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la primavera

Spring is in the air. Finally. I'm listening to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons to celebrate; cooking light warm-weather foods, drinking a chilled chardonnay and eating in the garden. Dolce.

We leave in just over 4 weeks. I feel myself pulling away to make goodbye easier. The leaving, and the understanding that everyone else knows you will eventually leave, is part of the price you pay for this transitory, student life-style. You know this and yet are never fully prepared each time it happens. Community is precious and changeable; friends become family. I am ready for roots, I think. But I love the adventure of living new places even as I dread the loneliness that inevitably comes. It's the proverbial grass is greener thing.

pretty places to visit

A few weeks ago we visited Haworth, an itty-bitty village in the Yorkshire moors where the Bronte family lived. The weather was terrible and we weren't able to hike, which was disappointing, though the weather acted like mood music while we toured the house.

Michael and Kirsty took us to Cragside Hall in Northumberland. We love traveling with them; they know all the pretty places to visit!

Labels: travel

It has begun

hmmm

I swear it was gorgeous and sunny only 10 minutes before! I've been tricked!

Labels: weather

Big news to share

And no, I'm not pregnant. I know what you're thinking! Cheeky monkeys.

Brad has been offered and accepted a position at Covenant Seminary in St Louis to teach Greek for the next academic year. Summer Greek begins the first week of June so we'll be leaving Durham at the end of May.

Oh My Stars.

We are tremendously excited about this opportunity. We love St Louis, it has remained home to us throughout our years in England. We have dear, dear friends there, and both of our families are within a day's drive. We are also incredibly sad to leave Durham. We have experienced such sweet hospitality from our English friends and can't begin to mention what we will miss once we leave.

It's a time for poignant ambivalence.

I'll keep you posted on our moving developments as all the details begin working themselves out. I'll also be posting lots of photos and stories of our last few months in England. Just last week we visited Haworth, home of the Brontë family, and then Cragside Hall, beautiful country home to the Lord Armstrongs in Rothbury. I wish you could have seen it for yourself. So beautiful.

Labels: knit together

It was a long, long, long walk

Thanks for putting up with the radio silence from the blog these last few weeks. It's been a mad, mad time. Lots of work, lots of play, lots of lots of things. You know how it is. I will give a proper reckoning soon but for now will leave you with a few photos of a recent hike Brad completed with a couple friends.

It's called the Lyke Wake Walk and requires walking over 40 miles through the Yorkshire Moors in less than 24 hours. It's based upon the practices of the olden, golden days when people carried their dead to be buried, hence the name Lyke Wake. If you look very closely at the photos you may see the ghost of Jane Eyre, beating her breast and weeping after she runs away from Thornfield Hall and gets lost in the moors. And yes, I have a very vivid imagination!

Grab a pint and lift your glass to Brad, Hector and Phil who completed the 42 mile hike in only 17 hours! PS: We are accepting ibuprofen donations in lieu of gifts.

Labels: friends, walks

Juno, as in Zeus' wife, not the capitol of Alaska

Just returned from seeing Juno. Brilliant. Great writing, great acting. Loved that it didn't stereotype teenage parents.

Winter Blues

English wintertime is here in all its bleakness. I remind myself that it is actually getting lighter, that the shortest day of the year was over a month ago. Most of January passed under thick cloud accompanied by wild winds. I'm certain that Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights in the winter. How else can you account for the mood of Catherine and Heathcliff? It's enough to make anyone a wee bit crazy.