Saturday Nights

The past few Saturdays we have enjoyed lots of young people joining us for a fun evening of just hanging out in our home.

A great way of getting to know them in an informal way. They have brought lots of joy and laughter to our normally quiet home, while chatting over a cup of cofee.


People from Germany, Northern Ireland, Norway, England, United States, the Netherlands and Faroe Islands have tried our 'famous' Canadian game.

I wonder why they all want Ragnar to be their team mate?!?!

Enjoying a game of Uno

or my favorite, Dutch Blitz.

While others are working away at a Jig Saw Puzzle.

Or hanging out in our kitchen.

We really have enjoyed our first few 'Open Home' Saturday nights, and look forward to many more as the school year goes on.

British Relatives

One of our relatives in the Faroe Islands has been working on the Niclasen family tree for quite some time. When we saw him in May, he told us that we had 3 second cousins living in England. So Ragnar went to his home one day and they looked up where they were living. Can you believe that one of them lives within a 10 min. drive of us, another one within an hour's drive, and the 3rd about a 2 hour drive which is on the way to Craig and Claire's? We could hardly believe it and since then have had the opportunity to visit all 3 of them. Pete and Mary have also been to visit us.

Ragnar with Pete and Mary.

Looking at family photos.

Mary's mom was born and brought up in the Faroe Islands, but she has not yet had the opportunity to visit there. She and her son are planning a trip for this coming summer, so she has lots of questions about the weather, culture and language.
Pete showed us around their orchard - plenty of plums.
Lots of apples too.

Beautiful property.

Walking Tour

Walking tour of the staff houses for the new students. They came in groups of 6-8 and only had about 10 minutes in each house.

It was a fun way for us to get to know each other a little bit. We had all given them a clue for them to try and identify us.

Our clues were "I grew up near Anne of Green Gables Home' (I'm the only Canadian here) and 'Our grandkids come in pairs.' Most of them were able to guess us quite easily.

We were sure they really appreciated it when one of the students left and said, "Thank you for your hostility." One of those 'fun' language mistakes that you can laugh over when you know the language better!!

Our 'Kabalayan'

Kankanaey, our tribal language, has a word for the relationship between the two sets of parents when their children marry - kabalayan. I have often wished we had a word like that in English, instead of having to describe it - Craig's in-laws or our daughter-in-law's parents.

Doug and Hilary Jefferies are our Kabalayan.

We have spent many hours in our kabalayan's home, so felt very blessed this past week-end that we were able to share our home with them.
They made the 3 hour journey north to our home in North Cotes and we had fun hanging out together for the week-end.
I am sure I don't need to tell you what our main topic of discussion was, but besides sharing our 'Ellie and Rebekah stories' we enjoyed walking down to the beach, going on a day trip to a few small villages, and just spending hours talking around our dining room table.

Enjoying a cup of coffee at the beach.

In one town there was a Flower Festival in the village church.

All the displays were beautiful, but this was my favorite one. Too bad I'm not a better photographer.

Another reason I was thankful for our time together was that this summer when I was in Canada, Hilary received her docorate degree, and I missed the celebrations.

Dr. Hilary Jefferies

Ragnar was able to be at the party and I am glad for the pictures.

Do you think they are proud of their Grandma?!?!

Crazy Dinner

Our co-worker, Gill Baxter, is retiring soon, so we surprised her with a Crazy Dinner.

Each guest received a 'menu' that they needed to fill out, although they had no idea what they were ordering when they asked for 'red sea' or 'sloppy strings'.
The combination of the foods they 'ordered' were very interesting, and kept us all laughing throughout the dinner.

What would Moses' Rod or 3 coins in a fountain turn out to be?

I wonder why they would choice to eat their salad with a toothpick??

A fun night with some 'crazy' friends!!

Ragnar's sister & cousin

Ragnar's sister and her husband, his first cousin and her husband along with a friend came to cook at our recent Refresher Course. Besides blessing us with fantastic meals, we enjoyed a few days with them before and after the Course.

Enjoying a cup of coffee in our home their first night here.
Craig, Claire, Ellie and Rebekah were able to come up for a couple of days to visit with their relatives too. Here is Ellie enjoying putting a puzzle together.
And Rebekah building a tower.

The first night after Refresher Course we enjoyed a barbecue in our back yard.

Enjoying the beautiful weather as well as the food.

We can't claim the tag "Tourist Guides" yet as we have not been out and about much, but their last day here we drove to a couple of little villages just to walk around and enjoy the day together.

A cute little Tea Room in the town of Tealby where we tried Cream Tea - home made scones with jam and cream, accompanying the tea.

Then on to the town of Alford where we toured a working Windmill.

View from the top of the Windmill.