March brought a little more madness this year, especially after a quiet and simple February.
The first Friday in March is the World Day of Prayer, and I very much enjoy this service every year. This year, it was put together by the women of Nigeria, with the theme: I Will Give You Rest, Come. The ladies who put it together in Caldicot always do an amazing job with the altar decor.
That afternoon we went to a new friend’s place. Matty is someone we have met playing Magic, and he lives in a gorgeous house in the countryside near Monmouth. A short walk from his house is King Arthur’s Cave! We went on a lovely walk with Matty and his golden retrievers to explore.
On Saturday the 7th, I had tickets to the ballet courtesy of Fred’s visit last spring. Joel let me use the rest of our gift card to go to two shoes by myself. He had fun at the game store while I watched the Red Shoes ballet! It was great to see the theatre packed and almost completely sold out.
I think I’ve mentioned here before that there is a cafe near us that makes the best Welsh cakes in the whole world. My favourite part is that Ian likes to play with the flavours, and this year for Easter he made Cadbury Mini Egg Welsh cakes! We missed out on the first round because they sold out by 9:30 (they open at 9) so when he announced he was making them again I convinced Joel we should get to the cafe before they opened. He let us in at 8:50 and we had our hot fresh Welsh cakes right when they opened at 9! They were incredible.
On Friday the 13th, we had an adventure day with Steve! Our plans were to visit Carreg Cennen Castle. We ended up there once last year, but I was too tired to climb the hill and the guys found it too wet to explore safely. Sadly, we didn’t check the weather well enough and it was also too wet this time! We did, however, greatly enjoy the cafe at the base of the castle. The Welsh rarebit was delicious…
And the views of the castle were still pretty cool!
With our original plans scuppered, we randomly decided to go to Swansea for the rest of the day. We found a park to play in…
And then went up the tallest building in Wales! Which, it turns out, is really not that tall, standing at 107 meters/351 feet, or about 30 stories.
Still, the views were lovely and we ordered a slice of a peanut butter chocolate pie that was divine. Joel tried to buy a whole pie to take home (since the next day was Pi Day!) but they wouldn’t let him.
On the 14th, we ate a lot of pie (easy to do with all the savoury pies in the UK) and on the 17th we wore plenty of green. On the 18th, I went to Abergavenny for Presbyteral Synod and was most delighted that I got to eat lunch outside in some sunshine!
Then we were off to Leeds for a short but sweet weekend to see friends and have Vince sign some paperwork for us (for our citizenship application!!) We only had one day with Vince and Joan and we mostly filled it with walking and eating. They took us to a new Italian place called Pino that had the most amazing cannoli I’ve ever had in my life. Then for dinner we finally took Joel to Cheesy Living and got the fondue! It was very very good food day.
The next day after breakfast at Winnebagel (of course!) we picked up Annie and drove out to see Meg! We toured Meg’s manse, had a nice pub lunch, and then went on a long walk to the beach.
The best part was ending the day with the area’s signature ice cream - a lemon top! It’s vanilla whipped ice cream topped with the sharpest lemon sorbet I’ve ever had. It was amazing and Joel especially loved the lemon part.
On Saturday we finally did our Leeds Mystery Guide and Annie/John/Finn tagged along for part of it. Annie convinced us to take the train from their house (instead of our usual American way of driving everywhere) and it took us right to the starting point! As always, the Mystery Guide was the perfect way to explore a new city and then Annie and John made sure to take us to the market for lunch. The food options were numerous and everything we tried was fantastic! We had an Italian sandwich, sushi, Korean loaded fries, and baklava for dessert. It was a trip around the world in food! We also got to see the original Marks and Spencers!
After an amazing weekend it was back to home and back to work as Easter prep was ramping up. I spent a few days in Monmouth helping out with the Easter Experience, and I was delighted to wear this new sweatshirt I received from Meg. (Her sister-in-law made matching ones for the three of us!)
On the 25th, we decided to try KFC’s new limited edition pickle menu. There was a pickle chicken burger and loaded pickle fries, which both had freeze dried pickles on them. It made for an interesting texture, but the pickle flavour was exactly what I wanted.
The most unique item, however, was pickle Pepsi! They literally give you a regular Pepsi with a shot of pickle juice on the side, so you can add as much or as little as you want - from Pickle Skeptic to Pickle Curious to Full-Blown Picklehead. We went all in and found it surprisingly delicious. Like, so much so that I’m considering trying it at home when we have leftover pickle juice!
After that, the rest of the month was a blur of prepping for Holy Week, Easter, and for my brother to come visit! April is going to be even madder than March!
XOXO, Bethany