A Good Day Out: the London Temple and Chartwell

     I spent the last two days of my England trip with dear friends and family.  On Thursday evening, I made my way to Pembury to spend the night with Shirley and Dave.  It was great to be back in their lovely, familiar home.  It just so happened that some very good friends of mine who are from San Diego - Scott Woolley and his daughter Robyn - were visiting England the same week as me, and needed a place to stay for a few days.  Shirley and Dave very graciously said they could stay with them, so when I got to Pembury, I was blessed to be greeted by both my in-laws and my friends.
     Scott is a huge Churchill fan, so he couldn't miss the opportunity to go to Chartwell, the Churchill home which is only about 20 miles from Pembury.  Thus, a tour of Chartwell was the undisputed plan for Friday.  Chartwell is also near the London Temple, so we decided to make a trip to the temple as well.  It was wonderful to go back to a place that has been such an important part of my spiritual life.

Scott and Robyn make the pilgrimage to the London Temple

My children have played countless times on these grounds; it was great to be back.

     

A statue of Churchill just outside Chartwell, in the village of Westerham

     We made it to Chartwell by lunchtime.  This is important.  This meant that we could eat lunch at Chartwell! And it turns out that at Chartwell they have the Landemare Café, named after Georgina Landemare, who was the Churchill's cook from 1939-1954.  The good people at National Trust have taken the trouble of putting some of Churchill's favorite dishes on the menu at the café, inspired by Landemare's recipes.  This is thrilling for someone like me, obsessed with food and with history.  So I ordered the lamb stew, reputedly something to which Churchill was partial.



The lamb stew, consumed in honor of Churchill ... why not?



     And there is this charming sign in the café, a tribute to the importance of the ancient rituals of cooking and eating:



Encouragement for good cooks everywhere!

     After lunch we toured the house.  No pictures allowed, I'm afraid, but going through this time I was impressed Churchill's broad talents - his literary talents, his wide-ranging intellectual interests, and of course his understanding of law.  Even a quick peruse of whatever of Churchill's library they have on display shows a fascinating range of subjects.  This inspires me - indeed, I went home with a renewed commitment to read Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples - but also worries me about the way so many of us live now.  It is simply true that in Churchill's day they had less distractions than we do, and with our hyper-connectivity and hyper-communication rendered possible through social media, I do think that we are losing the art of using time for reflection and serious thought.  I think Arianna Huffington agrees with me, although I'm not 100% sure as, as a matter of principle, I don't read her books.
     At the end of the house tour there is a display of various letters between Churchill and his family, friends and colleagues.  I appreciated especially the letters between Churchill and Clementine, my favorite being this one from Clementine:  'My Darling, I am writing to you because I know how busy you are, and conversation would take longer and might degenerate into a long and tedious argument.  Yours affectionately, Clementine.'  I think that's perfect.  It describes my marriage far more accurately than I care to admit.
     I also like this one, from Churchill to Clementine, in that it shows the day-to-day grind of thinking and writing for pay:  'My Darling, I have polished off two more articles to help pay the income tax and perhaps I may get another one out of myself this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  Your ever loving and devoted W.'
     But my favorite quote of the day was from Churchill regarding his work as an artist.  He took up painting as a hobby but was always very self-deprecating about his abilities and his art work:  'We must not be ambitious.  We cannot aspire to masterpieces.  We must content ourselves with a joy ride in a paint box.'  I love this idea of forbidding oneself to 'aspire to masterpieces', but rather just to try to enjoy one's craft.  Very English.  Not very American.
     After the house it was a stroll around the beautiful gardens.

Robyn in an English garden; she was very happy.



The pond just outside the Churchill home

 



Vegetable and flower gardens, with walls



Rhubarb!!

 

 

English roses ...

