a foggy day in a london town.

old alleys. old bars.

i thought i should show you where i have been staying here in london, this alley is right next to the flat in harrow on the hill, just outside of london where ari and i have been staying. just down the way is our little local pub where i have put away a pint or two of guiness over the last week... just up and around the bend there is a boys school that resembles hogwarts so much i have to pinch myself to believe that such a place truly exists. it is all cobblestone paths and hauntingly old buildings. little graveyards and viney windowsills. the boys all have to carry their books and straw caps under their right arm and tip their brow to professors walking by. after a day of wandering around galleries and the "concrete jungle" that is the south bank of the thames, we treated ourselves to a few glasses at the oldest wine bar in all of london (est 1890). literally in a cave, you dine by candle light and mossy brick. nothing quite like it. nightynight.

keep your eyes wide.

like many mornings here in london, i make coffee on the stove and laze around the apartment until inspiration hits me and i travel into the city for some sightseeing, some touristing, some soaking in of the metropolis that is so very thrilling and exhausting. when my coffee gets cold, i put it in a little pot until it boils. then i read some more. or make travel plans. or stare out the window at the city landscape. today is the first hazy gray day you hear so much about in this rainy country. i am thinking this is a perfect day for the national gallery or british library. or high tea at the wolseley. i just booked a few plane tickets for my travels over the next few weeks. on thursday i will fly to granada spain to meet up with some good friends from labri. once there i will buy myself some spanish boots of spanish leather. next week i will fly to a tiny town on the coast of croatia called rovijn. i will be there solo until the middle of may. from there i will make way back to spain (perhaps via the cinque terre or venice or rome) to meet up with ms anne trolard in barcelona. then its to england once again before heading back to you. sounds alright, i think :) i will keep you posted, if you promise to do the same... have a wonderful day friends.

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'...
-the great b.dylan

a few highlights.

a few shots from around town. you might recognize big ben in there somewhere. westminster chapel. portabello road in notting hill. hampton court palace.

i see london.

so this photo is taken just moments after i almost ran into jude law. please note that i did not actually see him, oh no, but he saw me alright! ari tells me that in my frantic haze to find a lou in Regent Park i shot out right in front of him, completely oblivious. well poo poo jude law... i have better things to do than be on the lookout for the likes of you!

some pictures from labri.

double rainbow in huemoz.

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc, with red on the outside and violet on the inside. More rarely, a double rainbow is seen, which includes a second, fainter arc with colours in the opposite order, that is, with violet on the outside and red on the inside.

e.e.cummings

i am a little church(no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
-i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth's own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying)children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope,and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

i am a little church(far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish)at peace with nature
-i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring,i lift my diminutive sprire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)

cranberryalmondscone.

Good morning friends! How are you doing today? I have an hour before my study time this morning, and so thought I would say hello quick a minute. Let me just start by saying that I wish I was enjoying a cranberry almond scone with familiar faces at little fofa. Mmmm…. The oatmeal this morning was too watery and the coffee bitter. Boo hiss. But life is good, the sun has been shining and we are all living at the ends of our fingertips around here. Life has a way of coming into focus when you know a season is coming to an end… this of course I am still swimming in from all I left behind in Michigan, but now also find myself in preparing to leave labri and these beautiful people I am just starting to really enjoy. Highlights, lets see. I made homemade pretzels the other night. Let me point out that I did in fact make pretzels for 40 people. And somehow managed to pull this weird muscle in my wrist. Anyways, it was amazing, they were a hit. Especially the ones with cinnamon and sugar. On easter we had a egg hunt and a cake decorating competition. We cut our cake into the shape of the alps and had little gummy bears alpine skiing down the coconut covered slopes. I spent most of the day alone, the first day I have intentionally done that since arriving. It was good to get a bit of breathing space from this community, it takes effort to bring yourself out of it. I know that I will have lots of time to enjoy my own company in the next month, so have not done much of this J I am thinking about a little trip down to Geneva with some labriers after London. Seems that spain in the place to be! Lilly, I might need a little tutorial in Spanish before I go! Okay so I would like for you all to listen to this really great song (that I am listening to right now!). It is called lovely day by bill withers, I guarantee it will make your heart sing, so wherever you are, download, upload, search out this song. It is so worth it. Missing you all.

little bench.

hello friends. i am sitting on a little bench just a few meters away from chalet bellevue on this beautiful afternoon. we can scam free wifi, weather permitting. this is a picture my nifty webcam just took. it is what i am looking at right now. so it is kinda like you are here with me right now, and i like that. because i miss all of you. if you were here, we would all walk down to chalet minchelleta in a few minutes for some dinner... i just got word that tara made apple pie. doesnt that sound wonderful!

contact info. just in case.

Contact info.

Labri fellowship
Chalet Bellevue
1884 Huemoz
Switzerland

i will be here until the 16th of april. after that i will be based out of london... you can write to me here if you would like. :)

C/o Ari Dejong
80 Victoria Road
London NWG 6QA
Flat 3

just another day in the alps.

the crew.

lake geneva.

view by which i run.

where i study.

snowy villars.

I have been thinking about how to sum up the last week here at labri and find I am at a bit of a loss. How long have I been here now?? days, years?? The routined life simply sucks you in whether you are willing or not… the slow and careful pace of life lends itself to a loss of any hurried emotion. Needless to say this has been a strange and hard transition for me. I still struggle with the unstructured times and want something productive to do during these little pockets of time. I usually get sucked into a game of speed scrabble or mafia or reading or watching ping pong (this can go on for HOURS). Let me tell you about a typical day. Wake up at 745. breakfast of granola and coffee or something close to that at 8. Then there is an hour of free time. After which I walk down to Ferel House to study/read/go for a walk time until 1pm lunch. Half of the time these lunches are “formal” in which we talk about something someone is thinking about/studying. These lunches are often a bit awkward, but insightful nonetheless. So far we have covered things such as demon possession, views on hell, contraception, biblical inerrancy, the role of the church in community…yup. Then there is another hour break until the afternoon service/work time. This usually means cleaning or cooking or packing lunches. (today I am going to be making black bean burgers on homemade wheat rolls for dinner. We take the entire afternoon to cook… it is really wonderful!!) Then we eat and the rest of the evening is free. The group usually goes up the mountain for drinks about once a week, so most nights we stick around and talk and play games and drink tea. Someone is usually knitting. Someone is usually smoking. Someone is usually trying to get someone else to play ping pong. Yesterday we went into Vevey on our day off. Most of the group ended up there, which was really nice. We sat by lake Geneva and drank wine all afternoon… not much to complain about! I am half way through my time here at labri and am starting to really wish it was longer. It is the shelter it promises to be. Best wishes to you at home. I hope you are finding the rest and shelter that you need.