The month started with some really focused work days, but come my day off on the fourth we had some fun! We went to see the new Jurassic World: Rebirth movie and I had to wear one of my dinosaur dresses (yes I have more than one now, lol). I tried to get a selfie with Joel but he made a weird face and you couldn’t see my dress so here is one of just me. After the movie, we went to Amy and Ben’s for a Doctor Who themed Magic playing night!
On Saturday the 5th, there was a local Pride event at the castle. I went decked out in rainbows and my collar! There was some pushback from one of the other local churches about the pride event, so I wanted to show that the Methodist Church is affirming and welcoming.
Later that day, some friends from the US arrived! This time it was Katie, who served on the YCWI board with me, and her husband and three kids. This made for a very full house but it was so much fun. On Sunday, I led cafe church at Caldicot, then we visited the castle and finally played our Harry Potter Cluedo game at home.
On Monday I had a funeral in the middle of the day, but we started the morning with a mini tour of Caldicot that included getting welsh cakes at Castell Coffi, sparkling mead at Hive Mind, and sandwiches at the Baguette Shop. The owner of Castell Coffi has written a book about Welsh dragon legends, so here he is signing the copy of the book that Katie purchased. That evening we watched the finale of Taskmaster season 19! Their whole family is Taskmaster-obsessed, as are Joel and I.
On Tuesday we took them to Chepstow Castle and Tintern Abbey, then spent the afternoon chilling in the backyard pool.
They left on Wednesday but not before going with me to an assembly at Trellech Primary! We packed a lot into a few days.
On Friday the 11th we finally had a day to hang out with Steve! We started by going to Puzzlewood, someplace we’ve all been meaning to go for years now. What is Puzzlewood, you ask? Well I will share this very helpful sign I took a photo of, just ignore the part about the toilets, haha.
We managed to pick the hottest day of the year so far for an outdoor activity, but thankfully Puzzlewood is very shady and the shade is actually cool here. We spent a good an hour and a half having a wander and really enjoying the scenery.
We debated what to do the rest of the day, but Steve and I were both craving some time in the water since it was so hot. We realized we weren’t too far from Keeper’s Pond so we went there! Joel stayed in the car with the AC while Steve and I went swimming. The water was still super cold which felt so nice in the heat.
After swimming I went to do a wedding rehearsal in Monmouth, then we met back up with Steve to see his camping set up. It’s pretty cool, but the weather reminded me why I do not like camping!
We learned it was national kebab day so we went and got some kebabi at a local shop that felt like an oven inside, it was so hot! So we ate our food in the car with the AC on high. After that, we left Steve to his camping and we were off to Amy and Ben’s for more magic!
On Saturday the 12th I got to officiate a wedding, but not just any wedding, my first same-sex wedding! I have been looking forward to this for over a year now. Con and Zoe are the sweetest and I think the most in love couple I have ever married. (Not that it’s a contest!) The church was absolutely packed and just overflowed with joy and love. They had their dog and a friend’s dog be the ring bearers and it was the cutest thing ever. I only got one selfie with the couple when they were in the car ready to leave!
After all that fun, I had a week where I really had to focus and catch up on work. Luckily, that included a Thurday afternoon meeting in Monmouth which meant a Thursday evening gaming session with Amy and Ben and some friends of theirs they have gotten into magic. If magic was an MLM we’d be making bank from getting Amy and Ben into this because they’ve roped in like a dozen more people so far!
For most of my life, I’ve been someone who rarely purchases books, vastly preferring to get them from the library or read on my kindle (also from the library.) This is mostly because I am a bit of a cheapskate. But this month, I’ve been on kind of a book-buying binge. I bought some church-related books that were authored by people I know, though those got sent to my parents for me to pick up in January. I have also started building my collection on books related to Universal Basic Income (UBI). I am passionate about UBI and I eventually want to do some work (maybe a PhD? Maybe just a sabbatical project?) on a theology of UBI. I’m getting started with this stack, though I’ve already added half a dozen more titles to it.
On Saturday the 26th, we made a quick round trip to just outside of London to see more friends who have arrived from the US. They’ll be staying with us in August, but we couldn’t wait any longer to get some goodies they were bringing to us! I finally got my YCWI stole and wore it on that Sunday! (It’s reversible to rainbow tie-dye!!!)
That Sunday evening was the retirement service for one of the ministers on our circuit. I’ve worked with Les my whole five years here so this is a big change! The service was incredible, going for almost two hours, and everyone had really amazing things to say about him. If, when I retire in 30 years, people say half as many nice things about me, I will have done well!
On Wednesday the 30th we set off on our road trip to Scotland! We decided to break up the drive on the way there with an overnight stop in Carlisle. Steve warned us it was a “bit grim” but we found it to be quite lovely. There was a cool castle, our hotel was very fancy, and we even found a magic store about 2 minutes away! So we bought some magic cards and went swimming and used the hot tub.
We went to Edinburgh because Joel’s friend Brian and family were there for a soccer tournament. We wanted to see them and visit Edinburgh, a place we haven’t been before! We arrived in the city on the 31st and started doing the Edinburgh Mystery Guide. We’ve done one of these before (in Bristol) and absolutely loved it, so we’ve started purchasing more and hope to eventually do all of them. We were exhausted from traveling so we only got through half of it that day, and returned to do the rest the next day. But that puts us into August, so I’ll say more next month!
July was jam-packed, just how I like it!
XOXO, Bethany