Lois Anderson (1928-2009)

The sad news is that my mother, Lois Anderson, was quite ill and I had returned to Minnesota to visit her. I am sorry to have to share that she died on Sunday night February 15th 2009.

While Fiona and I had shared some postings about my mother on this blog, we both felt that her passing deserves its own space, so we created a Remembering Lois Anderson blog.

http://loismemories.blogspot.com/

It already has the three postings we had written about her and I intend to add more of the photos I scanned and stories I heard while I was in Minnesota.

Our adventure abroad continues, which is exactly what my mother had hoped for us. And as she joked -- now she won't need a ticket to come visit. We know in our hearts that she has already been to visit.

Bockett's Farm

The kids and I went to a place about 15 minutes from home called "Bockett's Farm."  It's a working farm with sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, chickens, rabbits, and goodness knows what else, as well as indoor and outdoor playgrounds and child-sized farm equipment.  We enjoyed feeding animals, seeing newborn lambs, and playing inside and outside -- I'm sure we'll go back soon to do some of the other things there.  

Lilian going down the big indoor slide

Lilian and William pretending to dig (I ran out of the pound coins necessary to actually work the things, but they seemed to enjoy them anyway!)

A little goat trying to snitch some of Lilian's food

Cobham in the Snow

Fiona walked into Cobham the day after the big snowfall and she took some lovely photos along the way. We thought you might enjoy a 'look see' of our little snow covered village.

There are lovely public footpaths
(but it really helps if you already know the way to where you are going)

The Public Footpath Into Cobham

The Old Bear - The Recently Renovated Pub in Cobham

Lovely Bright Red Post Box
with a view up the Cobham High Street

Neither rain nor snow, nor sleet nor dark of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds... er wait, that's some other guys postal creed - I'm not moving this truck -- there's snow on it!

Along the High Street

High Street Shops

The Clock At The End of the High Street

True Barber Shop
(Grandad would approve)

The Cobham Mill

Visiting Swans

Snow Day!!!

The Start of Something Special

I must have jinxed it with my last post. Ahem, what was I thinking taunting the good people of Minnesota that we didn't have snow here in January? Well it was true. And it seemed safe enough -- it really rarely snows here enough to stick. From what I understand even 1/4 of an inch can shut London down, they're just not prepared for it because it doesn't snow very often here.

But last night, on the first day of February, it started to snow. And snow. And snow some more. The way it was coming down -- we started to wonder would we have . . .

A Snow Day?

Yes!

Not Going Anywhere for a While?

Serious Snow Fall

The BBC told us that London had a couple of inches, but as you can see here in Cobham we had more like a foot of snow! It was more than enough snow to close Lilian and William's school and the CarVal office. The buses were stopped, half of the underground lines were closed, the airports (somewhat comically) were open, but their runways were closed. The main motorways were parking lots.

It's the biggest snowfall to hit England in 18 years!

A Beautiful Day!

The sad and funny part is that we certainly own all the gear we would need to take advantage of this wonderful snow, but we don't have it all with us. Thankfully we did have some. I didn't think I needed to put my snow boots and gloves in the air shipment. Who knew?

Fiona and Lilian and William got busy and built a snow igloo and a snow man. We tried to explain to the children how truly rare having this much snow is here. But to children from Minnesota -- this seems like just another winter day.

William is dressed for the weather!

A Sense of Wonder in the Igloo

The Igloo, The William & The Snow Man

Special Requests

We have had some special requests for pictures of our house...

The front of Red Beech.

This photo was taken this week.

For those in Minnesota, we really don't have snow.

And yes, we have to mow the grass -- in January.

Our front door.

I like it!

Others have asked what we're driving when we're in England. Many of you are interested in what could have replaced my BMW. The short answer is ... well I'm not planning to replace it over here. For now Fiona and I are managing with one car. And here it is ...

A Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 CDTi

It's not exactly the Ultimate Driving Machine, but it's a diesel and it gets great mileage. And it's temporary -- stay tuned. It's is weird to me that this is a picture of the driver's side! It happens less that I find myself walking around to the passenger side when I am getting in to drive, but it still happens. Old habits take a long time to break.

Tea and Family on Friday

Fiona happy to be having family over.
(and to have the pen while ordering the food)

Complicated Form? Crossword puzzle? No, take away Chinese menu.

Uncle Geoff -- not sure what he wants from the take away place.

Fiona's Uncle Geoff, Auntie Penny and Cousin Natasha (and her children Cousin Henry and Zara) came to our new house for children's tea on Friday afternoon and stayed over for dinner as well. (We got take away from the Good Earth, a really nice Chinese restaurant in Esher -- another shameless plug.)

It was fun to see them all! Lilian and William were excited to get to play with Henry and Zara. The house really starts to feel like home with a family coming over to visit!

Henry and Zara took baths and changed into pajamas for the ride back to Fleet -- which was great, except that William and Lilian were disappointed. They thought the pajamas meant it was going to be a sleepover! We will try to plan a sleepover for the cousins soon!

Another Week in . . . Well England

Lilian and William had a brief tour of ACS International on Monday. Tuesday was their first day at their new school.

Fiona saw two little girls that she suspected would be Lilian's friends and funny enough but those two little girls, Sarah and Oliva came up and introduced themselves to Lilian. Yes, Lilian has a new friend here named Sarah -- she looks a bit like Sarah Walker from home. (It's an odd coincidence!) Sarah brought a 'welcome to our class' card that she made Monday night to Lilian's first day of school on Tuesday. So things are off to a nice start for her here.

William is quite happy at school as well. They have a play kitchen that he gets to use and he is quite excited about it. And there is a sandbox that is big enough that honestly, I'd like to have some time playing in it when the weather gets a bit nicer out.

I heard it was something like 30 below zero (without the wind chill) in Minneapolis this week. I must admit that as I was headed out the door at work after hearing that I chuckled just a little bit to myself. You see I wasn't wearing a hat, or gloves and my coat wasn't even buttoned. And I while I might have been just a little chilly, it was just fine. Put that in the plus column about the adventure.