Today we didn't travel quite so far from home, just around the corner in fact! Ian and Barbara's church were putting on their monthly coffee morning for the locals and we joined them for a cuppa. It's a lovely idea, which is designed to encourage non-churchgoers to drop in and have a chat, which they do. We stayed a short while and, just as we were leaving, a horde of hikers arrive, hungry and thirsty. Luckily there was plenty to eat and drink.
For lunch I made pumpkin soup, with the Chatsworth butternut pumpkins (called squash here), which Barbara and Ian seemed to enjoy and then we went to Southwell, where we visited an old Workhouse. We had a audio tour and it was quite discomforting to hear how people were housed and treated in the bad old days. Men and women (eve husbands and wives) were segregated very strictly and children were removed from their parents. Families were allowed to meet only on a Sunday afternoon, for a short while. For most of the people, their only crime was to be poor or infirm and it's so sad to think of how they suffered. It seemed to us that it was little more than a prison, with very tedious work, awful food (gruel quite often, which is hot water wth a couple of spoonsful of oatmeal and a pinch of salt). The original idea of workhouses was not too bad, aimed at ensuring the poor had regular meals and a roof over their heads, but the reality was much worse.
After leaving the workhouse, we went to Southwell Minster, a lovely old church, originally built by the Normans and with exquisite stained glass, particularly behind the font where the reds, blues and golds are spectacular. Ian conducts a couple of sessions a year for school children at the Minster and he really enjoys that. Towards the back of the building is a noticeboard for people to leave notes about what they would like people to pray for; one of the children had written "Pray for all the dead people to come back"!!
The Chapter House is especially interesting, with ancient stone carvings of leaves, heads and birds - amazingly worked and marvellously preserved. There are 10 Green Men in the Chapter House carvings, but we only found one!
Sam came for a visit, which was lovely. She regaled us with tales of her and Stacey's (one of her girl friends)marathon drive around Europe (in a week they drove through the Euro tunnel, through Brussels, the Netherlands, Dusseldorf, Prague, Berlin (where they watched the Euro Cup Final) back through France and then home. 2,000 miles in all! She told how they were amazed at a place called (I think) Ausport, signs for which appeared for many miles. They thought it must be an absoluely huge place until, when in a car park, they realised the word meant Exit and, as they had been driving along an autobahn, there were many such signs!!