 

 

Robyn and I on the patio just outside the house

     We ended the day at ... where else? ... the gift shop.  I love National Trust gift shops!  I was financially and spatially constrained, so whatever I got had to be inexpensive and small.  But I knew what I wanted to get before I even set foot in the door.  I knew I had to get my hands on a cookbook that contained at least some of Mrs. Landemare's recipes.  I looked high and low but could find nothing.  Finally, just at closing time, I found the PERFECT book, tucked away nearly out of sight on a bookshelf.  Churchill's Cookbook, which is a collection of Georgina Landemare's recipes which she cooked for the Churchill's when they lived at 10 Downing Street.  To me, it's a priceless book, and I've been cooking out of it ever since I got back.

Summer in Ramona, and a Trip to England

     I had to spend the next few weeks after Abigail’s graduation getting ready for my upcoming trip to … England!  I was accepted to present a paper at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds University.  My proposed paper was to look at Thomist natural law theories in the fourteenth century, particularly after the philosopher William of Ockham.  There is a lot of scholarship on the Thomist natural law theory of Aquinas himself, and a lot of scholarship on Thomist natural law theory at the School of Salamanca in the sixteenth century.  But there is not a lot of scholarship on the way Thomist natural law theory developed in the fourteenth century.  One reason is because there were several philosophers who were very critical of Aquinas during this period, and so the majority of the scholarship has been on them.  In my paper, I wanted to see which philosophers might have been defending Aquinas during this period, and how they might have been developing some of his philosophical positions – particularly regarding natural law - in response to his critics.

     So, all I had to do now was write the paper.  Of course, it was harder than I thought, and it took much more time to write it than I had originally planned.  But that seems to be the way of things with me and my academic projects. 

     I juggled writing the paper with ballet recitals, scout camps, Young Women camps, and the usual summer stuff.  Indeed, I have very distinct memories of translating Jean Buridan's Commentary on the Ethics whilst sitting (suffering?) through hours of rehearsals for Georgie and Verity's ballet recitals.  They both performed beautifully in their respective recitals - but how could they not with these lovely costumes?

Georgie and Verity - the Bleakley ballerinas!

     We also had an unusual treat this summer in that we got to go visit Samuel up at scout camp on his last day.  I had heard very good things about these parent/family evenings at scout camp - tales of elegant dining with your son, and enjoying an edifying program afterwards.  So it took a few minutes to re-orient myself to the real world when we arrived at the parent evening to be received by a son who had not showered, or even changed clothes, since the last time I saw him.  All the boys were covered in a thin, shiny film that managed to accent their acne and the unwashed-ness of their hair.  Samuel's scout leader, Stephen Worthen, rather sheepishly explained that although the boys had gotten wet several times during the week, the wetness had never been accompanied by the use of soap.  Apparently Brother Worthen had extoled the benefits of soap usage to the boys, but for whatever reason they were singularly unmoved by these particular hymns of praise. 

     Thus, one often had to redirect one's nose throughout the evening, depending on one's position relative to others, as well as to the movements of the air.  But this of course was all done discreetly, and it was lovely to see everyone having such a good time.  Indeed, every boy scout leader that saw Samuel made a point of stopping us, asking if we were his parents, and then going on to say wonderful things of Samuel regarding his abilities, his sportsmanship, and his wit.  Maybe that was the sentiment behind the glowing reports of the scout camp parent evenings.



Scout Troup 635, from Ramona

Getting ready for some sort of fire side something or other

      I left for England a few days after scout camp.  It just so happened that I left on the night of the 4th of July.  The plane took off over a show of spectacular fireworks over the harbour in San Diego, which was fabulous to see, so I do recommend travelling on this particular night of the year if one has the opportunity!

     When I got to London, far into the afternoon on July 5th, I had to get straight up to Leeds.  I found myself with an hour to spare in Kings Cross Station whilst I waited for my train, so I sat and did some people watching and some last minute panicked paper writing. 

Kings Cross Station - a welcome, familiar sight

     I got to Leeds about 8:30pm, and realized that I had forgotten about how light the summer nights are in England, particularly up north.  My hotel was a fair way from the train station but I felt no fear in walking rather than taking a cab - there was still plenty of daylight left!

