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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Parks, Greens, and Commons are all Emerald Green in the Spring on London Town!




I think spring has finally come. It is about 80 degrees here and SUNNY! It has been like this for a couple of weeks so we are excited about seeing the sun and so is everyone else. The parks, greens, and commons are full of people with very few clothes on. They are obviously worshipping the sun! London is a city of many, many, many green spaces. There are park, greens, and commons everywhere you look. It makes the city seem less city-like. In downtown London there is Hyde Park. It is massive and so-o-o beautiful. There are many trees, flowers, lakes, walking trails, and birds and small wildlife everywhere. There is also St. James Park and Kensington Park right downtown plus many small parks and greens. London is a city of beautiful architecture and is laid out with the river running right through the middle of downtown. With the parks and the variety of architecture it does not feel like a huge city
at all. It truly is a magnificent place with such history. Even in the outlying areas the parks are everywhere. Part of the parks are maintained with mowed lawns and manicured flower beds, but parts of them are left wild and uncared for to give a sort of wild feel. I am including a couple of pictures of the flower beds at the Hampton Court Gardens and a picture of wild stinging nettle growing in the park near us. I also thought you would love to see our little garden. It is large enough that we have barbeques there. Our first one was with the missionaries. It is small but precious to us. I even have radishes, onions, lettuce, and tomatoes growing out there. Many people here in London like to grow their own food, but their back gardens are too small so they rent allottments from the local Council. We live in Merton Council here. They rent these small pieces of ground for 10 pounds per year and then they can plant whatever food they want there and harvest it as they see fit. Unfortunately, these allottments are in a large public area where many people have allottments so they are subject to theft. You see these big allottment areas all over town and people are busy watering, weeding, and planting in them.
Life is busy here as usual. We do such a variety of things that I love it. Those of you who know me well know that I love a good project and Kenneth is so good at doing everything that we make a good twosome. At least I think so. He says he is tired of projects, but he doesn't complain much. This week we planted a garden (or allottment) for a part member family, put up shelves in a member's home, held a family home evening with an inactive family, taught a first discussion to our landlord, hung more pictures at the church, cleaned carpets at the church, attended meetings, taught classes, and several other things. It is a very busy life, but that is the way we like it.
We have a big missionary open house called the "Mormon Experience" planned for the 18th of May so we are feverishly working on that. I am doing a presentation on Family History. Oh, I've said that I have been working on geneology at the center downtown every couple of weeks. Last week, I was able to go down there and complete enough geneology for my mom's side of the family that I now have 19 names to take to the temple and do their work. I am so thrilled and am sure that my mom is too. It is such a satisfying work. You feel such satisfaction as you find names and connections that match. I love it!!!
We enjoy hearing from you. It is good to hear your news and how life is at home. We are trying to stay up on the Utah Jazz news. I run to the computer each morning to see how the game went the night before. See, even fans in London are yelling for them to win. We love you all and appreciate how our lives have intertwined through the years. That has been a great blessing for both of us.

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