Weatherman in the making! I love weather, but other things pique my interest as well. Other loves include Jesus Christ, People, Traveling, and Mississippi State Athletics!
Time is really beginning to fly by! It is hard to believe that I am over 2/3 of the way through my internship here. In 35 days, I will (by God's grace and will), be on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean between Madrid, Spain and Chicago, Ill., USA.
I am late(ish) once again on writing this blog. This was another busy weekend.
This week I spent much of it at Andrew and Grace's. Daniel and Grace took three days off at the beginning of the week, and visited family in York and Ipswich. While at Andrew and Grace's, I went into Grantham and visited a relatively new Christian bookstore, looking for some Bible study materials. While I was happy to talk with the lady who owns the shop, I couldn't find anything that really jumped out at me as what I was looking for. Additionally, when I talked with her on the way out, I discovered she had a pet rat with her. Which she kept on her person. The rodent made several appearances from behind her ear, and even through her scarf and jacket. While I have never dealt with the bubonic plague, I'd prefer that to be one thing I do not experience on this earth.
Tuesday afternoon was spent at a nice old house on the north east side of Grantham called Belton House. The house is owned by the National Trust, sort of like the Historic Societies in America. The house has a large garden, orangery, boathouse, lake, maze of hedges, stable, and servant housing in addition to the house itself. While unable to get into the house, we did explore the landscape surrounding the house.
Lake and boathouse.
Looking through the back garden.
Belton House
Tuesday night was a long but glorious night as I was able to video chat with the MSU Baptist Student Union at their last meeting of the semester. It was wonderful to see some faces I haven't seen in a couple months, and although once the meeting began it was dark. I knew people were there, and were listening due to the noise, and some responses. Additionally, I received a few tweets, and some iMessages from people during that time. It is so very encouraging to be able to hear from people who you have been around for 4 years still care about you, and are genuinely interested in what you are doing.
MC came around Wednesday afternoon to discuss life and how things are going as a 5 day old Christian. It was great to just chat about the Christian life, learn some of the foundations to what we believe, and discuss what prayer is, and how on earth you go about praying by yourself.
Thursday morning I ventured back into Grantham (rat-free this time), and visited St. Wulfram's Cathedral. It is quite a large cathedral considering the town. The spire was completed in the 13th century, and standing at 282 feet, and some odd inches, it was purportedly the tallest structure in England upon completion.
St. Wulfram's Cathedral. Church of England.
Friday was another busy day of cleaning, mentoring, Bible study with teens in Harby, and then video chat with two fantastic brothers, Aaron and Isaac. I have missed them both terribly since we returned to the U.S. after my first visit to Grantham back in May. It was good to see them and share with them personally what has been going on as they know some of the people I work with personally.
Saturday I visited Melton Mowbray and was able to walk around during the Saturday market. Thankfully the market was on because Melton isn't exactly a throbbing metropolis. The square where the market was held is pleasant, but small. I also visited St. Mary's Church which was very nice and interesting as the steeple had a clock on it, but the staircase to the clock was on the edge of the steeple, so you could tell where the staircase was quite clearly.
Sunday was a very busy day, as I went to three services. We had a nice group at the Earlesfield Community Church again this week. However afterwards, Lois was being baptised (when in England, spell like the English) in Nottingham, so we raced back there to join and celebrate with her.
Lois, and one of the pastors, Pete!
All in all, a good week, with another busy week ahead. Things are going to be quite busy for the next 3-4 weeks, I will try to post weekly, but I'm making no promises for this stretch!
This past week marked one month of living and working in the UK. It truly is hard to believe it has been a month already! I looked up how much longer I have, and looking at those numbers is quite sad. While I am not even a third of the way done with my time here, it's sad to know that the time is coming, and if the rest of the time goes by as fast as the first month, I will be back in the USA before you can say, "Top of the morning!"
England appears to be mourning the fact that I have a limited time also. The passing of time also appears to have brought with it more typical English weather. After nearly a month of warm temperatures, mostly sunny skies and all around pleasant weather, this week a cold front moved through, the temperature has dropped and it has been rainy and cloudy for almost 48 hours now. I think England decided I couldn't spend this much time here without getting a taste of good ole English weather.
So that was "The Cold," but additionally, this week I came down with a nasty cold, that set up shop in my chest and head. Monday and Tuesday nights were rough sleeping because I couldn't breathe. Andrew and Grace gave Olbus Oil, and boy, that stuff works! Your eyes start watering from sniffing just one or two drops of that stuff! It is potent.
