#130 Nomad Diary. 15-21 April 2023. 3 of 4 weeks at Bells Yew Green, Kent, England. Gardening at the Church Building. New Teeth! Haircut.

 

Darrell “gardening” at the back of the church building parking lot.

Paul working on the gutter and Godfrey weeding nonstop!

Esther mopping inside the church building with Isabella tied to her back! Wow!

Grace having a sandwich with 4 year old Vivian, Isabella’s older sister. 

At our Bells Yew Green Pub for dinner after Gardening at the church building.

View from our table inside the Pub.

Saturday. 15. Today we go to High Brooms to help with the work day at the church building. We stayed several hours mostly gardening. Darrell spent time cleaning out overgrown bushes. I did some weeding on the entry walkway. I took a few pictures. There was also gutter cleaning and classroom painting and cleaning bathrooms happening. Grace brought some sandwiches that we so appreciated! We went home late in the afternoon and had to rest and recover! It was a nice way to spend our energy.

Today is our oldest son, Eric’s birthday. He was born in 1985.

Our evening walk view.

Walking on a “two way” road between tall hedges.

Sunday. 16. Yay for our trains running today and no replacement bus! Darrell preached again today. The worship was encouraging and enjoyable. We came back to Tunbridge Wells and went out to Wagamama for lunch. Thanks to our friend Grace for showing us this place! The food is a twist on Asian meals. We enjoyed it. We got back to our place and rested a bit, then I needed to go out for a walk! We enjoyed an evening walk by way of a country lane. 

Walking in Dunorlan Park. Darrell is ahead of me with the backpack.

Another view at Dunorlan Park.

Monday. 17. Today is a sunny day! The temperature is up to 60 degrees F. We decide to walk to Tunbridge Wells. Once we are there, we decide to walk further through Dunorlan Park and on to the High Brooms station. Our objective is to arrive at the Tonbridge station and walk about a block to Tonbridge Home and visit with our friend Margaret who has just been moved here as her permanent care home.  She was in good spirits today. There was sunshine coming in the window. She spoke clearly to me from her bed about her perspective of living her life now and not having strength to stand on her own. She said this is not how she wants it, but she realizes that her life is in God’s hands. She is also grateful for the nice and comfortable place she is with the good care from the staff. She said that she realizes how little she needs to live, and that people are most important to her. She said people are her entertainment. Darrell said a prayer over us all and we hugged and said good-bye for today. I’m glad I came. I like listening to her wisdom and faith in God. She is sure, and I so appreciate her!

After we left we went to a store called ‘Cook’ a couple of blocks on the other side of the station. We went here last summer when we lived in this town. This store sells frozen meals that are delicious! We bought 3 meals each and then walked back to the train and rode back to Frant.

At our place we baked our lasagne meals. Darrell’s is traditional and mine is veggie. Both meals were satisfying and very delicious! 

Talking to grandson Owen, 1 ½ , in Alabama.

Tuesday. 18. This day is our morning ab routine and I feel so accomplished to do it and to do it before breakfast! Darrell made pancakes and we have fresh berries and real Canadian maple syrup to go with our pancakes. We stayed in this whole day. The sky is gray today but there’s no rain. I worked on the pc for several hours saving selected pictures to the hard drive so that my photos are able to rotate as screen savers. Today is Darrell’s mom’s 89th birthday and we spoke to her by phone. We also had a call with Owen our 1 ½ year old grandson with his dad Eric, our oldest son. Our calls with the US are usually after 2pm because of the 6 hour time difference with Central time zone. At 7pm we participated with our local churches Bible study that is currently being taught by 93 year old Sewell Hall! We are so amazed by his efforts and ability to keep on teaching. He taught his 4th of 6 lessons tonight. His series is about godliness and is a timely reminder of living godly: what it is and how that looks through the scriptures. Sewell lived and worked with this congregation many decades ago. I think he was here with his family during his kids teen years. Margaret, our church member at the care facility, is and was a contemporary with Sewell here with her family. Margaret is the age my mother would be now, and Margaret’s 6 children span similar ages to include me and Darrell’s ages. At tonight’s study, Margaret was online thanks to her daughter Hazel who was streaming from Margaret’s bedside at her care facility. Many hadn’t seen Margaret online since she went to the hospital a few months ago and is now at this facility. It was a sweet and encouraging reunion even online!

