The beauty of the countryside

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him the son of man that you care for him? Ps 8: 3-4

On Boxing Day I went to Cornwall for a few days together with the Duffys. It was just what I needed after 4 months work and all the Christmas busyness; a peaceful place on the coast. The sea is for me very important and I always think that if someone told me that I could choose a place to live, anywhere in the world, my only wish is that it should be on the coast. Warm weather and mild winters are desirable but not necessary! :)
The Cornish coast is beautiful, wild and dramatic; nothing like in Croatia!!! Also there are tides - high tide when there is not much beach and low tide when there is lots of sand.

The company was excellent and the days passed quickly. During the day we walked on the cliffs where the only noise that we could hear was the crashing of the waves, looking around the nearest towns, surfing and unavoidable browsing in the shops and doing shopping at which Martin was the hottest. In the evenings we gathered together and played some party games and chatted. It was very relaxing!

The other thing that I like about Cornwall is that when you are there it seems as if modernisation hasn’t reached there. Even though it is the most popular place for holidays in Britain they are still without a motorway, the coast area is not so built up,
there are no big apartment buildings, you need do your shopping for supper at the old fashioned family butcher… In some ways it seems that time stops when you are there, at least in the winter.

I needed to take this picture of the old manual scale. I found it in one of the local shops there. It reminds me of my childhood. Until I was 7 years old I lived in a small village where the fruit
man came in his van a few times a week, honking while he drove down the street and stopping in front of people’s houses selling fruit and vegetables. The manual scale was the main part of his equipment.

This is just a cute photo of a doctor's surgery that Andy took.

St. Stephens is a church with 600 members and it is impossible to know all of them: so I am especially glad that Andy, one of the worship leaders came with us and I had the chance to get to know him better. I discovered that he is more than a pretty face. :) He is a wonderful man – funny, caring, patient, relaxed, godly… Only I wish that his politeness wouldn’t stop him being frank when need be.

A bit of everything...

I realise that you can’t live in Britain and not talk about the weather. Why?? Lately I have been lucky enough to experience all the beauty of the British weather - changeable and foggy; it makes you notice the sunny days. I like to sleep with the curtains open, because I like it when, ideally, the sun or at least the daylight wakes me up. But for days the only thing that I can see from my window is grey sky and it stays like this the whole day. It makes me feel like staying in bed. This scene reminds me of my favourite Elvis Presley song – In the ghetto. The song starts like this: “Cold and grey Chicago morning…” it is a very good song but quite depressing.
Anyway as they said “After the rain comes the sun.” and I won’t complain anymore because the weather is improving.

Christmas was amazing here!!! As in my country, there is a lot of food, but the whole atmosphere is very different. It seems that Christmas here lasts longer. This is good in many ways because it gives you enough time to celebrate with everyone: friends, colleagues, families.
The church with all the candles and the decorations looked beautiful. The carol services were well done and moving. I don’t know how to explain but I was very happy to be part of all this.
I was involved in all the church preparations and parties from the beginning of December so by Christmas Day I was really fed up and I couldn’t wait to finish it. On Christmas Day I helped with the Christmas lunch for people on their own, together with Martin and Annette. That was nice but I didn’t have any more will and I was just thinking about my holiday in Cornwall where I was going on Boxing Day. So I believe for those people I wasn’t very good company, which I feel bad about. But you can’t blame me! :)

CHRISTMAS EVE – after the midnight service, which was great, we opened presents. In the photo above I am posing next to the Christmas tree in my Parisian boots which were a present also.

I was brought up in a small village near the farm where my dad used to work. I have seen all the domestic animals: pigs, cows, chickens, horses etc. I have seen and helped also with growing vegetables.
I didn’t think that this was a big deal until recently when I was at one lunch friends my age hadn’t ever seen what horseradish and beetroot look like. They think that those vegetables grow in jars! Of course the part about the jars is a joke. But still I feel lucky knowing that I was able to participate in milking the cows, collecting the eggs, picking the beetroot…

I can see future generations of pupils going into a museum to see all those things, or maybe what is even more popular thematic weekends on the topic “The life of our ancestors!”