The work is continuing to go along, fairly steady. We are still meeting and having good discussions at our Tuesday night Bible study, there are 3 moms that come steadily to Tots and Toys, but there has been at least one other mom the past three weeks. We had another Explorer's Club this week. I was in charge of the craft. It went fairly well. We talked about Noah and the Ark, so for the craft we took paper plates, cut them in half, then cut out the middle. The outside edge was the rainbow, which we decorated, and we even have clouds made of wool balls (cotton balls in America). We took the middle part we cut out, flipped it upside down, and made the Ark out of that. Finally, we punched holes in the rainbow and the Ark, and tied them together with string! All in all, I was proud of the craft, especially since I came up with the idea. Here is an example (my example), excuse the coloring, being color blind, coloring in rainbows aren't my specialty.
I also had the privilege of leading the older youth at Connected (the weekly Bible study for Harby youth) last night (Friday). Despite it being myself, and 8 girls, things went pretty well. Everyone got to hear my "American" accent last night when I said the word "ham," apparently it sounded a whole lot different from how they say it.
Next week's blog will definitely be delayed, if not cancelled, as from Thursday through Saturday of next week I will be traveling with Andrew to and from Scotland. Someone else is joining the team (permanently) from Scotland, and we are helping them move! I'm excited to see Edinburgh, try Haggis, and see the Highlands. I feel like I will be following the trek that the Granthams made in the final episode of Series 3 in Downton Abbey.
Speaking of Downton, here in the UK, the season started the Sunday after I arrived. Grace M., kindly recorded them, and so I saw the first two episodes of series 4 Thursday. I'll do my best not to spoil it, but in the first episode, a long time member of the house leaves, and a trouble maker returns. Hope that whet the appetite of everyone who watches Downton.
One final thought. Sunday at church, we always have tea and cakes after the service. This past Sunday I was on tea and cakes duty. So I helped boil the water in the giant pot (as big if not bigger than the ones at the BSU). Unfortunately, I didn't know there was a switch on the bottom side of the pot, to prevent the boiler from burning itself out when there isn't any water in it. So, when we went back after service to get the "boiling" water, it was cold. The water was just as cold as when it came out of the tap, if not colder. Clearly, I need to work on my boiling water skills. Along those lines, I would love to get a house water boiler when I am back in the States. They are quite handy, they look like a kettle, but you plug it into the wall, and it boils water in a just 3-4 minutes. When I saw boiling, I mean boiling. I guess this means I'm starting my Christmas list now, haha. I'll save the rest of my list for Santa. I wonder if there is a different address for Santa over here?
So, this week, at request from my dear, dear ginger friend, Caitlin (who doesn't have Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. "THE HORROR!"), I shall be posting pictures of my travels hither and yon (nice antiquated phrase, huh?). This week, I have had the pleasure of exploring two cities. Now, neither of these cities is London, sorry y'all. London will come later this autumn.
Monday: I hit up Nottingham. Now many of us know Nottingham from this...
Am I right? Classic Disney.
Back to my and exploring. I discovered Nottingham Castle, and there is a statue of Robin Hood there (how convenient), so I took my wee bit of photography skills and put them to use.
This is the normal touristy shot of ole Robin. He is well prepared for wherever the Sheriff might appear.
On the right we see where Robin expects the Sheriff to be coming from. The opening there in the wall is underneath the main gate into the castle.
Below, it appears that Robin thinks YOU are the Sheriff of Nottingham. Watch out!
Okay, enough cheesy commentary and tourist photos of a statue.
Nottingham Castle despite the name, really isn't a castle. I know, disappointing. It used to be a castle, then it was destroyed, a Duke was given the castle, he removed the rubble, and built a nice... mansion. Several years later the Duke did not support a bill that the townspeople liked, so they burned his mansion. Can you imagine if people in America did that to the White House now!? (wait, isn't that the premise of White House Down?) Anyway, so the inside is just a museum, with a very modern interior. :(
This is a panorama from an outlook of the castle. I still haven't entirely got the whole iPhone panorama thing down yet. Things are a little smooshed.
This is the main entrance into the castle itself. It reminds me of French palaces, like Versailles and the Louvre, except on a MUCH smaller scale.
Side note: the garden was very quiet and pleasant.
Nottingham had several churches throughout the city centre. The largest and by far the most photogenic is St. Mary's Church. It is Church of England (as are almost all in England). Here is a lovely picture I took as I was walking alongside of it. I couldn't get inside the church because I was there on a Monday, and Monday is the only day it is closed.
I really, really like this picture.
I also saw the canal, the Victoria Clock Tower (sadly, not all that impressive), and a couple other churches in Nottingham.
Canal
St. Barnabas' Church, Roman Catholic.
Tuesday through Friday were working on the estate. This week I've basically settled into the routine fully. Which is good, but it also means I must be on my guard to laziness, oversleeping, Satan's attacks and inattentive to what God is doing and showing me. We had a company of people at Bible study on Tuesday, and loads of moms at the Tots and Toys.
Working on my British pop teen angst look.
British thug right here.
Get on my level, One Direction.
Saturday, Grace M. had a conference in Derby (pronounced "Darby") and offered to drop me off near the city centre (and shopping mall) for the day. So I joined her for another touring adventure. This time I had the fortitude to look up what there is to see in Derby. I found their museum was free(!!) as well as the cathedral. First stop was the museum. It was quite small and so before walking in I was a little disappointed, and unsure as to what I would see. It turned out to be very nice. They house a fairly large collection of Joseph Wright artwork. He was a renown 18th century portrait artist who hailed from Derbyshire (that's, 'Darby-sure' for you Americans) which is the county in which Derby is. The museum gave lots of history information about Derby, specifically its military history. Derby was the southernmost point "Bonnie Prince Charlie" made it in his quest to unseat the Hanoverian dynasty from the English throne, and return his father (James, a Stuart) to it.
Handsome man right there.
"Bonnie" means good looking in Scottish tradition.
Derby has a colored military history, loyally serving the crown from Canada to South Africa, to India, to Hong Kong, the Crimean War, and of course both world wars. It is very interesting to see these wars from the British perspective.
Small historical fact:
Battle of Yorktown, VA 1781. The British surrender to the Americans and the French.
Odd.
Derby was also known for its porcelain, and their collection is quite nice. Some of it quite beautiful. The porcelain was all behind glass, and so I couldn't get a good photo.
After the museum, I went over to Cathedral. I was happy that this one was open, and the caretaker was extra friendly, I think she was glad to see a under 40 person interested in the cathedral. It was very nice cathedral, very formal, but that is to be expected from the Church of England. I wanted to climb up the tower, so I asked the woman about it, and she explained that normally they do them, but today they weren't because they had the Derby Mountain Rescue Team repelling down from the top as a publicity thing for the rescue team. I'm not sure if its sacrilegious to repel off a cathedral, but it was odd to me. It was also odd because there are no mountains in all of Derbyshire. In fact the highest point is 2,088 feet above sea level, this point is a flat mound, its not even a peak. The lowest point is 100 feet above sea level. So I guess the cathedral is about the sharpest incline they have to practice on.
The tower on Derby's Cathedral.
I spent a good amount of my time in the Westfield Shopping Centre. This place was posh, and huge. The main part of the mall is two floors, with a third floor for a couple restaurants, and a fourth level for the cinema. Some of the stores within the mall had 3 levels themselves. They had basically every posh shop that is found in Britain, and had three different outdoors stores. Naturally, I went into the outdoors stores, as well as looked for the food court. They had a very nice food court, plus about 10 different cafes and coffee shops scattered throughout the mall. There was a market, a grocery store, and about four shops like the dollar tree. They had everything, even 5 barber shops (called hairdressers here, very posh).
Keeping it classy here in Britain.
All in all, it has been a good week of weather once again. This is a rare treat for them, normally it is about 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler, and rainy. It has only rained once this week, with highs in the mid-upper 60s.
I know this week's post isn't really that much on the ministry necessarily, but I hope it gives you a little glimpse of some of the culture in Britain!
Now that I am back home in East Tennessee, I hope to keep up the blogging. It was a wet Mother's Day here in at home, but beginning today and looking forward through the weekend, things are drying out, warming up, and making for a fantastic time to get outside and enjoy God's Creation.
The shortwave(s) that moved through the South over the weekend are finally pushing north east, and exiting the region, there is one small wave of energy that could bring us some convection later on Wednesday, but that is a very slight chance, otherwise, the atmosphere will continue to become more stable. The dew points will remain in the upper 50s to low 60s across much of the South, so things will be a little muggy, but it is May. Moisture should be on the rise here in the South at this time of year. Without the clouds and rain, and the sun shining on us, the temperatures will rise from the mid-60s this past weekend into the low-mid 80s by Saturday. Very pleasant and summer-like conditions are on their way to us. Even better than the summer though because I do not expect any pop-up showers or T-storms to develop in the afternoons.
The next real chance for any precipitation is looking to makes its appearance in our area on Tuesday according to the GFS, this would be the earliest I think it would arrive, and it will be another cutoff low associated with a shortwave off of an upper-level trough that will track over the weekend from California to Quebec, Canada.
Only two days til spring break begins, and I am so ready for it to be here! In honor of my departure for a week to Fort Collins, Colorado for spring break.
The one to the right is GFS surface temps for Friday at noon, about when we are departing. The one below is the NAM version of the same thing. Using the chart, it can be determined that some colder air is going to be in place of Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma; however the GFS is more progressive in bringing back the warmer temperatures. So for the drive, the cold front will be south or east of our route, and it will be well above freezing for us during the day, and so driving conditions should be good for the trip across the Great Plains.
Once we get there, things are looking fairly nice for Northern Colorado in early-mid March. There will be a low developing the lee of the Rockies on Sunday-Tuesday in Southeast Colorado. This low will remain east and/or south of Fort Collins, keeping myself and our group in an area of NVA(DIV) sinking air. Clear skies are anticipated through Tuesday night. Clouds appear to be pushing into the area Wednesday morning into afternoon. These clouds will be fleeting and Northern Colorado is going to continue to have wonderful weather through the entire week. The closest threat of poor weather looks to develop off the California coast with a deep trough on Thursday. Thankfully this system will not make it to Colorado until Friday at the earliest, by which point we will all be on the road, or even back home in Starkville. Due to the sunny skies, I anticipate slightly warmer highs than usual, but the lows to remain average.
Saturday: Sunny, 54 F.
Sunday: Sunny, 63 F.
Monday: Sunny, 67 F.
Tuesday: Sunny, 65 F.
Wednesday: Partly Cloudy, 64 F.
Thursday: Mostly Cloudy, 59 F.
In honor of the fact that Spring Break is just a week and a half away here at State, and the fact that my sister's Spring Break is next week, I figured I would give her fair warning about the weather for next week! Please note, this is a forecast for 5-10 days in advance, this is all subject to change as this is not the easiest thing to forecast. As one of my professor says, "Anything past 3 days is magic."
Ocean City, Maryland:
Ocean City is right on the ocean(duh!), here is a Google Earth image to show you all where exactly it is. It's right along the border of Maryland and Delaware on the Peninsula.
The weekend to start spring break(this coming weekend) is not looking so great for anyone on the East Coast. GFS is the free model that goes out past 3 days into the future, and currently it is showing a large low pressure in Ontario on Saturday morning, with a long cold front extending through much of the Mid-Atlantic, and even into the Deep South. Most of what Ocean City can expect is rain, since temperatures will be above freezing through Saturday night into Sunday morning. I doubt temps will recover much on Sunday as the cold front moves through Saturday night into Sunday. Highs should hang out in low-mid 40s for Sunday. Sunday night might reach down to freezing with the clouds having cleared out during the day on Sunday. A slow warm up will occur from Monday into Tuesday. Monday should be in the upper 40s, Tuesday will be in the low-mid 50s with southeasterly winds. Unfortunately, this is in advance of another system that by Tuesday afternoon/evening will be approaching. Wednesday morning is currently when I anticipate this making an impact on Maryland. Thankfully it should push quickly out of the area and by Thursday things will clear out again and warm up once more. The GFS expects a very quick warm up into the high 50s and pushing sixty. This warm up is again very short-lived with another system taking direct aim at VA/MD/DE for Thursday evening. Unfortunately, outdoor activities may be rather limited due to the weather for my sister and her friends. Thankfully all of this will not be snow or any other wintry precipitation.
Saturday: Rainy.
Sunday: Clearing, cool. 44 F.
Monday: Sunny 48 F.
Tuesday: Sunny, warmer 54 F.
Wednesday: Cloudy with rain moving in later: 52 F.
Thursday: Rainy and warm 58 F.
Friday: Cooler, 49 F.
Next Week I will plan on discussing Fort Collins, Colorado, since I will be headed there for my spring break! Hope you enjoy this!
