Today was a golden, golden fall day. The leaves here are just turning from green to the rich yellow-reds of autumn and we still have the lingering summer sun that seems loathe to leave us (and I am loathe for it to go)
I woke up and took a walk down to the butcher's shop in the high street, just to get some oats because grandma was running out. The morning air was crisp and cold and I had myself alone with my thoughts. I worried for a while about my lost suitcase, which I had left on the national express coach, but then decided to leave my cares behind me and focus on the first few rays of sun warming my face and the quiet, pastel colours of the Ixworth Highstreet.
It's sort of tradition for me to make porridge for grandma whenever I am there - it is the least I can do for the woman who has always prayed for me, called me across continents, and welcomes our family invasion in to her small house - so I cut up an apple from Auntie Sarah' garden (I love how I can take a 2 minute walk across from 106 to 110 highstreet and actually harvest my own food!!!) and swirled the porridge around and somehow or other got breakfast ready for Mum, Grandma and I.
I was still worried about the suitcase - and as I got ready for my shower I prayed hard about it. My prayer began very typically - Dear God, you know everything and see everything, please help me find my suitcase and please return it to me safe and sound I really really need it.
Then I thought about it - as they say in The Chronicles of Narnia, God is 'not a tame lion'. I am always asking God for things and situations in my favour, always asking him to preserve and guard those I love, and make my ways smooth. But really what it means is that I am clinging onto my circumstances and relationships and not onto the only thing (or rather relationship) that really matters - with Jesus Christ my redeemer.
I thought about that as I showered, and when I towelled off I changed my prayer to, Dear God you know where I am and where my luggage is and I am glad you have sovereignty over all of this. Lord, Thank you for using this to show me just how much emphasis I am placing on a camera and a couple of books. May I look to things above and not things on earth. I give my suitcase into your hands, but more importantly, as I begin university, I deliver my life into your hands. Amen.
We began to get ready to drive to Ely for brunch at the Peacock Tearoom. Auntie Sarah delayed us a little while because a rabbit had gone missing and she was afraid it might stumble into the jaws of a hungry cat. As she was doing that, I received a call from National Express - AND THEY FOUND THE SUITCASE!
God really does have a wicked sense of humour.
Anyway, we discovered that the tea room was closed, and so we decided to go to the Wyken Vineyards instead. Mum and I got out of the car early to walk through the vineyards before getting to the tea house. We picked a couple of grapes (mine was terribly sour), and some wild blackberries from the brambles in the woods (and Mum showed me nightshade berries which are poisonous and which I will be avoiding). We had to walk through some very squelchy mud to get to the tea house, and I was reminded of a childhood book I read 'We're going on a Bear Hunt'
We're going on a bear hunt.
We’re going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We’re not scared.
Uh-uh! Mud!
Thick oozy mud.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We’ve got to go through it!
Squelch squelch!
Squelch squelch!
Squelch squelch!
We made it through and walk through our final hurdle - a field of peacefully grazing sheep, before getting to the tearoom. I picked up a little friend on the way who seemed to like blackberries as much as I do!
We got tea (lemon and ginger / Red bush) and coffee and wholemeal scones with gooseberry and raspberry jam and cream. Auntie Sarah charmed the waitresses which was perhaps why they gave us heaping amounts of cream (not that I could eat any but still such a sweet gesture!) and we sat in the sun happily eating our warm scones.
I was still hungry (what a surprise...) and so I asked if anyone else wanted another scone, and Grandma immediately piped up 'Me please!' and so, round 2. The conversation was full of laughter because despite Grandma's Alzheimer's, she certainly hasn't lost her sense of humour, and so every now an again a pithy remark would emerge that would send us all giggling. It's also funny to see how Mum has inherited Grandma's laugh - when they sit beside each other and laugh at the same thing the similarity is striking.
We decided to walk around the gardens after lunch (Wyken vineyard is actually a house with massive gardens and also vineyards - I told Mum that I would have to find out if Wyken had a son I could marry so I could live in what seemed like pure Eden...) to soak up the most beautiful flowers in the autumn sunshine.
Some places are more beautiful than my limited vocabulary can describe, and so here are some pictures to speak a thousand of them:
On the way out, I spotted some free range eggs for sale. Having seen the (monsterous-sized) chickens roaming about in the gardens (probably having a more carefree life than even me) I had no qualms buying a box with grandma.
That evening,we got Chinese take away from the shop down the high street (really not Chinese food at all), from a girl called Cindy, whose chinese name is Mei Chen (which means beautiful morning).
After dinner, while Mum was washing up, Auntie Sarah played the ukelele and Mum sang and grandma and I danced the can-can and the can-not (our coordination was just.) in the kitchen and just collapsed with laughter every 5 minutes.
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