The End of January

January has been an eventful month! Here at Holden (where it is warm and sunny today) the college students are half gone and we're looking forward to a couple quiet days after the bus goes with the rest on Wednesday morning. Thursday will be a Stop Day, which means everyone eats on their own (kitchen gives people food) and there's no work. A very nice thing to do for a very hard-working staff. We still do Vespers in the late afternoon. We had one other Stop Day in the Fall, but this is probably the last opportunity. We do them when there's no boat and the numbers are low.

The first event of January (alluded to in the first 2010 post) was a trip to St. Paul and Luther Seminary where Nancy received the Faithfulness in Ministry Cross, which is like a distinguished alumna award. When we got news of the award in the Fall, we made train reservations right away, which sounded like good fun to us. The train picks up passengers in Wenatchee, which makes it an easy travel option here in North Central Washington. But then came the deep freeze in the Midwest. Amtrak suspended the Empire Builder for three days, which ran right into our departure time. Everything was just too cold for the trains to work! So we put a second mortgage on the farm and bought last minute air tickets. We flew in and out of Wenatchee. Weird to fly into Seattle without going home. (Amtrak was superb in every regard about this, and we'll get a full refund.)

The time in St. Paul was wonderful, made extra special by the presence of so many from the West! Sheryl Schmeling, Wally and Eileen Powelson, and Pam Russell came from Seattle, John and Joan Beck from Portland, Mary Rowe and Mert Johnson from Oakland. Heather Spears was there from Iowa, and Meridith and Jay Wardle tag-teamed it from Edina, MN. Larry and I stayed with Greg and Mary Steeber, and they hosted most of us for dinner on Wednesday night. Larry and I took the whole bunch out to dinner at The Signature Cafe on Thursday (award day). The award ceremony itself was followed by a luncheon. All in all it was a grand time, and I am so thankful for and humbled by all who came all that way for it. Here's a picture of the group in the Chapel of the Incarnation after the award ceremony:

Besides the transportation change, there were some apparel glitches as well. Nancy had ordered a dress. We finally tracked down the late package at the Chelan Post Office the day we left. When we stopped at our friends' apartment in Leavenworth, to which we would return after St. Paul, she tried it on and Larry about fell over he was laughing so hard. It's been returned. But Larry discovered that his black shoes, which he thought were in the green car and were probably in the red car or maybe in Leavenworth, were nowhere that we could ascertain. So, faced with wearing his size 15 Sorel boots with his slacks and sport coat at the award event (it would have been SO mountain), the first thing we did when we landed at MSP was to go to Nordstrom at the egregious Mall of America and find him some shoes. He, being shoe challenged on many fronts, actually found a really nice pair of shoes that are very comfortable to wear. The uses of adversity.

After St. Paul we flew back to Wenatchee on Friday and stayed in Leavenworth a couple nights. (The boat up Lake Chelan only goes on M-W-F in the winter.) On Sunday night we stayed at Campbell's Resort in Chelan, our local historic lake inn, and had a very nice room and meal. This was a gift to us from some Faith members when Nancy left there in August. We'd recommend Campbell's for a nice night's stay on your way in to Holden.

Tomorrow you'll hear about Nancy and Carol Hinderlie's splendid trip to Texas.

Here's a picture from outside The Signature Cafe after dinner on January 14:

Wednesday Book

Last night I finished the first volume in the series about Anglican priest Merrily Watkins by Phil Rickman. The title is Wine of Angels. It's been quite popular here at Holden and, although the books are generally only available in the UK and Canada, they keep them stocked in the bookstore. Rickman is more known for his rather dark suspense books - lots of ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night. This book brings in the not-so-savory past of a small English village in Herefordshire, a place famous for its cider. He bases his story on some real history that he documents nicely at the end.

It's a long song - 600+ pages. I stuck it out to the end to see what happened. The plot is pretty good, but the character development is weak - some of the evil exposed at the end doesn't seem to be showing up until then - and the characters do things that seem, well, out of character. I'd read something, and then find myself flipping back to see how this action ended up in this person. It just didn't make sense.

Merrily Watkins is rather annoying. She is the priest-in-charge at this village church, but she is just too, as the English would say, "wet." She has angst coming out of every pore, and she messes up so often I can't imagine they'll keep her on after this story. She has an uncle who is part of the the congregation, and he abandons her early on for no good reason that I could ascertain.

