Our day at home only produced a few kitty pictures and a very relaxed state for all of us. It rained and reined and then snowed for about an hour (so beautiful) then it stopped and rained again and about an hour later the snow that had accumulated was all washed away and the sun, although not visible, was setting. I got a picture of the yard with a light blanket of snow before it was all gone.Yesterday was a nice day in Ipswitch, enjoying have a few hours away from the house and out with hundreds of people out doing their Christmas shopping. Apparently, here in England, it's considered the busiest shopping day of the year and from the crowds in Iswitch I can believe it is. I found some charming side streets with what looked like 15th Century buildings that were connected by enclosed walkways. The bus ride from Tunstall to Ipswitch takes about an hour because it makes lots of stops in all kinds of modern and centuries old villages and towns. Today our bus driver, a women named Julia, who clearly didn't usually do this route greeted everyone with a big smile and lots of gracious pleasantries and she epitomized everything you'd think about friendly country people. And as the trip continued I had to smile several times because every town or village we went to people, mostly elderly, got on and explained with such delight that they hadn't seen Julia in so long and in one town a group of elderly people got on and were so excited they each gave her hugs and then apologized to us all for holding things up but like me there wasn't a single person, well maybe the young teenage girl, who were the least bit annoyed it was just so sweet and endearing to see so many people happy to see a clearly adored bus driver.
I got to go to the 10:45am mass at St. Pancras Catholic Church when I got to Ipswich which was nice and the church was strangely packed for a Saturday morning mass and I presume many people like me can't get into town on Sundays because of the bus schedule or something like that so they come early on Saturdays. The priest was a bit odd though and didn't even do a homely just gave a harsh speech about the mass next week being at 10:30am because of the children's party afterwards but it was his tone that surprised me and that fact that he started out his speech with something about not doing a homely because no one would be listening. I got there a little late so perhaps something occurred before I got arrived to get him upset with the parishioners, but either way it was a very odd response to say the least.
After a yummy lunch at Evolution, a nice chain restaurant in Britain (sort of like Houstons in the States) and grocery shopping I got back on the bus and headed back home to walk little Teddy who was so excited when I got back so we stayed out for about a half hour. It was getting a bit chilly and I had already walked him for about 40 minutes this morning before I left so I felt that was enough running around for me, if not for him.
Today was a gorgeous, mostly sunny day and Teddy and I went for a long walk in one of the plowed wheat fields near by and as soon as I let him off his leash he took of running and I found a tennis ball at my feet, clearly abandoned by another local furry one. So I threw and Teddy did go fetch but he never brought it back. So basically I had to keep finding where he dropped it and ran off to find more places to mark. He feels it's his duty to mark every blade of grass he passes. I really wish he'd play fetch but as I may have mentioned in a previous blog this breed, according to John, his daddy, does not do the fetch game. He is a retriever and to his breed once they find whatever it is they're suppose to find they hold on and keep it until they're done. They see no purpose in bringing something back to you so you can just throw it again. Teddy's trainer said he's too smart for that. Well he can be as smart as he wants he's the one missing out on fun. So he just took the ball and ripped off the bright yellow felt leaving a slimy black ball. I was thankful I'd brought some doggy poop bags and I scooped up the yellow remnants so we wouldn't be environmentally insensitive and leave something that may, or may not, be biodegradable. Every time Teddy dropped the ball and got focused on other things like a small, mud covered plant or dirty puddle, I scooped it up, again using another poop bag as he'd just slobbered all over it, and threw it watching Teddy go after it and then lug it around in his mouth until he got distracted again and let it drop. This took a lot of time which was good since I try to keep him out running for as long as possible and I guess gave me some extra exercise having to bend down so much to retrieve the ball. And by the time we left that field the ball was ripped apart and pretty much useless as a ball. I scooped up the remnants in the poop bag since it also would not be biodegradable and off we went to the foot path that leads to St. Michael's church to see the final day of the Christmas Tree Festival.
When we got there we heard music from inside and I was going to just lead Teddy down the path to leave since I didn't want him to disturb a service that may be going on but I just figured we'd take a quick peek from the back of the church and then leave but it turned out it wasn't a service it was 3 people who were there for the festival and the women was an organist and was playing the 18th century instrument for fun. She was so nice and asked if I'd like to hear anything. She greeted Teddy and that inspired her to play "Doggie in the Window." After her tribute to Teddy I asked if she could play something traditional for an English Christmas so she played several beautiful pieces as well as the more well known "Silent Night" at which time our little group, which now included another local women and a women minister who had just arrived, began to sing with her musical accompaniment. It was such a lovely visit and the a man who lived directly next door in a beautiful red brick house was on volunteer duty to greet people and he handed me a form to vote for the best Christmas tree. There were about 8 trees of varying sizes placed around the church and each decorated by a group associated with the nearby towns including one created by the youth theatre group in Woodbridge, a health and welfare organization which directed their tree with ornaments made from medical stuff like parts of a syringes and other local companies. I voted for the Tunstall Baby Ballet group who had brought a 3 foot tree with ornaments made by the kids of dance images. The volunteer was actually from Canada and he and his wife moved her about 6 years ago but have lived in England for over 20 years. His wife arrived few minutes later with their black and brown spaniel who at first seemed to like Teddy but then went a little crazy and started barking at my little furry one so we thanked everyone for the fun and we quickly scooted out. My poor little Teddy, he just can't seem to make friends around this neighborhood.
We walked home along another path passing the Church House Farm house which looked so pretty with it's thatched roofs and as I may have mentioned before, is an artists studio and office for the people who live in the beautiful home next door and who also own the two sweet horses we met last week. They were equally as friendly today and Teddy and I stood for a bit admiring them, oaky, I admired them, Teddy kept busy smelling for another place to make his mark.
