Oxford on the train

Imagine living in Morton in Marsh. Despite its name, it is a very cute market town which is where we drove to catch a train to Oxford. Although expensive, it is a civilised and beautiful way to travel. We decided to do the bus tour of Oxford, as we had no maps or anything and thought it might be a good way to get our bearings. It is a bit like the Sydney Explorer, a bus comes by every ten minutes and you hop on and hop off when you want. We stayed on most of the way around and were amazed at the buildings and the age. We drove past a stone wall built in the 800s. No wonder they called New College in 1300 new.

After alighting, we decided to have an early pub lunch. We chose one in High Street with tables in the sun. Both boys had steak. It was delicious and reasonably inexpensive. We then got into the business of exploring. We started with climbing the Carfax Tower, which is one of the oldest buildings remaining in Oxford. We climbed up and up a spiral staircase until I thought that I was going to become quite giddy. Fortunately, it was sunny still and the views were awesome - well worth the climb.





We visited two of the Colleges and had a good explore of the grounds. Trinity College and Balliol College. Both are incredibly old and amazingly beautiful. Once inside, it is like you are in this inner world, that is quiet, reflective and a place of learning - although I am sure that there are students who avoid this. One thing that struck us both about Oxford is that it is a place of many small inner places that are totally separate from each other and almost shut out the rest of the city if not the world.







Keith visited the admissions office of the Bodleian Library and he has a card which allows him access for the next two weeks. It is such a vast library and I am keen to return to do the tour of the library. I remember doing an essay on this library back in my library school days. I know the Bodleian Law Librarian and hope to catch up with her next week.

We visited Blackwell's and it was difficult to tear any of us out again. All these new books, but in hardcover - a new Peter Temple, Dick Francis, Kate Atkinson, Niall Williams and this is just what comes to mind now - plus so many others that were just begging me to be bought. Keith discovered a couple of books second hand that he has been looking for.

We went past the Christ Church College and wandered through their war memorial garden, and will return another day.



Each of us have different images from our day from rooftops, spires, cushions to bicycles, they are all part of the fabric that make up Oxford. These two pictures capture the quirkiness of this place - Trinity College chapel has these beautiful cushions that were made by a group of women in the early 1960s to beautify the interior:



There are very few cars in Oxford, but heaps of buses and bicycles:



We didn't get home until nearly 7pm after nearly missing our train. We decided to end our time in Oxford aboard the bus, but hadn't factored in the going home traffic that suddenly hit the roads. We raced across the bridge to platform 3, only to discover that this was on the other side, in front of platform 2 - only England can have such a quirky platform system.

Ricky Baxter and Bridgnorth

After a delicious pub lunch, we continued from Kidderminster north towards Bridgnorth. This is a very quaint town that is on two levels. There is a tiny train that links both levels of the town - it was one of the first trains to be built and in operation in England. It is very close to Iron Bridge - the place where the Industrial Revolution started. My cousin and his wife have a B & B nearby, and we hope to visit them.

But back to Bridgnorth. Ricky was an Assistant Minister here for two years. Despite the town's mysterious layout, we had no trouble finding the church - we followed the spire and drove down a very narrow cobbled lane way to emerge into an amazing "Church Square". The church was in the centre, surrounded by grass and gardens and fringed with houses - and very narrow roads. One of the houses was clearly labeled with Richard Baxter's name - he had lived there during his two years there.

We had a wonderful time wandering around this square and into the church. We found a picture of Ricky in the church.

Warwick Castle and Oliver Cromwell

One of the periods of time featured at Warwick Castle was during the first Civil War 1642 - 1651. In the Great Hall, there is a section devoted to this era. It includes Oliver Cromwell's "death mask". Apparently, when someone famous died, they used to cover their face with plaster and wait for it to dry. They would then peel it off and use it during the mourning period for people to remember this person.



At the top of the castle, I was attracted to these delightful "windows" that are decorative, but probably were perfect for shooting arrows at any enemies approaching the castle.



I would prefer to have a window in my memory to a death mask any day!

