Time Zooming By

I've got to get myself some sort of a schedule. I feel like my day is zooming past me and I'm not feeling like I'm accomplishing much. Time to take charge.

Speaking of taking charge, Katie and Emma are moving out! It's about the best (in my opinion) it can be. They'll be just four houses down the street. It makes for a pretty good safety net for them. We'll see how it goes but I'm excited for them and I'm excited for us. That means that pretty much the next week (ha!) or so will be filled with rearranging furniture and rooms. Mike will hate it.

Cleaning!!

Purging, cleaning, straightening, organizing; it can be really rewarding, but, at the same time, tiring.  I started tackling our bedroom today.  It needs to be presentable for the inspector for when we finally get the permit to have it.  That's a good thing since it's been there for 14 years.  Our bedroom is huge so I moved a big bookcase today to partition it off somewhat.  Tomorrow, I'll try to go through the stuff that belongs in the shelves and make it look better than it does now.  Unfortunately, what it ends up looking like and what I envision in my head rarely ever match.  Maybe someday.

Some to-do's for tomorrow:

Cards in month folders

upload photos from camera

switch big desk with tall bookcase (BIG job, LOTS of stuff in both)

pay bills

vacuum living room

put covers on chairs and couch

figure out what to put in which storage areas

put the rest of the Christmas stuff in the attic

start posting photos on the blog

get photos transferred to Aperture Library (since we're talking 100,000+ photos, this is another big job)

Off to bed so I can get a fresh start tomorrow.

2011

Happy New Year!  Husband starts Days tomorrow (first time in a year!!) so I will finally get a chance to work in our bedroom.  I'm thrilled.  He's not.  All I need is one rotation.  I should be able to resurrect the room in four months.  A Blessed Eve of Epiphany to you all!

Steps, Days 7-22 (Nov. 8-23) Part Two

Day two and we're ready to continue our drive to Odell (pronounced like 'yodel,' by the way).  Thanks to googlemaps, you can join me on our drive.  We left Swineshead and the next village we'll come to is Riseley.  

As you can see, we're in the middle of farmland out here.  There are a lot of little villages in the area.

Just coming into Riseley now.  There are a lot of houses in this village that are listed in the British Listed Buildings site.  

I LOVE this cottage.  I love the color, the beams and the thatched roof .

This one is pretty cool, too.  I like the way the windows are set into the thatching . . . or the way the thatching is built around the windows.

I'd live here, too.  :o)

This one looks like it should be an inn.

The Fox and Hounds in Riseley, Bedfordshire.  I think we should pop in for a bite to eat!  Check out their menu.  I think I could make a meal of just their starters. 

So we've had our lunch and now it's back on the road.

The doors on this old barn struck me.  I'm a sucker for doors and windows.

Seeing this makes me wish I was there.

Looking back.

Look at the difference in the weather.  Most of the time we were there, we were fortunate enough to have lots of sunshine, but we had our share of foggy days, too.

We're going to take a little jog to the right and then back down in the direction we were headed.

We could turn here to go to Odell, but we're going to go up a bit further.

We'll turn in here.  

I love the signs.  Wait until you see the arched bridge.  Better hope for no oncoming traffic.

Wonder how old this thing is?

Almost to Sharnbrook.  I love their old barns.  They're so much cooler than our old barns.

Another Wesleyan Chapel (Methodist).

Stone building and thatched roof.

Best be careful when you step out your front door.  You might step right in front of a moving vehicle.

More stones and thatching.

We turn left here to go to Odell.

I love their churchyards.  I think a cemetery SHOULD have upright headstones.  I don't care for the flat markers set into the ground.  Doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of character or individuality in that style.

Check out the houses on this street.  Wow!

Through the roundabout . . .

Check out the signs to get our bearings . . .

and back on our way . . .

to Odell!  So what's the big deal about Odell and why would we make a point of going to visit there you might ask?  Well, one of my ancestors, Reverend Peter Bulkeley, was born in Odell and was the pastor of All Saints Church there.  He was also booted out of there for "nonconformity."  As a result, he and a bunch of his followers headed off to the New World to take advantage of religious freedom.  He founded the town of Concord, Massachusetts.

This is the Rectory Farm for All Saints.  We passed it on our way to the church and came back after we went to the church.  We stopped in and bought some jams and then went back to the church.

Why did we pass it by the first time and then go back?

Odell's High Street

I love the way the buildings are right to the street edge.

If you look close, you can see the wall that's the beginning of the church property.

Almost there.

Ah.  All Saints Church.  We got here and hopped out of the car to look around and go inside.  Problem was, no one was there.  We looked around outside and then saw a note that said to go back to the Rectory Farm for the key.  There was no way they were going to give a couple of Americans the key to a 800 year old church, with no one there to supervise.  Or so we thought.

We went back to the Rectory Farm and met a very nice lady who indeed did give us the key.  It was an old skeleton key, about 5 inches long.  I'll try to get more photos on here later.  For now, these will have to do.

When we were there, it was May and there were flowers blooming everywhere.  It was spectacular.  We walked all over the grounds and then went inside.  I took a bunch of photos inside and we were even able to go down some ancient stairs and then up into the bell tower.  

Not ALL the way up.  Just to a second floor and then to where the rope hung down from the bells.

So cool.

Well, our little outing for the day is done.  When we went home, we took the motorways so we got home much quicker.  The lady we talked to at the farm was surprised that we'd driven "all that way" to visit the church.  They consider 25 miles a great distance.  

Now that I'm trying to get Christmas stuff ready and things ready for our short trip to Oregon (all us "kids" get to be together after not seeing each other for six years!!), I probably won't have much time to do my "walks."  I'm not sure so I'm being noncommittal.  :o)  There are some more special places I want to visit, though, so we'll see.