Reflections on Turning Seventy

Reflections on Turning Seventy

May 29, 2014

     Now, of my threescore years and ten,

     Twenty will not come again,

     And take from seventy springs a score,

     It only leaves me fifty more.

I was not yet twenty when those words captivated me.  I could not imagine ever turning 70, and here I am, with many less than fifty more springs left, still trying to seize the day, every day, because life, even with all its sorrows, frustrations, and difficulties, is a wonderful gift for which I am grateful.

I was born exactly one week before, D-Day, the Sixth of June, 1944, the day of the Normandy Invasion, when so many soldiers lost their lives.  My mother, too, almost lost her life following my birth, and was saved only because following the success of the invasion, penicillin was released for civilian use for the first time.

I was looked after in these early weeks by my father’s sister, Aunt Marion.  My mother remained hospitalized for two months following my birth.  She was almost 37 when I, her first child, was born.  She was a career woman, a teacher, and I don’t think she quite knew what to do with me.   Although we loved each other very much, I spent weeks at a time throughout my childhood with her sisters, my aunts Viola and Elsie, who were also like mothers to me.

I’ve had a life filled with adventures, friends, and love, as well as sorrows and disappointments.  It took me a long time to find true love, but in 1977, when Ed Philips walked into my life and asked me to marry him, I knew I had found “the one.”  I wrote in my journal on the night I first met him, before we’d even gone out on a date, “If God intends for me to marry Ed Philips, so be it.”

Weeks later, on both of our birthdays, May 29, 1977, Ed and I were married, a happy marriage that was to last exactly 30 years.  With Ed, came a whole family of mostly grown children, who have also become my family.  Then we had two children together, Jesse and Psyche.

I think I did not fully appreciate how much Ed loved me until I lost him, and then found love again, as he had – to my great amazement and surprise.  Four brief years after Ed’s death, Kent and I were married, so I have been lucky in love twice.  When Kent came into my life, I suddenly felt like I was sixteen going on 70, a geriatric teenager in love.

There is a line in a poem by William Butler Yeats, “But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you.”  I have been blessed to have had not one, but two men who loved the “pilgrim soul” in me as my pilgrimage through life continues.  My grandfather, Pastor John Hendrickson, an immigrant from Sweden, as were all my grandparents, and who died in 1915, almost 30 years before I was born, had a favorite Swedish hymn, “Pilgrimen’s Song” that was sung at his funeral.  Perhaps being a pilgrim is in my genes.

Now, I begin my eighth decade, still in good health and with a wonderful companion with whom to share my joys and sorrows and the plumbing problems of this old house.  To paraphrase A.E. Housman, “About the woodlands let us go, to see the cherries hung with snow,” and now in May to see and eat, the juicy cherries, red and sweet.”  For of our three score years and ten, seventy will not come again.  Today, for each of us, is all we have.

Thank you for sharing this day with me. 

Now, before we eat, let’s offer a prayer of thanks to God.  Thank you God for most this amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, for the gifts of life and love, the fellowship of friends and family, and the food we eat.  We remember those who have gone before us during this Memorial week, and ask for blessings and guidance as we each continue on our pilgrimages through life.  We pray to God. Lord, hear our prayer.  Amen.

Christmas Greetings 2013

  Christmas Letter 2013

Greetings from Kent and Linnea

Dear Fiends and Family,

                  Kent and I continue our honeymoon despite the creeping depredations of age, both in ourselves and in this old house.  It is hard to believe that it has been four years since our very first meeting on Christmas Eve 2009.   We remain grateful for our totally unexpected and unlooked for happiness together.  We have done a lot of traveling this year, mostly in the U.S., while the big project at home was remodeling the tiny bathroom off the master bedroom.  We were predicting a simple job, until Kent found rotting joists beneath the beautiful old tiled shower.  Everything had to go, including lots of tough steel mesh, rock-hard cement, and 1940s tile.  Kent spent several days crouching in the crawl space, putting in new joists.  The next project will probably be our kitchen, which now looks old and shabby in comparison with the new bathrooms.

                  We sailed in the Virgin Islands, backpacked in the Grand Canyon, celebrated Psyche’s graduation from Yale Nursing School, and sailed on Lake Superior with Kent’s sons Jake and Andy and the three granddaughters.  We enjoyed opera in Santa Fe and the Ring Cycle in Seattle, as well as many visits with friends and relatives both at home and during our travels.  Psyche and Linnea had fun on a mother-daughter road trip from Boston to Reno, Psyche’s Corolla packed with costumes for Burning Man, and essentials for her and Saad’s move to San Francisco.

                  In September we went sailing again, from Scotland to London with Lew and Ann Tucker on their boat Serannity.  We connected with several delightful and warmly hospitable English sailing friends from Kent’s past, and completed our travels with a five-day backpack along the Southwest Coast Path in Cornwall.

                  It has been good to be home for most of the last quarter of the year.  We cut our television cable and our Turner Classic Movie habit, and invested in a Roku box and an antenna, and have so far been happy with our choice.  Michael Mosley’s PBS program “Eat, Fast, and Live Longer” (http://vimeo.com/54089463) last spring, inspired us to try fasting two consecutive days a week.  We’ve done pretty well with this, except when we have been traveling and walking.  Maybe we’ll have some positive results to report by next year.  

                  We have lost several dear family members and friends this year, while others have faced difficult illnesses.  How important it is to celebrate each day, to cherish our friends and family, to be present in the moment, and to value what we have and what we can do.  In that spirit, we are grateful for the presence of each of you, and we wish you health, peace, and joy during this holiday season and during the coming year.

Starting our walk in Cornwall

                               Linnea and Kent                                     

From Sailboat in London September 20, 2013

We arrived in London on Tuesday afternoon, and have been going nonstop ever since. We leave for Plymouth via bus tomorrow. The Limehouse Marina did not have wifi, so communicating has been difficult.

We are having dinner with Ned and Kate and their daughters this evening at their home in Wanstead.

We have been thoroughly enjoying London, doing lots of walking.

The lights from the South Bank were amazing last night, and full moon to boot. This is not the London I remember from 10, 20, and 30 years ago.

Write! Hoping for news from home. We have another 10 days, and hope to walk for 6 or 7 of them. Sailing part of the trip is done. Staying on a boat just off the Thames has been great.

manga_mom's photostream

manga_mom's photostream on Flickr.

Link to My Flickr Photos

Saturday, September 14 Royal Harwich Yacht Club Library

A good day today!  We slept late after all our long passage of the previous days, then after breakfasting on Ann's delicious buckwheat pancakes, we were visited by the genial harbormaster, Michael Duggan (Doogy) who provided us with a wealth of information, on everything from the local area to information on going up the Thames  and traveling to and through the Netherlands.  He also called and reserved a place for us here.  We then  went out to explore the town of Old Harwich, which was the home of Christopher Newport of Virginia fame, and Christopher Jones who piloted the Mayflower.  Also Samuel Pepys, the diarist had served as harbormaster here.  We bought a few groceries at a small shop, then had lunch in a lovely building dating from the 15th century,  The Crown and Post Restaurant.   After lunch, we caught the tide upstream to this lovely Yacht Club, where we were warmly welcomed.  Everyone seems excited to meet American sailors, and even more excited when they learn that Lew and Ann have been circumnavigating the globe, living on their boat pretty much full time for the past seventeen years.

The library has many books and magazines on sailing, and is decorated with lovely paintings and prints, including portraits of royal benefactors of the club going back to queen Adelaide.

We walked on a lovely footpath through woods and flowery  fields to the tiny village of Pin Mill and a famous pub called The Butt and Oyster, where we had a light supper.  Along the path we encountered two children swinging from a board swing from one of the big old oak trees.  I ate a bowl of mussels,  Kent and Ann had a pureed vegetable soup, and Lew had cheese and olives.  The sky cleared, and there was lovely light on the fields and through the trees as we walked back to the yacht club, to the laundry and the library.

 

We have been doing our laundry here, with mixed success, as there is no clothes dryer, and the one machine leaves everything sopping wet.

It has gotten windier and colder.  A sudden interruption!  Fireworks and what sounded like canon blasts.  I've no idea what the occasion.

Time to head back to the boat!  More tomorrow.

Sunday, September 15

Harwich Royal Yacht Club

We slept late this morning, but climbed out to brilliant sunshine and fairly warm temperatures before 9 a.m.

Kent strung up a clothesline, and we both hung out three loads of laundry from the previous night.  The wind whipped up, and people where out sailing in little dinghies.  Here we were, the only American boat in this elegant marina, at the end of the dock with our laundry flying beneath the Stars and Stripes. It was so warm I doffed my fleece, leggings, and socks.  However, after about an hour of this delightful situation, the sky suddenly filled with dark clouds, the temperature dropped, and we were back to gray and gloom again.  We have gotten the laundry in, although a few things are still drying under cover.

The exciting news is that Lew has determined a course to London.  We leave here tomorrow, anchor one night near the mouth of the Thames, then take the tide up to Limehouse Marina on Tuesday morning, arriving shortly after noon to get through the lock into the dock, about 1.5 miles from the Tower of London,  on a stop on the Docklands Light Rail.  We are all quite excited to have this settled and we are looking forward to arriving in London from the water.

Friday, 13 September

Friday, 13 September
10 a.m.

We are sailing now, no motor!  Nearing the end of Yarmouth.  It is somewhat warmer here, wind from the west as we pass along the shore.  The swells have evened out.

I went to bed about 8:30,  before Kent finished his watch about 9: 20.  We slept until 3, despite bouncing head to toe and side to side.  During the 3-6 watch, we saw lights of ships in the darkness and some lights along the shore.  I stayed up until about 4:30, with still no sign of dawn.  I was trying to remember the words of "Let the Lower Be Burning" and hearing Johnny Cash's voice.  This was a favorite of mine from childhood.   "Some poor shipwrecked, drowning sailor, you may rescue, you may save."  I'll try to keep my lower lights burning. Occasionally waves broke over the bow, white clouds of ghostly spray whipping toward us in the darkness, then gone in an instant.

I played Scrabble against the machine on my iPad, not doing very well, and when Kent came down to the aft cabin at six, to my surprise I fell asleep again, not waking until almost 9, dreaming deeply of clinging to red cliffs in a Grand Canyon that went up, not down, and of an amazing folding tent made of one long stretch of fabulous material that could be folded and turned to stand up by itself and make many configurations.  I had rescued a hummingbird, and was looking for a safe place for it to try to fly.

6 pm. We have docked in Harwich.  Seas calm, but intermittent rain.  We had wonderful, smooth sailing for much of  the day, making very good progress, averaging six knots, sometimes going as much as ten.  We have covered 200 nautical miles since Runswick Bay.  Lew says he had sailed for 45 years before he made a passage that long.  I cooked multi bean casserole for lunch.  Then I got a knot  in my stomach that felt like it wasn't going to go away, except coming up.  But I lay down for awhile, and it did go away.  Thankful!  It is so warm we don't need more than a couple of layers of clothing.  I'm wearing my Mexican dress over long-sleeved t-shirt and hiking pants with pink hiking socks and and black Ecco hiking sandals.

8:30 p.m.  Showers tonight!  A short walk along the pontoon in the rain.  Unisex bathrooms, so Kent and I could share.  After a lovely supper, including a delicious salad with homemade dressing, all  made by Ann, who is a fabulous cook, and some red  wine, we are turning in early after our 1 night and 2 days of sailing following our wild night in Runswick Bay. 




