April 23-29, 2018 - First Outing to the English Countryside

Monday, April 23rd was preparation day and we rode the Temple van to the "Standen House" which is one of the historic sites preserved by the British National Trust.  We spent the morning there touring the home and seeing the grounds. James and Margaret Beale and their seven children chose an idyllic location in the Sussex countryside with views across the High Weald to build their rural retreat besides their flat in the busy city of London. Designed by Philip Webb, the house is one of the finest examples of Arts and Crafts workmanship with Morris & Co. interiors and decorative art of the period and was completed in 1894. There are still two artists that work for Morris & Co. and use the grounds for inspiration for new wallpaper designs. The grounds were stunning as there are about 10,000 tulips in bloom as well as a hillside full of bluebells. We didn't have time to take a wander on all of the footpaths or have lunch at the "Barn Cafe" so we will have to go back another day. Below are some pictures of our morning, it really was quite lovely! (Did you catch the "quite lovely", it is amazing how easy it is to adopt the frequently used English phrases.)

The next three pictures are of the bluebells that were blooming on the hillside although there were a few more trees than you find in Texas.

After taking a wander through these trees to see the bluebells we sat on a bench for a while listening to the birds and visiting with our van driver, Brother Whitehouse.  The Whitehouse's permanent residence is about an hour away, but they are full-time in the office so they have a flat in the Manor House.  He is an excellent tour guide.

This is the original part of the house that was built in 1894. The next four pictures are of the flowers in the courtyard and Sister Burkinshaw standing at the entrance to the house.

The next three pictures are of the studio in the home where artists from Morris & Co. still make wallpaper designs. Each room in the home is decorated with a different pattern. The pattern shown at the bottom was found in one of the rooms for the servants.

The next two pictures are of the kitchen and in the bottom picture is Elder Burkinshaw and Elder Whitehouse.

The picture above and this picture are of the back of the house. This one is just to the left of the back porch. Because the back did not have the obstruction of the courtyard the house was quite stunning as were the tulips in the backyard.

This was the back lawn just off the porch. It would have been a great hill for their children to play on as you can see from the children playing in the far right corner of the picture, great for rolling and ice blocking. The picture below is a panoramic view of the path between the back porch and the back lawn which also lead over the gardens.

These next two pictures were of the grounds behind the gardens and had walking paths and views of the High Weald which is one of England's finest landscapes. It is an area of natural beauty situated in south-east England covering 1,450 square kilometres and extending across the counties of Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. In the picture below the white spots you see just above the fence are beehives used the pollinate the gardens. It was a little cooler and cloudy, but made for some great pictures.

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw standing in front of the garden. They had trained the tree branches to run parallel with the ground and it was quite interesting. Again the tulips were amazing. The picture below is the British garden where they grown produce for the "Barn Cafe". We thought it looked like the garden in the "Peter Rabbit" movie we saw during our recent family reunion, although that seems like ages ago it has only been a few weeks.

Our morning at Standen House was a morning well spent and they have events all year long and during the holidays. While moving our paintings around in the apartment I found one of an English landscape which I moved into the Living Room and put above our small couch. They had a throw pillow at Standen House that would match our colors and add a definite English element to the decor so I figured that was worth another trip.

We worked the morning shift this week (8:10am to 3:00pm) so we set a morning schedule that has us up and out the door for our morning walk at 6:00am and encourages us to begin getting ready for bed about 9:00pm. This has helped a lot in adjusting to the time change and getting rid of the jet lag, and thus we feel pretty normal these days. We had nice weather the first part of the week before it turned colder and wetter at the end of the week. Today, Sunday, the high will be 47°F and is quite cold. We have not needed heat in our flat since we arrived and in turning it on it doesn't seem to be working. Probably just bundle up today and call the engineers tomorrow to have them check things out. They were very good about ordering and replacing our oven that was also not working. We got a brand new Bosh convection oven, which is small, but very nice. Sunday afternoon with a new oven and a large bag of chocolate chips from my Costco shopping adventure this week made it possible to make biscuits (cookies) for the first time - delicious!! We figured it was a good way to do a little ministering. 

