It’s almost noon local time.

I’m sitting on the couch at Sarah’s and Matthew’s house.

We did manage to go to Stowe yesterday in the afternoon.

It involved lots of walking through beautiful English country side.

We scratched the surface of the history of the mansion there via a quick fifteen minute tour.

We sneaked our tour in just before the house tours closed down.

The basic story is that this mansion once housed a very rich and important family in English history (Temples and Grenvilles) during the 18th and 19th century.

Over generations the family used its wealth to create an extravagant environment of rooms, art, gardens, and other stuff.

Then the family suffered a financial set back and everything in the estate (house and environs) was auctioned off. Many of the pieces have since been restored.

 

Here’s a link to more information on Wikipedia than any of you, dear readers, are probably interested in.

Before departing yesterday, I used Matthew’s keyboard to practice a bit. I will do this again today. It helps me lead the psalms securely if I rehearse them. I forgot that we will begin my service music the Sunday after I get back. As with the psalms I need to be secure on these pieces in order to lead them well. I went over them on Matthew’s keyboard.

This is not a bad little keyboard. The sounds were almost acceptable through its tiny speakers. And it doesn’t weigh much. This is different from my keyboard which doesn’t sound any better, really, but weighs a lot more. I rehearsed the Bach C # major prelude I have been working on. I will do more practicing today.

This morning (after Greek of course) I was reading about England’s very ancient history as imagined by the informed mind of Peter Ackroyd in his book, Foundation: The History of England: Vol 1. I find it interesting to read about places I’m visiting while I’m visiting them.

New song by Randy Newman. I didn’t preview it in order not to disturb people.