Sunday, July 20, 2008

Summer Picnic at St. John's Church, Hyde Park

Private gardens behind Susanne's church were opened to the congregation for a huge barbecue today. Jens went early to grill and Richard tagged along. He was pressed into service to serve red or white wine or ginger beer. Not your Midwestern sort of church picnic! Nick met a 12 year old boy from Kuwait who came down to the garden from his grandparent's eighth floor apartment in the tower block to see what was going on in the garden. He is spending the summer here and told us about how week-ends begin on Thursday there because of the Muslem Holy Day on Friday and that they all go out to the desert to camp for the week-end, cooking out of doors and riding ATVs on the sand dunes. He checked his cel phone and reported the temperature there is 122 Fahrenheit today. It was a fun visit.

I always love attending St. John's, a friendly Church of England parish. A baby was christened today and champagne was served at the coffee hour. Weekly study groups meet at a nearby pub. Susanne is on the church board now and thoroughly enjoys the international flavor of the congregation. The event was called a "summer barbecue" because of grilling meat outdoors--not to be confused with the spicy red sauce as we know it. "Meat, wine, and strawberries provided."

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