Working in the temple everyday is such a wonderful blessing. There really is no better place to spend your time. We have both been passed off on performing the ordinances complete with London Temple procedures and will begin training as coordinators this week. Because the temple is larger than ours in Oklahoma City there is a coordinator for each of the ordinances along with a shift coordinator. The shift coordinators also use "white" cellphones to communicate with the ordinance coordinators (who have land lines) to keep things running smoothly. It was a busy week with most sessions being good size. We had a group of french members come and stay the week so that provided the larger numbers. 

One of Sister Burkinshaw's new experiences this week was working for several hours Saturday morning in the temple cafeteria. The food is actually quite good. Working in the cafeteria does not happen often, but it was fun. The cafeteria is only open for two hours from 12:00 to 2:00pm during the week, they add another half hour on Saturday's and open at 11:30am. They have a salad bar, a soup of the day, baked potatoes with toppings (chili, cheese, etc.), twice baked potatoes everyday and then add one or two other main dish items to the menu plus some desserts. I made one of Uncle Tony's favorite dishes cheesy cauliflower and it was delicious. It was fun to see how things are put together and provided an extra 5,000 steps for the day. 

Friday evening Sister Burkinshaw did a little ministering (formerly known as visiting teaching with Sister Brenda Linford of Casper Wyoming and Saturday evening we went out to dinner with Elder and Sister Wolsey (Barry and LuAnn Wolsey from Raymond Alberta Canada) to a Thai restaurant just a mile from the temple. It is just a little place on the side of the road and we didn't even think about reservations. We arrived at 6:00pm and there was only one other table filled. They said they could seat us if we could be done by 7:10pm. We agreed to their terms and enjoyed a delicious dinner and great company. For (Home Teaching) Ministering we are assigned as companions and given another couple to minister to (some have a single sister also). We are the Wolsey's ministers so we will have the opportunity to get to know them better, they are wonderful and have actually ministered to us more then we have to them since we arrived they just live three flats down.

On Sunday afternoon, we were invited to dinner with the Wallaces from Sandy Utah, who have been serving in the London South Mission Office since the beginning of the year.  Because the London South Mission is being absorbed into the London Mission effective July 1, they will be moving into downtown London at Hyde Park, where the mission office, visitor's center and Hyde Park stake center are located.  They currently live about a mile and a half from the temple grounds in a very nice bungalow rented from church members.  We met the Wallaces when walking the temple grounds one morning and we had an immediate connection since we had served in the mission office in Vitória Brasil.  They have 3 couples and two single sisters in their mission office and so they we amazed when we told them that we were the entire mission office staff.  We drove to the Wallaces with the Ludlows, who serve on the A Shift at the temple.  We serve on the B Shift.  The Ludlows live in Layton but Sister Ludlow is originally from Nottingham, just south of Sheffield.  Elder Ludlow had served his mission in London but they met at the University of Utah.  They have been at the temple for about a year and Elder Ludlow has been preparing to obtain a UK drivers license so he has shared some very helpful information.  We had a wonderful dinner together and visited for several hours.  It has been very nice to have the social interaction particularly compared to Brazil where we were the only missionary couple.

This was the serving table for our dinner with the Wallaces and the Ludlows.  It was a traditional English dinner of roast beef, potatoes and gravy (notice the InstaPot!) with vegetables.  For dessert we had a Cadbury Flake cake with ice cream!!

The Ludlows on the left and the Wallaces on the right.  Sister Wallace had just completed the quilt on the wall behind us before leaving for England.

We love you all and invite you anytime for a visit. There is plenty to see and do in London so it would be worth saving your pennies. There is also no place like  temple having across the parking lot is awesome!!

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw