Larada Horner-Miller's Blog, page 47
June 17, 2018
A Father’s Day Tribute
I continue to veer off of the Ireland/England trip–Father’s Day is a good detour. Next week, I will return, and there are only two more days left in our England/Ireland trip.
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Dad on his favorite cutting horse, Rusty
This week I want to pay tribute to Harold Horner, my Dad. He was a ole cowboy and loved the family ranch, wife and his family. He was a unique person–he loved people and could talk your leg off (a family description of him), but he preferred cattle and horses. Dad was the most comfortable on the family ranch, working side-by-side with his Dad until Granddad passed away. Then Mom became his side kick, doing the daily chores of a ranch together.
Dad smelled of leather, sweat and nicotine.
He was a two pack a day Camels smoker for most of his life which stained his cigarette fingers a nasty yellow. He did quit smoking later in life but the damage had already been done. The leather smell emanated from his chaps and cowboy boots, dusty and dirty from work on the ranch. The sweat came from his weathered cowboy hat and his body. He was old school and believed you only needed to shower once a week and that was on Saturday night to go to the dance.
I loved the mixture of these smells–the aroma of my Dad.
Besides the ranch and his family, Dad loved to dance–his smooth moves on the dance floor with Mom captured my heart. He was Fred Astaire to me–my favorite dancer partner. He created a special step that only he did–said he got drunk one night, stumbled, and liked how it felt. Of course, Mom could do it. He taught it to me, so Mom and I could do with him, but after he passed we couldn’t figure it out–we needed his lead.
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Dad & I dancing at his 75th birthday party in the gym at Branson, CO
I’m a lot like my Dad, so we clashed on many issues, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter because I was his baby daughter.
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This poem is from my book, “This Tumbleweed Landed.”
Dad died in 1996–twenty-two years ago. He suffered from asthma and emphysema. I miss him as much today as ever before.
Visit my web site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
Visit my Etsy shop for Father’s Day Specials: Larada’s Reading Loft
Take time today and celebrate your dad wherever he is. Tell me about your dad below.
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June 12, 2018
To Comment or Not—That’s the Question
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I have been writing my blog for four years now, and I so enjoy it. Some weeks are hard to produce one, but I’ve been more regular this year, but. . .
How do you get readers of blogs to comment? Since August the majority of my blogs have been a travelogue of our trip to Ireland and England last July.
I’ve grown my readership but few people leave comments. Help me out here. What am I missing?
Day 21 Lavenham
Back to the last three days of our magical trip to Ireland and England.
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At Meghan and Mike’s wedding, we were asking locals about sights to see around Bury St. Edmunds, and someone suggested Lavenham, “noted for its 15th-century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walk. In the medieval period it was among the 20 wealthiest settlements in England.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavenham
They also said it’s only about twenty minutes away, so we took a winding road from Bury St. Edmunds to Lavenham–what a delightful time we had.
The looming architectural presence on arrival was St. Peter and Paul’s Church.
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St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church – Lavenham
The grounds are covered with crosses and graves. A sign greets you at the door: “Welcome to this Holy Place where people have worshipped and prayed for over 600 years.” The inside was massive and beautiful. I loved the stained glass windows and handcrafted cushions on the pews. The grandeur of the place was overwhelming and took my breath away.
Click to view slideshow.
In the corner by the front door, Lin and I were surprised to see an American flag. This plaque explains its presence there:
[image error]After parking the car, we walked through this amazing town with medieval buildings and modern cars side-by-side.
[image error]Our next stop was the Guildhall of Corpus Christi – “By the late 15th century, Lavenham was at the centre of the East Anglian wool trade and had become one of the richest towns in England. To reflect this prosperity, four guilds were established in the town by the local merchant families. The most important of these was the wool guild, which founded the Guildhall of Corpus Christi in 1529.[2] Given the dominance of the cloth and wool trade, the guildhall soon came to function as Lavenham’s principal meeting place and centre of business, situated on the town’s thriving market place.
With the decline of the wool trade and Lavenham’s prosperity, the guildhall’s role changed. By 1689, and until 1787, the guildhall was in use as the Bridewell (a prison for petty offenders such as a reform school), and was then used as the workhouse.
