Weekend Away

This last weekend Nathan and I went on a retreat with our church family. We had a great time getting to know our church family better and hearing God's word taught. It was in the Lake District, which was gorgeous in theory. We didn't see much of it because it was cold, rainy, and blustery - seriously blustery - the whole time, and we didn't explore much. 

Despite the weather, several people organized walks during free time on Saturday afternoon. There was a short walk (two hours) and a longer, more strenuous walk (four hours). Yes, in the rain and mud and wind and cold. The English love their walks. I contemplated going on the short walk until my American friend, Mindy, told me that "short" did not meet my American definition of "short." 

She and I decided to take the American eight months pregnant lady's version of a short walk, and we basically just sauntered around the grounds of the retreat center for about 45 minutes. It rained the whole time, but I just imagined what it would have been like if it was in the summer. The picture below was taken in front of "the summer house" on a little pond. So adorable!

I don't know if you remember Dave and Mindy's story, but they finally got their luggage back from Heathrow a few weeks ago... sans their digital camera. Sadly, they had not transferred any pictures onto their computer and thus lost them all. They didn't have a single picture of Mindy pregnant! I put a stop to that right away and snapped this shot.

She insisted on taking one of me in the same spot.

This is the path into the grounds. I'm sure those trees are gorgeous in the spring, summer, and fall.


Everyone was encouraged to bring "cake" (translation: dessert that you can eat with your hands, like muffins, cake, cookies, etc.) to share during tea breaks, and I got to try a lot of different homemade desserts. Tasty! Something wonderful happened during a tea break when Mindy marched up to me with one of my cookies half eaten in hand and said, "These chocolate chip cookies are amazing!"


"How did you know I made them?"


"Because these tasted like my mom's. They're proper American chocolate chip cookies, and you're the only other American here."


That warmed my heart. :)


One of the other highlights for me, and this may sound stupid, was coloring and talking at a table with five other ladies. My 49 pence coloring book is getting great mileage.