Last weekend we took a drive through the Yorkshire Dales. Many of the villages don’t really qualify as such–they are more properly “hamlets.”
Old houses next to graveyard
The Dales are full of pastures and, this time of year, they are full of lambs. You can watch them for hours as they “gambol” about. That is when they do these hops with all fours leaving the ground.
Major lambing season in Yorkshire
There are a lot of streams–meaning some nice rock bridges. Here is one in Buckton.
Bridge in Buckton
Here is the train version.
Beautiful bridge
We spend all day on very narrow roads which are bordered by craggy rock walls like this.
Miles of roads no wider than this through the Moors
Nice play between rocks and pastures.
Rocks and pasturelands
It’s been awhile since we have reported on our Church History assignment. We recently interviewed an 85 year-old sister who moved here to Chorley 18 months ago to be near the temple. We went at our appointed time and after small-talk, I set up the recorder and explained it to her. She moved away like it was a king cobra. I explained how it worked and demonstrated by speaking and playing it back. She would have none of it. She wanted to tell us her story and didn’t want it recorded. So we sat and listened to 3 hours of her story (her whole life). It was fascinating, but completely unrelated to our project. We left on very comfortable terms, but at the door she said, “that’s not what you came to hear was it?” “No, but we really feel privileged to have heard what we did.” She asked when we could come back to do our thing. We made an appointment for the next week. We got what we went for (her account of why she moved close to the temple and whether it has met her expectations). She is the sweetest lady with a most interesting life. About 6 years as a refugee after WW II. Living in abandoned industrial kitchens and so on. But, a wonderful story about moving all by herself, at age 85, to be on, what she calls, the “doorstep to heaven.” She walks about 4-5 blocks to the temple at least 3 times a week through some bitter cold and a lot of rain–without a word of complaint. Interestingly, the last two people we have interviewed are both converts who met the missionaries randomly (not referred by anyone). Both were left a Word of Wisdom pamphlet on the first visit and both believed the Church was true after reading that pamphlet. Maybe we should move the WofW to the first discussion.
We are leaving for Paris on Tues. to take care of a couple of legal matters. On the way back, we will meet Ryan and Heather in London for a couple of days then explore the Cotswolds on our way back up here. Should have a good post in a couple of weeks.
Love to all.