It was restored by Sir William Quilter around 1911 and in 1946 given to the people of Lavenham. In 1951 it became the property of the National Trust for England and is today open to the public.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavenham_Guildhall
Here we saw our first preserved cat–the British have a belief about cats.
Afterwards, we went to the plaza and found a hidden tea room, the Lavenham Blue Vintage Tea Rooms, for a full British Tea and scones. We relaxed on the patio and enjoyed the respite.
Our next stop was the Little Hall – “One of the oldest buildings in the best preserved of the Suffolk wool towns, this 14th century house was built for the Causton family of clothiers and its subsequent development has mirrored the changing fortunes of Lavenham.
Little Hall was restored by the Gayer-Anderson brothers who filled the house with art and artefacts collected during their extensive travels.”
http://suffolkmuseums.org/museums/Museums/little-hall-museum/
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Lavenham Little Hall was an Evacuation Centre for children being moved during World War II, and the children slept in the dormitory. Here are two portraits of children saved there.
The end the day we did a walking tour of Lavenham, seeing many examples of medieval architecture–the most notable to me was the Crooked house.
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Crooked House – Lavenham
We so enjoyed this step back in history.
Have you ever visited a medieval village? Do you like history? Let me know your thoughts.
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My web site : https://www.laradasbooks.com
My Etsy shop for Father’s Day Specials : Larada’s Reading Loft
June 4, 2018
My Memoir Wins Fourth Award
[image error]Independent Press Awards is proud to announce the 2018 Distinguished Favorites in the Memoir category: A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir. See the listing at the URL below;
http://www.independentpressaward.com/2018distinguishedfavorites
I’m so excited! This is the fourth award this book has earned!
The other three awards are:
~”Official Selection” for 2017 New Apple Book Awards for Excellence in Independent Publishing in the Biography|Autobiography|Memoir category.
~Finalist in 2017 New Mexico-Arizona book awards in 2 categories: Biography (Other) and Ebook Nonfiction.
Have you bought your copy yet? Go to Amazon to get a copy now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0996614427/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1497309604&sr=8-4&keywords=larada+horner-miller
Have you read it? Would love to hear your comments about it!
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May 29, 2018
My Two Aunts — Two Strong Women
I hope your Memorial Day weekend was great. My Memorial Day vacation has been full of family, especially two lovely, elderly aunts.
On Sunday we celebrated my Aunt Joan’s 90th birthday with a theme party. She loves the Kentucky Derby, so it was derby day at her house. We donned hats, her great-grandchildren had stick pony races, and I listened to wonderful family stories. Her five children were there, and many of her grandchildren too.
Aunt Joan is an amazing woman. She had seven children–one died at birth and her second oldest son died from heart problems about ten years ago. She was a hard-working rancher’s wife, contributing to the school activities and local community.
She is my Dad’s youngest sister, and she loved to ride horses. My Dad’s favorite story about her was she could rope a calf better than most men. In fact, when she was the rodeo queen, she did a roping demonstration.
My brother and I sat next to her to eat at her party. She told us she’d like to go sky diving–how about that!
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On Monday we went to visit my 98 year old aunt in a nursing home in Pueblo, CO. We had a delightful day with her enjoying holiday barbecue fare–hot dogs and hamburgers. We visited, laughed and did a FaceTime phone conference with my husband who wasn’t able to come.
“I’m mad at you,” was her greeting to him. He wasn’t able to come on this trip but reassured her he’d join me on my June visit.
Aunt Willie worked in Albuquerque, NM at Sandia Labs for her career, raising one daughter. She loved decorating cakes as a hobby, and we all loved her humorous, gorgeous cakes.
Aunt Willie was nine years older than my Mom, her sister. My favorite memory of those two was at my Mom’s house at Christmas a few years ago. They were standing nose-to-nose, fists quenched, reigniting an annual disagreed–all in good fun.
One said, “You add milk.”
The other said, “No, Mama taught us to add water to make the turkey gravy.” This good-hearted disagreement went on at any holiday they served turkey.
My Mom passed away five years ago, and recently I asked Aunt Willie, “Are you the water or milk person in the turkey gravy dispute?”
She giggled and said, “I don’t remember!”
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My life has been richer with these two. Long lives, happy dispositions–these two women embody what I hope my future holds. I hope you enjoyed my small portrait of two strong women that have influenced me. Who are the women in your life? Let me know–I would love to hear your stories.
