Thoughts on a New Year

Welcome to the year MMXI! Some people view a new year as a new beginning, a chance to start over or make a change. Others go into a new year with feelings of hopelessness and dread. As Pastor Phil preached last night, there is no reason to feel anxious about starting a new year, "their hearts will be steadfast, trusting in the Lord" (Psalm 112:7). And that promise is what Jeff and I are holding onto this year.

We have much to look forward to: a visit to Ohio in the Spring and being a part of Colleen and Luke's wedding; a trip to Colombia for my brother, Jason, and his fiance's, Angela, wedding in October; AND... drum roll... another move... this time to Telford in Shropshire. We don't know when we'll be leaving Gloucester exactly, but we think we will be moved by June. There are many unknowns, like the date of Colleen and Luke's wedding, when we'll be moving, and whether or not we'll be parents in the next year or so. We're leaving it to the Lord to guide us and trust in His plan for our life together.

We have been very blessed in 2010. Each day is another day to sing His praises. Another point Pastor Phil pointed out last night is that everything that happens, happens for good, even if at the time we don't see how something will work out. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28).

We don't know if this year will bring us happiness, prosperity, sickness or even death, but what we do know is that if you put your trust in the Lord, all things will work for good.

May the Lord richly bless you and your family in 2o11. Much love, Jeff and Lauren

Christmas in Gloucester

Jeff and I had a nice, quiet Christmas in Gloucester. We would have preferred to have had family visit, but it wasn't possible this year.

On Christmas Eve, we drove down to Selsley Hill just outside Stroud to have a walk in the frosty air. And boy was it cold! About -7.0 °C (19 °F). It was so cold that we couldn't even make a snowball... believe me, I tried... Jeff sure was lucky! But the view was beautiful and the sunset helped to create a romantic mood (awww!).

I just had to make a snow angel!
Our very long shadows - hmm... what are we doing?!

Jeff enjoying a quick run

Christmas Day was busy, but relaxing. Our morning started out with a cinnamon-themed breakfast: cinnamon coffee and cinnamon pancakes spread with cinnamon-honey butter. Then it was time to see what Santa brought us! Just after 10:00 we walked over to Quedgeley Baptist Church for the 10:30 service, which lasted an hour.

My favourite Christmas decorations - all from Germany

Our pressies under the tree - thanks Mom, Norm, Dad, Grandma, Robert, Beverly and Sharon!

Once we got home, I prepared our Christmas lunch: brown sugar-mustard glazed ham, roast potatoes, cranberry-orange stuffing, roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots. For pud we had individual Christmas cracker-shaped Christmas cake drizzled with cream. It was delish!
At 3:00pm we watched the Queen on the telly. This year's theme was about the importance of sports.
After the Queen was finished, we drove over to Jon and Claire's, but Claire was sick in bed. Jon's brother, Tim, was also there. We took turns playing with Eve and holding Isiah. In the evening, we played a round of Scrabble, but I have to admit, it wasn't one of my best games.

Jeff with 13 day old Isiah

All in all it was a nice Christmas - nothing too exciting, just nice.

Thanksgiving with Friends

We invited our friends Jon and Claire and their daughter, Eve, Phil and Kate Jones and their son, Daniel, to our house for Thanksgiving dinner.

We feasted on herbed turkey, my mashed potatoes, mushroom stuffing, green bean casserole, corn bread muffins with honey-cinnamon butter.
Later we enjoyed a ginger streusel pumpkin pie. It was delish!
After we were quite stuffed, we enjoyed talking and playing with the kids.

We had such a lovely time with our friends that day.

My frost-covered pumpkins glistening in the light.

Day in Bath

On Saturday, Jeff and I drove down to Bath, not so much to see the sites of the city, but to meet up with people: Jeff's colleague and his wife, Ally, and Ally's friends from Belfast, Ken and Lisa.

We arrived at Gareth's house (Jeff's colleague) at about 11:00 and had coffee with him. Gareth and Jeff have lunch together every day at work, so it's about time I met him. I even send a slice of cake with Jeff for him every time I bake something. His wife, Anna, was out riding her horse, so we didn't get to meet her until the late afternoon.

