First things first, here are some belated pictures of the New Year’s Eve party we went to in PA.

Moving on . . . We just got back from visiting Barry & Claire in Wyndmonham, which is pronounced Wind’m. (I could go on all day about leaving letters out of words here. Southwark is pronounced Suthurk. Worchestershire - as in the sauce - is wuster) It’s very close to Norwich (you guessed it - Norich) and way the heck out in the country, where there are trees, woods, furry creatures, and even flowers. It was wonderful, and I genuinely feel like I can breathe better today than I could two days ago - fresh air is so exhilarating.

We arrived on Saturday morning, had a yummy lunch of ham, soup, and salad, and set off on a walking tour of Norwich. We went to the beautiful cathedral in the town, within which was an exhibition of the Quaker tapestry. Back in 1981, Quakers all over the world began to make a tapestry explaining the history and core beliefs of their faith. Today it is 77 panels strong and quite impressive to see. Also impressive were the cathedral’s bosses. Bosses are the baubles on the joints of the arches in the ceiling. There are over 1100 of them in the cathedral, each of which is unique and tells one of the stories of the Bible.

When we returned to the cottage, Violet and Basil came to dinner. Violet is Andy’s grandfather’s cousin. Oh by the way, Claire is Andy’s mom’s cousin. Anyway, Violet has an extensive family tree (which even I am on) and Claire has a book (published in 1904) that details the family history back hundreds of years. Apparently one of Andy’s ancestors commanded forces in the Civil War. We spent hours looking at photos and through the book; we saw an amazing picture of Andy’s grandfather as a young man, leaning on an airplane. I found it fascinating to look for family resemblances in people I never knew.

We all stayed up later than planned, and poor Violet and Basil went home sleepy as could be, while Andy and I stumbled up to bed and barely made it there before falling deeply to sleep.

Today, we had a lazy breakfast, a walk around the garden and a tour of the rest of the property, including Barry’s studio. Barry is an artist and has loads of extraordinary paintings all over the house AND, not surprisingly, in his studio. Then we had a lazy lunch and even managed to cram in a giant cookie before our next adventure - working in the woods.

Barry manages an ancient woodland behind their property. The entire park spans about 100 acres, and a portion of it is managed by a process called coppicing. Essentially, when the naval ships were lost fighting the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth saw the need for a constantly refreshing supply of wood - in order to build more ships. The property is divided into sections, and in a 20-year rotation, the growth is cut down to about 6 inches high. Every year, Barry, Claire and cohorts (which today included Andy and me) chop down the growth in one section of the woodland, so that they constantly have 20 completely different habitats for wildlife and whatnot. They leave 10 big trees per acre, but the rest is cut back to leave room for wildflowers, butterflies, and birds. Our job was to chop up some pieces that had already been cut down and drag them into piles according to size. It was so nice to go outside and work hard - we don’t get too much opportunity to do that sort of thing in central London.

Now we’re back, we’re watching Moulin Rouge and waiting patiently for the Superbowl to start. I’m pleasantly surprised and excited that it will be on television, and my goal is to make it through the half-time show, which I figure will be over at about 1am. We’ll see.