Griffith-Lewis clans unite!

On Saturday morning, I drove Logan to Heathrow Airport and was able to drop him and pick up Heidi and her clan in the same trip!  Result. We drove home and then stretched our legs on a little tour of the Ashdown Forest over round to the Cat Centre (of course!) and then the Red Lion.  It is amazing to have my sister here with us at long last!!

Tryfan and Luke played some ping pong when we got home on this perfect Saturday afternoon.

I heart Falmouth

Its been a good week with amazing weather actually!  Felt so lucky to be here.  I especially appreciated being near the water in the marina and experiencing the early morning bustling marina life! I wasn't sleeping all that well, and the flat was really quiet so every little noise amplified. One morning I got up and just went for a little scamper up a road I hadn't been on, and I was treated to the most magnificent pre-sunrise colors in the sky reflecting off the water... the whole landscape was purple and pink and just incredible. I didn't have my phone with me in this moment so no photos unfortunately, but it was just awesome.  There was a rowing team out in the harbor as well and from my perch up on the steep hillside, I could hear the oars dipping in the water.  Here are some photos from the week. 

The only sort of bummer was driving back today to Sussex, which took soooooo long (like 9 hours).  Annd then Logan stayed with us tonight and we went to the Red Lion for dinner and it was so nice to be home!!

Road trip to Cornwall

Yesterday was a little crazy.  I started the morning by driving our car to Gatwick North Terminal and leaving it for Rhods to pick up when they landed later this day, and then I got myself back to Gatwick South Terminal so i could rent a car and drive to Heathrow to pick up my colleague Logan who had just flown in from Denver.  I collected him and we drove down to Cornwall for the annual Cornish Mining Conference.  It was a relatively quick trip (only 5 hours) to the Eden Project site where we had a meeting and walk around the site.  I was marvelling at how only 2 years before, I had come to visit this site under my own steam, and I had hung around the visitor section outside the fence for a long time before someone came to chat with me! How cool that now I am friends with the Eden Geothermal CEO and able to visit inside the fence perimeter!

Logan and I found our new digs for the week and went out for food in the middle of town before getting down to work on work stuff from our accommodation.  This morning was beautiful and we spent a good part of the day sitting at the dining table each doing our own work. Its a beautiful view (through the scaffolding)

Later in the day we went to the beach for a swim, some lunch, and then had a conference call there on the beach. 

Later that eve we met up with our friend from last year's conference, Ross. We went back to one of the old haunts and had a pint. Niiiice! 

Neglected garden

 All this traveling means that my garden is getting neglected.  And yet, stuff is still growing!  The cosmos and marigolds and nasturtiums are thriving, and the kale is doing pretty well too.

In fact, inside the greenhouse the tomatoes and cucumbers are still producing, so it isn't too grim of a situation.

Rhodri's epic cycling trip to Bormio

Rhods has been planning this birthday cycling trip for such a long time, and today I heard that they finished the 3rd of their 3 big rides and everyone got down the mountain safely with no injuries.  I'm so, so happy for him and for all the guys on this trip.  Its awesome that Will and Eric were both able to be there too.

Here are (l to r): Rhodri, Will, Mac, Bleddyn, Tim, Huw, Ole, Petter, Jules, Simon and Eric.

 

Back to the beach

Today I got to see my homies at the beach - it was really fun to see them since it has been awhile.  It was a novelty to be able to just hang out on the beach after swimming rather than racing off.

So here are Leigh, Cat, Anna, Sarah, Kim and me.  Emma B and Sarah H are missing though.

Senior Leadership Camp in Michigan

Reports from the Senior class trip to Michigan are: no phones allowed starting on Sunday when they all got on the bus for a 10 hour drive, and they won't get them back until the bus ride back on Friday.  Here are some photos that were sent my way...

This week is mental

After arriving home on Saturday, switching suitcases and wardrobes on Sunday, I am off now today for a week in Aberdeen (Sept 4-8).  Meanwhile, our girl is going to Senior Class Leadership Camp in Michigan (Sept 3-8) and in a couple of days Rhodri will be going to Italy for his long-awaited birthday cycling tour in the Dolomites (Sept 7-11).  Tryfs gets to start the school year on Sept 5th as part of the Year 11 class at Chailey, and Annie is doing her 'A-dog' thing holding the fort at home.  Mental! 

Sunset

What a beautiful evening!  Tryfs and Rhods spent part of it playing ping pong on the deck until they got too hungry and came in for dinner.

Back to Chalfonts

Traveled back from St. Louis via Charlotte, NC to London Heathrow, leaving on Friday afternoon and getting home around 9am Saturday morning.  At the St Louis airport, I treated myself to some Ted Drewes frozen custard from a vending machine. Luxury!

When I stopped through Charlotte, I had the most delicious margarita (ok, maybe not the best ever but it was really good) and fish tacos in the airport before getting on the plane. Nice. I tried to sleep on the plane (not so much) and it was mainly fine.  One of Guy's mates picked me up from Heathrow and delivered me safely home, and later in the day we had Cat and Gary come round for beverages. 

Its a special feeling coming home, always.

Last few days in St. Louis

I'm gearing up to head back home and it has been a really great chunk of time I've been here.  At first, three weeks felts like such a long time but this past week has flown by.  I'm grateful to have been able to work from an empty office in the academic building and be treated like an insider, a familiar face on the campus.  I have absolutely cherished that - such a special environment and it was wonderful to be able to see my girl every day, even if just for a fleeting moment!

This week in particular has been stunning autumn weather which has been very pleasant. I sat outside on my own for lunch a couple of days this week and just soaked up the setting.

The house we/ I have been staying in is directly across the street from one of the school entrances and it is so convenient and lovely!

 

I saw a red-tailed hawk sitting on the lawn and then take off flying right in front of me. Amazing!

And of course, the full moon rising over the campus and the track/ football stadium was so, so beautiful last night.  I couldn't resist just walking around in the evening moonlight to simply enjoy the warm midwestern night air and the moonlight streaming through the trees. Absolutely magical.

It is such a pretty campus.

Fun to see middle-schoolers learning how to paddle on Lasky Pond at the edge of campus by the footpath, too!  In fact, I hadn't ever seen anyone actually on the water so that was fun. I love how Prin makes an effort to actually use the entire 350+ acre campus.  I've been able to do some nice runs on the woods-and-fields part of the campus which have trails marked out, and are semi-maintained too!  

It was difficult to walk away, though.  And awful to say goodbye to Rhiannon.  Wylie came out to say goodbye too, which was nice.  I'm confident that Rhi is in a good place and has a solid network of supporting and professional adults around her, and also a lot of friends who seem to be caring and genuine friends to her. That's about as good as one could possibly hope for, so now I'm off to leave her to it.  This coming weekend she and the rest of the senior year will be heading off to Michigan for a leadership camp.  The rest of the school is also going on respective trips (Juniors to Maine, Sophomores to Boston, Freshman to Colorado) for this week of 'Character Building Trips'.

Old and new friends

Its been really fun to spend time with people who I knew 'back in the day' when I was a student here, and Mr Lindsey is one of them.  He was my cross country coach (along with Mr Simon) and he is still coaching teens to this day.  He always makes me laugh with the way he talks about things.  

So I saw him at church this morning and thought it was funny to do a self-take in the lobby at church!

Later in the day, Rhiannon and I went to Wylie's house for lunch.  It was so great to spend time with Wylie's parents Sally and Matt.  They are a fantastic family and I'm glad that Rhiannon gets to have them nearby to keep an eye.

It's going to be hard to leave at the end of the week to go back to England after being here for 3 full weeks!