Old Habits

This past Saturday evening, I attended a stake conference meeting. The speakers talked about self-reliance and managing personal resources. One speaker gave a quote that his grandfather used frequently, “Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without.”

As a young girl that is exactly the way, we did things. Never did I get a new pair of shoes because I wanted them. If I didn’t need them, I didn’t get them. Money was tight and unless you needed something, you didn’t get it.

This was not a bad thing. It was the way life was. When I search the stores for gifts to buy, I can hardly believe how much some things cost. For instance, one of my favorite pastimes as a child during the long winter was playing with paper dolls. We didn’t spend the money for them, although they didn’t cost what they do now. We cut our own dolls and clothing out of the Sears Catalogue. I never lacked for something to do. We always made do with what we had.

My upbringing carried over into my own family. We passed clothing down from one child to another one. I notice my own children doing the same thing. They even pass clothing from one family to another one. I always shop for bargains or for sales. I never pay full price for anything. I see my own children also doing this.

With money being tight, I’ll bet some people are in for a rude awakening. Some children have always got everything their hearts desired. Our family has not. Old habits are hard to break, and it’s hard to give someone something they don’t need. I think many people will be going back to the old saying “Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without.”

The New Year

As I mentioned I was going to be away for awhile. Well, I'm finally back and ready to start my tour of churches, but there's a problem. My laptop decided to die. Not just for a few hours or days, but forever. All my pictures are on that laptop so this is going to take longer than I thought. First, I need to find time to go find a new computer. After I do that, then maybe one of our family computer specialists (my son-in-law) can retrieve all the goodies on the old one. Meanwhile, I'll get my mind thinking of something else I can write about because without all the pictures the stories aren't nearly as good.

My husband and I brought in the New Year in Colorado, sound asleep. December 31, was my grandson's 10th birthday. I planned on celebrating in style. I took party hats, and noise makers from home. The children, all six of them, were excited. Meanwhile the day before, grandma caught a major cold and felt pretty awful. We all went out to lunch, but then I had to crash. There was no way my head was going to survive a noisy party. I did manage to wake up just before the new year to listen to all the children celebrating. I was astonished to find that all but two had fallen asleep. There wasn't any noise. I guess they still had fun bunking together on the family room floor.

I hope everyone else had a nice holiday and that you're all ready to begin a new year.

English Castles - Part 2

By C. LaRene Hall

After traveling back to England, the first castle we decided to go to was the Farleigh Hungerford ruins. The gatehouse was two stories and the arch was set in a square-headed recess into which the drawbridge closed. Above was the family coat of arms. The chapel was amazing and stood above a crypt where 16th and 17th century Hungerford’s are visible. Indented into them are the death masks of the deceased. Also around the sides of the tombs are coats of arms.

The only thing left of the 13th century Winchester Castle is the great hall. It is famous for King Arthur’s Round Table, which has hung in the hall since at least 1463. The many stain glass windows were stunning.



The Wolvesey castle ruins, is also in Winchester, and was formerly the principle residence of the Bishops of Winchester. The Roundheads destroyed it during the English Civil War in 1646.


One other place we visited that I consider a castle is Buckingham Palace. We arrived early enough to get a close spot to take pictures of the changing of the guards. Today this palace is the weekday home of the Queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of York, and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

This certainly wasn’t the end of our trip, just the end of visiting castles. I'll be out of town for a week so next year, I’ll tell you about all the churches we saw along the way.

Castles in Wales

By C. LaRene Hall

We continued our tour of castle in Wales and our first stop was the Chepstow, which is a Norman Castle ruin sitting high above the banks of the river Wye. It has a twin tower gatehouse. We were interested in their displays of printed placards explaining the castle’s history along with wax figures of the Marshal Family.


Then we drove to a 12th century Norman Keep, the Cardiff Castle. I was surprised to find this castle in the middle of a busy city. On the tour, we learned that they decorated all the rooms around a theme. The most common themes were astrological and Biblical. I loved the beautiful clock tower, and the room that represented the seasons of the year and the days of the week. It was no surprise to find the nursery decorated with fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

English Castles - Part 1

By C. LaRene Hall

In England, the castles were much the same, ancient. The first one we visited was the Alnwick Medieval Castle. They filmed the Harry Potter movie there. For over 700 years, this castle has been a family home. The English and Scots fought many battles here. I enjoyed watching the performance of the British Soldiers on the green.


