I imagine I will say this a lot about these monthly recaps, but holy cow did June fly by! I’m so glad I’m doing these recaps now so I can remember what happened when the whole month feels like it went by in a week.
We started June strong by hosting our first official overnight visitors from the USA! Due to Covid, we’ve managed to live here for over three years without any friends or family visiting, but that finally changed this month. Our friend Amanda and her two kids, Jacob and Isaac came for a long weekend in the middle of an amazing trip for them that started with Paris and ended on a safari in Africa! Joel picked them up at the train station in London at noon on the 3rd and dropped them off at Heathrow early on the 6th so we didn’t have long together, but we packed plenty into that time.
The first night we went out for Indian at our favorite local place called Knights of Bengal. I say favorite, but we’ve only been there once before, we just don’t eat Indian food that often. In fact, I think this was our first time trying to order without Steve’s help! We asked for advice from our waiter and ended up ordering way too much food but it was all delicious. Then we took a drive to go to the local ice cream place that we discovered last summer. It is on a farm in the middle of nowhere and is open 24 hours! It runs on an honor system that you will pay for what you take - and is a very reasonable £4 per pint for fresh homemade ice cream.
On Sunday I had two services to lead, so Amanda went with me to Monmouth and then we went back to Caldicot for a Sunday roast at the Castle Inn. After that, I dropped everyone off at the cinema in Newport while I went to Gwehelog. They enjoyed the new Spiderman animated film in the 4DX theater! (Joel and I had just seen it the week before so I didn’t mind missing out.)
On Monday we packed in a full English breakfast at the local cafe, a trip to Tintern Abbey and Chepstow Castle, and Amanda, Jacob, and Joel took a walk along the coastal path. If you can imagine, in all this time we also managed to squeeze in a Magic the Gathering draft and many games of Dominion (though still never enough for me!) We had so much fun together we are hoping they all make a trip back next summer!
The next exciting thing to happen was we finally got new floors in our kitchen! When we first toured this manse last fall, it was very clear that the floors would need to be replaced. The material used wasn’t really suitable for a kitchen - it was easily damaged by things like a refrigerator just sitting on it. We decided to just live with it for a while so we could move in sooner than later although I didn’t think later would be quite this much later. Ah well, a little over six months later and we have these gorgeous new floors! They are luxury vinyl tiles and should be very durable and last the manse a very long time.
On the 10th, Amy and I had a girls day out to go see The Little Mermaid live-action movie and do a little shopping. Then on the 15th, we had a girls night out to go see The Vicar of Dibley put on by the Off Centre Theatre in Monmouth. We started with dinner at Creates (sharing a delicious meze platter with incredible housemade hummus) and then wandered down Church Street to the Savoy Theatre. One of my church members from Trellech played Frank in the show and the entire cast was amazing! The play started by following the show closely, then wove together a few storylines with the overarching one being Alice and Hugo getting married. It was hilarious and heartwarming and seriously, the cast was top-notch. We loved every minute of it!
The next weekend Steve came over for the day, and in between watching more episodes of The Last of Us, we took a hike! It was listed online as “beginner” but I don’t think that person knows what a beginner hike looks like! It was a steep incline for a long way down…which meant it was a steep incline for a long way up on the way back! I’m more out of shape than I would like, but the scenery was worth it. We hiked to Giant’s Cave - which is a manmade tunnel made through the rock to connect two walking paths. It’s neither giant nor really a cave but it was cool to see nonetheless.
Church-wise it was a pretty big month with some fun events. At Monmouth on the 24th, we celebrated a “Big Birthday Tea” for everyone who had a significant birthday pass during the pandemic when we couldn’t gather for events. We had 8 big number birthdays and a couple that was celebrating 70 years of marriage! The next day at Caldicot a couple celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary with a vow renewal in worship, which was so fun to do.
Then Monday the 26th was a significant day as I went to the Register Office in Usk to turn in the paperwork that will register Monmouth as a church where same-sex marriages can take place. It was a long time getting to this - there were multiple steps to take on the church side, then some work to get the register office to know what to do - it turns out we are the very first church in all of Monmouthshire to do this! It will still be a few weeks before everything is official, but it felt like a significant moment to have during Pride month.
We also fit in a game night with Amy and Ben, a BBQ hosted by the vicar here in Caldicot (a fellow American), and some movies, including using our Unlimited passes to go to our first Advance Screening (we got to see “No Hard Feelings” a week before it came out.)
We were meant to end the month with a visit to Vince and Joan for a fun day of mini golf and tacos, then kick off July with their annual Fourth of July party, but after we drove there on Wednesday, Joel woke up sick on Thursday and we had to drive home. So a bit of a bummer end to the month, but at least the rest of it was fun!
XOXO, Bethany