Bristol and Bath

 On Monday, October 19, we headed to Bristol to visit The New Room.

The New Room in Bristol is the oldest Methodist Chapel in the world (originally built in 1739 and extended in 1748) and the cradle of the early Methodist movement. It was built and used by John and Charles Wesley and the early Methodists as a meeting and preaching place and the center for helping and educating the needy members of the community. 

We sang a hymn and celebrated Holy Communion together.

Our Senior Pastor, Brian, is below. As a UMC pastor, I would think it would feel very special to serve communion in a place where John and Charles Wesley once stood.

We wandered the museum. Some of our folks walked to see Charles Wesley's house. We were told there were a lot of steep, skinny steps, so we chose to stay back due to Mark's knee. What is really bizarre is that while we were sitting in the cafe (behind the glass doors below), Mark stood up and somehow wrenched his knee and was in pretty horrific pain. We had some doctors with us, and they got him some meds, but he was limited in a few ways. I just think it is so weird that we didn't go see the house because we didn't want to hurt his knee further . . and then he literally stood up and bam!

He hobbled slowly to the bus.

We then drove to Bath, which was only about 15 miles away.

Below is Bath Abbey, or the Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It is a parish church of the Church of England and a former Benedictine monastery. It was founded in the 7th century - so old!! It is one of the most significant examples of perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country. As with most churches and cathedrals around the world, it has been damaged and rebuilt/restored over the years. One of the most interesting architectural details (to me) is the ladders -- see them on either side of the door? There are angels climbing them and are commonly called Jacob's Ladder.

We then entered the Roman baths. This is a world-famous, very well-preserved historic site. It is built around Britain's only natural hot spring.

This was founded around 60-70 AD during the Roman occupation of Britain and dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva.

There was a courtyard nearby with live musicians, and people were sitting all around the courtyard eating their snacks and listening to music.

Can you imagine taking a bath together with a whole lot of people?

As you wound your way down to the actual pool level, there were all sorts of artifacts. No one can enter the water due to pathogens. There was a "station" where you could taste the water. No, I did not. No thank you.

We finally made it to the pool level. 

Lu and Dave are nuts haha!

I love this shot (below).

We headed back out into the streets.

We wandered around.

We stopped to rest on a bench outside of Bath Bagel and purchased a PB&J bagel. It was very good. It was freshly pressed peanut butter and it was very tasty. I borrowed this photo from the internet and our little bench is not there and it wasn't this crowded. It was late afternoon and people were moving on to the Pubs!

While sitting on the bench, the view below was across from us. The leaves were beautiful!

This was a view back towards the town of Bath.

We boarded our coach and headed to London. I loved seeing the turbines all over.

We arrived at our London hotel -- Hilton London Kensington. Our hotels rooms were very small. Mark actually said something like, "We can be in the bed or our suitcases can be on the bed." That was pretty much the choice haha! It was a lovely hotel . . .just small rooms.

After we checked in, we walked a few blocks to a cool Pub. I stole this picture from the internet because it was dark when we arrived  . . . and maybe raining??

There were 8 of us who had walked from the hotel and when we entered, there were 4 or 5 more from our group who had walked to the same pub. The bar was so cool.

As we were leaving, Mark was saying, "take a photo of the actual bar."

Our food was good pub food and I'm sure there were pints and beverages.

After dinner, we walked back to our tiny hotel rooms and got ready for another day.

Hodgepodging along . . .

 

1. Marilyn texted me something that inspired this question, so thank you Marilyn! Of the following sayings, typically associated with the (American) southern way of speaking, which do you most relate to right now? Explain. 

Bless your heart~too big for yer britches~ madder than a wet hen~you're preachin' to the choir~

knee high to a grasshopper~oh my stars

I use "bless her/his heart" far too often! I don't have an explanation that I care to share haha!

2. The Hodgepodge lands on (US) Veterans Day this year. Are you a veteran? Have a family member who's a veteran? If you answered yes, tell us something about them. Will you do anything to mark the day in some special way? 

I am not a Veteran. Mark's first cousin is a Veteran. The military (not sure which branch) put him through medical school, and then he had to stay with them for a certain amount of time. I think he was in the National Guard after that. He had a high rank. 

One of our close friends is also a Veteran. He was a helicopter pilot, among other things, all over the world. He was a Lt. Colonel.

They recognized our Veteran's in worship yesterday and had a small reception (cookies) for them during the Sunday School hour. Veteran's day is a work day for me. Mark is going to go to the farm with our son and oldest granddaughter since she is out of school.

3. Is breakfast for dinner a stroke of genius or a sign of total household collapse? Is breakfast for dinner a regular thing at your house? Are all family members on board? 

