Friday, February 17, 2006
From the UK travellers
A joint entry with my friend Barbara, telling a few snippits about our travels in England and Wales. We've been here since 8 February and return to the US on 28 February.
Barbara: Ah, where to begin. Really, it's all been enchanting. Even traveling with Erik.
Erik: At least I have the cash card.
B: Ah, but I have the car key.
E: I have the patience to put up with your driving on the left.
B: And I have to put up with whatever my 'allowance' is.
E: That's not fair. Seriously, it has been enchanting, delightful, and soul enriching.
B: You're right - so let's get to describing some of our enchanting experiences. My favorite time in London was visiting the new Globe Theatre. I'm starting to accumulate reasons to come back soon, and that's one. The tour of the theatre was fascinating, but now I have to come back in summer to go to a show there. We did, though, get to an RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
E: In the summer of 1988 I was in London and I enjoyed seeing RSC productions at the Barbicon Centre, so one of my few disappointments about London was that the RSC no longer has a home. But it was good to get to see one of their productions again, especially since I had never actually seen Midsummer Night's Dream. The new Millenium Bridge (pedestrian only) over the Thames allowed us to see dusk fall over London after a brilliant sunny winter day.
B: Brrrrrrrr. That wind was COLD!
E: Yes, but it was worth it. Just like today's climb, up a steep forest track in Wales, which eventually led to the 12th century castle, Dolwyddelan. But that's jumping ahead, past our time in Oxford with Christiana.
B: Yeah, you're just keeping me from going on and on about Welsh history and Llewellyn Fawr and Llewellyn ap Gryffudd and Edward I and ...
E: I thought it was the Welsh lads of today that you were pinning your hopes on.
B: Only if one of them offers me the opportunity to stay here permanently.
E: OK, back to Oxford... Wet, grey, rainy, but still amazing. I loved all the architectural details, including a close up view of gargoyles of deer, snake, frog, and various grimacing hominids (or whatever they were) seen from our climb of one of the chuch towers. And of course, it was fantastic to spend time with Christiana and Heike. Christiana is doing a one-year master's program at Oxford and Heike flew over from Hamburg; both are friends from Holden.
B: I can't describe how I felt about being amidst all that history except that it made me breathe a little deeper. With Christiana, I wandered around New College and Christ Church College. Our first night we kept company (posthumously) with the Inklings at the Eagle and Child (for those of you not taken with The Lord of the Rings, that's the pub where Tolkien, CS Lewis, Charles Williams and others used to gather).
E: I don't know if Barbara has forgiven me for bypassing the tour of the Bodleian Library -
B: Nope.
E: (didn't think so) - but at least it gives her another reason to come back. Or we may wind up getting to it later next week if we change our itinerary as we are thinking of doing to spend more time in Wales, hiking and exploring.
B: Yay! I love this place. Our Wales jaunt started with a visit to Hay-on-Wye, the used book capital of the world. Can you just imagine us among millions of books?
E: Too bad it was bitterly cold and damp and we were a tad tired. But our day ended well with our eventual destination that day, Machynlleth. We got to stay at a bunkhouse that was hip and upscale (think design by Ikea) and we had the whole place to ourselves. We cooked yummy food and slept well under extra heavy duvets.
B: But the drive, you can't forget the drive. Sheep! And mountains, and ... and running water everywhere. Rocks, scree, hills, glacial valleys, forests, bracken. And more sheep, always more sheep.
E: Barbara pointed out today that the reason why the creator of Wallace & Gromit depicts the sheep as a big cloud on a little stick is because that's what they really look like here. Definitely different breeds than what either of us have seen in the US. I especially like the black face, white bodies, and black leg variety. Anyway, back in Machynlleth (Barbara not only has to spell this for me every time, she also has to remind me how to pronounce it), we visited the Centre for Alternative Technology. It's like Holden with less of a focus on spirituality and hospitality and instead a complete energy and environmental focus. They've been in existence since the early '70s, developing sustainable energy sources and branching out to focus on building design, agriculture, water management, and probably quite a few other things I'm not thinking of at the moment. It was wonderful.
B: One of my schemes for coming back to Wales is to serve a 6-month stint as a volunteer with them. They have fewer staff than Holden but have over 50,000 visitors per year, but then the vast majority of the visitors just come for the day.
E: I could also see an exchange of staff between Holden and CAT.
B: Okay. We've prattled on long enough.
E: But I do want to add a little bit more about today's hike.
B: Two words: truly spectacular.
E: We headed up one valley, along a track that has been in use since the Romans were here. Saw primitive shelter remains in the forest, more extensive remains of medieval slate buildings (the flagstones for the floor took my breath away) and then headed straight up through forest plantations to a ridge, down into another valley...