Gareth drove us into the center of Bath to meet up with Ally and her friends. The five of us went to a small restaurant/bar that Gareth recommended called "1453" on Monmouth Street. All of us were very happy with our meal. Afterward we just walked around the city, did a bit of browsing in shops and had the obligatory coffee later in the afternoon.

Lisa, Ally and Baby Bump, me and Jeff in front of the Bath Abbey

Us

Us again

Jeff loving his kiss!

Gareth kindly picked us up again and we went back to his house. Anna was there this time, so we quickly met her before getting ready to go out to dinner with them. We went to the restaurant of their choice, called "One Beaufort" (website), which is owned by the same French owner of 1453. Gareth and Anna were fantastic to get to know, as they are also interested in fine foods and historic homes (like the National Trust). Gareth said something along the lines of, "If tonight goes well, you two can spend the night next time you come down and we can show you around Bath more". I replied, "You're making it sound like we're dating the two of you!" In fact, we did have a wonderful evening with them and hope to make plans with them again soon.

One little surprise I have to mention: David Hepler came to stay with us for exactly 6 hours on Sunday. He called in the afternoon, explained that where had planned to stay fell through, so he asked if he could stay with us. He arrived Sunday evening at about 10:00. We sat up talking until midnight, and woke up to see him off at 4:00am. Sweet and short.

Newent Onion Fayre

It has been a few weekends since we went to the Newent Onion Fayre with Ally, but it's better to post it now than not at all. It has definitely turned to autumn around here; there's a nip in the air and the daylight is getting shorter and shorter.

The weekend after the wedding in Scotland, our friends Paul and Ally Ng came up from Bristol with a couple of friends. Paul and the friends kindly dropped Ally off at our house so we could spend the day together while they went on to a football (soccer) game just north of here. So Jeff, Ally and I went up to the village of Newent, about 20 minutes northwest of here, to walk around the Onion Fayre. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting, though. I thought it there would be tons of vendors selling everything onion, like the Pumpkin Show in Ohio, where there's things like pumpkin chili, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin fritters... you get the idea. We didn't even see onion rings for sale! Perhaps we just missed them, but they definitely weren't obvious. It was VERY crowded too...

However we did get to see the traditional fair bits, like the onion eating contest, the hall with award-winning onions, had a pork and stuffing sandwich for lunch and went home with a bag of... onions?... no... ears of corn! Hey, wouldn't imagine passing up 25p ears of corn, when usually you can buy them for £1.

It was very nice, though, spending time with Ally and getting to see her tiny baby bump. Just talked to her today and said that her bump is getting even more obvious! She's 19 weeks now. Very exciting!

Ally, Babybump (on Ally!) and me (I almost didn't include this picture because of how awful I look, but this is the only picture we took together.)

The onion eating contest hosted by Countryfile's Adam Henson

Homemade Onion Relish

Pork-filled sandwiches with stuffing and apple sauce - yum-o!

David and a Scottish Wedding

Wow, what a week last week was! First David Hepler, our very good friend from Munich, came to visit for a couple days, then we drove up to Scotland for Lindsay and Diane Graham's wedding. In the process we got to see lots of friends and even Gordon, Jeff's brother.

But first, remember the fruit we went foraging for that I wrote about in the last blog? Well, here's what came of it: a mixed-fruit cobbler. What better way to get your 5-a-day?


Luckily we had an extra mouth to help eat the cobbler. David came on Monday, 30th August in the afternoon to stay with us a couple nights. Luckily Jeff had the whole week off, but I had to work Monday and Tuesday. On Jeff and David got to go walking in the Malvern hills, just about a 30-minute drive north of our house.

David doing what he does best

A picnic with a view
Finding blackberries along the path is an extra bonus!

Tuesday evening we had dinner at a local pub called The Bumble Bee, then of course more cobbler for dessert. Wednesday morning I made a full-English breakfast, we packed up, and in afternoon we drove into Gloucester and took David to the Cathedral.
Unfortunately our time with David quickly came to an end. We dropped him off at the bus station where he caught a bus to London and we headed up the road to David and Sharon Palmer's house north of Preston (about 3 hours). After arriving at their house, we went to supper at a local Italian restaurant, then back to their house for more chatting and then to bed. The next morning we left quite early to continue our journey up to Perth.