So I don't think I'll be reading the next installment. The author says there's no need to read in order, so if you see one around, you might want to give it a shot. Perhaps the others are better, but it seems to me a whole lot of pages for not much fiction.

First Wednesday Book of 2010

I just returned from an Epiphany bonfire. For those of you who know Holden, it was up on the second level almost directly across the river from Koinonia. So it was quite a trudge up across the footbridge then on a newly tracked road along the top of the tailings to the fire. Nice exercise on a winter night! It was lots of fun. We welcomed two J-term groups from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. The Luther group is doing a course on Environmental Ethics. The Augustana group is doing two literature classes. Each student also is assigned to work 5 hours plus dish team, garbo, and stoking the furnaces. They're a very pleasant group of students. It will be fun to have them here.

Now to the books. I just finished the other book Marilyn Anderson gave me in August at the Women's Book Group farewell bash. It's called The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford. It's about Charles Dickens' writing A Christmas Carol. It certainly isn't in a league with Evening in the Palace of Reason as it's not very well written, I don't think. It's a kind of cut-and-paste book with lots of bits and pieces from here and there. I also don't think he made his case very well about Dickens "inventing" Christmas. It would seem more that Dickens had the right idea at the right time just when the Victorians were really upping the Christmas celebration ante. Some of the most interesting parts of the book were the descriptions of the copyright law discussions on both sides of the Atlantic. I enjoyed those parts very much. Anyway, it was interesting. Thanks, Marilyn.

Now I've started another book to add to my list of novels about clergy. Phil Rickman - who writes sort of other-worldly ghosty kinds of books - has a series about a C of E clergywoman named Merrily Watkins. I've started the first one - Wine of Angels - as it's been recommended by some reliable sources, it was available in the Holden library, and it's a nice, long read - 550+ pages! It seems like the perfect book to start and take with me when we get on the train next Monday evening to go to St. Paul for this award thing at Luther Seminary. I've been putting off, with great difficulty, reading Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's Booker winning novel. Bev Christensen just sent a note saying she's reading it and enjoying it, and Paul Hinderlie devoured it. I'll save it for my return from St. Paul.

Going to the bonfire was worth it for the walk back. It's quite beautiful at night to walk into our snow-covered Village in the middle of nowhere.

The blog is back!

Hello everyone. I've received many queries regarding our blog. It's true that nothing has be posted since November 12. So now, on New Year's Eve, my resolution is to make sure and add to it very often!

So ... what has happened at Holden since November 12? Just Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas! All of those things are done with great style, festivity, and hilarity. Tonight we marked the New Year at 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time to match the time the New York City.Then Holden children can go to bed! We have 154 people in the Village right now, and it's a fun crowd. The New Year's celebration was preceded by a Variety Show that had lots of variety! Now there's a dance - mostly the 20-somethings, and the night will close with a few of us gathering to sing Compline.

We've had lots of snow today, which is a big improvement. There's been a fair amount on the ground - three feet or so - but with the two cold snaps this month it's all been frozen in place. It's nice to have clouds, snow, and warmer temperatures! Larry has the the stoking duty tonight, keeping three furnaces up to temperature and most of the Village warm. Two people have the responsibility each day - one shift from 6 a.m. - 3 p. m., the second from 3 p.m. to midnight. Larry and I are supposed to share when each of us is scheduled, but he just does it. Much better that way, and I'm very grateful.

Christmas, Advent, and Thanksgiving were as festive as New Year's. Holden is a place where celebration happens with ease, and that is great fun. As the pastor I get a little anxious when things aren't exactly in place, but it always comes together and is wonderful. So we've had lots of music, lots of great food, and lots of laughs, all under-girded by the blessings of a Village gathered for worship.

We had a lovely Christmas with family here: Pat, Sarah and the boys, and Mike. It was fun to go out in the woods and cut our own Christmas tree with everyone - well, we had to dig it out of the snow before we could cut it!

I haven't had a lot of time to read, but I did finally finish Snow by Orhan Pamuk. It's kind of tedious but worth the read, I think. It just takes a while.

I always like to get a new Christmas book each year. This year I picked up a novel (what a surprise) called An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor. A very enjoyable read. It's about a small-town medical practice in Ulster in Northern Ireland, and is set in 1964. The author does a good job of describing setting, culture, and practice, and it's a nice story. He also includes a glossary for the Irish terms scattered throughout the dialog.

