We’ve had so many adventures that we haven’t even posted about – so we’ll be putting some updates out over the next few days/weeks as we start the post-travel process.
A highlight for me will be our time in England – it is a country close to my heart for a variety of reasons – my maternal grandfather’s family came from a small village called Great Alne in Warwickshire, in the South West part of the country. If you ever met my grandfather Elvins Yuil Spencer, you probably heard his origin story about his father’s lot in life. His father, my great-grandfather, Henry Spencer was born in Great Alne – his oldest brother inherited the Mill, the second brother inherited the Manor and Henry and younger brother Herbert were left to make their own way, so they immigrated to Alberta where my grandfather was born in on the prairies. My grandpa was sent back to Great Alne when he was 12 to “learn some culture” (this was also the time when he started keeping his daily diary, something he did until only a few days before his death at 97) from his English family.
Well, we found the Manor and the Mill – which has now been converted into homes – and somehow it helped me understand my grandfather a little better. The beauty and gentle rolling hills must have been such a contrast to the landscape of Alberta and I can see why he spoke so lovingly of the location.
We also visited the local church where we found gravestones of my Spencer ancestors. We stopped for a picnic lunch among the stones (you can only imagine the questions coming from the Snaps about death, graves, relatives, etc – we covered it all).
My grandfather tracked the weather in his diary every day. He also claimed that he was responsible for the weather at my parents wedding (it was a glorious day). So we couldn’t help but smile that after a week of rainy, cold weather in England, the sun came out and shone as we sat in this churchyard and talked about my grandfather. He definitely was looking after the weather for us! Miss you Grandpa/Opa!
3 Ginger Snaps 