At the start of July, I was still in Leeds celebrating my reception into full connexion and attending the rest of Methodist Conference. This is the annual meeting of the Methodist Church in Britain and the decision-making body that conducts the business of the church such as making changes to church law and polity, crafting theological statements about current events, and officially stationing ministers for the next year. There was also some interesting Bible study and, in good Methodist fashion, lots of singing!
After five days in Leeds, I headed home on the 3rd. We had initially been planning to go back up to Leeds for Vince & Joan’s Fourth of July party, but after having been gone for three weeks, home for one and then gone again for almost a week, I just needed a weekend at home. One of these years we’ll make it to their party! Instead, we had a low-key day at home and made a nod to the day with some “red, white & blue” burgers.
On Friday the 5th we went on a bit of an adventure looking for local honey. Joel had the brilliant idea to ask in a local Facebook group where we could find honey and we got tons of answers, so we drove around and bought like six different types of local honey. We discovered new areas around us and decided this is a great hack for getting to know an area! (Filing that away for the next time we move…) We also checked out a new local cafe that I heard had good welsh cakes…and I heard right! This place has the best welsh cakes I’ve ever had! If you ever visit we will 100% be taking you here.
One of the local honey places we found is also a brewery that makes mead. I didn’t go into the store with Joel and he ended up splurging on a six-pack which was very uncharacteristic for him! He said the sales guy was just so excited about the product that he had to get some. I’m glad he did because it was excellent! We took it with us to Amy & Ben’s that night for a game night and had a tasting. The rhubarb and raspberry flavors were my fave!
On Saturday we continued our honey quest and one of the recommended places also sells local milk - from a vending machine! Joel loves milk so we had to get some - you could even get it flavored so we got the chocolate milk. I am not a huge milk fan but even I can admit this was pretty delicious. And you could see the cows it came from in the nearby field!
That evening we went on a walk and took a different route on the castle grounds than we usually do. We came across a very narrow little bridge that looked fun to take, so we did.
Then at the end of it, we had this guy to contend with! We had to wait until he slowly ambled out of the way so we could continue our walk.
On Sunday, Caldicot Methodist Church surprised me with a celebration of my full connexion after worship! There was a lovely cake…
And some gorgeous flowers!
Then that evening we finally put up and played with the Badminton set we bought last summer.
On Tuesday the 9th I had a very fun first for me in ministry - a mock wedding! The year 5 students at Trellech Primary School had been learning about church rituals, and the teacher asked if I would be able to officiate a mock wedding for them. They had students playing the bride, groom, bridal party, parents, photographer, everything! We decorated the chapel and they even held a full reception with cake, sparkling lemonade for toasting, and speeches. Instead of kissing at the end of the wedding ceremony, I had the bride and groom give each other a high five!
During this week Steve was off on a UK road trip in his new car and he kept us updated with photos of his adventures. When he found a Tim Hortons we were both very jealous, I immediately Googled it and was disappointed to see it was four hours away. But then…I decided to Google “Tim Hortons near me” and found out there was one 45 minutes away! So on Saturday Joel and I hopped in the car and drove to Weston-Super-Mare to get our Tim Hortons fix.
Weston-Super-Mare turned out to be a lovely place so we spent some time exploring the area. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and it turns out they also have a marine lake, similar to the one I love in Clevedon. I so wished I had a swimsuit in the car! (And now I do for future random road trips, lol.) I have a feeling we will be back to WSM soon!
On Sunday the 14th we decided to watch the Euros Final because England was playing Spain and everyone was talking about it. I mean, everyone. People at church I have never heard talk about sports were talking about it! I talked Joel into watching it because it felt like a cultural moment we should be a part of, especially if England won. Sadly, they lost, but we watched it!
Then Amazon Prime days came around, which is usually something we don’t pay any attention to. We try to boycott Amazon as much as possible due to their abysmal employment practices. However…I decided it was time to replace my six year old Kindle and it was on super sale for Prime days. My old Kindle was still usable but had to be charged in a particular way, didn’t have a built in light, etc. The new one is amazing! It has its own light source so I can read at night without bothering Joel, is so much lighter, and charges with a regular phone charger. I love it so much and have now spent many hours reading in my pool!
On the 16th, a visitor arrived! Joel has been wanting to play Magic the Gathering more lately and I am not really into that game (yet.) He talked about missing playing with Jacob, our friends teenager who visited earlier this year. I jokingly told him he should message Jacob’s mom, Amanda, and ask if Jacob could come over to play. Turns out, yes! It was a last minute trip and he could only come for a week but it was an epic week of game playing. Joel and Jacob played hours upon hours of MtG and the three of us played hours of Dominion, it was glorious. We didn’t do any tourist-y things with him this time, but we did go out to the local Indian restaurant he loved last time, and that’s where I took the only picture of his visit!
On Monday the 22nd, Penycaemawr Chapel hosted another Muddy Church event at the Glade Tearooms. This time we had about 60 kids show up! It was tons of fun and the weather held out for us.
On Friday the 26th we had a Frolic Friday with Steve - starting with checking out a Chinese buffet in Cwmbran. The food was pretty good but there weren’t as many options as we would have liked for a buffet. After that, we went to see Twisters in the theatre. We waited to see this one with Steve so he could fill us in about how accurate the storm chasing was afterwards. Then we went home to hang out and play some Dominion Olympics that Joel created.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of this month is that I think I am starting to get into Magic the Gathering now. Joel bought the Doctor Who sets when they came out, and I do so love Doctor Who. While Jacob was here he bought some Lord of the Rings decks, and then we discovered there were more Doctor Who cards that were dropped in something called the “secret lair” so we bought those too. Then there was a release of a new set called Bloomburrow that has super cute animals…and now I want to play it. So once we are all finished with the Dominion Olympics I’m going to switch games for a while!
We wrapped things up this month with watching some of the Olympics - we were delighted to discover that with YouTube TV we can watch more than one channel at once!
And that’s a wrap on July 2024!
XOXO, Bethany