Visit my web site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
Visit my Etsy Shop: Larada’s Reading Loft
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May 22, 2018
Excerpt from my book – A Time to Grow Up
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Check out Appendix D in my grief memoir, A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir for healing activities and ideas.
APPENDIX D – Workbook
Healing from grief requires active participation if you want to get past the pain and the loss to the other side—to thrive more than just survive. Here are a few questions and activities to get the juices flowing after reading this book.
1. List the key people you have lost in your life and write out a short description of your relationship besides the name of each person. How did that loss affect you? How old were you? How did you handle your grief at the time? What did you learn about your grief process?
2. How do you feel about grief after reading this book? What do you know about grief? Where could you find more information about grief?
3. If applicable: how did your mother grieve the loss of her parents? How did your father grieve the loss of his parents? Which one are you more like? Write down three take-aways you learned from your parents about how to grieve.
4. What resources do you have available when you lose a loved one? (Example: Friends, church, social support group, etc.) Write down names, phone numbers,and email addresses to have available.
5. Be diligent about the following areas of your life because grief affects the whole person. Identify one activity you can do to take care of yourself in each of these areas:
Physical —
Emotional—
Spiritual —
6. Buy a journal and/or adult coloring book and colored pencils/crayons and draw your feelings. Use this as a journal and dedicate time often to color and then describe the drawing.
7. Buy a journal and write three pages (“Morning Pages” from Julia Cameron’s The Artist‘sWay) every morning. Just start writing and see what comes up.
8. Create a sacred time and place every day to cry. Mark it on your calendar: when and where, and be dedicated about keeping that time.
9. Get involved in a grief support group in your area. Examples: GriefShare, hospice, religious groups, Yoga, etc.
10. Look at Appendix A and start a “God Things” list for what you are going through right now. Be sure not to leave out what seems small and insignificant.
11. Look at Appendix B and identify the normal activities you do that soothe your soul and then add activities to support your grief process.
12. Look at Appendix C and select one book to add to your library and read it. Search the topic “grief” online and add any titles below that appeal to you.
13. On the first anniversary of your loved one’s death, plan ahead to be prepared and make it a special day for you.
Share below activities/ideas that worked for you. We’re all different, and I’d love to know what you have done to heal after a major loss in your life.
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Larada’s web site : https://www.laradasbooks.com
Larada’s Etsy Shop: Larada’s Reading Loft
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May 13, 2018
A Mother’s Day Tribute!
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I am veering off Lin and my trip to Ireland and England for one week and sharing a poem I wrote for my Mom for Christmas in 2003. Enjoy and hug your mother real close today! My Mom has been gone for five years and this Mother’s Day has been one of the hardest! This poem celebrates the place she had in my life.
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Have you ever written a poem or story about your Mom? Share it here! I would love to read it.
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My Web Site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
My Etsy Shop–Larada’s Reading Loft: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaradasReadingLoft
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May 7, 2018
Day 20 Train Trip to Cambridge
Our family met at the train station in Bury St. Edmund’s and rode the train to Cambridge–about a 45 minute trip. I loved looking at the lush green countryside as we whizzed by.
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Train Station in Bury St. Edmund’s
On the train ride, we passed by Newmarket, famous for “Newmarket has over fifty horse training stables, two large racetracks, the Rowley Mile and the July Course and one of the most extensive and prestigious horse training grounds in the world.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newmarket,_Suffolk
This was exciting for me to see–a country girl at heart!
After we arrived in Cambridge, a group of us walked to the main part of Cambridge and others rode the bus. Seeing all the beautiful buildings as we walked was awesome. Again as in Oxford, there were bikes everywhere.
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Bikes–The Preferred Means of Transportation
Look at how narrow the streets are!
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Narrow Streets
Cambridge is made up of several colleges, like Oxford.
Here’s Trinity College:
Click to view slideshow.
Click to view slideshow.
We continued our walk and saw other colleges along the way. Then part of our group decided go “punting.”