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Wednesday, September 11

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 1:30 pm

Sailing south, large swells making rocking sailing, but no wind, heading toward an anchorage in Runswick Bay, somewhere north of Whitby.  It has been raining and it is chilly.  No hint of sun for most of the day, and not the most pleasant ride.  We are motoring, using the main sail to help even out the swell.  We are in the cockpit, because it is harder to keep from getting seasick under deck; however, the cockpit is enclosed in plastic, keeping out much of the wind and rain.  We have been underway since about 8, and have another 4 hours to go.  This is going to be a long day.  Ann, Kent, and I have chosen to fast today, so we don't even have drinks and a hot meal to look forward to this evening.  Maybe just the cessation of rocking will be enough.

A series of five big ships is crossing our path.  How will we keep from being run down?

We had a lovely time taking the bus to Newcastle yesterday, through charming Whitley Bay, the outskirts of Tynemouth.  After lunch at a buffet, The Goose,  just down from the Haymarket bus station, we proceeded down Newgate, stopping in St. Andrews, the city's oldest church, which had very old stones in the churchyard and some lovely Romanesque details inside.  After by-passing the colorful wagon of a Welsh fortune-telling Gypsy, we explored the lavish St. Nicholas church, then passed the castle, and walked down steps to the quayside, where we could see the array of four bridges across the Tyne, including one that resembled and was built by the the builder of the Sidney Harbor Bridge, and the amazing millennium foot bridge by Norman Foster, that opens like an eyelid.

On the other side of the footbridge lay the Baltic contemporary art museum in an old flour mill, a fascinating place with wild and weird art and sculpture and helpful guides.  It also offered fabulous views of the river and the bridges.  We also had great views of the performance hall designed by Foster that is sometimes described as looking like a glass bottle on its side.

Seven Stories, a children's literature center had a nicely designed, child-friendly exhibit on Enid Blyton. I met the others afterwards at the Ship Inn.) We finished our afternoon at The Biscuit Factory art gallery and dinner at the adjacent David Kennedy's Social Food, very elegant with yummy tapas and wine.  In the evening light we rode back to the boat, sitting in the front seats on the top of the double-decker bus, as we'd done in the morning.

We seem to have passed the gauntlet of large ships, and foggy land looms ahead.
I am bundled in two layers of pants, long wool hiking socks, two shirts,  my fleece, wool scarf,  parka, and gloves when I'm not typing, and I am still chilly.  Last night and the night  before the wind generator howled and moaned in irregular patterns that kept me awake.  Are we having fun yet?

About 5 p.m. We anchored in Runswick Bay. Still lots of swell.  Clouds, cold, and a pretty little village against the hillside on shore.  Whitby was visible in the distance as we came into the bay.




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Thursday, September 12. Rough Sailing

Thursday, September 12, 2013 8 a.m.

What a night! The boat constantly rocked from side to side, sometimes with loud rumbles and crashes as the waves hit the hull. Often times we slid or rolled across the bed, to which we'd attached a wooden board to hold us in. I already had a stiff neck, and this did not make it better. There was a pattern to the rocking, a crescendo of side to side rocks, then an all too brief hiatus, almost no motion at all, and then a bit of tilt from bow to stern, then it would start over again. With every repeat of the cycle, I hoped and prayed this one would be the last. Eventually I was so tired that I slept for awhile, but it was impossible to be truly comfortable. For awhile I braced my knee against the board and one arm against the mast at the head of the bed that held the board. 

At 4:30 we got up to sail again. My neck hurt, but the usually sore back was not too bad. We were finally warm under all of our blankets, and I was reluctant to get out in the dark and cold. Lew had plotted us a course of of over 150 miles. But I crawled over the rail and made my way into the head where I managed ok with all the rocking until I stood up straight and reached up to turn on the light, which caused a spasm of intense pain in my center back. I gasped for breath and moaned, and managed to sit on the toilet seat without falling out the door and collapsing on the floor. I could hardly breathe and was in a cold sweat and light-headed when Kent, who had heard me came back to the aft cabin and found me. After a few minutes I felt better, but still shaken. Kent brought some pineapple juice and ibuprofen, and I crawled back into bed. Lew and Kent got the anchor up and motor running, which immediately smooth the swell to some extent, and I dozed off, missing the view of Whitby in the gloom. 