Ricky Baxter at Kidderminster

We have visited Kidderminster - a significant landmark for anyone remotely interested in Ricky Baxter. We set off early and headed north west towards Kidderminster. This is where Ricky had his most significant pastoral ministry. He worked here for over twenty years and it was one of the happiest and most fruitful seasons of his life. Having visited Kidderminster briefly, I am glad that we were only passing through. It was market day and the town was packed and filled with market stalls, people, crowds and chaos. It was hard to find parking and then we had to find the right church linked with Ricky. After finding a place to park, we found a person who could direct us to the church we thought we wanted to visit. One delightful woman on hearing us ask for directions kindly said she would walk us to the church. She then told us that her cousin lived in Australia - in Adelaide and that they talked by phone, such a lovely chat each month.

We arrived at Baxter Church. It was covered in scaffolding and looked very locked and closed. Johnnie and I wandered around to the back and we tried a back door. We could see there were people inside, and fortunately, they saw us and came out, found a key to the church and let us in. They were very friendly, but a little bemused at our interest in Richard Baxter. We discovered the communion table from Ricky's days. It is a beautiful table, which at present is covered in renovation dust and pigeon droppings.



We then found this wonderful list on the wall of ministers of this church since Richard Baxter, which included Benjamin Fawcett who wrote one of the abridgments of "Saint's Everlasting Rest":



We then realised that there are three churches in Kidderminster with relics of Ricky's day. There is this church, which has the communion table, then there is the Unitarian church, which has the pulpit and a third church St Mary's, which has his chair and a statue of the man himself. Unfortunately, the Unitarian church was well and truly closed, so we went in search for the third church. There was a funeral in progress, so we headed into the town and discovered the public library - a treasure trove of local history books. Here they were very friendly and Keith spent some time looking at a few very old books - no gloves, supervision or anything while Johnnie and I just hung.

We decided that having come so far, we would see if the funeral was over and if we could get inside St Mary's - the church with Ricky's chair. This church has his statue outside surrounded by lavender bushes - in my opinion, they were worthy of being photographed.



A delightful couple were "on duty" in the church and welcomed us with open arms and took us straight to the chair.



We then had a good look around, and coincidently, the local "expert" on Ricky was in the church and he and Keith had a good chat about Keith's work and things to do with Ricky.

According to the man who welcomed us to the church, Richard Baxter grew this church and they had to increase the number of pews to fit the people into the church. He is obviously remembered with warmth and enthusiasm here and are proud to be associated with him.

Warwick Castle

We woke to a heavy mist, which we would ordinarily call a fog. After a wonderful breakfast cooking our fresh farm eggs with delicious bacon, we headed off towards Warwick Castle. It opened at 10 am so we attempted to get there as early as possible - lucky we did, as the car park was already filling fast. Despite the crowds and the exhorbitant cost, our visit was much fun and we each enjoyed our day at this magnificent castle. We climbed to the castle top and felt like we were doing the 1000 step staircase at Katoomba - it kept going up in a steep spiral that made me quite giddy. Once at the top, the views were awesome.

One part of the castle, a large mound was built in 1068 on order by William the Conqueror - now that is seriously old!

We went into a part of a castle that is the ghost tour and were scared out of our brains but we also laughed heaps at the theatrics of the ghosts who appeared out of no where. We took a picnic lunch which a peacock was determined to share with us. The grounds around the castle are magificent. Today it was filled with families and locals enjoying the sunshine which appeared at around noon. It was an amazing taste of history and of times long gone. Last night Keith watched an episode of "The Tudors", which is yet to show in Australia. It was incredibly violent and I had to stop watching. It was about the time when King Henry VIII was married to Anne Boleyn. A number of innocent people lost their lives, just so Henry could move onto a new wife - Jane Seymour. Henry owned Warwick Castle, although he never lived there.

Jonathan enjoyed the horses and armour:

He also enjoyed the trebauchet:

While I enjoyed the different banners and these were magnificent:

We returned home to Broadway after a wonderful day tasting history and a different era completely to ours. I then went out to our local village to buy bits and pieces and set about cooking for the first time from scratch on Margaret's Aga - a wonderful oven that is constantly on. It was delicious. I bumped into a woman in the village who told me that she didn't want to go home, she was enjoying the sunshine so much.