    The next fifteen hours were spent in an anxiety-ridden emotional rollercoaster, with alternate episodes of alarm and panic at the state of my conference paper, self-loathing at my characteristically slow and depressingly unfruitful approach to my philosophical work, and attempted self-consolation as I reminded myself that studying 14th century Thomist commentaries on Aristotle's Ethics is highly specialized stuff, and that if my paper was rubbish, there are probably only about 50 people in the world who would be able to tell.  In the midst of all that I did manage to get some sleep, and get myself to the conference the next day.



Great to be back in England, and in the North, for the Leeds International Medieval Congress



The Parkinson Building at the University of Leeds, where I gave my paper

     In the end, the conference went very well.  I had organized the panel session of which my paper was a part, which meant I had invited two other academics to take part in the session  - Professor Richard Cross of Notre Dame, and Anna Milne-Tavendale, who is a graduate student at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.  The panel was entitled 'Thomism in the 14th century:  Dearth or Development?', and both Richard and Anna gave wonderful presentations.  Richard's paper was entitled 'Hervaeus Natalis and Scotus's Theories of Sameness and Identity', which was about Dominican and Franciscan theories of the Trinity in the early 14th century.  Richard is an extremely erudite philosopher and historian of philosophy, and he also happens to be very funny.  So his paper was not only most instructive on a difficult topic, it was also very entertaining.  My paper was next, entitled 'Thomist Natural Law Theories After Ockham:  Concerns and Contexts'.   Last but not least was Anna's paper, entitled 'The Dominican Charism in the Canonisation of Thomas Aquinas.'  She gave a fascinating presentation on the historical and philosophical context behind Aquinas's canonization in the 14th century, arguing that the Franciscan dispute with the papacy over their practice of evangelical poverty played a significant role in singling out Aquinas (the Dominican) as a candidate for sainthood.  The session was chaired by Dr. Chris Jones from the University of Canterbury.  Since I'm sure there's not a kinder, more judicious man on the planet than Chris, we were very lucky to have him join us.

    After the session we all went out for drinks afterwards, which was lovely.  Before leaving the conference I did manage to get a glimpse of this wonderful creation - a Bayeux Tapestry cake.

The Bayeux Tapestry cake - it doesn't get any better than this.

   
       And the day ended in the best way possible - meeting up with the Dyson's in Sheffield.  It doesn't seem right to call the Dyson's my 'dear friends'; they are more like my 'second family'.  They greeted me with a Nigella Lawson chocolate pavlova, and elderflower cordial.  They were all there except for Emily, who was sorely missed.  We talked until midnight about everything from California to philosophy to Brexit and everything in between, until I remembered that the British still have to go to school in the first week of July, and then I was mortified that I had kept them up with no thought of their commitments.  It didn't help that I was on California time!  Sadly, and stupidly, I didn't get a picture with them.  So we will have to content ourselves with a picture of the Coupe, one (to my mind, rather unimportant) connection between us.



Tim's old car, now in good hands.
 

       The next day I made my way down to Tunbridge Wells to see Dave and Shirley.  I went via Kings Cross Station, and now that the conference was over, I found myself very easily distracted!  I noticed the Harry Potter '9 and 3/4 Shop', and obviously had to make a pilgrimage there.  The Harry Potter people - whoever they are - have set up half a trolley with Hegwig, a trunk, et. al., going through a wall labelled '9 3/4'.  I love the idea, but I don't love how one can only get one's picture taken with the trolley by waiting in a huge line, and then getting the photo professionally done, and then having to pay a high price for it in the shop afterwards.  This is because I can remember the days when there was a humble sign next to Platform 9 in King's Cross Station that simply read '9 3/4', and that was that.  You could take your own picture.  But I guess those days are gone.



The 'Going to Hogwarts' Shop.  More fun than I care to admit.