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Our Group Punting
“A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. A punt should not be confused with a gondola, a shallow draft vessel that is structurally different, and which is propelled by an oar rather than a pole.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punt_(boat)
“The River Cam runs through the heart of Cambridge enabling you to enjoy fantastic views of the world famous Cambridge College ‘Backs’ from the comfort of a traditional Cambridge Punt.”
https://www.visitcambridge.org/things-to-do/punting-bus-and-bike-tours/punting-tours
While the group was punting, Lin, my cousin Meghan and I roamed around Cambridge and had a delicious lunch.
When the group got back together, part of us did a walking tour of Cambridge and saw more of the colleges: King’s College, Corpus Christi College, and Christ’s Church College. We were across the river from Christ’s Church College–what a spectacular view!
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Christ’s Church College
The tour guide told us that Steve Hawkings was often seen around Cambridge, and I would have loved to see him, but we didn’t. We did see Claire College and Trinity College a second time. We also saw St. John’s College. We ended the tour with the historic Church of the Holy Sepulchre, known as the Round Church, and was built in 1130.
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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
After a stop at a pub along the way for refreshment and relaxation, we walked back to the train station and made it back to Bury St. Edmund’s safely. What a memorable day in Cambridge!
My web site at https://www.laradasbooks.com
My Etsy shop – Larada’s Reading Loft – Mother’s Day Specials at https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaradasReadingLoft
Have you ever been to Cambridge? If so, what was your experience? I would love to hear about your experience there!
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April 29, 2018
Day 18 & 19 Bury St. Edmunds
After my cousin, Meghan and Mike’s wedding, Lin and I spent two delightful days exploring Bury St. Edmunds. On Saturday morning after another big English breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Outdoor Market held in the square a few blocks away. This tradition in Bury St. Edmunds has been in place twice a week–Wednesdays and Saturdays–dates back to before the days of William the Conqueror. Anything you might want was available at this market: food, flowers, clothes, hardware and technology. The booths went on and on.
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The Saturday Outdoor Market Downtown Bury St. Edmunds
After the market, Lin and I wandered around the Abbey gardens–I couldn’t keep Lin away from there because of his love for gardening. The gardens took our breath away.
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The Abbey Garden With the Cathedral in the background
We also toured Angel Hill across from the Abbey and saw the Atheneum and Angel Hotel.
In the afternoon, we took a free guided tour of the city, and the guide was exceptional. We went through the Abbey Gate onto the ruins of the Abbey which was gigantic.
Then still on the Abbey grounds, we saw the Old English Rose Garden, a permanent memorial to the American Servicemen stationed nearby and gave their lives.
The guide told us about a book we needed to read: Suffolk Summer written by John T. Appleby who was an American Serviceman who toured Suffolk County during World War II on a bicycle. The royalties from this book were devoted to maintaining the Old English Rose Garden on the Abbey grounds.
Because we both love to read, we hunted it down and finally found it the morning we were leaving Bury St. Edmunds at the Moyses museum–more about the museum in a coming blog.
We had so much fun reading the book and remembering places there in Bury St. Edmund’s that Appleby mentioned in his book like the Atheneum.
On the guided tour, we walked through neighborhoods of Bury St. Edmunds. The guide pointed out a wall in one area where rocks from the Abbey were used.
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The Guide Points Out Rocks from the Abbey
Then he took us to the smallest pub in England, the Nutshell. I don’t drink and I had to take a quick picture inside because the bartender demanded you had to buy a pint for coming in.
We ended the day meeting our family at a nearby pub, then Lin and I had a delicious dinner at the Cafe Rouge.
The next morning we met family members at St. Mary’s Anglican Church for the morning service. I’m Episcopalian so the service was very similar to what I was used to here in the USA. Afterwards a friendly churchman gave us a tour of the church, and we saw Mary Tudor’s tomb–she was buried there.
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Mary Tudor’s Tomb
After church, Lin and I went to see the movie, “Dunkirk” at the local theater. We had found the theater the day before and the times of the show. Not knowing the procedure, we went there thirty minutes or so before showtime, thinking we could get good seats. The seats are sold online, so the only ones left were in the front row. I felt the bombing and explosions happened right in my lap, and I screamed.
We both were so glad to see the movie in the country it was about–the British saved the day with all kinds of private boats and ships to rescue the soldiers. As the story unfolded, we could feel the pride in the theater grow.
We had a leisure dinner at the Bushel and made it an early night because the next day we were taking the train to Cambridge with all of the family for the day.
