Frieda, re your question about school assemblies and Jerusalem in particular. It used to be the law that every school began each day with a form of religious 'observance'. As far as I know this is still the case, although the large 'secondary' schools get round it by claiming lack of space/time etc. But junior schools, even the non-denominational ones, will have a couple of prayers and a hymn plus 'announcements'. And C of E and RC kids will probably attend weekly/occasional services in their local church. Of course these days, as your friend says we have become a far more 'secular' country plus we have had a huge influx of people bringing in a wide range of faiths, all of which are meant to be catered for within the 'Religious Education' systems of each school area. RE is still taught as a 'lesson' up to exam standard. That is certainly how I learnt the words and tunes of so many hymns. As far as Jerusalem goes. I feel the words don't mean much on their own but with that wonderfully confidant Victorian music, it would be difficult not to be moved by hearing it sung en masse . . . have you ever been/or heard the 'Last Night of the Proms' from the Royal Albert Hall and large parks around the UK when Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory etc are sung by the thousands in the audience? It may be considered very 'jingoistic' by the nay-sayers but it is a truly rousing sound. Below is an extract from the Last Night of the Proms. I hope it doesn't make your fillings tingle . . .luckily I, unlike millions of my countrymen have never needed any 'work' on my teeth so my head is quite amalgam-free. ;-) Here is a link that might be useful: Last Night of the Proms

Wood - the Sarton book was "The House by the Sea" which was written when she was older and had moved away from the small town where she had lived. As I mentioned before, I found it to be an interesting meditation on life... I have put Maeve Binchy to the side for right now (temporarily) and in its place picked up "The Understudy" by David Nicholls (he who wrote "Starter for Ten" and "One Day" which I know other RPers have read)... "The Understudy" is another winner. A good plot involving an English superstar actor, his understudy (the hero of the book), and his friendship with both the star and his wife. Great fun to read -- one of those rare books which suck you in and he has his characters doing things that you (i.e. me) would do. For example, the protagonist is in his agent's run-down office and is sitting on a chair with the yellow foam sticking out and he has to remind himself not to pick at the foam... Maybe not the best example, but I honestly felt that I had known his characters by the end of the book. Anyway, if you like his other work, you'll like this one. (Also found out that David Nicholls was one of the creators of the tv series Rescue Me which has a great sly sense of humour in it...) Then picked up a NF book about extreme weather events, but the author has such a drive to talk about his agenda and take on global warming, that "everything" is put into "quotation marks" and it gets a bit "irritating" after a while. Additionally, he sucks the "interesting" out of any of the weather situations he talks about. How can you make a tornado boring? I don't know, but he does. Not too sure what to read next... but isn't that half the fun of reading?

Lots of Golden Books (some from garage sales) that all had that brown horse, with the black main and tail...and little white mark on his head. Do you remember those? My husband blames all these books : ) Loved the Betsy books, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and of course....A Wrinkle In Time. The book is amazing! And I'm still trying to figure out what Charles Wallace's model of a tesseract looks like. But the description of the shortest distance between two points being a line (with apron strings held out far apart from each other) then bringing the two ends of the strings together to step across....best explanation ever of how a worm hole works!

Congratulations, Allison! Such a great joy, and at this time of year! And your wreath is lovely, and perfect. My favorite dolls when I was a girl were a pair of twin babies. Basically, my mother bought two identical dolls and doubled their clothes and baby "stuff". I loved them so much! I named them Jeanette and Janiece. Very happy holidays to you and your family...