We are finally settled back in here in Swavesey, and mostly over the jetlag. We picked Nelly up from our kind friends who were watching her for us Thursday night- she was a bit confused and ran away and hid when we first came to visit their place, and looked a bit upset, but as we stayed and chatted she was ok. It was interesting bringing her back home because she barely meowed the entire way home, except on the roundabouts which she particularly seems to dislike. But usually when we take her somewhere she meows piteously the whole way there and back. :) So when we put her down in the house and opened her little cat carrier door she was like "Hey! I'm back home again!" And she wandered all over the house sniffing everything, and remembering where things were. That night she woke me up twice in the middle of the night rubbing my face and wanting me to pet her- awww. :) So far she's adjusted right back to our usual routines, right down to eating her normal cat food (our friends couldn't get her to eat that food and were afraid she'd starve when she didn't eat for a few days, so they'd been giving her wet food everyday.) Yesterday we went for a little walk outside and she seriously sniffed every single plant in sight- she walked over everything, checked out the compost, and has been going outside for hours at a time guarding the compost and defending her territory from cat fiend, who's audacity knows no bounds- he already came in the cat flap and had to be chased off.
It's strange at first, one's home being in another country. I laughed when we opened the door to the cottage- this is what we saw:
The Royal Mail works a little differently than the US mail. No matter whose name is on a piece of mail, it must be delivered to the address on the piece. Because this is a rental property, many people have lived here, which is a big pain for us. If you want to have the mail held you can do that, but they can only hold the mail for your name. Which of course doesn't help us since we're getting mail for 5 different people, if not more. Half of this mail wasn't even addressed to us! Among the pile were a few bills that needed to be paid, but fortunately nothing dramatic.
Naturally the cottage had 6 weeks of dust on everything, and after picking up the mail I started cleaning. I'm allergic to dust, so I generally vacuum twice a week, and since we don't have hot air heating that seems to keep the dust down. Anyway after vacuuming the entire place, sorting through the mail, cleaning the bathrooms, counters, shelves, etc things are back to normal and homey again. :)
I don't know if you're aware of this, but every country has it's own smell. I have a sensitive nose, and smells really strike me when I'm going to a new place. The funny thing about coming back to England was recognizing the "England smell" when we got back, but even funnier was coming back to our cottage and having the place that we think of as home smell like England too! Unfortunately with it being winter in Michigan there wasn't much to smell, although I did notice the different smells when we first got back there.
Believe it or not it's supposed to be in the 50s this week- global warming has had a major impact on weather here, and Cambridgeshire has gotten progressively earlier springs. 20 years ago lakes around here used to freeze over in the winter, but not anymore. Locals are complaining that it's just too early for flowers to be blooming- imagine how surprised we'd all be if there were flowers in February and leaves coming out in March! My flowers are all still blooming outside, and now I have loads of bulbs and things growing and blooming as well. It just seems strange to me, coming from Michigan, that it should be so warm. I'll be needing to do a spring mulching of the garden soon before the plants get too big.
Please pr for us regarding our car situation- we're looking around, but the problem with not having a car is that we can't go anywhere in the evenings or on Sunday, which makes it basically impossible to get to chch or our home group, or any other evening event. The buses simply don't run then. We're helping with a 5 week class that stag is having every Monday night which is a sort of introduction to chrstn faith for those who are interested in knowing more about it- we will be taking the international table. But it's a bit hard to get home on Monday nights without a car, and most folks don't live in our direction (and many people feel that we live a long way out so I feel like I'm imposing getting a ride.) We're renting a car for 2 days to go round and check out some used cars in our price range- Ld willing we'll have one this weekend.
I wish I could send some of this gorgeous sunshine your way! It feels so cheery and spring-like today- I think we're going to go out and walk around at some of the manor houses today and just enjoy the "fine weather."
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