B: Incredible views of the Welsh mountains, including Snowdon and it indeed had a dusting of snow on top. Then we headed down -
E: Among more sheep!
B: - hoping to head to that castle we mentioned, but we lost the track and more than once got ourselves nearly ankle deep in muck and mud (with no hiking boots for either of us). We did eventually make it to the castle.
E: Photos to be forthcoming!
B: - and don't forget the sheep.
E: baaaaaaa
Posted by RedFish @ 08:17 PM local [Link]
Friday, September 30, 2005
On the road again
Am traveling through Virginia right now, having started in Washington, DC, and then going on to Pennsylvania, and New York. I was in DC for the board meeting of Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries, of which I'm now a member. After the meetings were over, Mom flew to DC to meet up with me so we can travel together. I loved DC - the board meeting went great and sightseeing was good. Really enjoyed the FDR Memorial, and saw some good exhibits at the National Gallery of Art (also visited Museum of the American Indian and the Holocaust Museum and felt like I could have spent another three days in DC, just visiting museums).
We've been in Charlottesville, VA, for the past two nights. We saw Monticello yesterday, where they do an excellent job with the guided tours and the countryside is just lovely. We'll be heading northward again today - meeting up with my friend Lynn tomorrow at Winterthur Gardens outside of Wilmington, DE. We'll also be visiting Longwood Gardens with Lynn, who is a big rose gardener herself. I'm hoping that we can take a detour westward to go along part of the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoahs, especially if the weather is nice (short rain shower yesterday morning, otherwise it's been mostly clear). In DC it was overly warm and very humid, so am glad that the temps have cooled down since then.
Other stops planned in Pennsylvania include the Amish country (Lancaster County) and Philadelphia. We'll be meeting up with my cousin JoAnn from New Jersey for that part of the trip. Mom is flying home at the end of our time in Philadelphia and I'll continue on alone to NYC for a few brief days, then return to Seattle myself. Phew! That's a lot of traveling still ahead of us! Not exactly the way I intended to spend my first couple weeks after leaving Holden Village and two years of being on staff there, but I don't think there's any good way to go about transitioning from such an experience.
Posted by RedFish @ 06:45 AM local [Link]
Monday, September 19, 2005
Leaving Holden
I finished my two years at Holden Village this past Friday. It seems like the past 6 weeks was a focused rush to try to get the database upgrade completed (not successful - I'll be attempting to keep working on it here in Seattle) and in other ways it was a time of emptying out. So many of the friends that I lived with in the long-term community have already left, and I started to feel like I had stayed past my time.
I spent the weekend in Chelan with the Clausen family, and it was so good to see them. Anne and Lars both came to the boat dock on Friday afternoon to pick me up, though Lars went right back to work. I got to see the school where KariAnna and Kai go (it's right next door to the Clausen's tiny little house, and the school has such a great vibe of kids being treated with respect and you can tell the teachers are so attentive and good with the kids). Lars made dinner (chicken with salsa and bean sauce, chips and fresh guacamole, homemade ice cream for dessert with cute little peaches that are growing in their backyard) and I watched KariAnna and Kai play with one another and the four-month old kitten Copper and it felt so good to be there, so good to have reached the end of the wondrous, rich, difficult and satisfying two years at Holden, to be on the other side of that experience and to be totally at peace.
Lars told me that he usually wakes up early and goes to sit in the lobby of Campbell's Resort to work on his writing. So on Saturday when I woke up before 5:00 am, I joined him so I could take advantage of the wireless internet connection to check my email. Breakfast back at the Clausen's was pancakes with fresh peach sauce - Kai and KariAnna took turns frying the pancakes, and I remembered from "Eggs to Order" Sundays at Holden with what seriousness Kai approaches the frying of eggs and pancakes. The Clausen's are still settling in to their house, so the big project on Saturday was the construction of a loft platform for the futon for the kids. It's going in the kind of open-pantry area behind the kitchen, leaving room underneath for them to play and store their stuff. Anne and Lars are both talking about how good it feels to be settling in and how they could see putting down roots there in Chelan. Much as I love the Clausen's and much as I like the climate on the east side of the Cascades so much better than the dreary winters of Puget Sound, I can't really see myself moving to Chelan. It's tied too much to the tourist industry. All those pleasure boats and jet skis buzzing around the lake in the summer and all the placid yuppies staying in expensive vacation rental homes would just annoy me.
We went to the lakefront park with a picnic lunch later and I got a chance to swim in Lake Chelan, which I had been hoping I would get to do. Kai wore Anne's purple swim cap and looked like a cuddly alien with his big eyes and long eyelashes, and KariAnna brought Copper the cat along on a leash and he got to scare a group of ducks and explore in the grass.