Lots of Dobbys everywhere, with Hedwig cages, travelling trunks, wands, etc.

     Once I escaped from Harry Potter fantasy, I wandered into more fun outside: a food fair.  I find food fascinating, so it was going to be impossible to 'walk on by', as the song says.  I started out with a sample of old school bread pudding. This is not to be confused with bread and butter pudding.  It's actually like a cross between Christmas cake and Christmas pudding. I hope that doesn't offend purists, but there it is.  It's a very dense, heavy, fruity, umm ... pudding. 

Bread pudding - I was advised to have this for breakfast!

      Then it was off to see the chocolate stand, where I was particularly impressed with the chocolate tiffin squares.  They were loaded with goodies - ginger biscuits, hazelnuts, walnuts, dried cherries, dates, golden berries - and that's not even everything.  I'm used to my chocolate tiffin squares consisting of chocolate and digestive biscuits, so I'm excited to try to recreate this at home.

 

     I also saw the Italian dessert stand, where I sampled some almond crème and pistachio crème - absolutely amazing!

 

 

Do the Italians have the best desserts?  I think they might!



     And last but not least, I tasted the best smoked fish in the world.  An Arbroath Smokie.  I couldn't take it with me back to San Diego, or else I would have bought as many as I could fit in my luggage.  Apparently this company does ship internationally (just like the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop!) so I must look into that.



Arbroath Smokies.  The day my life changed.  'I remember where I was the first time I had one of those ...'



      After the food fair, I made my way to South Kensington, where I was meeting a colleague.  Sometimes I write for the website The Conservative Woman, so I set aside some time to meet up with one of the editors, Kathy Gyngell.  We had a great discussion about - what else? - politics.  There was just so much to talk about in the wake of the Brexit vote and the ensuing leadership contest in the Conservative Party.

     On my way to see Kathy, I spent some time in the Victoria and Albert museum.  I haven't been there for years so it was lovely to go back.  They had a special display on musical theatre in the West End, and I headed straight for that.  Abigail's first love is musical theatre, and even though things are rough right now with her health, I'm full of memories of her singing West End songs, as well as full of hope that she will be able to do this thing in the future that she loves so much.  So it was bittersweet going through the exhibit:  sweet because it reminded me of Abigail, and all the times I had brought her to London to see the museums; bitter because she wasn't with me, and I missed her, and her future is more uncertain than I would like it to be.



 

 

Courtyard at the Victoria and Albert museum

Model of a West End theatre in the Musical Theatre Exhibit -  Abigail's natural habitat!

 

This was at the beginning of the exhibit. Since philosophy is it's own kind of creativity, I found this inspiring for my own work.

     And then, just as I was about to get back on the tube to make my way to Tunbridge Wells, I saw this in the window of an Italian restaurant and deli in South Kensington.  Billowy meringues swirled with raspberry coulis. This sort of thing is like art to me.  I went away very happy.

 

 

The Italian way of doing meringues - I must follow suit!



.

 

A Long-Awaited Graduation

After Emilia left us in late April, we were then in the homestretch for the end of the school year.  However, this, of course, was no ordinary ‘end of the school year’ for us.  We were in the homestretch for Abigail’s graduation.  We thus had six weeks ahead of us which were characterized by excitement for the big day, and all the much anticipated (though illusory?) freedom awaiting her just on the other side of that rite of passage. It was also, somehow, simultaneously characterized by pure torture as Abigail’s senoritis set in, and made all the tasks required for graduation  - like, for instance, school work - almost impossible to execute.  

Let us not forget that we have five other children.  They had end of the year activities, too.  They just weren’t as psychologically thrilling or debilitating.  But I digress.  Samuel wound up his 7^th grade soccer season in April, taking second in their big end of season tournament.  Samuel, let us note, is not really built like a soccer player.  He inherited the Hamilton build, which means he is well on his way to being a pretty big guy.  But we’re grateful that his soccer career still has some life in it.  He starts the fall soccer season soon, so we will just ride this wave as long as we can.

