Anne

March, 2006

I am still awaiting an up-date from Anne, but I include here the wonderful news that Anne and Peter will be in London en route to Portugal just in time for the reunion. In fact they will have to leave for Portugal on the 7th, but they will be spending the nights of Friday and Saturday at the Euston Premier Travel Inn.

Anyone trying to contact her should know they are in Australia until March 20th.

September, 2005

Many of us are beginning to see signs of Christmas, and our thoughts are turning to cold and varying amounts of ice and snow. So I thought I would start this account from Anne in the Southern Hemisphere by quoting the beginning of an e-mail I received from her in late 2003: ”Christmas isn't far away and the strains of Silent Night are heard in the shopping malls while the spring sun shines outside. There's a lot to do in the garden nearer Christmas, so I try to avoid extra cooking at the last minute. Otherwise I get hot and bothered in the kitchen while the temperature goes up outside too. The blossom and flowers in parks and gardens have been lovely again this year, and the weather has let us do a fair bit in our own garden. We're planning a few days away in early December, and then we'll be at home over Christmas and in January.” Anne followed this up with a letter in January, detailing how her Christmas turned out: ”We had a good day ourselves and the weather was really beautiful—28˚C with a light breeze. It was my turn to play for the service at our church and after that Peter and I took a picnic lunch up to a ridge on the hills at the seaward side of the city, where you get a view of the city on one side and of the sea on the other. We came home in the middle of the afternoon and prepared the main Christmas meal for the evening. This included a bit of variety with plenty of fruit and salad…On January 1st we had a picnic too.”

January of 2004 saw the long-awaited visit by Betty and her friend Pam, which you can read about on Betty’s site. I assume Peter was the one pressed into service to take this photo of Anne, Betty and Pam. Then it was Anne’s turn to travel extensively. We were so happy that Anne and Peter fit us in. They had a crowded schedule, but they broke their trip between LA and Ottawa by spending a couple of days with us. The weather was pretty nice for May, although it was too early to indulge in some of the summer pursuits that make Michigan enjoyable. Many years ago we used to take visitors to the Ford factory, but tours had been discontinued. They started up again just three days before Anne’s arrival, so we took the Mosses out to Dearborn. In the old days there was heat and factory smells and noise: now it is very multimedia and pristine walkways take you on bridges above the line. But it was fun, nevertheless, and we amplified our history lesson of the interdependence of Detroit on the car industry by taking them to the lakeside estate of Edsel Ford, not far from our house. I was pleased that both our daughters who live locally were able to meet up with Anne and Peter. We certainly were sad to see our visitors depart and envied them their trip to England. “…we could hardly believe how good the weather was. (We realised that it was 20 years since we had been to England in the spring.)” The weather didn’t hold up when they met up with Angela and Alan. “This latter meeting was on our only rainy day, but we still did the walk we had planned in the morning as it was just drizzly and didn’t rain hard until later. It was of course really lovely to see both couples (they had crossed over to Wales to see John and Susan earlier)…Speaking for myself, it has made a difference to me to be able to re-connect with that part of life and see you and others again after so many years.”

After England, the Mosses traveled to Finland for another dose of history and the experience of “twilight all night after the sun had eventually gone down (very late) and to hear seagulls calling and squawking at 2:00 a.m.” Again it was an odd experience for me, on a baking hot day in July, to read Anne’s note, ”We’re back to winter clothing and morning frosts, but this is a very moderate sort of winter!”

Anne and Peter have done a vast amount of traveling, attending conferences on Peter’s specialties, Timber Engineering and Earthquake Engineering. I heard first hand accounts of Singapore and Malaysia as well as the North American and European conferences. Unfortunately, they were in Australia when the Pearsons made their visit there.

A welcome card from Anne in April of this year indicated they would be staying closer to home this year. That should give Anne time to work on her garden (she seems to specialize in vegetables) and enjoy her book discussion group, now in its sixth year. She added, “I’ve been playing for more services this year, at church and in a couple of rest homes, because two other organists are affected by serious illness, either themselves or in their family.”

Here’s another photo from last May. It was a delight to see you both, Anne. I hope your life is tranquil and that we will meet up again soon.