September 16, 2008

Us on the roof of Ely Cathedral

I haven't posted a blog in awhile not because there haven't been interesting events- just you wait. :) But a friend of ours through the group we train students with in Kansas every May has been living in North Africa for 9 months and came to visit us on one of her mandatory 3 month visa runs. We were so blessed to just spend time with her, to hear about the work she's doing there, and all about her team, and what it's like to live in her country. It was great to speak English with an American and catch up on life. It's always a bit sad sending people off back home, but today was a good day of catching up on random things I'd left undone, and getting photos up and that sort of thing.

Of note this week was an experience that poor Nelly went through- fortunately she hasn't been too scarred I think, since she too has had stress innoculation. :) On Saturday (or maybe it was Sunday) we were gone all day, and we got back in the evening and heard this piteous meowing coming from the bedroom. Somehow the wind had caught the bedroom door and shut it, trapping Nelly in the bedroom. Now having read enough about cats and stress I was pretty sure that Nelly would have expressed her anxiety in the typical cat way- peeing or pooping on the bed. Cats do that when they are stressed, although sometimes they choose another piece of furniture. Anyway I was right- apparently Nelly connected being shut in with G, since she went on his side, and left a big poo right near his pillow. :) It all turned out fine in the end because we just flushed the misplaced poo and took the duvet off the bed, and nothing had gone beyond the duvet (we changed the sheets for good measure) so it was all good. Poor Nelly was very upset, and also very very hungry, and she stuck to us like glue for a few hours after that. She's still been a bit hoarse yesterday and today. Fortunately we had just ordered a new duvet (a wool one) and it arrived today, so we can just toss the peed on duvet- we'd wash it if our washer was big enough, but it's not and there are no laundromats here. Go figure. :)

I caught some sort of nasty bug that kept me in bed last week Sunday to Wednesday, then our friend S came on Thursday, and she just returned back to North Africa today. While she was here we went out to Ely and Wimpole, and Anglesey, and just enjoyed being outside in the nice autumn weather and sun, and enjoyed the beauty that is England on a sunny day. Honestly, the paintings just don't do it justice. We also tried some new places to eat including a Mexican place (it was really good.) I took some photos for our WWII veteran friends at Ely Cathedral- I know that in America we don't do such a good job of remembering our veterans, but I want you to know that you are VERY well remembered here in the UK for the service you provide to your country and to theirs. Every chapel, church, village, city etc has a memorial to those who served, and at Ely they have stained glass windows representing the bomber pilots who fought in the war. Here are a few photos:

This one represents those who flew the skies over Ely during the war.

Flying at night over the waters of the channel.

The search lights looking for them on their safe return home.

One of our favorite things to do at Ely is take the Octogon Tower tour, which takes you up to the top of the tower, and you can see how the tower was made and hear the history of it. At the very top is this small door that you'd have to be teeny to fit through, and the guide opens the door up so you can look out. I happened to look at the keys on the door, and thought it funny to see normal keys on a keyring with this massive skeleton key!

Here they are! :)

The day before S came to visit I went to another little village called Haslingfield, which had their Scarecrow Festival this week. I took some photos of the scarecrows, many of which were very clever indeed!

Trimming the hedges!

The emblem of the village- it's Queen Elizabeth I on her visit here in 1530ish.

Many old cottages border on the cemetery in this village.

A sea serpent scarecrow.

My personal favorite, the stork bringing babies.

iBASE (that's our international group for 18-25s who are language students and nannies or other workers) went very well last Tuesday- it was our first meeting of the term, and G prepared a great study for us. We were small in number but are expecting more to come tonight. We've changed venues and are now meeting at the ch because there aren't any homes for us to meet in this term. But we're trying something new out tonight- the leaders are going to meet to have dinner together and pr for the study over sandwiches. Nothing glamorous but it'll be nice for us as a mini team to do that together.

Now that autumn is definitely upon us it's getting cooler at night, and I've started hanging up our curtains in the doorways and on the stairs to stop the drafts. We've also pulled out the space heaters, which are faster and warmer than our central heating radiators (not to mention cheaper.) The days are getting shorter, the trees are turning brown (that's what they do here- they just turn brown and then the leaves fall off), and the march of the Giant House Spider has begun as they wander around looking for mates. We're finding them about every 3 or 4 days now, which compared to last year's once a day is quite a good thing- putting them outside has helped reduce our numbers. But we still find massive ones. I found some spider legs on the floor the other day (yuck!) and can only assume that Nelly ate the rest of it, which I'm ok with. :) We also found a newt who had wandered in on his own- maybe he was after some bugs too?

Our teeny little newt who wandered in.

I hope that you are enjoying the fall colors and the relatively warm days- it's hard to believe this is our second fall in the UK!