England Memories

Thinking back on our time in England, it is very hard to summarize all of the things we saw and all of our impressions of England and the English people.

We had expected life in England to be much more like life in the U.S. than it was! As far as daily life, Ron's work was much the same as in the U.S., except that he did have longer hours, and he worked almost every Saturday (that part was not expected!). Mine, however, was quite a change, as I was newly retired, living in an apartment, and had no car during the day! I had to invent things to do to keep busy---that is how my blog got it's start! I walked almost every day, and really, I was not bored. Other things that stand out to me as being different from our life in the U.S. were : apartment living, no dishwasher, no washer and dryer (having to hand-wash many clothes and go to the washeteria for the rest), hanging clothes out on the line outside when sunny and inside when rainy, planning the trips to the grocery store after Ron got home, no shopping other than for food (prices were much too high), riding the bus to town (only a few times---at $10.50 per trip!), driving over an hour to church each Sunday, everything costing at least twice as much, trying to remember which side of the car to get into, narrow roads, and very few good restaurants.
On the positive side were: new people we met, apartment living--- free time was really free (no yard work, upkeep of house, etc.), more time for Ron and I to spend together, weekly Bible studies and meals and our friendship with Beryl and Alister, learning about blogging and card making, reading more than ever, Sunday worship at Bedminster and people we got to know there, Sunday lunch with Trevor and Pauline, new "English words", learning new customs, new sights and sounds and smells, the Royal bakery, beaches, fascinating historical places, and being able to share some of England in person with Julie and Matt and their children and by blog and e-mail with other family and friends.

We loved the village of Martock, where we lived! With most all of the buildings being really old and being made of the same Hamstone, Martock was quaint and beautiful! No place in the U.S. looks quite like that! It was always interesting to walk through the town, as we could see new sights every time. We loved the way Martock, as other small towns, was centered around the old church. It seemed that church was the center of town life, especially in years past, and the church was always the largest, most ornate, and oldest place in town. (I wish that more people today would feel that church (not just the building) is the center of their lives---that seems to be what people in old England must have felt.)

For Christmas Ron bought me a print of Martock. It was done by an artist, now deceased, that was local to Sommerset county, England. His specialty was painting scenes from villages around the area. This print depicts the church area in Martock as he envisioned it around 1600. Here is a photo of the print and then a photo of the street as seen in real life today.




The print is hanging in our den, and every time we see it, it feels as if we were walking through Martock again!

Are we glad that we had the opportunity to live in England for most of the past year? Definitely, YES!
Would we want to make England our permanent home? Definitely, NO! We missed family most of all. We missed friends--friends from church, friends from work, our church and Sunday School class, our Friendspeak friends. We missed our house and our "things" that we did not take with us. We missed American T.V., American food, and the amazing variety of products in stores (with, as we appreciate now, good prices).
Although returning to England is not in our plans now, maybe someday we will go back for a visit.....