This is how we found our house when we arrived home from Manchester:
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
On the road
Kagi and I travelled to Manchester today for me to see my friend Ffion, who is a dentist in training, and to visit Jaco and Aneke, Kagi's pastor from Bots, who now live here too. We are now at their house.
I can't type much but hope to share about our adventures in Manchester (and winter wonderland Bradford) when we get home!!!
I can't type much but hope to share about our adventures in Manchester (and winter wonderland Bradford) when we get home!!!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Charity Shop
Today I spent most of the afternoon in a "charity shop" which one of the other young ladies from my home group manages. It was a nice afternoon in the fairly small, one-room shop.
I think this must be what Goodwill stores were like originally, but I'm not sure. Thrift stores in the States are very different than charity shops in the UK. This one is owned by a network of local churches who give out the proceeds from the shop as well as additional funds they steward to local charities. They provide a service to the low-income residents of the neighboring community by offering low cost clothing and household items.
The shop has one part-time manager and is otherwise run by volunteers. Most of them are ladies who volunteer once or several times a week.
This is definitely a part of the British culture. There are small charity shops all over. I find it interesting.
I think this must be what Goodwill stores were like originally, but I'm not sure. Thrift stores in the States are very different than charity shops in the UK. This one is owned by a network of local churches who give out the proceeds from the shop as well as additional funds they steward to local charities. They provide a service to the low-income residents of the neighboring community by offering low cost clothing and household items.
The shop has one part-time manager and is otherwise run by volunteers. Most of them are ladies who volunteer once or several times a week.
This is definitely a part of the British culture. There are small charity shops all over. I find it interesting.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Lovely Walk
Today I took a walk in the late afternoon through some of my favorite places in this area. Here are some pictures from my journey.
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| I began my walk in the "Heaton Allotments" which are little individual gardens which I believe people rent and use. It is a beautiful area with paths and hedges on the top of "Heaton Woods" which are beautiful -- more to come. |
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| I thought this fallen tree was really interesting looking. |
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| The view from the top of Heaton woods. You can see several nearby towns. |
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| Apparently this part of England is known for these special stone fences which were painstakingly built. Here, you can see only part of it is left standing. |
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| Walking back through the Allotments. |
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| Then I walked down through Lister Park. There are so many beautiful parts of it! |
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| I think this best captures the mood of the day:-). |
Quiet Snowfall
Today, Kagi and I woke up to snowfall, which was especially surprising because a few days ago I was thinking about putting my heaviest coat away and moving toward my lighter waterproof jacket for spring.
The day ended up being a pretty quiet one with day-to-day kinds of things -- laundry, work, cleaning, cooking. Probably the most exciting thing for me was making a curry for dinner. I loosely followed this recipe, and both Kagi and I really enjoyed the result.
We have been pretty busy this past week.We had an evening activity every night except Tuesday, including two sets of dinner guests and leading Global Cafe. We have loved having friends over and really enjoyed the week. Today was one of those days which seemed to have its pace set by the clouds and snow. We mostly stayed in, did work and chilled out. It was good to be quiet after a lot of hustle and bustle.
I think it's good to have days like this every once in a while (although I'm hoping for bright springtime to come soon)!
The day ended up being a pretty quiet one with day-to-day kinds of things -- laundry, work, cleaning, cooking. Probably the most exciting thing for me was making a curry for dinner. I loosely followed this recipe, and both Kagi and I really enjoyed the result.
We have been pretty busy this past week.We had an evening activity every night except Tuesday, including two sets of dinner guests and leading Global Cafe. We have loved having friends over and really enjoyed the week. Today was one of those days which seemed to have its pace set by the clouds and snow. We mostly stayed in, did work and chilled out. It was good to be quiet after a lot of hustle and bustle.
I think it's good to have days like this every once in a while (although I'm hoping for bright springtime to come soon)!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Oops...
I woke up this morning and I realized with some shock that I forgot to blog yesterday!
It was a really nice Saturday. In the morning, the we had a church ladies breakfast which five of us came to, which was very nice. I love times of sharing with women -- there is so much to learn. We had a nice time reading the Bible, sharing, and praying.
I came home and hung out with Kagi for a while. Then we had some great Skype conversations with good friends -- I especially loved speaking with Bumo and Hle who live in Toronto.
After the Skype conversations, though, I realized that it was later than I had planned to start preparing for our dinner guests, Tim and Bethan. We were just having spaghetti but especially after my Friday baking catastrophe I was uncharacteristically nervous to prepare the meal.
Ultimately, we had a great meal and a great time with these amazing friends. They are such a tremendous blessing to us, and we have a lot to learn from both of them.
We headed to bed pretty shortly after they left. Today has been a pretty perfect Sunday so far -- church for us is in the afternoon (soon, actually), so we slept in and then had a nice relaxing morning talking to each other. This afternoon I cleaned the kitchen and made bread:-).
Happy Sunday!
It was a really nice Saturday. In the morning, the we had a church ladies breakfast which five of us came to, which was very nice. I love times of sharing with women -- there is so much to learn. We had a nice time reading the Bible, sharing, and praying.
I came home and hung out with Kagi for a while. Then we had some great Skype conversations with good friends -- I especially loved speaking with Bumo and Hle who live in Toronto.
After the Skype conversations, though, I realized that it was later than I had planned to start preparing for our dinner guests, Tim and Bethan. We were just having spaghetti but especially after my Friday baking catastrophe I was uncharacteristically nervous to prepare the meal.
Ultimately, we had a great meal and a great time with these amazing friends. They are such a tremendous blessing to us, and we have a lot to learn from both of them.
We headed to bed pretty shortly after they left. Today has been a pretty perfect Sunday so far -- church for us is in the afternoon (soon, actually), so we slept in and then had a nice relaxing morning talking to each other. This afternoon I cleaned the kitchen and made bread:-).
Happy Sunday!
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