There are just two of us at home now. I don't particularly like breakfast food in the morning, but I do enjoy waffles and bacon for dinner. Mark loves breakfast ANY time, so he is happy if I make it for dinner.

4. How do you see the world? 

I know that there are so many things wrong in our world today, and I wish I could fix so many of those problems, but I still think our world is a beautiful place full of interesting people and exciting places to visit.

5. And this week's gratitude question-what's something about your surroundings (home, neighborhood, city) you're grateful for? 

I am grateful for our home, which is located in a wonderful neighborhood.

6. Insert your own random thought here. I need to plan our Thanksgiving menu. Yes, we will have the usual items, but I need to assign some dishes to others. We are going to have a small crew this year. I love dressing and gravy - yum. I would be happy with just those two items.

Life Lately - a quick catch up!

 Here is a quick catch-up of life since we returned from our trip, and the pictures loaded totally backward... so we will start with today - I'm writing on Sunday evening! We are headed to our neighborhood supper club tonight. I am taking an appetizer - sausage and cream cheese pinwheels. A few minutes ago, I got a text from the hostess asking what I'm bringing for dessert. I pulled up the email chain, and I am not taking dessert. I told her we have some Costco popsicles we could bring!

Also, I have had laryngitis for five days! Isn't that ridiculous? I started on a Z-pack this afternoon, and I am hoping for a speedy recovery.

Yesterday, we met some of our young adults at the Lister Hill Library on the UAB campus. One of our young adults is a museum curator, and they have a new exhibit: House Visits to Hospitals. We had a private tour, and it was very interesting. I only took a few photos, and I have posted them below.

Our worlds collide -- we just saw a copy of John Wesley's book when we visited his home and gardens. The same book was on display in the museum exhibit.

Ella had also pulled several other interesting things for us to look at. She had an amputation kit from Japan. A US doctor came into possession of this amputation kit during the war. She had a centrifuge that had a handle like an antique egg beater!

On Friday night, we met Mark's siblings and their spouses at Giuseppe's for dinner. I had no voice, but it was good to be together.

Last week, our church hosted a conference - Common Table. We had wonderful speakers, great worship sessions, and breakout sessions.

I was busy working but was able to hear Kevin Muriel. He was amazing. He told us that he was used to a congregation talking back to him while he preached and that we were going to have to do that!

I led the volunteer hub. Our congregation stepped up and showed warm hospitality to all of the attendees. From the moment an attendee stepped out of their car, they were warmly greeted with a smile. One attendee said she had never seen so many happy people in her life haha!

I had schedules for everything and lists of time slots and names. All but one volunteer showed up!

I had snacks for them. I don't need that many snacks next year.

We had safety vests for the parking lot greeters. All volunteers had hot pink lanyards - How Can I Help You?

We hosted the young adults on Tuesday night. I made chicken pot pies and yes . . . I cut the crust into pumpkin shapes. We read scriptures about gratitude and talked about the things we take for granted.

On Tuesday, I voted! The polls were very crowded before work. I leave the office at 2:00 on Tuesdays and work from home while I cook for the Young Adults. I was able to swing by and vote on my way home - no line no waiting.

Monday was a really tough day at work. I drove home, parked my car, walked through the garage, grabbed a hard cider, and went out to the front porch.

Sunday, November 1 was All Saints' Day at church. I snapped a quick photo of the bagpipe player as he was entering the welcome center. He was excited to play during the service.

We have fewer deaths each year as our congregation gets younger. This is such a beautiful worship service. During the communion liturgy, the names are read of the members who died this year. A bell is rung after each name. It is a wonderful way of remembering.

Our son, daughter-in-law, oldest granddaughter, and our friend, Wynn, came over for Sunday lunch after church. I purchased a 1/4 ham from HoneyBaked and a pan of their mac and cheese. Glenn loves baby limas, so we put some in the crockpot before we left for church. On Saturday, I made homemade chunky tomato sauce. Mark's mother always served homemade tomato sauce (cold) on top of baby limas, and our kids love it. We also bought a couple of salad kits and mixed those up. It was nice to be together.

We are almost caught up -- we are all the way back to Halloween in the neighborhood. We gave out 1400 pieces of candy. It wasn't even dark yet, and the trick-or-treaters were out in full force.

This is our neighbor, Lu, dressed as a unicorn.

And this is Hannah. She comes every year to help me give out candy. She dresses as a different Disney princess each year and she speaks Spanish fluently.

We set up our chairs at the foot of the porch steps and give out candy from there. Our first trick-or-treaters arrived at 4:30 and we ran out of candy by 8:00. It was a steady stream of humans for most of the night.

On Friday, the 30th, I went to the hair salon for a trim and a root coverup.

The photo below is silly, but the cleaning crew came on Wednesday, the 28th. The lady who cleans the kitchen left a cute bow on top of the paper towels!