Six more weeks~

I woke up this morning with the realization that six weeks from tomorrow we fly back to America.

How fast the time has gone!

Yesterday I packed a large duffel bag with the warm clothes we aren't wearing now. I informed the children's school today of when their last day would be. I began an inventory on food stuff we need to 'eat up' before we go. And Jim is packing to fly for another interview in the States this weekend. We are leaving!

My friends are asking how I am doing with it all, and I would have to say, "well." When I think back to all the ways we miraculously saw God bring us here, provide for our needs and grow us richly, I can't help but be thankful we stepped out in faith and came. What a blessing it has been to be here for this time~we are all so much richer for this experience~

And the latest good news? Jim just finished his last research chapter! He just has one more chapter to condense (he wrote a bit too much for his liking) and should be hopefully done with that this week. Then, he just needs to write the intro, conclusion, and finish his bibliography. He is on track to finish by the time we leave.

He told me how fun it is to begin to return all his books back to their shelves! I am so proud of how steadfastly he has persevered with this immense project. Even I am still trying to get my mind around how challenging it is to write a dissertation, and how much work it is to finish well.

Please continue to pray for us as we end here; for the dissertation, for our good-byes to dear friends, and for our next transition.

We couldn't have done this without the encouragement, support and prayers of our friends and family. So often, we sit and marvel at the support we have received from so many to come and do this. Thank you dear ones. We are eager to see many of you again soon.

A princess party!

A party was in order yesterday. Sarah turned 6 and 1/2 and her friend Lena turned 6 and 3/4 on the same day~ (We don't need excuses to celebrate!)

Julia and her friend Rachel (along with a bit of help from Claire) planned a wonderful party for the little girls who live here at Tyndale House.

They planned 5 games, including "Princess, Princess, Queen" (except when they came to Andrew, it was "Prince.")


They had fun baking, and even spent their own money at the store for other goodies too~


After lots of treats, games, and watching "Cinderella" we sent home some very happy little girls~



Well done, girls!

Oreos in England!

'Color of Wet Mud!' Oreos Invade England

Dipping Biscuits in Tea is Fine -- but Oreos in Milk? Some Brits Bristle

By BRENDAN O'NEILL
The Christian Science Monitor
May 17, 2008

LONDON -- "It's very dark. It's almost black." May Woodward, an office worker in central London, is holding an Oreo cookie in her hands. It's the first time she has ever seen one "in the flesh as opposed to on an American TV show," and she's not sure she likes what she sees. "It's the color of wet mud!" she complains. "And the bit ... looks like toothpaste rather than cream."

(Landov/AP Photo)

She twists and turns the cookie in her fingers, staring at it from every angle with a screwed-up look on her face that seems to say, "Gross!" not "Mmm, cookie time." You could be forgiven for thinking she's handling some dangerous alien element, Cookie Kryptonite, say, rather than one of the best-known biscuits in the Western hemisphere.

She bites, chews, raises an eyebrow, chews some more.

"OK, I get it," she says, finally. "I can see the attraction. It's very sweet." Suddenly she seems to change her mind. "Actually it's too sweet ... it's becoming mushy," she says, alarmed as tentative chewing becomes frantic munching to wolf the cookie down.

I couldn't resist sharing this article with my U.S. friends. Although we were thrilled to see Oreos come into our local grocery store, it seems that not everyone here shares our enthusiasm!

Psalm 86:8-13

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.

All the nations you have made shall come
and worship before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.

For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God.

Teach me your way, O LORD,
that I may walk in your truth;
unite my heart to fear your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.

For great is your steadfast love toward me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

The drive home~

I normally wouldn't do a blog about our drive home, but something interesting happened that sufficiently warrants an entry.

Mary and I were stuck in a traffic jam (caused by a "horse trials" competition) on the way through the Peak District. No problem, we decided to take another road.

We were a bit concerned when we encountered this road, clearly shown on our map~


Since it didn't look like much of a road, we of course checked out the map again~


Yep, the road is there alright~on we go~

I thought the grass was beginning to get a bit high~


Wouldn't it be funny if this road just ended?

Ha-Ha~



We told the cows to stop laughing at us.

After much concerted prayer, I then proceeded to back all the way back down the lane (quite a ways) with Mary walking beside me. We opened a cow gate and tried to turn around, but couldn't quite do that. SO, we kept backing down the "road."

FINALLY we were at the end of the lane! When I tried to turn the car around I got stuck, one wheel spinning in the grass, hovering on a little precipice.

Mary walked into town and found two guys to help get us out. EGADS.