On the way we stopped at a National Trust property called Acorn Bank Gardens and Watermill, not too far from the Lake District.

The view from the front of the property

The main reason for going to this particular property is due to their having a nice tea room and us having a coupon for two free cream teas. Not only did the tea, scones and clotted cream taste better due to them not costing us a dime, but we got to have them sitting outside in the sunshine.

To work off a few bites of our cream tea we walked around the gardens, the orchard, the herb garden and to through the forest to the watermill and back.

After a few more stops up the M6, through Glasgow and Stirling, we finally made it to Perth. Thursday evening we drove into the city, took a walk along the Tay River and through the downtown area until we came to a Chinese restaurant, where we ended up having supper.

Friday, 3rd September was the day of Lindsay and Diane's wedding in Pitlochry. Jeff has known Lindsay since his days living in Preston, and then Lindsay was Jeff's boss while he was working in Manching. After we got married, coincidentally, we ended up moving just a few blocks away from Lindsay and Diane, so that's when I got to know them and other friends who attended the wedding.

The wedding was in a chapel at the base of the hill where the reception would be.

The guests were welcomed by a piper playing the bagpipes.
Jeff and Lindsay before the wedding. Lindsay was remarkably calm.
Kissing the bride...

The wedding reception was held at the stunning Atholl Palace Hotel (website). Most of the guests walked up the hill from the chapel. At the top waiters were serving champagne and hors d'oeuvres, while the bride and groom had their pictures taken. It was absolutely perfect weather, so we didn't mind being outside for a couple hours.

Guests walking up the stairs to the reception
The new Mr and Mrs Lindsay Graham (and the piper!)

The reception hall


The cake was made by Lindsay's sister

Lindsay's nephews

The menu for the "Wedding Breakfast" - I have no clue why it's called a breakfast - was typically Scottish, starting off with "The Wee Beastie Purse" - haggis, bacon & thyme baked in filo pastry with Edradour whiskey cream.

The rest of the menu included passion fruit sorbet, tarragon roasted sirloin of roast beef and warm apple, cinnamon and butterscotch pie with coffee.

After dinner, we spent time outside again while the tables were cleared and watched the sun set over the hills.

The real fun began when we went back inside: ceilidh (pronounced kay-lay) dancing. This is traditional Scottish dancing, sort of like line dancing in the States, but without the twang! Lots of calories burned doing this, but loads of fun. Lindsay and Diane are now on their honeymoon in Cancun.

Saturday morning, we woke a bit tired and with sore feet. We picked Gordon up at a train station and headed over to St Andrews, the birthplace of golf and the oldest universities in Scotland.

The ruins of the cathedral

The ruins of the castle that was the scene of several incidents during the Protestant Reformation
On the famous Swilken Bridge on the St Andrews golf course. The scene of all the college men in Chariots of Fire running on the beach was filmed on the beach behind us.

After a light lunch and a bit more walking through the town we decided to head down the coast to a village our friend Kate recommended called Elie. We took a walk on a cliff overlooking the ocean to Lady's Tower. It was quite cold and windy so the walk didn't last too long.

Jeff and Gordon on the way to Lady's Tower

My handsome husband

Back in the car, we headed to the village of Anstruther, known for its award-winning fish and chips (another of Kate's recommendations). She said we'd identify the right place from the queue outside. After waiting for at least 45 minutes (at 4:00 in the afternoon!) we got our tasty meal and ate it in the car... it was too cold on the harbour. It was very good, but I think I've had better at a restaurant in the Lake District a few years ago. Jeff was very impressed by the chips though.

Jeff and Gordon at the back of the queue

Sunday morning we got back in the car for a long 7-hour and over 400 mile drive back to Gloucester. We did, however, stop at Richard and Liz Laird's house near Bolton for a couple hours.

We had such a wonderful week spending time with friends, attending a wedding, and enjoying beautiful weather and scenery.