Author’s Note: I stopped blogging regularly in 2020, but now in 2024, I am using Google Photos, Google Maps timeline, and my old planners to recreate a post about what we were up to each month!
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The first Friday in March is always the World Day of Prayer. We hosted an ecumenical service at Caldicot and the service was written by the women of Taiwan this year.
On Saturday the 4th we went into Bristol for the day to see a movie (then quickly realized the Cineworld theatre there is not as good as the one in Newport!) and run some errands at B&Q and Costco. Joel was craving Burger King so we went there for lunch and I took this very handsome photo of him. (Don’t worry, he gave me permission to post this!)
We were really spoiled for snow this year as we got even more on March 8th! I had to leave at 9:00 for work so Joel woke me up extra early so we could go on a walk around the castle in the snow.
It was worth it for views like this!
On Saturday the 11th we went to a movie in Newport and then tried a new restaurant we found online. It was more like a stationary food truck than a restaurant - it was built out of old shipping containers and situated in the parking lot of a big box store. There were two places - Al Forno which made pizza and Tin Can Kitchen which made burritos.
If the weather was nice there was ample outdoor seating, but for us it was pouring down rain so our only choice was to eat in the car. We got a pizza which was pretty good, and two burritos which were okay. (We haven’t been back so they weren’t awesome!)
On Thursday the 16th we went to Bristol for our “biometrics” appointment, which involves getting our photos and fingerprints taken for our visa renewals. We wandered the area around our appointment for a bit and found this old church that had been turned into flats. I would have loved to have seen inside!
The next day was St. Patrick’s day and we celebrated by having the Green family over for a sleepover! We played games in the game room and set the girls up with movies in the cinema room and even Merlin (the dog) came to stay. We had a lovely time and when they left the kids left behind this dragon guest.
On Wednesday the 22nd, I got a flat tire while on my way to Trellech for work. Thankfully I was able to limp the car to a repair shop in Devauden, and luckily a church member lives just around the corner from there! So I was able to have a lovely cup of tea while waiting for my tire get replaced, and then heading on to Abergavenny for Presbyteral Synod that day. (I missed my meeting in Trellech!)
It’s always around this time of year that the daffodils come out in full force in Wales, and I loved seeing them line the walkway up to the castle!
We were beginning to make plans for our EU Road trip next month, even though they were tentative at the moment - Joel and I would need to have our new British Residence Permits in hand in order to leave the country and we were still waiting on those. But, in hope, we watched the movie In Bruges in case we would get to go to Belgium! (There were no subtitles available on this streaming service and we kept having to pause to look up the dialogue.)
This year I got to participate in my first Easter Experience event in Monmouth - it used to be put on annually by the local churches but was paused due to Covid. Monmouth Methodist tells the story of the Last Supper and then students go around to the other churches to the the rest of the story of Easter. My favorite bit was outside the Catholic Church where they reenact Peter standing around the fire - complete with real fire!
On the last day of the month, I entertained myself by making chocolate chip cookies…
And laminating all the dividers for our Dominion cards. I told you I was getting good use out of the laminator I bought earlier this year!
And there you have it, our adventures of March 2023!
XOXO, Bethany