1. Creative Explosion Day
We were invited to breakfast with two friends of ours in the church. The day began in a normal fashion, with a fushion of British and American breakfast foods, and a sweet tea so sweet I believe it made our English friend, Mary, gag! At the least, she was certainly taken by surprise. Joel, an American from Massachusetts, loves sweet tea but even he could not roll with the intense sugar high that I had created. Breakfast was a delightful affair, but afterwards we got to talking which spiraled into a plethora of ideas as to what we could do involving Joel's sheepskins.
Okay, let me backtrack a bit. A few months back, whilst Joel was wondering the streets of Harlesden, he came across a man selling these large boxes of skeepskins for extremely cheap. He really had no purpose for them at the time, but it was apparently such a great deal he could not pass them by. In his defense, they are very nice. ANYWAY, back to the original story...
So we had been scheming for some time as to what to do with the sheepskins. Perhaps making satchel bags to sell out of them, or something, since it is a high quality leather. Mary mentioned that she had a chair which needed re-upholstering, and Joel and Seth believed they were up to the task. We were to reconvene later in the day for the project.
Later in the evening, we met together for the chair events. Top Gear (click the link if you don't know what it is) began to play over the projector, and the men were in their creative/masculine element ripping the old seat off of the chair.
Mary and I were planning on helping, but there really was no room for us in the procedure. Mary had also been wanting to make some pillow cases out of this nice fabric she bought during her trip to Kyrgystan (you can read more about her interests in this area here, at her blog - which is an interesting blend of cake and political/social awareness).
I helped her out with the cutting and measuring. Afterwards, her housemate, Keren (from Canada) brought us a sewing machine that had been left at the house long ago by an unknown source. Keren deemed machine "user friendly," and it was my job to teach Mary the mechanics of it so she could sew up the pillow cases. Keren then joined up to make some decorations for a baby shower she was going to, and thus the room became a Creative Explosion of different projects.
Keren making decorations
Mary and I working hard as well:
Joel and Seth's valiant (and succesful) effort(which, as it turned out, did not involve the skins at all, but some fabric Mary had):
But were Mary's pillow cases meant to be? The sewing machine certainly did not think so. We had to fight with it, as the thread continually kept breaking or getting caught it various parts of the machine. However, they were to be! Mary successfully finished them late in the night! Triumphant!
All in all, it was a great night with some friends, and an overall burst of creative juices for all.
2. New Forest Biking Adventure
Our second adventure was a trip to New Forest for a day of biking with church friends J and Chrissy. New Forest is ironically the oldest established forest in England, here since William the Conqueror! There are indigenous horses and ponies there as well, which were extremely comfortable around us humans. J and Chrissy were nice enough to drive us down in their car. We rented bikes (save Spike, who of course made the trip and did his best to keep up with the other bikes) and took off through the trails.
It was absolutely beautiful. We stopped by a river bank, and I got a few pics there to show the beauty of it. Because otherwise, I was obviously on the bike, and couldn't really take pictures...sorry everyone...
The oldest tree in the forest (which means it is super old):
Spike didn't have a kickstand...and thus struggled amongst his peers.
Ponies! They were completely comfortable with us...
It was really great to get out of the city. I hadn't realized how much I missed wide open spaces (cue Dixie Chicks) until we were back in them. The forest was so vast and huge, and there were stretches where we wouldn't see another human at all, just trees or green fields, or ponies. The quiet of the forest became a chorus of birds and branches swinging in the wind. Also, did I mention that the sun came out??
Riding along, I realized it was so beautiful to see God's creation untouched by man's hand. In a city, it's so easy to see the wonders of man's mind - the architecture, the works of art, theatre - it bombards me in such an obvious way, grabbing for my attention. But God does it in such a different way - it's quiet, and doesn't flash itself about. The more I looked, the more everything appeared completely beautiful - the clunky, twisted trees creaking in the wind, the sun sprinkling down to us from the shade, the open moors with ponies in the mellow light. It doesn't boast, it just is what it is. There's something beautiful about it.
J and Chrissy also treated us to immense (meaning yummy) cake and treats. Again, they were amazing...we've definitely been under a bout of hospitality!
On the way home, we got stuck in a little traffic, but it didn't matter, because they had The Hobbit audio version. Although this was great, I do have to say that Ian McKellan makes Gandalf as cool as he is. Cause this guy...struggled a little bit.
So those are our adventures for now...I'm sure there will be more! There's no real news on the job or grad school front, but if there is, we'll be sure to post it!
P.S. - We just received a coffee maker in the mail from Jason!! I have a feeling Ashley Roden or Amanda Crowe might have also been involved, but either way THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! WE'RE PUMPED TO HAVE CAFFEINE!
I was not involved with the coffeepot, but I was shocked to hear that you were surviving without one! How is that even possible? Isn't coffee a necessary nutrient that you need to get through the day? I'm glad you have one now, though!
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