Samuel and the OPMS Soccer Team, 2016

Samuel also had an end-of-year bug collection project.  He made a poison chamber for his caught bugs by soaking a piece of cardboard in nail polish remover, and then sticking it in an airtight mason jar.  After a few days of baking in the sun, the jar seemed pretty lethal for humans, too, so I was happy when the project was over.  And one would be surprised how difficult it is to find a grasshopper in northeast San Diego county when one actually needs one.

Georgie, for her part, had an end-of year school play, The Sound of Music.  Her friend Sarah Sommers played the role of Maria beautifully.  Georgie was very excited to play one of the nuns from Maria’s convent.

Georgie with Sarah Sommers, the nun turned nanny ...

We had an end-of-year ‘children’s night’ at Ramona Community School, for Georgie, Eleanor and Verity.  We were able to visit with the children’s teachers, and the kids showed us their work and talked to us about some of the things they do in school.  It was a proud parent night, and I shall not gloat, but I’m very grateful that all three little girls are loving their school experience.

Imogen finished up her sophomore year at Rancho Bernardo High School, and she was one busy energizer bunny.  She ran on the track team, and had track meets nearly every Thursday and every Saturday for about three months.  She ran the 800m, 1600m, and sometimes the 3200m.  She performed pretty consistently throughout the season and was a solid member of the team.

Go Imogen!

 

Imogen strides out.

She also had a great end-of-year season with her music.  There were endless school orchestra rehearsals, which paid off with ‘superior’ ratings in various music festival performances, and an excellent end-of-year orchestra performance.   She was also able, finally, to take her grade 5 ABRSM exam.  After several setbacks over the past three years, we were at last able to find a violin teacher who was willing and able to help her prepare for the exam.  The examiner came over from Britain especially to conduct the exams.  It was nerve-wracking, but I think she also felt rather at home with a British examiner.  She even used her British passport as her ID for the exam, just ‘cause she could.  She played……  She got very high marks on her pieces, but not-so-high marks on her scales.  Something to work on for next time!

Now onto Abigail.  She suffered a setback, in that she found out in the spring that she had developed nodes on her vocal cords.  This was very bad news, as the diagnosis meant that she wasn’t supposed to sing again until the nodes had healed, and that takes a while.  In the short term, it meant that she needed to reduce her involvement in Madrigals as much as possible, which was difficult since there were end-of-year competitions and performances in which she needed to perform.  It also meant that she would not be considered for a solo in the Rancho Bernardo Broadway Concert, a fabulous show which only happens once every two years.  And, if all this wasn’t bad enough, she also would not be considered for a solo at graduation –something Abigail had her heart set on doing for the past year. 

So, all this was a lot of disappointment to take in the final weeks before graduation.  She tried to make the best of everything, and I was proud of the way she coped with this pretty devastating situation.  She still travelled with the Madrigals on their important trip to San Francisco, where they sang in a choir competition that included choirs from all over the country.  Abigail did sing with them, and the Rancho Bernardo Madrigals did an amazing job.  They placed first in several parts of the competition! 

And first place goes to ... RBHS!

 

The fabulous RBHS Madrigals Choir

 Besides the competition, they were able to take in some of the sights of San Francisco, including Pier 39, and Grace Cathedral, where they also gave a performance.

Abigail and friends at Pier 39

 

Abigail in some rather large shoes on Pier 39!

Abigail and Maddy enjoying some shopping



RBHS Madrigals choir outside Grace Cathedral

 

The nave inside Grace Cathedral

And to top it all off ... they got to Great America, and watch Wicked!!! 

Great America, or 'Make America Great Again?'



Future stars of Broadway??

Prom also happened somewhere in the midst of all this.  Abigail went with her friend Sam, but we also have some rather glamorous shots of her posing with her other friend, Paywand.