Wednesday. 19. I wanted pancakes again today and Darrell obliged by making them. We ran out of some items to make more and added them to our grocery list. We are still here for another 1 ½ weeks. I’ve made two appointments for today. One is a phone call with my friend Laura in the states. It’s at 1:30 my time and 7:30 am for her. We will talk for about an hour then Darrell and I will take the train to High Brooms and I’m having an hour to visit Grace while Darrell goes shopping. He’s going to come along to Grace’s and we will all have dinner together before we walk about a mile back down the hill to the train and ride two more stops east to our station of Frant. 

At Frant train station. Our airbnb is across the tracks and at the end of the side walk, about two blocks away.

Me with new teeth! Having lunch in Maidstone.

To be continued on Monday!

Yes, this is a real conversation here. I like them both, but I do the Devon Way! lol.

Thursday. 20. Today I’m going to get my new dentures at Maidstone Denture Studio. I was fitted and ordered them a couple of weeks ago. I got them and so far they are fitting good. It’s always a bit awkward to relearn fine talking sounds and how these feel for eating too. I really like these and feel so much more relaxed and secure that they are going to last. I have the matter to let the business in Alabama who made my teeth this past December to know how they have not lasted and broken two times before even 6 months!  

Our train travel to Maidstone changes in Tonbridge where Margaret is now living in a care home. We took a short walk from the station to visit with her there. 

The weather was so beautiful today but is forecast to turn much colder and rain around 4pm. We took the train back to our place, rested, had dinner and watched the weather changes. At 6:30 we took the train back to High Brooms for the Bible study at the church building. We enjoyed being with the group and having a lesson. We said our goodbyes with Gill and Hazel as they are going for a week to Amsterdam together and will not be back before we leave. They wanted us to feel welcome to return and visit them again! This means so much to be welcomed with kindness and friendship!

We rode the train back to Frant and had a quick call with Eric and Owen before heading to bed.

Nice building across the street from Tunbridge Wells train station. Inside is a Sainsbury Local small grocery store that we sometimes shop at.

Sweet call with 2 ½ year old Quinn and our son Jeremy in Portland, Maine.

Our delicious dinner of chicken, veggies and pasta carbonara.

Frozen dinners from the Kent store “Cook”. It has become my favorite for prepared frozen meals!

Friday. 21. Today it is gray and raining. We are waiting to go to Hastings until tomorrow. I booked a 1pm haircut appointment in Tunbridge Wells through an online app. We rode the train over at 12:30 and walked uphill from the train station to find the place I got my haircut. After I finished there we went to one of my favorite Kent-only frozen meals store: Cook! We picked out two frozen meals for the coming week. We then went to M&S cafe for a cappuccino and then finished off our grocery shopping in their small shop within this department store. We bought eggs, walnuts, hazelnuts, oranges, lettuce, bacon and olive oil. We went to Poundland, the equivalent of our Dollar Store, to get some ziploc bags. Then we walked about 3 blocks and downhill to the train station with our haul! The sun was shining as it got close to 3pm, and we rode back one stop to Frant station at Bells Yew Green. We called Jeremy’s family and caught up chatting for the week.

Nomad Notes.

While living this nomad life, with itinerant stays, it seems to take extra effort to find local professionals and make appointments as an outsider to the community. When my teeth broke a couple of weeks ago, I looked for and found that getting a denturist here seems easier than in the US. Even though I have had my dentures since I was 13 and I have had many sets made through my decades of wearing them, I’m still learning about the people who craft them for me. I now know that I went ‘too cheap’ in Alabama, but it cost me extra in the long run to do that. If I had not had a problem, then I would never have learned from the two denture artists that I have met who repaired my break. One in Maine in February and the one here in Maidstone who I also commissioned to make me a new set! Yay! Since working with the artists here in Maidstone, I know that they exist with greater skill and at a price that I consider affordable than I could get in the US.

This week I have felt the value of open invitations by strangers to be included in a ‘Cream Tea’ on Monday April 24th; and to revisit the High Brooms church again during future our travels. These interactions initiate friendships for this day and leave us with heartfelt memories of this area.