We are now home safe and sound! Praise the Lord.

Pride and Prejudice~the house!

*JANE AUSTEN*

DARCY. Pemberley. Derbyshire. I don't know about you, but these names immediately conjure up for me Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a cult classic.


On the way home from the Lake District we headed toward the Peak District, and Lyme Park, the beautiful mansion used in the A & E version of Pride and Prejudice (Darcy's home.)

The driveway into the house was well over a mile long, sufficiently impressive with vast sweeping fields and trees.

"The Cage" a hunting lodge on the property
Also used for locking poachers up when they were caught on the estate!

The house is of course very grand~


But I laughed at the huge car park behind the home. It was a lovely day to visit and the grounds of "Pemberley" were overflowing with tourists!


We did tour the house (sorry, no photography allowed) which was beautiful. The movie crew only used the outside of this home for filming, the inside was filmed mostly at Chatsworth, another National Trust property.

Beautiful manicured gardens~


Could this be the pond that Darcy dove into before that fateful meeting with Elizabeth?


We hiked up to the "lantern"


A lovely afternoon~

Is it already time to head home?

Beatrix Potter

Beaumont B&B

We headed northwest next up into the Lake District for our next stop. Spending two nights in Windemere, our express purpose here was to see Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's farm, and to hike.

We hiked first up to Orrest View, a beautiful hike that allowed us to finally overlook Lake Windemere and much of the surrounding areas~




Lake Windemere~


After taking a ferry across the lake, we hiked up to Hill Top~


along with a fair share of hills, we also disturbed our fair share of sheep~

We passed many beautiful stone cottages, available to rent on a weekly basis~

When we arrived in the little town of Sawrey, we knew we were close to Hill Top, because we met "Mr. McGregor" at a local pub~


Picture of Hill Top~unfortunately the pictures don't do this place justice. The gardens were lovely and the house was very interesting~




a few Beatrix Potter tidbits~(given to us by the National Trust employees of the farm)

1. Beatrix became old and crotchety (like her mum, according to our guide) as she aged.


2. Few people in town knew who she was, because when she married William Heelis, she obviously changed her name and didn't make a big deal of her writing~



3. She only invited Americans in for tea (in general) because so many of her British fans came to see her she wouldn't have had time for them all, besides the Americans tended to be educators, and she wanted to expand her reading audience.

Beatrix with her brother

4. The people in town are all very much indebted to Beatrix, she did much to save many, many farms for the Lake District, keeping farmers employed. (She ended up buying 4,000 acres en total.)

I would love to come back here, there was so much to see, and so many wonderful hikes that we weren't able to do! I encourage you, if you are ever in this area, to take full advantage of this beautiful place.

It rains, on average, 250 days a year in the Lake District, and we had a beautiful weekend! We were so thankful~

The literary tour~

I don't want to overwhelm you, dear friends, with our trip to the Lake District, (because if the truth be known we took over 600 pictures!) so I thought it would be helpful to divide our trip into literary sections. To begin:

*THE BRONTES*

Sisters Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte (there still remains a shadow of their brother Branwell, which appeared after he painted himself out. He didn't know that this picture would hang in the National Gallery, or else he might of worked a bit harder on cleaning this up!).

the parsonage, home to the Bronte family

Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey are of course classic novels that have stood the test of time. We wanted to see where this famous family lived, and so headed to the moors of Haworth to see their family home (and museum). See above~

We happened upon a wedding at the Bronte church~


Mary was especially eager to walk in the moors and see the home that inspired "Wuthering Heights."



The trail up into the moors took us through some picturesque places~


Green and beautiful on one side, and dry and rough on the other~


We hiked up in the moors for a bit, and we discovered why there are an abundance of stone fences, because that is what is predominantly underfoot! I was amazed at the people who ran and mountain biked across this terrain, I must say, they were in great shape. You would have to be, because this is hard going.

Down near the Bronte bridge and waterfall~notice the rocks everywhere!



After Shepherds Pie and a lamb and mint burger, we headed off to Windemere in the Lake District~

We're off!

Mary and I returned safely from our trip up to the Lake District~here are a few pictures to commemorate our weekend~

We are packed and ready to go! Getting our rental car~


Some woeful faces bid us good-bye~between the two of us, we left nine children!


On our drive North we saw a sign for Sherwood Forest, home to Robin Hood. We had to stop!

Here is Robin Hood fighting Little John on the bridge~

and a few more photos of our walk~



We took the walk to "the old oak tree" and found out that, indeed it was. Old, that is. 800 years to be exact. Obviously many old things need a little support!