Sam asking Abigail to prom



Abigail and Sam, at Balboa Park




Abigail and Sam



California dreamin' ... or something



Abigail's entourage?  No, just the prom party ...



The prom party at the Greenhouse, Balboa Park

 

Abigail with Paywand and Maddy

Abigail and Paywand, friends forever ...



The Retro Abigail and Paywand

After a whirl of stress, anxiety, early mornings, late nights, hard work and avoidance tactics, we finally got to graduation.  We had seminary graduation on the Sunday evening before high school graduation.  This, too, was nothing short of a miracle.  Seminary is a daily religion class which Mormon students attend in addition to their high school classes, during grades 9-12.  Abigail has been through almost every iteration of the seminary experience, since she attended four different high schools, but it was always an early morning class.  That means for four years she has had to be ready for school in time for her 6am seminary class.  It was anything but easy, and she was late most mornings, but she never gave up - at least in theory.  So seminary graduation was, well, a relief.

What would Devan and Dallin Dunn Do?  WWDDD?

Abigail and Imogen with President Clyde

Later in the week, Grandpa and Grandma Hamilton came down from Idaho for Abigail’s big day.  As part of Abigail’s graduation present, they took us all to Sea World!   The kids got distracted at the front of the park where you can stick your hands into the pool and let the minnows nibble away at your dead skin, and I really think they would have happily stayed there all day if we hadn’t urged them to consider a somewhat broader Sea World experience.   
 

Samuel getting the perfect manicure

 
We saw three animal shows.  The first was with two seals and an otter, and the animals did some amazing tricks.  We also saw an incredible dolphin show.  I think this was my favorite.  The dolphins and the Sea World swimmers interacted perfectly together; the swimmers basically rode on the dolphins, which I thought was so cool. 

Dolphins on command.  I think I might want a dolphin as a pet ...

 

I did actually take this picture. I shall not recount all the other failed photos I took in order to get this shot.

Lastly, we saw the now infamous whale show.  This is the last season that Sea World is doing their whale show, and I think nearly everyone in the park attended it on the day we were there.  The whale show was a bit cheesy for me.  It was part show/part environmental lecture.  But during the show the swimmers gave the whales the signal to splash the audience, and that was pretty cool.



It's Shamu and Co!

Killer whales lurking just beneath the surface

 

I have witnessed the synchronization of the Shamus.  Rather awesome.

 

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!!

Graduation Day was Thursday, June 9th.  It took place in the Broncos football stadium, at 5pm. 

 

The Procession, with Pomp and Circumstance, of course

Abigail was allowed to sing the national anthem with the Madrigals at the beginning of the ceremony, so that was good. 

RBHS Madrigals sing the National Anthem

The bleachers were very hard, and the speeches respectfully short, but still moving.  Rancho Bernardo has a fabulous principal, David LeMaster.  The school has faced some significant challenges this year and to my mind, he has done an excellent job keeping the school community together. So I am always happy to hear what Dave LeMaster has to say, and his graduation speech was not exception.

Abigail just after receiving her diploma

 

Imogen congratulating Abigail on a very long haul. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Abigail with her good friend, Maddy

A congratulatory kiss from Sam the beau.

Where there is Abigail, there will always be Paywand

Abigail with the lovely Matt Woolley



Diploma received, relationship intact.  Mission Accomplished.

And the award for enduring the most temper tantrums over homework goes to ....

Tim, Holly, Abigail, Imogen, Samuel Georgiana, Eleanor and Verity Bleakly with Grandma and Grandpa Hamilton, May 2016.

It would be fair to say that the path to graduation was not always easy for Abigail.  She attended four high schools in four years, and had to cope not only with changing state school systems, but also national school systems.  All these were significant difficulties.  Nothing has been straightforward in this process of getting her across the finish line, and all my assumptions about what constitutes ‘successful’ teenage years have been challenged repeatedly over the past four years.  Despite all these difficulties, I am - at the moment at least - hopeful about the future.  College is next.  Bring it on.

Abigail and Verity