"Saints Everlasting Rest" by Richard Baxter

One of our purposes of coming to England is to visit places of significance to Richard Baxter. My family have slowly become acquainted with him over the past decade. In fact his portrait sits on our fridge. He looks to be a rather severe and dour old man, but he did live to be a ripe old age. He lived in the 1600s and was an English Puritan. He was a prolific writer - he has probably put more thoughts down on paper than anyone else alive. He was an Church of England Minister who had a profound ministry in a town called Kidderminster. His church grew and thrived under his ministry and his church burst at the seams to fit the congregation. During this time, he got quite sick and thought he was going to die. He decided to write a book before his death to encourage himself and others about the the thoughts and meditations that we should fill our minds with. This book called "The Saint's Everlasting Rest" was the result ans had a profound influence on future generations.

Ricky recovered from his illness and lived a great many years longer. Keith is looking at what Ricky said about meditation and in particular this book. It is oddly curious, as many years ago, when Keith was a uni student, he used to garden for a number of little old ladies, who doted on him and made him cups of tea, which he drank (he never has since) while listening to them chatter about this and that. One of these women, was a tiny Godly woman called Dorothea Macindoe. When we got engaged, she was so excited that I was invited over for tea. A few years later, Keith told Miss Macindoe that he was planning to study theology at Moore College. She was absolutely delighted and gave him her copy of a very special book: "The Saints Everlasting Rest" by Richard Baxter. It looks well used and loved - and this was in 1984!

George Eliot in "Mill on the Floss" has a woman who is feeling a little down. She goes to get her bible and copy of "Saint's Everlasting Rest" and heads upstairs to her room to read both. This is what she does when feeling down and it makes her feel better. Ricky's book has been abridged at least three times and Keith's copy is one of these abridgments - so it is considerably shorter than the original. I have to confess, I have tried taking it to bed to ponder while feeling a little down, but I didn't get far with it - I almost fell asleep, which I am sure is not what Ricky had intended for his readers!

A Country Walk to Snowshill

We woke to a heavy mist which was quickly replaced by a clear blue sky. Johnnie and I set off for a walk to a nearby village with a picnic lunch on our backs. We were planning on going along the Cotswold Way, which is clearly marked, but we must have missed one post as we soon realised that we were no longer on the track. However, we walked up and up through fields and past farm houses until suddenly we saw Snowshill perched on the hillside opposite us.

It is such a delightfully quaint little village - tiny houses snuggled together, different shapes and sizes and old. We walked along the hills opposite until we hit a road that took us into the village, where we sat in the garden of the pub and ate our lunch - crusty bread with brie and pate, and fresh apples we had bought by the side of the road earlier.

On our way home we climbed another ridge, and then descended through a dense forest to a farm that was selling eggs in an esky by the side of the road. I bought a dozen for two pounds. I met the farmer's wife, a young woman with a four month old baby. She told me she has a Godfather who lives in Padddington, Sydney. My Godmother lives in Broadway - the next village to her! Her Granny lived in Manly, so she knew Sydney quite well. We met her in the middle of no where!

We came home very hot and tired, and my friend Libby called - she lives in Paris and we had a very long chat. Johnnie will be visiting her family in ten days and Keith and I will visit after this. This evening we have been invited to "drinks" with one of our neighbours, who are incredibly friendly and welcoming.

Fireworks

On our first visit to Budgens, the supermarket in Broadway, Jonathan spied something very exciting - a cabinet filled with fireworks. For years, he has wanted to buy his own fireworks and have his own display. The only place you can buy them in Australia is in Canberra. He has be plotting how he could get himself to Canberra on his own to buy them. He even made plans with his friend Ezra, to catch a bus down there and return in a day one school holiday. Not that I gave him much encouragement.

Here we are at Broadway and he could pay to buy a box of fireworks! I have never seen him or Keith look so excited as they plotted and planned. Yesterday they took themselves off to buy some and much to their delight discovered they could buy one box and get another for free - what a bargain!

Last night, off we went with torches to the field down the lane to set them off. My aunt thought it was a hoot and we laughed so much watching these "lads" having fun with one of their boxes of fireworks. They were quite good and some made lots of noise which echoed across Broadway. According to Jonathan, it was worth every pence spent. We still have a second box to go.

Looking Through the Window

I was inspired by my friend Jess, who is living in Edinburgh and took photos of views through windows to do the same. At home, we don't really look out at anything I would think of photographing. Here it is a little different. From one of our upstairs windows, you can look out at the neighbours houses and gardens - they are amazingly quaint to our eyes. If I sit in the bath, I look out at this very young church.