I slept at the Durham Castle.


The next Castle on our agenda was the Raby Castle. The Nevell’s built this 14th century medieval castle. During the tour, I was surprised to learn that the garrison room has 20 feet thick walls. They built the chapel between 1364 and 1367. The most interesting room was the octagon drawing room.


Next, we crossed the River Tees and climbed a path up the large hill to arrive at the ancient ruins of the Bernard Balliol’s Castle. This is the largest medieval castle in northern England. If it had been a cooler day, I would have enjoyed my stroll among the ruins much more.


In Nottingham, they built this 17th century ducal mansion on the site of the original medieval castle. I enjoyed the wonderful landscaping with bushes shaped as Robin Hood and a knight on a horse. The other things I enjoyed seeing was the beautiful designs on the walkway near the entrance.



The largest castle ruin in England is the Kenilworth Castle. My heart ached as I wandered among the red sandstone remains. What a waste of so much history.


At the Warwick Castle, we explored towers, and dungeons. The entire day and evening was wonderful and everything I expected. I loved sitting below the castle on the bank of the Avon River and watching the trebuchet – a catapult – hurling projectiles. It was exciting to watch the knight putting armor on the squire then they battled it out in hand-to-hand combat. There were knights on horses and a jousting match. In the evening, we attended a five-course meal, the King Maker’s Feast.

Scottish Castles

By C. LaRene Hall

The one thing I never tired of on my trip to Europe in 2006 was the endless castles. They were all different, and each had something unique that I liked. The pictures are all mine, taken with my new digital camera received the prior Christmas in anticipation of this trip. I’ll confess I’m not a photographer.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but since it was my first castle, I have to mention the Dumbarton Medieval Castle ruins. I liked the fact that in the 9th century it served as the Viking’s headquarters. Another interesting story is the castle protected Mary, Queen of Scots, while she was a young girl until her safe removal to France.

Next, we drove to the Isle of Bute, and saw the circular Rothesay Castle ruins. I also mentioned this one before but didn’t mention that strolling among the ruins was intriguing. In fact, I was so enthralled I forgot to take any pictures.

Before leaving Scotland, we had to see the Edinburgh Castle. All of the streets inside the castle were cobblestone, which was difficult to walk on. We were fortunate to get a ride to the top of the huge castle where you could see a splendid view of the entire city. The most fascinating room was the heavily guarded one with Scotland‘s glittering crown jewels. The Saint Margaret Chapel was beautiful, and is the oldest building in the city. We took time to visit the Scottish National War Memorial. Everyone was excited to watch the one o’clock gun ceremony. They have fired the guns almost every day except Sunday since 1861. This was a busy castle, but well worth the time to visit.

I'm Still Dreaming

By C. LaRene Hall

As a young girl, I often dreamed of marrying a prince and living in a large beautiful castle. Little did I know that someday a small portion of those fantasies would come true. I did marry, and I did spend an entire night sleeping in a castle.

The room wasn’t in the center of the castle. In fact, it was as far away from the Great Hall as you could get. My room was located under the Gatehouse. It was small, nothing fancy, with a small bed, and desk. It was quiet and I spent an enjoyable peaceful night.

The gatehouse

Getting to this castle wasn’t easy, although in England as we neared Durham I could see the top steeples. It reminded me of the many others times that I could see the place I wanted to go, but I couldn’t find a road to take me there. We drove up a narrow single lane path, but part way there I was sure we was going to the wrong way. No big castle would be up this tiny road. As soon as we could, we turned around and tried another direction. Finally, we stopped to ask for directions. A customer in the store said we could follow him. Much to my surprise, we were again driving on that same familiar small path. In full view, I saw what looked like a tall magnificent church. I knew it had to be the cathedral. So where was the castle? I knew we were close. There hidden behind a wall of stone stood this ancient building, the Durham Castle.

The following morning my sister and I went to the Great Hall for an authentic English breakfast. Afterwards, they took us on a tour of the castle that included the Norman Chapel built in 1078, and the Tunstall Chapel built in 1540.

The castle looked just like the ones in my childhood dreams. The kitchen was huge, the bedchambers elegant, and the ballroom magnificent. I was truly grateful that I had booked this wonderful room ahead of time so I could have the experience of a lifetime.

The one place I’m still dreaming about staying is at Camelot. I get emails frequently about that magical place, but I doubt I’ll ever get to stay there. England’s a long way from home.