Over the Pond (5), day 11 -- Filling in the corners

My Sunday in Harrogate was all about rest and recuperation. After our blissful, Enthusiast day in York, I got a lovely night's sleep, then awoke just in time to beg off of church and get a lovely morning's sleep. I woke, and dozed, and woke, and dozed, and slept, and dozed a bit more. It was just what I needed; I'd been rising early each morning to work on my writing, and was actuely aware of the luxury of resting until noon. In his books, Tolkien describes the hobbits concluding their meals by nibbling and nibbling, "filling up the corners." That's exactly what I did on Sunday, and it was wonderful.

After Pete and Catherine returned, each having preached that morning, Catherine and I drank tea and checked email and chatted by the fire while Pete fixed a yummy lunch of sausage and mustard mash, baked beans, poached eggs, and homemade bread. We all dozed in front of our computers before stopping by a friend's birthday party (more on that later). We then opted not to attend Evensong (Enthusiast malfunction) and returned to the house for more dozing, tea, and conversation.

They then went to dinner at another friend's while I remained behind. Catherine said, "You're not invited tonight, so you can stay home, rest and read." How did she know? Pete very proudly displayed the goodies he'd bought me for dinner -- tinned chicken curry and treacle sponge, the latter of which I decided to bring home and enjoy with the family. I stayed home, ate curry with cream crackers, apples and dates, talked to my friend Christine, and watched Fiddler on the Roof. It was a lovely day.

The next morning, Pete and I drove to Leeds, where he had a meeting and I caught the train to London. Although I wish these folks were still living in the States, I'm enjoying seeing another side of them, and another aspect of England, as they make their home in Harrogate.

In case you're wondering about my connection to Pete and Catherine, they are friends from the New Monastic network and are members of the Northumbria Community, which I've visited on previous trip OTP (see here, here, and here).