"Deep in the Hundred-Acre Wood"

Well, folks, we are approaching the end of this blog, at least for the time being. There may be more posts in the future, but they won't be quite as regular, because a week from Tuesday I am headed back to the States, bringing to an end my 361-day British odyssey. There will be a few more pics to post next week, but for now, here are a few from Thursday, when my friend John and I went rambling in Ashdown Forest, the legendary "Hundred-Acre Wood" of Winnie the Pooh fame. I did see a great deal of poo (the open spaces are grazed by hundreds of sheep), but no Winnie :( Oh, well! It was still a fun day.


The Nutley windmill- a very old windmill which has been relocated three times. This is the old windmill design where you can use the long handle on the back to turn it to face the wind!


John at the Poohsticks bridge, where you are supposed to pick up two sticks and have them race in the stream from one side of the bridge to the other- of course, we participated :)


Some deer on the edge of a cluster of trees- beautiful creatures.


Sheep on duty patroling the perimeter of the forest.

Bri's Visit

The final visitor at the Manse Hostel for the year- my friend Bri from Iowa. Here she is at Beachy Head and here is an interesting sign we noticed at Middle Farm (I'm always a bit wary of children who dress like they live in the 1920s- they give me the creeps!) :)

Stacey's Farewell Tea

We hosted an informal farewell tea for Stacey on her last afternoon in the country and gave an open invitation to Hailsham. Here are Ruby, Pam, May, Pam, Ted, and myself enjoy the food and conversation.

Gamelands Church Dinner

A wonderful church dinner was arranged by Gamelands at the Anglican church hall. We had a wonderful evening of food and entertainment, including a hilarious skit performed by Jack and Leslie, music by Jack, Pat, and Lorna, and a few songs I played as well. I will miss these churches so much!

Alison's Visit & Ireland!

Preparing to kiss the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle.


A Celtic Cross found in the lake near the monastery on an island we rowed out to.


Stealing a kiss at the waterfall in the national park near Kilarney


Our picnic spot with the islands far in the background.


A distant picture of the two islands


The bird island- most of the white is either birds (about 10,000) or their poo :)


One of the Skelligs- you can just barely see the 600 steps leading up to the ancient monastery at the top.


Stacey and Alison on the boat. I barely survived the trip due to giant swells- it was a 3-dimensional rollercoaster ride for two hours since the swells prevented us from landing at the island. I made it through, but it was pretty miserable on the way back! The upside was getting to see a few puffins- so cool!


The strangest coincidental meeting in Europe so far- out at the end of the Ring of Kerry we had arranged to take a boat trip out to the Skelligs, two small islands inhabited by 1,000s of birds and the ruins of a 6th century Christian monastery. When we were walking down to the docks in this 200-person town, I thought I recognized someone in line, and it was Sharon from my seminary out in Denver. She was on a guided tour of early Christian sites with John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, two prominent Jesus scholars. So random!


Alison being introduced to the Sussex Cream Tea tradition by Stacey at the manse.

Alison, a friend of Stacey's from home, came to visit for a fortnight and we all spent a few days in Ireland together near the Ring of Kerry (Kilarney and Cork).

Denver Friends Come to Visit

Our friends Brad and Audra and their son Braden were recently our guests here in England at the Manse-Hostel. We had a meal together to celebrate the fourth with many of the traditional fixins. It is the busy season here at the manse, with 6 sets of visitors coming all within just over a month's time! We're having a great time hosting everyone, and the time here is flying by. One more month and I'll be back in the States!

Kilts & Lochs- Scotland!

A cool church we visited which is half church and half ruins.


Scotland's smallest distillery (this is an exhibit at the distillery, not the distillery itself)


Quite possibly the oldest living thing in the world- a yew tree in Fortignall scientists believe is 5,000 years old!


The burial mounds of the McNab clan, where they have been buried for 800 years on an island in the middle of the river in Killin.


A herd of wild deer in Glen Lyon, a 2-hour single-track driving adventure down a beautiful valley.


A Scottish Sheep- much cuter than English sheep, I think.


The travelers aboard the S.S. Sir Walter Scott on Loch Katrine.


"You take the high road..." Me and the Peeps (http://www.peepsineurope.blogspot.com) out on Loch Lomond on our Scotland trip with Stacey and Beth & Pete, the briefest of trips covering 1200 miles in four days.

Rainy, Rainy Wimbledon

The theme of our day- waiting and waiting until the tennis was finally called off. Full refund though! :)


Ah, the Wimbledon experience- strawberries and cream under a brolly, no tennis in sight.


A picture of the only tennis we got to see during the day- 45 minutes at the beginning of the day before the rain began.


The "Wimbledon 2006" flowers


Scary ball girls and ball boys- very professional to a scary degree.


A line judge ready for a serve.


A Roger Federer look-alike playing tiny tennis as a promotion at Wimbledon Station.

A Beautiful Evening at Beachy Head

Stacey's friends from Washington, D.C., Beth and Pete, were here visiting and we went up to Beachy Head in the evening- a very beautiful evening.

On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, On On On!

Ok, I have no idea how that song goes, but I thought it was a fitting title for this badger pic. We went to visit two of my congregation members late at night because they feed the badgers in their back yard and they thought we might like to see them. It was really cool, because they usually get between five and eight badgers each night, but at one point there were ten of them out there eating! We opened the window so we could watch them and hear them eating and making badger-y noises. It was a fun evening. (My apologies for the grainy nature of this photo, but it was quite dark out when the badgers arrived).

Eastbourne Tennis

vs. Akiko Morigami (JPN) & Aiko Nakamura (JPN)


Match 3- Doubles: Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) & Meng Yuan (CHN)


vs. Olga Savchuk (UKR)


Match 2: Lisa Raymond (USA)


vs. Martina Sucha (SVK)


Match 1: Shenay Perry (USA)

The Hastings Direct International Women's Tennis Championships are being held in Eastbourne this week, so Stacey and I went down and got courtside seats (using ground passes) for £6 for the day. It's a pretty big tournament (Martina Navratilova is there for doubles) and it was a great day out!