A Morning Run Around Boroughbridge

I'm not a regular jogger by any means, but one of the things I really appreciate about living in England is that as the days get shorter, and the sun rises later, you can have the benefits of an early-morning run (such as pretty sunrise colors in the sky) without the super-early-morning-wake-up-call.

Yesterday was such an absolutely gorgeous morning.  I was stopping every few yards for a picture, not because I was out of breath or anything, you see, but just because it was so beautiful.

We've really seen some beautiful days this fall.  The kids are out of school next week so I hope we'll have a few more.  Autumn is such a mix of bright and glorious and rainy and cozy.

Country Walking

"For excitement, give me a country walk any day..."

Edmund Crispin, The Moving Toyshop

I've enjoyed going for walks most of my life, I think, and I looked forward to doing a lot of walking in England.  It's almost always pleasant no matter what the season.  I don't know what it is about the English and walking, but it's definitely a national past time in a way that it's not in America. That's not to say people don't enjoy walking in the United States, but...I actually find it hard to describe the subtleties of the difference in cultures so I reserve the right not to try.

Sunday afternoons are often good times for a walk.  On this particular walk with our church family we passed a conker tree (also known as a Horse Chestnut) and learned about the games children play with the nuts.

The kids made lots of wishes, blowing the huge dandelions, and James claimed the he was going to sell the stems for 100 pounds.  

We've been paying much closer attention to the birds flying away south in their V formations and just generally soaking in everything fall-ish, which is a word no one ever uses here, of course.  It's only ever Autumn in the UK.

And it's really been a good one.

A Few Pictures of our May Day Girl

The Pugh family are loving our visit with KJ's parents, though our plans for the first part of the week had to take a slower turn when I came down with James's tonsillitis on Saturday.  I'm usually quite good at accepting illness and slowing down with great gladness, but this week it has been much harder to accept with grace.  I'm trying to have a better attitude today, and based on James's timetable of sickness, I'm hoping to be fully recovered tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I didn't want to let the month of May go by without a shout-out to our first May Day.

Thanks to friends who were involved in May Day festivities in the neighboring (I struggle so...should I write neighbouring instead?) village Ella was able to be an attendant to the May Queen this year. Our spring has been pleasantly occupied walking to practices on late Sunday afternoons to the village green in Aldborough while the children learned the dances.  Ella was able to fill in whenever another child couldn't make practice, and we enjoyed a warming cup of tea with a friend who lives nearby.

When the Sunday of the festivities arrived the crowd anxiously awaited the arrival of the May Queen and her attendants, the Maypole dancers, and the former May Queens from the past 50 years of May Days in Aldborough, whom the announcer kept referring to as "the old May Queens."

Once arriving at the Maypole the attendants went to their seats under the gazebo, and the dancers took their places.



All of the dancing is done to music played on the accordion, which you will have stuck in your head for days.



The dress and the flowers and the girl, of course, were all so lovely.  It was a very English affair.

After the opening dances the kids received some pocket money and picked out a few things to do.  KJ says finding change in the car is one of the biggest reminders that we're in another country.

Let's Talk About the Weather

From the moment we first thought moving to England might be somewhere in our future, I think KJ had an impression of a people that drank tea and talked about the weather.  And though the English certainly don't have a monopoly on talking about the weather, it really is a distinctive.  For some reason, even I feel a deeper connection to what is going on outside here than I ever have before.

I bought a book on Christmas Eve entitled The English Year, A Literary Journey through the Seasons.  It's a compilation of journal entries written on each day of the year.  I thought it sounded really interesting, but I didn't realize when it said "through the seasons" that each entry really would be literally about the weather and what was blooming or being harvested at the time.  I was focusing on the word literary, but the book is actually more focused on the seasonal aspect.  KJ thinks it's pretty boring.  I'm kind of fascinated by it.

I thought this observation by Horace Walpole in 1775 might sum up English weather pretty well, though of course I'm still a newcomer and don't have a lot to base this on.

I am perfectly well, and heed not the weather;

though I wish the seasons came a little oftener

into their own places instead of each Other's.

From November, till a fortnight ago, we had such warmth

that I should often be glad of in summer -- and since

we are not sure of it then, was rejoiced when I could get it.



There are some boring entries but there are also some more interesting ones. 

January 18, 1835
The few days' severe weather ceased, and it became spring again.  What a climate is ours!

March 7, 1814, Jane Austen
Here's a day!  The ground covered with snow! What is to become of us?  We were to have walked

out early to near shops, and had the carriage for the more distant.

All we can say about the weather this past week is:  completely gorgeous.