At Caldicot, we have started a new tradition of having “cafe style” church on the first Sunday of each month. We set up tables and chairs in the sanctuary, and I am for the service to be intergenerational, but with lots of interaction especially for the kids - aiming to include a craft, a snack, and a game as part of each service, alongside the traditional hymns and prayers. For May, we focused on the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples by the sea, after the resurrection. So we had fish-themed snacks and set up a little fishing game. The kiddos loved it so much they kept playing with it after the service.
The first Monday in May is always a bank holiday, and we spent it with the Greens again! This time, there was a fete happening at the kids’ school, so Amy and I took the kids while the boys stayed home. I enjoyed getting to shop local craft stalls and watch the students do some traditional Maypole dancing. It brought back wonderful memories of doing Maypole dancing when I was a kid!
After the fete, we went back to their house and Joel and I treated them to some Tex-mex food since it was also Cinco de Mayo! We made walking tacos and regular tacos and shared the really good salsa from Costco. Then we spent the evening playing Magic, which was especially fun because Amy and I played our Dinosaur decks whilst having our faces painted as Dinosaurs! (We had that done at the fete.)
The rest of the week was spent working and, in my down time, catching up on reading my apocalypse book boxes. At one point I had 4 boxes lined up to read! Then on Sunday, I was preaching at one of the rural chapels, Earlswood Hope, when we had some visitors at the window. I found them very distracting!
That evening we went to play Commander at the Waterstones in Newport, and on the drive home through Caerwent we saw the most gorgeous dragon’s breath hovering over the fields. We parked the car and went on a small walk through the Roman ruins to enjoy the view and the late summer sunset. (It was after 9pm when I took this photo!)
On Wednesday the 14th, I was off to Oxford! I was heading there for the Superintendent’s Conference, but I also got to meet up with an American friend for lunch and a walk around the city centre. Laurel and her partner Mallory, were spending some time in London, and they took the train out to Oxford to meet up with me for the morning. We had perfect weather and enjoyed walking around the city and the university. We visited some John Wesley hotspots and got to see the Bodleian, which is the library featured in the Discovery of Witches TV show.
We had lunch at the Vaults and Gardens cafe, which served delicious, locally sourced food, and the building it's in dates back to the 1320s. We ate outside in the gardens before continuing our walk back to our starting point and enjoying a coffee at a Cafe Nero. It was so lovely to be able to meet up with them!
Then I was off to a hotel outside of the city to attend the conference until Friday. It was a wonderful time of Bible study, learning, worship together, and connecting with other people serving the church in the same way I do.
When I got back home, I was delighted to finally pick up my framed Ordination Certificate and get it hung on the wall in my study. For some reason, I never framed it back when I got ordained in 2015. Then, in 2019, when I was applying to serve in the Methodist Church in Britain, I needed a notarized copy of it to prove my ordination. My dad very kindly did that for me since we were abroad and the certificate was at home, but then, he misplaced the original! It was lost for quite a few years until they found it again while doing a clear out this spring. My parents then gave it to Fred who visited me in April and it was finally back in my hands. I immediately took it to the local frame shop to get it framed, and I’m so happy to finally have it on the wall! It sits underneath a photo of my ordination that was taken by the conference photographer.
Saturday the 17th was the Eurovision Finals, and after watching both semi-finals earlier in the week, we were ready for it. Our two favourites this year were the UK entry and the Latvia entry, neither of which were crowd or jury favourites, so we knew they were unlikely to win. Austria won this year, with a song that is quite similar in sound to last year’s winner. It wasn’t my favourite but I don’t hate it, and I’m glad it won over the cheesy sauna song that was the crowd pleaser this year. My favourite moment of the whole night was the interval act that was a mash-up of the 2nd place winners from 2023 and 2024 - both songs that ended up on our lists, and this new mash-up is going on the list for 2025! It was so fun to see Kaarija and Baby Lasagna battle it out.
The next week I spent a lot of time working and trying to get ahead on things because we had a visitor coming at the end of the month. I also began work on the calendar for the next year - trying to get all of the circuit-level meeting mapped out through 2026! This might seem like I’m working really far ahead, but I actually already feel a little bit behind on it. I’m also mapping out my 5-weeks of holiday time over that year because I’ve learned if I don’t schedule it in advance, I won’t take it. So here is my super sophisticated calendar system laid out on the dining room table.
Believe it or not, the last Monday in May is also a bank holiday, which always makes the month of May go very fast. We didn’t spend this one with the Greens because Ben was off jousting at a castle that cost £30+ to enter (we wanted to go watch but that price was too steep.) Instead, we spent it at home getting our magic cards organized so the game room could once again be used the way it is intended. We got it ready just in time for Jacob to join us on the Wednesday! I didn’t get any photographic proof of Jacob’s presence in May, but I did take one of this epic paper dragon he folded!
On the Friday, we had a game night with Amy and Ben, and then on Saturday, we enjoyed playing Magic all day, in between walks around the castle. The weather has been perfect lately, sunny but not hot, just how I like it! One of these days I’m going to start an Instagram account just to showcase sunshine pictures in the UK, to combat the narrative that the sun never shines here. Look how pretty!
That’s a wrap on another marvelous May!
XOXO, Bethany