So now I'm in Seattle at my mom's and wondering how long it will be until I find a community to live in, how long until I feel settled. It's wonderful to be able to be here with Mom, and I'm looking forward to spending time with her (and cooking in her kitchen!), but otherwise I'm not really excited about Seattle. This is a transition place for me, not home.
Posted by RedFish @ 09:39 AM local [Link]
Thursday, August 4, 2005
Jam, bikes, databases
So I've now been at Holden for over two years and that means that almost all of the staff members that I first was in community with here have already left. The latest to leave were Gale and Scott and their two daughters and I am missing Gale most intensely. I consoled myself on Tuesday afternoon after they left by cooking. I brought a 15 lb box of mixed fruit (different types of plums, peaches, and apricots) back to the village with me after I was in Wenatchee last week, so I made a small batch of plum jam. It's a little on the under-sweet side, but not so much that you want to immediately sprinkle more sugar on it. It's also got cinnamon and a little cardamum and is the perfect consistency, and I think I'll be using the remainder of the fruit to make a batch of mixed jam, because I've already given away or eaten most of the batch that I made on Tuesday.
Two friends from seminary days are here this week. I had coffee with Beth yesterday morning and biked down to Lucerne with Eric this morning. As Eric and I were biking down the 10-mile dirt/gravel road he was asking me about the dangers of taking a spill and I told him about my minor spill on the switchbacks a week or so ago. I advised him to take it slow and be careful, and where did Eric go flying over the handlebars? The same switchback I did. He got scratched and bruised, but I think it was more damaging to his ego than anything else.
Otherwise the database upgrade project is the big thing on my mind. The database I'm working on, Vilbert (a highly customized Access 2000 database), hasn't been synced with the fundraising database (Raisers Edge) for about three years. I've been working on matching the member records between the two databases using a variety of queries to find matches. So far I've gotten nearly 19,000 out of 22,500 records matched and thankfully do not have to hand match all the remaining records - just the 800 that are donors. But even that is time consuming. And what's frustrating is finding all the duplicates and other errors in each of the databases. I could spend all of my remaining time here at Holden just doing database clean up work, deleting duplicates, correcting misspellings and other errors, etc.
Posted by RedFish @ 02:37 PM local [Link]
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Holden Pride
This week was Pride Week at Holden Village, in the midst of Holden's board meeting and the start of summer programming. Two highlights for me: the first was Thursday night when there was a time for sharing coming out stories and listening to stories in a safe space. It has been a full week and I was already exhausted by that time, but I'm so glad I went to it. It inspired me for what I needed to say at the Pride Rally (yesterday), because I had agreed to be one of the speakers. I told part of my coming out story that evening, which made me realize that I didn't need to tell it on Friday, which had been my first thought. Okay, and I don't think this is breaking confidentiality, because I don't know their names or where they're from, but there was a small group of people there who said they were from a more conservative church and at the end of the session they thanked us for allowing them to come and listen, they were respectful and they thanked those who had shared their coming out stories for speaking and they were sorry to hear of the pain that had been experienced but also appreciated the peace that has been experienced. I want to be able to hold on to that the next time I hear about some negative guest evaluation or comment about Holden's gay agenda.
Friday - Pride Day! I think more than half the village came to see the parade and listen to the rally and the parade had lots of participants, including the board members with a big banner about the motion they passed to affirm their commitment to Holden's anti-discrimination policy. Emily VK and Michael led a group of radical queerleaders (cheerleaders), which was so fun. Emily M and Floyd helped me with my Trans T(ea) stand ("try a different gender flavor today" - the iced tea was a big hit because we had sunny warm weather). Allison and Kelly were the dykes on bikes. The Holden Unicycle Association were there with their unicycles all decked out in rainbow colors. Scott of course led the marching band. Karen and the housekeepers marched with plungers and a banner that said "Flush out homophobia". Ben, the new head maverick, drove the 2-ton and Jami and other folks in drag danced on the truck bed. And there were lots of others.
The rally was fantastic - Chris Larson (lesbian member of the board) spoke, Ken Peterson (former board member, also gay) spoke, Anne talked about her 15-year commitment to being an ally of the queer community. Emily VK interspersed the talks with "popcorn" exercises to get crowd involvement - naming other queer people who have inspired us, naming our pains, naming our joys. I spoke last - it felt very right and good to speak. I knew that what I had to say was powerful and good - it came from me but it also came through me from something greater and more powerful, so even though it was so personal I didn't feel all emotionally wrapped up in it, if that makes any sense.
Posted by RedFish @ 10:14 AM local [Link]
