Hadrian's Wall

Since we can't moving into our new place until tomorrow, we've made the most of our rental car privileges and went on a few outings.  Yesterday we went to Hadrian's wall.  There were also Roman ruins of a fort and a museum with a lot of artifacts and stones with Latin markings on them.  I thought of Matt Petersen, the Latin teacher at Whitefield, a lot. :)

It was really windy, hence the scarf on my head.  Nathan wanted his own picture with the ruins, but I jumped in at the last minute.  HaHAAA!

I thought the wall would be taller.

Here is a picture of some of the stuff in the museum.

While we were driving through some sweet villages, Nathan pulled over and mooed at this brown cow.  It turned its head and posed for the camera.

We had tea and scones in this cute little town.  The cafe was called The Monk's Tea Room.  There's a church next door that was founded in 1165.

Our First English Friends

We ran into a small problem with housing.  Our converted barn home will be ready this Thursday, but our time at the farm expired on Saturday.  For the in between time from yesterday to a few days from now, we're staying with Sam and Emily Dickinson (yes, that's her real name), the woman in the blue vest and the chap next to her.  We were hooked up with them through our pastor, Paul.  Paul's nephew goes to church where Sam is the youth director, and they called us up and asked us to stay with them.  Praise God for his provision!  Sam and Emily's good friends Will and Rachel and their baby Emily were visiting from London the same day, and all of us hung out and had lunch, went for a gorgeous walk, and had Indian curry for dinner before they left.

Sam and Emily have been the most gracious hosts, and after church this morning we took them to see our new place.  They've also been fantastic in letting me blog away all afternoon today.  I hope you enjoy the posts.  Please be sure to go to the next page, as there is more fun to be had there as well! 

Rainbows, God's Promise

Driving back to the farm on our second to last day, we saw the most awesome rainbows!  Here are a few pictures, but they won't do the real thing justice at all.

How God Showed Us Our New Home

During part of our dinner conversation and Sunday, the Texans told us that they visited the most beautiful gardens - right in the middle of the city - called Crook Hall and Gardens.  On Monday, Nathan took me there for a break from the stress of trying to get settled.  As we were walking up the street, we stopped in front of a little driveway and saw this house.

"Isn't that the most beautiful English house?" he said to me.  "We should knock on the door and ask them if they'll rent a place out to us."  

After having read some about English culture (Kate Fox's book, Watching the English, has been a fascinating read), I made myself the authority on the subject and asserted that it was definitely NOT okay to just walk up to someone's house and knock on the door.  I huffed a little huff and rolled my eyes and said, "I just want to see the gardens.  Let's get on with it!"  Boy, am I ever going to regret that.

The gardens themselves were just gorgeous, as you can tell just a bit from the pictures below.  The house, built in the 13th century (I think), was also really cool.  It was renovated in the 16th century as well.  There's a breathtaking view of the Durham skyline from the property.  It's amazing that it's that close to everything while giving visitors the feeling of being out on an English manor somewhere in the countryside.

Sweet peas... one of my favorite flowers!

After touring the gardens, we had some tea and scones on the patio.  In the window of the nearby building we saw a flyer about a converted barn for rent.  The owner of Crook Hall and Gardens popped out of the office and said, "You're not interested in the place are you?"  Before we could refuse because of the somewhat high price, he said, "I'll just go and get the key," and dashed off.  Well, this is what we saw just next door.

It's called the North Barn, and it's owned by the folks in the house just behind it.  It was converted from a working barn into a mother-in-law suite about 15 years ago, and it's so charming and beautiful and lovely and all kinds of English words you must use on this little place.  The floor plan is very similar to the barn we stayed in on the farm: one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen and living/dining area, and a loft.  After discovering that it came with absolutely everything (all furniture, dishes, cookware, ironing board, washer/dryer, etc.) the price wasn't looking so high after all.  We also got 20 pounds knocked off the price because we wouldn't be using a parking space.

Here's a view pretty much straight on.

Our very next door neighbor will be the White Lady, who haunts Crook Hall supposedly, and all the beautiful grounds and gardens.  It happens to be up the very driveway where Nathan wanted to stop before we came to the gardens - the one whose door he wanted to knock on to ask if there was a place to rent.  He has yet to let me live it down every time we pass that spot on the driveway.  Anyway, now that we know where we'll be for at least the next 12 months, you absolutely must come and visit.  I've been told that we may be getting season passes to the garden. :)

The Heart of Texas

Last Friday night, after a discouraging day of not finding a place to live, Nathan and I stumbled into a little Indian restaurant called Rajpooth.  We sat down and heard some folks next to us ordering their drinks in an American accent.  Nathan made a comment like, "You're a long way from sweet tea around here."  A few shrieks of delight later, we learned that they were from Texas and they invited us to eat with them.


In short, this fabulous group of five was part of a larger fabulous group that was here for a wedding: Julia, Patsy, Joye, and Roger (Scott was taking the picture).

Their pastor's daughter, Angie, was a PhD student at Durham and she was marrying a fellow PhD student, an Englishman named Steve.  More than 20 folks from that church in Houston flew out for the wedding.  The more we talked, the more crazy connections we had.  They were believers.  The house we wanted was in the same neighborhood - Gilesgate - that the soon-to-be-married couple were to live in.  They had all taken a two-week trip to Israel two years ago and studied through Jerusalem University College, the very school where I studied for a semester.  It was an awesome, really encouraging time sharing that meal.  They even paid for our portion and sent us home with the leftovers, which we ate for the next three days.  Then, they invited us for dinner again on Sunday night, which we accepted.


On Sunday evening, Nathan and I were meandering through town working our way over to The King's Lodge, where the Texans were staying.  I was looking through a shop window when I heard a slightly Southern American accent.  When I turned around I recognized Patsy in a group of seven or so.  I kind of jumped out from behind a brick pillar with my "hook 'em horns" sign on both hands and yelled, "TEXAS!"  They all screamed!  Then we screamed!  Then I'm sure the police were called because of all the loud American screaming going on.  We went to dinner with an even bigger group to a pub and got our meals paid for again.  We told them we'd follow them anywhere.  


Through conversation, I hinted that Nathan had a great testimony, so one of the women, Marilyn, insisted that he tell his story back at the hotel.  "Okay, people, we're fixin' to have church!" she said.  When we all herded in there, we re-arranged the furniture in the reception room and Nathan told them all about his conversion and about how God was working through his redemptive story even now.  It was so awesome!  We stayed up late talking with them, and even got to meet the bride's parents when they came back to the hotel, who are just awesome.  They gave us their daughter and new son-in-law's information, so hopefully we can be friends. 


Here are some pictures of just a few of them.  I wish I had gotten one of the whole group.  Maybe next time. :)

Julia and Roger

Scott and Patsy

Exploring the City of Durham

In the States when you're looking for a house, you call an agent, tell her what you want, and then she'll draw up a list of potentials for you.  She'll even come and pick you up at your house and show them to you, even if they're not listed by her agency.  You might see 10 houses in one day.  Um... that's not the case here.  

You have to physically go into each separate estate agency and look through a book of listings, pick which ones you want to see, and then make an appointment to see it with an agent, which might not happen for several days.  Then, you have to find the place yourself and meet the agent there.  It made the process very slow for us, which was frustrating, especially because we didn't have phones at first, and we definitely did not have internet access out on the farm.  We checked out about seven or eight places eventually - but over a week's time.  

During our non-house-hunting time, we got cell phones, set up a bank account, ran several errands at the University to get Nathan fully registered, etc.  We stopped in a coffee shop to get our first dose of internet and to tell our families that we were here safely, even though it had been a day or two.  We ended up having to pay for the internet by registering for an account, but it wouldn't take our credit card because Citi thought someone had stolen it - even though we told them we were moving and NOT to shut down our card.  Grrr...  

Anyway, we discovered the public library the next day, which allowed us free WiFi for the life of our computer batteries (our adapters don't work there for some reason) or the ability to use their computers for 30 minutes at a time.  Below are some pictures of us taking tea and coffee and of the Palace Green, where the Durham Cathedral and the castle meet, and where Nathan's department office is located.  Isn't it gorgeous?  We've had such lovely weather so far.  It's been great.

In the parking garage in the City Centre, Nathan pressed the button to get a ticket, but out came what looked to be a yellow poker chip.  It somehow knew when we came in, because when we deposited it into the pay station on our way out, it charged us the right amount of money.  Nathan got a kick out of saying "chip coin issue" in an obnoxious British accent every five seconds after that.

Meanwhile, Back in the Barnyard

After a death defying drive on the opposite side of the road in the rental car, we finally arrived at our temporary accommodations.  This is the little cottage where we stayed for our first 10 days in England.  It's on a farm between two little villages (Tow Law and Wolsingham if you're interested) west of Durham.  We walked in and said, "This is so cute!"  There's one bedroom and bathroom as well as a living/dining area, kitchen, and a loft with two beds upstairs.

This is the bedroom.

This is the view from the loft.

This is the outside.  The building itself was called "The Byre."

This is the main house on the property where the owner lives.  Her name is Linda, and she was so kind and helpful, even lending us her road atlas until we got it together and bought a GPS (called a SatNav here).

A boy sheep.

Some nice cows.  The smell reminded me of Bakersfield.  Ahhh...

A happy chicken.  Truly free range.  The chickens were everywhere, especially when we wanted to drive the car down the driveway. :)

These stone walls intrigued me.  Apparently they're very difficult to make, and it takes a skilled person a long time to create one.  There are miles and miles of them in the countryside.

Here we are enjoying the gorgeous English countryside from the farm!