I did get up and into the cockpit in time to see Robin Hood's Bay and look at the stark cliffs where I'd walked alone so many years ago, now feeling much better. Kent is at the helm and Lew and Ann have gone back to bed, too. The swells continue, but there is little to no wind, so we are motoring with one sail up. We've moved farther off shore, away from the headlands and fishing boats, so except for occasional birds there is nothing to see but gray water and sky, and the cold is chilling. Bed seems the best place to spend such a passage. There is no heat in the boat other than from the gas stove top and that generated by the engine. I have been thinking of the tales my grandparents told of awful crossings of the North Sea.

4:20 p.m.

I slept for awhile again this morning, then went out to watch again. We are making good progress, and the sun shone hazily for an hour or so, which made us all feel more cheerful.

I washed my leggings and one pair of underpants, and dressed in clean pants, leaving my long-sleeved t-shirt under my Mexican dress on top, with wool scarf and fleece and parka above that. Fetching, I'm sure. It warmed up in the cockpit, but it is still very cold here in the aft cabin.

We are planning an overnight passage, to either Great Yarmouth or on to Harwich, depending on our speed. We have been motoring, with slight sail assist sometimes, between 5 and7knots mostly depending on current. This doesn't make for very fast traveling.

We began passing many oil rigs and tankers this afternoon.

Sailing from Scotland to London

Serannity

8 September 2013  1:20 pm

Sailing on Serannity with Lew and Ann Tucker, old sailing friends of Kent's, from Eyemouth north of Berwick-upon-Tweed to London.

After an afternoon walking the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, and taking a photo of me in front of 6 Nelson street where Ed, Jesse, and I lived for nearly 3 months in 1979 (we now stayed across the street at a lovely B an B 11 Nelson Street), we took the bus to Eyemouth through lovely country villages, arriving in Eyemouth in a gale and downpour requiring our pack covers and parkas as we trekked along the waterfront in search of the boat with an American flag flying.  We spied it through the blowing rain, and walked all around the harbor to reach it on the other side.  Lew had gone looking for us, but Ann warmly welcomed us two drowned rats.

Wet Lew

9 September Sunday 1:30 p.m.

Dropping anchor at Lindisfarne (Holy Island).  Weather is brisk.

We left Eyemouth about 9, taking about an hourto get fuel.  There were some fairly big swells as we traveled along the shore where we had walked yesterday.

We saw many seals poking up their heads to look at us we passed.  We passed a fishing boat with people on deck.

Yesterday I walked around in the morning, and Kent and I did errands for Ann, getting stamps for many postcards, vitamins at the pharmacy, and a few things at the grocery store, finally buying scones at the bakery.

In the afternoon we walked along the spectacular cliff side coastal path between a scenic golf course ( I saw no golf carts and no women) and crashing waves on black rocks below, getting  back in time for dinner at OBLO, which was a surprisingly elegant pub.  Three of us had the evening special of sea bass, teriyaki mushrooms, soy meringues, and braised pak choi.  Kent had peppardelle with mushrooms.  Desserts:  Eton Mess (meringue fruit and cream), raspberry cheesecake (not really cheesecake -- more like mousse), chocolate brownie with caramel ice cream, and Irish coffee.  Also a bottle of white  fine  house wine.  On the way home we encountered swans on the waterfront.

Kent and I planned to take hot showers in the evening, but even though Kent says he put 2 50 pence pieces in for hot water, we never got any hot water, and ended up with cold showers.  Brr.  Needless to say we didn't linger.

This afternoon we arrived at Lindisfarne, the Holy Island, where saints Cuthbert and Aidan lived, and where the Lindisfarne Gospels were created.

We went ashore in the dinghy, visited two museums and had drinks in a pub.  It was a wet ride back to the boat.  Castles loom in the distance on both sides.  Lindisfarne to the east and Bamburgh (where Elizabeth with cate Blanchett was filmed) to the west, the ruined priory priory and stone and white-washed cottages of the village behind us.  There were picturesque storage sheds made of the overturned hulls of old ships.

September 10 (tuesday)

Royal Northmberland Yacht Club

We left about 7 a.m. On  Monday and motored with sail up and a light tail wind to Blyth, just north of Newcastle.  Strong winds and gusts are expected today, so instead of heading back to sea, we are taking the bus to Newcastle-on-Tyne, supposedly the hip capital of the Northeast.  A man we met at the bar last night described Nothumberland, bordering Scotland and full of castles, as the "wild west" of England.

Linnea and Kent

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Christmas Greetings 2012

Christmas Letter 2012

Greetings to friends and family!  I wrote only an email letter last year as we were traveling most of December and all of January, so this will be the first actual letter that many of you have received since Kent and I joined our lives together in April 2011. Here is the link to last year’s letter:

(http://www.happy-chickens.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-letter-2011.html)

Our journey to Turkey, Pakistan, and India one year ago was filled with wonder. We We rented a little flat in beautiful, historic Istanbul, and also spent five days visiting the ancient ruins of Ephesus, Pergamon, Pamukkale, and other sites in southwestern Turkey.  In Karachi, we attended three days of wedding celebrations for Linnea’s daughter Psyche Philips and her husband Saad Hasan.  We stayed at the historic old British Sind Club, and were generously welcomed and looked after by the entire extended families of Asrar and Naushaba Hasan.  Karachi was a chaotics mix of old and new, rich and poor.  Camels and donkey carts shared the streets with sleek cars and wildly decorated buses with passengers clinging to roofs and sides.  We saw entire families on loaded motorcycles – fathers, mothers (with silk scarves flying), babies, children, and bundles of goods weaving in and out of crazy traffic.

We celebrated Kent’s birthday and the new year in Delhi, India, where we experienced the first of many hair-raising rides on chook-chooks (auto rickshaws), noisy open three-wheeled vehicles on motorcycle bases with manic betel-nut fueled drivers.  We took an overnight train to Varanasi where devout Hindus travel to die and be cremated in open fires on the banks of the beautiful, sacred Ganges.  Overnight by train again to Khajuraho, site of the temples known for their erotic carvings, and by taxi (in dense fog) to Orccha where we stayed in a maharajah’s palace turned into a hotel.  We enjoyed Agra and the Taj Mahal, wildlife watching at Bharaptur and Ranthambore (a Siberian crane and a tiger!), and the small village of Bundi, one of the few places where we were alone as we explored ruined palaces and an overgrown fort inhabited solely by monkeys.  After 2 nights in romantic Udaipur, we flew to the southern tip of India where Linnea waded (along with crowds of Indians) in the water where 3 oceans meet.  A few days in lovely Cochin, and then in Mumbai (which pleased us more than Delhi, or perhaps we were used to the chaos and throbbing energy of India by then) concluded our month in India.  We returned home after an overnight in a very chilly Istanbul where snow fell through the darkness onto the illuminated Blue Mosque.   An indelible memory.

We spent the next four months getting the house and grounds ready for Saad and Psyche’s U.S. wedding on May 27.  It was an amazing and joyous occasion, with Saad’s father and sisters and an uncle, most of the Philips children and grandchildren, plus an international array of young friends of Saad and Psyche. Wedding video (5 minutes) here: http://vimeo.com/44022373 and the video created by Saad’s sisters here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWpmf4ZrPdo

Psyche left for a research project in Botswana within a week of the wedding, sending back wonderful reports: http://www.iwannabotswana.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html

Linnea and Kent made two trips to Michigan, one for Linnea’s 50 year class reunion, visiting friends and family en route, including Kent’s sons Andy in Minneapolis and Jake and his family in Lamberton, MN.   We enjoyed opera in Santa Fe in August, and then the last trip of the year, a 210-mile, nineteen-day walk on the Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle (Camino de Santiago de Compostela) from Geneva, Switzerland, to Le Puy-en-Velay, France, where Linnea had begun her solo walk to Santiago in 2010.  For Linnea this was a pilgrimage of gratitude for her new life with Kent.  For Kent it was a chance to walk through part of France, and for both of us it was a rewarding experience and an opportunity to get in shape.  Blog account at http://www.caminobleu.blogspot.com

We had some sad losses this year:  my friend Angela Clarke to cancer in June, and Saad’s mother Naushaba in November.

Kent has done major remodeling of two bathrooms, and countless smaller projects.  There is never an end to maintenance, but we did have everything looking beautiful for the wedding, including stacking the biggest woodpile I’ve ever seen, and making countless trips to the dump with Kent’s trailer. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a trip to the dump!  We do have a lot of fun together!  Kent has also turned our former dump of a garage (which has possibly never seen a car) into a beautiful workshop.  We putter at home, Linnea with emails, trip research, and lately (again) genealogy, Kent with building and maintenance, Linnea with online word games, Kent with Sudoku.  We try to hike regularly.  We (especially Kent!) also spend way too much time watching Turner Classic Movies.  

We are grateful for each other, for this unanticipated happiness in our twilight years, and we wish for all of you peace, love, gratitude and happiness during this holiday season and the coming year.

Linnea Hendrickson and Kent Kedl

Albuquerque, New Mexico

May-June 2012 Events!

Kent, Linnea, and Psyche

May 27 Kent, Linnea, Jesse, Hyder, Psyche Saad, Miraal, Najam, Asrar, Aliya, Layla, Humera

Actually, life has been a nonstop series of events since Kent and I returned from India on February 1, 2012.  We almost immediately began working on getting the house and grounds ready for Psyche and Saad's May 27 wedding at the house.  Kent was still working on our main bathroom, building all the cabinets from scratch, doing all the plumbing, electrical, and tile work, too.  In the midst of all this, we had the usual problems around the house -- leaky roof in the workshop, burst sewer pipe in the basement, electrical outage in the casita, and so forth.  I also faced the illness and eventual loss of my dear friend Angela Clarke on June 8, just a little over a week after Psyche's wedding.  The wedding came off beautifully on May 27, as one can see in Drew Schrimsher's lovely video and in various photos on Facebook. Highlights of the wedding.  Immediately following the wedding and the departure of Saad's sisters, their children, and their father, Kent and I flew to Michigan for a short weekend visit and celebration of my cousin Jo Anne Arrowood Swanson and her husband John's Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary.  I was then home for about a week before I flew to Boston for the Children's Literature Association conference, where most of my time was taken up by my duties as chair of the very first Phoenix Picture Book Award Committee.  After only three nights home in my own bed, Kent and left in the minivan, driving to Minnesota and Michigan, where we will attend my 50-year Newberry High School Reunion in Newberry, Michigan.  So, here we are, ensconced in the Presidential Suite (!) of the New Victorian Inn to which we were upgraded.  But do not visions of luxury dance in your heads.  This place looks like a slightly refurbished Super 8, although we do have two rooms, and a huge spa tub in the bedroom!

First day of Psyche and Saad's Wedding: Karachi, Pakistan

Incredible day full of beautiful moments, all with my beautiful daughter and handsome son-in-law and his delightful family and with my dear supportive husband, Kent.

Departing!

I can see that writng to a blog on an iPod Touch is not going to be easy.
All is packed into 2 carry on bags plus 2 "personal items"-- a small backpack & a packable tote bag.  We also have a checked small duffle on wheels containing wedding finery and gifts and dress shoes.  We hope we can send this stuff home somehow before we depart from Karachi to India.

We leave for Salt Lake City at 2:15, then overnight to Paris, and on to Istanbul.  Now let's see if I can send this!

Christmas Letter 2011

Christmas 2011

From Linnea Hendrickson and Kent Kedl

Dear Friends and Family,

What a year this has been!  We began with a large party on New Year’s Eve to celebrate milestone birthdays of Kent and our friend Anne Sensenig.