Have you ever been to this part of England? Lin told me if anything ever happened to me, he would sell everything and move to either Bury St. Edmunds or some village in Ireland–he loved it so much.
Interested in more of my writing–my web site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
Or my Etsy Shop with Mother’s Day Specials: https://etsy.com/shop/laradasreadingloft
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April 25, 2018
Day 17 Out of London & A Wedding
This was the day we were to leave London and neither of us were ready, but the whole reason we did this trip was to attend my cousin, Meghan’s wedding in Bury St. Edmunds. We had another big breakfast.
Our travel agent had pre-booked a taxi for us to pick up our rental car, but there was some confusion about the name of the car rental, the company name and where we were going to pick it up. Our travel agent booked it; I talked to her during the week on the tour bus but didn’t understand the name, so I thought she said we were picking it up at the 6th terminal at the airport. The taxi driver didn’t know either, so we had to call the travel agent.
She got a good laugh out of the mis-communication. I thought she had said to pick up the car at the sixth terminal. She had said the Sixt car rental office near the airport–sometimes speaking English and understanding it are hard! So away we went. The clerk at the car rental office, Susanna, was so helpful and saved us money.
Lin had driven for a couple weeks in Ireland and did fine. He didn’t want to drive in London so we used the Tube as our connection to London and did great. Here he was faced with driving out of London; he did fine. There was a lot more traffic than Ireland for sure. We headed north to Bury St. Edmunds.
In fact he did better with driving than I did with the GPS. I’m used to Garmin here at home. I learned the Tom-Tom quickly in Ireland, but this car had a GPS built in. The display listed the destination from the bottom up showing several turns coming up, but we made it.
We stayed at the Bushel pub and hotel and they had our room ready, even though we arrived early afternoon. We had to park around back of the pub, and Lin parked the car the best yet!
Quickly we changed into our wedding clothes–I had to do some touch-up pressing because these clothes had been underneath everything else for two weeks of traveling.
We had trouble driving to Raven Hall where the wedding was–again I had trouble understanding the GPS. We ended up on a closed road. As we came up to the road worker, he shot his hands into the air and screamed, “What are you doing? And how did you get here?” When he realized we were lost Americans, he directed us out of the construction zone, across the highway and to Raven Hall.
Thank God we left the hotel early, but we still arrived with time to spare. We walked into a room full of my cousin’s dad’s family, so we knew we were in the right spot. We met Mike Edwards, the groom before the wedding and some of his Welsh family who were fascinating and so welcoming!
The wedding was outside, simple and beautiful. The minister gave a beautiful wedding message. We set in the third row and I took lots of pictures. Afterwards we took the traditional pictures and some not-so traditional.
The rest of the afternoon and evening were delightful. There were American traditions observed and English traditions added. For dinner, we sat with my cousins (sisters of the bride) Kirstin and Lisa, Chris and Holly Carr from the USA and Nicole and her partner.
During the meal, someone spoke for Meghan’s parents, then Mike entertained us with stories about Meghan and him. Then Mike’s best man presented a PowerPoint slideshow, helping us get acquainted with Mike.
The evening continued with a dance, individual photos of the guests in a photo booth with a variety of props, cutting the cake and the bouquet toss. The cake was unique–one side for the groom (all Action figure characters celebrated) and the other side for the bride (her lavender colors and gorgeous).
The stereotype I had of the British people was so not true. I loved how they partied! As a whole, the group would dance like crazy, then they’d go to the bar and drink. The dance floor would be vacant except for a few of us, then the crowd would come back and the routine continued all evening.
We danced; we laughed. We enjoyed the mix of people there; they were so friendly.
Later in the evening, a sandwich buffet opened, and they served the cake.
As we were leaving, a hilarious story unfolded. My cousin, Lisa, had been charging her bar tab to Mike’s uncle’s room instead of her parents’ room. Mike’s dad was lamenting with much fanfare that “theseAmericans were going to break him” because he was paying his brother’s bill for the wedding. The camaraderie between the two families joined as this wedding was delightful. We left about 11:00 pm before the crowd left and got lost on the way home, meandering our way on back roads and wandering around. Again I read the GPS the wrong way, but we did make it back to our hotel.
Everyone was so friendly and hospitable and I told my cousin Meghan that next to our wedding, their’s was my favorite.
