A Couple Weeks with Mom....

My mom flew in week before last and it promptly snowed again. It was beautiful, as you can see, but, C'MON.... three days home from school put a serious crimp in all the plans I had envisioned for us. Despite that hiccup our first week, I packed in as much as I could for us this past week.

(Thus the whole ~no posting~ thing. Sorry! I'm sad I missed the whole delurking day thing last week, it looked like bunches of fun to try and get all those people that you know are looking at your feed and stopping by for a peek to actually leave a comment to let you know they were there. I did manage to go to two blogs that day and comment.... No, I can't tell you who they were. And I actually only lurk on one of them.)

One of the things that my mom and I did lots of was scarf down scones while having "cream teas." When you drink tea with cookies (biscuits), scones, cake, jam, butter, and clotted cream (if you're lucky), then it is called a cream tea. Just having a cup of tea, is called "having a cup of tea."

And, just for good measure, dinner is called "tea." You can't imagine how confused I was the first time a mom, excuse me, mum, asked if one of my kids was staying for tea when he went to another boy's house to hang out after school. I was all like, What? Good God, woman, I hope you're not giving my kid tea at 6 o'clock at night! (blink, blink) Oh, ha ha, I see.... you mean you're willing to feed him dinner.... I get it now.

We also saw lots of churches. Like Winchester Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, and our own little Saxon gem that is in our tiny little village.

And I learned a new term that I had never heard before: Leper's Squint. It is a little window or hole that is set at an oblique angle to the church's altar, so lepers could watch the church service outside at a safe distance from the healthy people within. I didn't take a picture of the squint, but took a picture of the amazing door that leads into our church. (This is the same church that community holiday talent show took place at, that I sang Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in.)

To get in the church, you walk through this very unassuming outside door and are greeted by this incredibly gorgeous, massive, and ancient looking door. Seriously, the door was put in about 1300AD! And that little tiny handle still works, you have to twist it and it lifts up an iron latch on the inside of the church.

Remarkably, this church is never locked. You can go in at any time to enjoy the beauty, the quiet, ....the solidity of the place. Can you imagine such a thing in the USA? There is a stained glass window above the altar that is over 600 years old. Not one broken piece! It is incredible.

Funny and bizarre side note: The nails used by rat-catchers in medieval times to hang rats on the doors of buildings are still in the door. Ewwww.

Here are a few more pictures of the church. It really is a lovely place.

The view from the small children loft.

The cemetery that surrounds the church. The headstones are so weathered you can't make out any names or dates on many of them.


This cannonball, which is located in the back of the church, is said to have been fired in our village by Cromwell's army, during the English civil war, around 1642.

Neat, huh?