Then, while recovering our “lost” sailboat in Venice, Florida, in February, we received a phone call from Psyche in San Francisco, that she was now engaged to Saad Hasan, whose family lives in Karachi, Pakistan.

Shortly afterwards we got word that Linnea’s beloved eight-year-old dog Bert, while visiting a neighbor, had bitten a UPS deliveryman.  After a traumatic hearing when we returned home, we were able to save Bert’s life by turning him over to the Brittany rescue group from which we’d received him as a pup.  He has come back to visit a couple of times, and we miss him terribly, but not the tension of wondering when he is going to take it upon himself to protect us from some man in uniform.

 In March we took a road trip to the American Pilgrims on the Camino Gathering at the Santa Barbara Mission in California, camping and visiting friends and relatives along the way.  Our tent nearly blew away in both Joshua Tree and Death Valley, and we navigated a snowy mountain pass and torrents of melting water crossing the road east of Ojai, California.

Having weathered (literally and metaphorically) all these adventures, we decided we liked being with each other enough that we wanted to always be together.  So, we began moving Kent’s furniture from Las Cruces to Albuquerque, making many trips in the van and with the Suzuki pulling a trailer, and finally made one last big push with a rented truck.  Moving another whole household into a house that was already completely full of twenty years of accumulated belongings was quite a challenge, but with many trips to Goodwill and Savers, and several listings on Craigslist, we have managed to pare down the excess so that everything we still own is finally stored under cover.  We are still working on the sorting and paring down, and had some challenging fun integrating our art collections.  Only last week did I finally “marry” our kitchen knives, realizing we did not need two Chicago cutlery blocks with three chef’s knives and assorted other duplicates on our crowded kitchen counter.

We were married on April 27, by chatty judge Alice Salcido at the Dona Ana County Building in Las Cruces, with our friends Jeanne and Ross Burkhardt and Terry and Ruth Branson as our witnesses.  After a celebratory lunch at the Double Eagle in Old Mesilla, we departed to the historic Sierra Grande Hotel and Spa in Truth or Consequences, then after one night at home in Albuquerque, headed to Minnesota and Michigan, where we visited numerous family members, including Kent’s sons Jake and Andy, the Philips children and grandchildren, numerous cousins, and both of our brothers.

During the summer, we enjoyed several outings to the Santa Fe Opera, picnics with friends, and a two-week visit, including a trip around New Mexico, with Kent’s three lovely granddaughters Melanie, Rachel, and Vanessa.

In June we thought Kent’s house had sold, but the deal fell through two weeks before the scheduled closing.  We rushed to clear the house because the buyers wanted to move in early, so now it stands empty, and when we go down to check on things we sleep on a foam mattress on the floor and eat at a small folding table and chairs.  If anyone wants a nice three-bedroom house in Las Cruces, NM, please let us know!

We spent the fall working on projects around the house.  Most ambitiously Kent tackled a remodel of our main bathroom, running into numerous complications inherent in working an old, very solidly built house.  We’re not done yet!

We had a lovely mingling of friends and family here for Thanksgiving, and in another week we begin what is probably our biggest adventure of the year – a trip to Pakistan for the wedding of Saad and Psyche in Karachi over the Christmas holidays, preceded by two weeks in Turkey and followed by January in India.  The itinerary is finished, but we are still packing and preparing.

This year I have been especially saddened by war and violence, especially as we have been planning our journey to Pakistan. Not only are we not free to travel as we’d like, but I think about the way war destroys the lives of innocent bystanders as well as the lives of young soldiers.  I worry about the escalating anti-American sentiment and demonstrations we may encounter in Pakistan as we prepare to celebrate a joyous and hopeful union between two greatly loved children from two wonderful families from different countries and cultures.   I cannot comprehend how anyone has ever thought that war is a good idea or a solution to any problem.

With that thought, I leave you with prayers for peace on earth, good will to all, and hope for the future, as evidenced by the transforming power of love in our lives.

Linnea and Kent