It is so different to Sydney in so many ways. This morning we went up to a tiny village called Snowshill where my aunt and uncle used to own a sheep farm. My uncle had retired at the age of 50 and took up sheep farming. The next eight years were the happiest of his life. He replaced a busy high powered and high paying life with much travel and time away from his family for something completely different. Their house was bought by the National Trust about fifteen years ago and turned into a restaurant as it is next door to the Snowshill Manor.

This Manor had been bought in 1919 by a man who spent his life collecting things of beauty and filling this house with them. Just before his death he bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust. It is an amazingly quirky collection of all sorts of things - bicycles, samurai armour, swords, dolls houses, musical instruments, spinning wheels and books, fabric and lots of bits and pieces. It is like walking through a treasure trove. We wandered around the Manor and had a coffee in Margaret's old house which now looks very different. She must find it odd visiting her old home and it looks completely different.
This used to be Piper's Grove - owned by my aunt and uncle.

Broadway

Our first day in Broadway was magic. We had a perfect sunny day - clear sky and warm. It was just like spring in Sydney - flowers blooming everywhere. We left our gorgeous garden behind, feeling sad that we won't see the blossom tree in flower, but our garden here is in full bloom.

We managed to keep ourselves awake all day - the boys looked exhausted as they had not had much sleep - I think that I am blessed with the ability to sleep anywhere. Margaret took us on a part of the Cotswald walk - a marked track that goes from here to Bath. We crossed fields with sheep, climbed up several hills, through a forest and then back down an amazing field with "ridges and furrows" - a type of medieval farming that still exists across much of England. Instead of a flat field, it ripples - Jonathan had great fun charging down hill across the ridges - it is amazing that they still exist after such a long time.

The original church just out of Broadway is a Saxon church and was recently flooded. The houses here have been around such a long time - it makes all our history and architecture seem so young in comparison.

Talia's Quilt

Talia's Quilt, originally uploaded by sarahkeithcondie.

Welcome to the world beautiful Talia Abigail. She arrived one day late - much to her Mum's relief. What a pity that they no longer live just around the corner. It hasn't been possible to visit but we have spoken on the phone. Life in those early days is sheer survival - particularly with a very busy two and a half year old keen to be in on the action - except when Talia cries.

We can't wait to meet the new Condie family member, but it won't be until late November, as we are about to head off in two days for England for almost nine weeks. This quilt was the final big project that had to get completed - well there were others, but this one had to get finished and I mailed it off to them on Tuesday - and it arrived thank goodness!

It was fun to make this quilt - a bit like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. I love the retro pictures of girls and boys - it is full of life and energy and fun.

Sun on the Sea

I finally finished this quilt for Mum. I started making it in early 2006, after spending a number of months collecting fabrics. My dear friend Libby Lukins helped me choose some of them. I then had my stroke which made it difficult to sew, as my hands shook constantly from the medication I was taking, and I couldn't really concentrate. However, I did spend time sitting in our garden sorting the fabric into piles for each square - 63 squares, each with 18 rectangles! Am I mad or what?

I love the way sun shines on the water and makes it sparkle. During 2006, I walked a lot, as this was something I could do. One of my favourite walks was around Iron Cove Bay and depending on the time of day, the sun would reflect on the water and shimmer. Later in the afternoon, the colours would be completely different. Another of my favourite walks is up at my Mum's place - she lives at MacMasters Beach and again, the sun on the sea, particularly in the late afternoon is gorgeous. I have tried to capture some of these colours in this quilt.

My friends Silvia and Margo helped me pin this quilt ready for me to hand quilt at the beginning of 2007. However, it was such a large project that I put it off. Unfortunately, my daughter Susannah needed the pins in my quilt to pin her quilt for her major textiles project, so she took all the pins out - much to my dismay. She promised to repin my quilt, but this didn't happen until earlier this year. I finally started the quilting in May and finished it in August.

Mum was so excited. I gave it to her at my birthday barbeque in our garden. However, she is not able to take it home for another six months, as it is going to be displayed at the State Library of NSW over summer in a staff exhibition called "Unclassified". Much to my surprise, they have selected two of my quilts to display.

These photos capture what inspired this quilt: