ummm really?

so let's be honest. things haven't been all sunshine and roses here. i've tried to talk about the good things on this here blog... but bad things exist too. even in lovelyland.
the low point: erika and myself driving to the bishop's house at 10:45 pm hoping to have a moment of his time to defend ourselves against some weird things he's been hearing from linda. of course he lives on an unpaved country road. of course it's dark and of course there's a ditch with a stream in it running alongside the road that we totally can't see. trying to turn around to get to the house that we thought we missed, erika reverses the back two tires into the ditch and we now only have one tire on solid ground. no amount of flooring the gas pedal gets us anywhere. and we laughed. because really, what else can you do when you hit the low point? it's only gotta go up from there, right?
as it appears to be turning out, it did go up from there. almost immediately. today, three days later, we are moving to a holiday cottage in holmsfirth, near huddersfield. west yorkshire. cobblestone street. gothic church just around the corner. our own bedrooms. florist just down the road. two 'good morning's' while we were looking at the outside. best of all, no cats. pretty amazing, eh? i guess i'm still used to the low point though. i'm more than halfway expecting to hear that the cottage has burned down or something.
here's some pictures of our new home: hooray.

the place. it's an old barn kind of place.


our street. erika. quite pleased with the blue door.

i'll let you know if it catches on fire.

a wale of a tale

we went to wales. we went to six castles. the weather was decent on the first day. and hideous on the second. then of course, the third day, driving home, was as clear as anything and absolutely beautiful. we stayed in a cottage in the middle of a forest. but i'm mostly posting for pictures because the pictures of our wales trip say it all.

here: "a castle!"

and our self-time efforts. we're huddled around an ancient fire pit. can't you tell? names? well, back to front, left to right, is: kevin, seth, stephen, nathan, me, erika, patricia, and nerys.

more of our self-time efforts. kevin, patricia and me setting up our cameras. this one's for you, fam. does it remind you of stacey? :)

a tree in the forest around our cottage. i took this and i thought it was pretty cool.

so we hopped the fence and snuck into the grounds of this old manor house castle kind of thing. it was so much more fun because we were being mischievous. can you tell i'm having fun?

i just gotta tell ya

i now know someone who gets
pink floyd
and
dire straits
confused.
isn't that great?
don't worry, he gave me permission to make fun of him.

Rivington

we finally taught our first workshop this weekend! it was exciting and fun. i was surprised as we were driving there that i really was genuinely excited to do something so out of my comfort zone. it turned out pretty well... but as always, there's room for improvement. the work is picking up and we have a few more workshops to finalize and teach. it's great.
here's what i love: yorkshire puddings.
here's what else i love: rivington.
rivington is a little lake just about 8 minutes away from our house by car. there are trails going all around it through some fields and woods. it was so pretty. i went this morning and took a sunday stroll. i saw a few picturesque families with the cutest little kids walking around the trails. i tried to discretely take pictures (after all, what's the point of something being picturesque if you don't take a picture of it?) of a few of them, but never succeeded. in the end, i just came away with some pictures of the fields and trees and two of myself done with self-time. (are you proud of me, family? :) at some points on the trail i felt like i was marianne dashwood as she comes over the hill and sees combe magna (willoughby's house, of course) and proceeds to very nearly die of a broken heart, only being saved by (of course) the man who truly loves her. however, i should clarify: the only part that i experienced was the coming over a hill and seeing a grand house bit. i wasn't rescued by the man who truly loves me and i didn't nearly die of a broken heart. but the view of the house was breathtaking.
this evening after church there was a gorgeous sunset. pink and blue. and we realized that we hadn't seen such a beautiful sunset since we've been here. then we realized why: we can count on one hand the number of days that we've seen the sun at all.
oh, to be in england.