FIRST WEEK IN JOLLY OLD ENGLAND

After a brief three-and-a-half month stay at home we are off again on a new mission....this time on a farm in England!  This is our apartment house, and we are in Flat 1 on the top floor.  We are surrounded by fields of rapeseed plants and wheat.  A short drive connects us to other farmhouses and charming villages.  Most of the church-owned farms are not connected, and there are 11,500 acres in all, so we do a bit of traveling to get where we need to go.

It took us a few days to acclimate to the new time zone because we are 7 hours ahead of Utah.  After taking the red-eye flight to London,  we were met by a driver, then we then had a 2 hour drive north from the airport.

Inside the flat we have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and laundry closet.

This is the guest bedroom, and it has a bathroom attached.

This is a very small washer and dryer.  I'm sure that one sheet would fill the wash tub!

Notice that neither bathroom has any counters or drawers.  Most English bathrooms are like this.

This fan is what us commoners call the "air conditioner"in our kitchen and living room area.  There is also a fan in our bedroom.  We open all the windows at night, but there are no screens on the windows, so we get some "visitors" that fly in uninvited.  They don't snore at night, so we're OK.

Also in the bedroom is a closet which is used as a pantry.  It's on the opposite side of the house from the kitchen, but it comes in handy....especially since the former missionaries left us a bunch of food!  They were former military, so we have a bit of American food, like Skippy peanut butter, Miracle Whip, Pace salsa, Starkist tuna, Jello, Kraft salad dressings and Campbell soups.













This is an herb garden that has gone wild.  I have been trying to clean some of the weeds out, but discovered the stinging nettle right away.  It only took one day to get over the stinging and swelling.

 This shows you what our mowers look like.  We have two John Deeres and one Kubota.  This mower happens to be the smallest one, which is also the stinker mower, due to some annoying problems.  It's a good thing I'm not a swearing gal, because this mower has been driving me crazy!  The Elders are trying to fix the problem, and a part is on order. The lawns are never level and smooth like you picture well manicured English lawns to be.  Sometimes you feel like you are on a bucking horse and at other times we are on some precarious slopes.  And now I understand how Alice in Wonderland was capable of falling down a rabbit hole....they are quite large!  (See also Wallace & Grommet movie "The Curse of the Were Rabbit")

Besides mowing, we also trim using week-wackers and tree trimmers.  The pile of tree limbs doesn't look too impressive until you realize that it is taller than I am and represents two trailers full of green stuff, as well as some boards, an old chair and a lot of critters!

This is our Ford Focus that we get to drive.  The a/c isn't great, but the windows work just fine, and soon enough it will be winter!  We haven't actually driven it yet, because we are still learning our way around the area and we generally drive with the other missionary couple.  We have learned that there are very few straight roads in England.

Two days after arriving we celebrated the 4th of July with some other Americans in the ward, and the young-but strapping Full-Time Elders.  We are with the other missionary couple, the Mannings. 

We are in Sister Manning's kitchen having some fresh fish and chips after a day of mowing.  The men were washing up.

On Saturday we went on an outing to the North Sea beach at Hunstanton.  The water was surprisingly warm, the food was good, and the town was charming.

On Sunday we attended church in the smallest building I have ever been in.  We were surprised when we were called out of the meeting to introduce ourselves and bear our testimonies.  It was great to feel the spirit of the members in this area.

The farm has begun to harvest the rapeseed this week.  They mainly grow wheat and rapeseed plants. Rapeseed oil (which is Canola oil basically) is the 3rd largest source of vegetable oil in the world, and has been harvested since the 14th century.  It is surprising because the seed pods are small and slender and the seeds are the size of mustard seeds.  It's hard to imagine that anything that small can produce oil.

The sun setting in our backyard the first day we arrived