to the city of Edinburgh. A state visit is very busy for her- embassy personnel are invited to a garden party at Holyrood.
Queen Victoria’s Drive was built during reign of Albert and Victoria- they built Balmoral Castle too. The plants I photographed are foxglove (digitalis) growing wild.The tall mountains are actually 3 extinct volcanoes in Edinburgh. Hutton wrote The Treaties of Geology which was very controversial because of the Church view of creation.

From Edinburgh it is only 45 miles to the Atlantic Ocean and there is a view of the North Sea with a 70 mile visibility. The Firth of Forth is the body of water seen from Edinburgh Castle.6000 years ago tribes were terrace farming this area.

JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame had a favorite coffee shop (Elephant House) she credits with inspiration for Harry’s birth. She lives in the area. There is also a street that provided inspiration to her as she wrote the series.

Edinburgh is called Auld Reekie due to the smoke from Victorian coal fires- gas is mandatory now.Edinburgh is a festival city and August is the main month- the population triples in August and the stands are put up at the castle for the Military Tattoo.

The Edinburgh Castle Tour We saw the Scottish Crown and Scepter and sword- the Stone of Destiny on display (The Honours of Scotland) St. Margaret’s Chapel is small and the oldest surviving building on castle hill. The Great Hall is from the 16th century and has a hammer and beam roof- inside this structure is where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James I (aka James IV). Up on the castle hill there is a one o’clock gun that fires to set the clocks and also to save money. There is a dog cemetery for soldier’s guard dogs. Mons Meg is the largest cannon up there.We toured the Prisoner of War exhibit and saw the hammocks and inscriptions from some American sailors in the 1700s and then exited the castle proper.

The girls went shopping on the Royal Mile and Amy and I went to the Edinburgh City Museum farther down the Royal Mile. There were displays on very early history of the city with pottery, silver, glass, wooden water pipes, the story of Grey Friar’s Bobbie, Haggis, food like neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes). We played with the seal press of Edinburgh on silver paper.
Outside the museum they were filming in period attire in the rain.
We walked the entire Royal Mile more than once today!!!

Auld Reekie Tour of Edinburgh Underground: The Ghost and Torture Tour
This is one of the most haunted places on EARTH! We started above ground with the area behind St. Giles in the parking lot which was once a cemetery and moved a few steps over to a heart-shaped square which was a place of public execution near the gaol. There is a heart called the Midlothian Heart and it is good luck to spit on it as you pass. The guide told us about the prosecution of witches and the test to reveal if you were a witch. The rain started coming down so we quickly transferred to the torture room of Auld Reekie Tours to discuss the implements of torture on display(I wouldn't want to melt!?). There was a headpiece designed for nagging wives with a tongue press attached, there was a child’s thumb screw, a male castrator tool and a chastity belt- we did not go too deeply into much of this because there were a couple of younger students age 10 on the tour. From this room we entered the underground vaults of South Bridge passing down stairs and a corridor. The area we entered was very dark, damp and musty with rain trickling down the walls from the streets above. Our guide told us the first haunting instance was a boy named Jack who was looking for his mother. A person would feel his hand in their hand down there. The Wiccan circle of stone room was viewed from the street/hall and we had to stay out of this circle or we would have bad luck. Another story concerned the Edinburgh Oven Room- the fire of Edinburgh raged above this area and women and children were down here and cooked to death because they could not escape. There is a poltergeist in this room due to the large number of deaths. The most haunted place is the back left corner of the room and has the most recorded activity- Look on YouTube under “Haunted Edinburgh Vaults” for the 4 part series (p.s. One girl and her mother left the tour on the first hall- too scary). After the tour we walked back to the hotel in the dark of night with our imagination working overtime.

MAH00002.MP4 Molly has a Harry Potter moment in Oxford, England

Exciting England

Hadrian's Wall and the Roman Ruins

York
Warwick Castle
Stratford-upon-Avon
Oxford Dining Hall
Oxford University and the gardens

Trafalgar Square in London



"London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years." -----Oscar Wilde

I tried my best to be part of London society and act younger than thirty-five on this June trip to London! The young company of Molly and Natalie and my younger co-worker Amy made it very easy to feel young and free in London. Highlights of our visit June 21-23 included the tour of the Tower of London with the crown jewels and Beefeaters, Trafalgar Square with fountains, street performers, statues, plus the Olympic countdown clock, the National Gallery of Art to see Van Gogh, Degas, Michelangelo, Botticelli, da Vinci and El Greco masterpieces, the British Museum with the Elgin Marbles, Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummy exhibits, and an evening in the West End Theatre District to see The Phantom of the Opera in Her Majesty’s Theatre. We mastered the London Tube system, ate Shepherd’s Pie and Fish and Chips at the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant and were up close for the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Westminster Cathedral still had some Will and Kate souvenirs to purchase too. I know I felt like mini-royalty on this whirlwind visit.

June 24th we traveled to Oxford to visit the university campus. The gardens, chapel and the dining hall were spectacular. The dining hall was used in two Harry Potter films and is so full of history and portraits of great men. Our next stop was Stratford-upon-Avon to honor the Bard: William Shakespeare. We visited his childhood home and the Hathaway Cottage; so many beautiful English gardens in both places. We ate at a Baguette Barge on the River Avon and then Amy and I walked to Holy Trinity Church (1465AD) to visit the grave of Shakespeare. This visit was one more check on my to-do-list in life.

June 25th was spent at Warwick Castle (1356 AD) roaming Caesar’s Tower at 147 feet and Guy’s Tower at 128 feet tall plus the dungeons (that’s over 500 steps to climb). Madame Toussaud’s wax figures made the castle years of 1471 and 1898 come alive for us. The Terrible History Torture Tour was a great learning experience on the plague, torture, court system and early medical practice of medieval times and provided some comic relief: “No refunds for sniveling wimps!” One special event we experienced was the Ghost Tour of Warwick Castle- all the tales of the ghosts of the place and why they haunt the castle.

The tour of the north of England included York with The Shambles and a Cornish pasty of meat and cheese along with Clifford’s Tower and a tumble on the stones for me- ouch-the ankle is a black and blue mess! The time in historic Yorkminster Cathedral inspired awe especially when one realized the spot is associated with the Roman Emperor Constantine. The next stop was magnificent wind-swept Hadrian’s Wall and the moors and heather stretching into the distance. The Roman fortification ruins along the Wall were covered with frolicking sheep too!