Now I've picked up another Andrea Camelleri Inspector Montalban mystery. These little gems are just terrific. (They aren't very long.) Montalban is a totally unique character. I'd recommend reading them from the beginning: the first one is The Shape of Water. They take place in Sicily. The descriptions of the food are worth the reading, but they're great all the way around.

Well, this is a good start for the new year. I'll look forward to more conversations in 2010. How did we get there?

Wednesday Book on Thursday

I finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest this afternoon. What a great read - all 600 pages! It is so sad that Stieg Larsson died just shortly after finishing The Millenium Trilogy. The plots are ingenious, and they keep you hanging until the very end. The translations are good, so if you read Swedish, they must be spectacular! There are quirks - like detailed descriptions of every piece of technology the characters touch. The lead, Mikael Blomkvist, doesn't just use his mobile, he picks up his Ericsson T10; he doesn't just open his laptop, he opens his MacBook Pro with OS2, etc. Also, in this third book, the author starts each of the four sections with a little historical piece on Amazons and women warriors through history. I think it's supposed to go with the lead female, Lisbeth Salander, but I don't think it fits at all.

At any rate, head off to your local Costco, or get in line at the library to read these books: first is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, second is The Girl Who Played with Fire and the third is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. They must be read in order! The third one will not be available in North America until May 25, 2010. Yikes! But you could pay the freight and order it online from Foyles or Blackwells, or if you know someone headed for England (or anywhere in Europe) give them the money and have them bring it back for you. Our daughter-in-law Sarah brought me mine in October. Thank you, Sarah!

I am sad to be done with this, but I know I will read this trilogy again some time.

Wednesday Book (almost)

I am almost done with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'll write about it when I've reached the end. I'll be sorry to do it, as there will be no more. Sigh. This Millenium series is really good!

We're supposed to get a lot of snow on Friday - we'll see how it goes. What came last week has stayed around, and the nights are colder. Seems like Winter is really here.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday Book (4, or really 5)

Well, I didn't get anything written yesterday as I thought. The hours just roll on and then the day is over. (Wasn't that profound?) But yesterday was my birthday, and a lovely one it was. Lots of fun. The tradition at Holden is that you can have Happy Birthday sung to you in any manner you choose. I thought first of doing sheep - baa baa baa baa baa baa, baa baa baa baa baa baa, and so on - but then I thought, "Why not the whole barnyard?" It was hilarious!

The last Wednesday book I wrote was on October 14! I finally finished Cathedral of the Sea which was pretty good for one of those long, historical saga things. If you want to know more about 14th century Barcelona, you'll enjoy it.

The program in October here was on pilgrimage. One book we read in the community was The Ramsay Scallop by Frances Temple. It's another book in a historical setting, the turn of the 14th century in England, France, Spain. It's about two young people who are engaged, and don't like each other much. So their village priest sends them on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It's kind of a Canterbury Tales book as they pick up other pilgrims along the way, and a good coming-of-age tale. It's written for young adults, but is a good read for adults as well.

In the middle I read Olive Kitteridge, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Elizabeth Strout. I love her writing, and especially liked Abide with Me. But Olive Kitteridge is truly outstanding. I wrote in an email to Bev Christensen, I think, that reading this is like slowly sipping fabulous soup. Every sentence is to relished and enjoyed. Lynn Krog gave me this one from the Faith Women's Book Group, and she did it particularly because it's a novel built from a series of short stories, and she knows I dislike reading short stories! But this is different from the random story. It's beautifully connected throughout the book, and Olive grows on you throughout. It is one of the best books about hope I have read for a long time. Get this book and read it! And, thank you, Lynn!

I'm reading two books right now. One is Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker, another Women's Book Group gift, this one from Kristin Johnson. Kristin loves western writers, so I knew it would be good and recommended it for a Village book discussion even before I read it. (Olive Kitteridge will be coming up one week as well.) It's about a young woman in Montana in the early 1940's. I am enjoying the writing immensely, and others in the Village who are reading it are liking it a lot. I'm looking forward to the discussion on Friday. Thank you, Kristin!

My big treat is the third book in the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. It just came out in translation in England on October 1 - won't be here until the first of the year. But daughter-in-law Sarah Murdoch was in England in October and picked on up for me! Thank you, Sarah! It's even better (and, I'm sorry to say, longer) than the first two. This is a great series. If you haven't yet started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, don't wait another day.

That's a good book update. Happy reading.