Just In The Neighborhood

We once had a dear visiting Englishman friend ask us,

“Where is the ocean?”

We were living in Southern California at the time and lived up close to the mountains.

‘The beach is 25 miles away’

“Oh…but on the map it is just a half an inch away…I told my Girl Friend you lived near the beach.”

Well, the Girlfriend eventually did get to the beach, but with this experience, one might understand that I have a healthy bit of skepticism, when it comes to people who grow up on an island and their understanding of the size of the United States.

“When I am visiting my sister in Montana, do you mind if I stop by?” wrote our latest English guest, Richard.  Richard has been following the Blog for a long time and was one of the first to offer to be part of the Prayer Team for My Girl when she went to China.

‘Oh, of course’, we said….wondering, if Richard knew in fact how to read a map.

Richard it turns out spent 22 years in the Royal Navy and certainly knew how to read a map.  He arrived as expected in time to help move Eliza Doolittle toward the milk machine Mama Agnes.He reveled in all things ‘Glory Farm’ such as,

“Oh there is Blue!  May I go look at him?”

He came bringing gifts…

for My Loving Spouse and a Yorkshire key chain for me.

Walking around and taking many pictures of our place, I said.

“I love living here… did I make it sound better than it is?”

“No, if anything, I think you understated it!”

It turned out, that he did not actually know any of the people in England that we know and we’re still not sure how he ever did find our blog…but suffice it to say, he is part of the family now…So… if you read this blog and want to visit or move a calf or make friends with a cat or two..or have dinner or spend the night…you will at least need to know the names of my tractors.  It will be like a test, that and of course you’ll need to know how to read a map.