SETTLING IN STEEPLE

Let me paint a picture for you.

I’m sitting at the dining table, bathed in a cool morning light that’s softened by a bright grey sky.

I’m alone down here, if you don’t count Nala, the sleepy Border Collie who’s laying at the stairs waiting for her dad to come down.

The BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show is playing from the TV, and an Italian coffee pot is starting to bubble on the (gas) stove.

It’s what most mornings are like here in Steeple Bumpstead, except for the fact that MmmBop isn’t usually playing this early. Or maybe I’m up earlier than I usually am. Either way, welcome to a typical morning for me.

This weekend will mark a month since I arrived in the UK, and I want to assure you all it’s every bit of mundane, domestic blissfulness as I was hoping for, which may come as a surprise to some of you.

Without getting into too much detail, I’m here for the next few months while Nathan studies for entrance exams to go back to school, which is both exciting and nerve-wracking as the first exam date comes up. It means we’re spending our days meal-prepping, scheduling, and seeking the sunshine however we can. (It’s actually not that grey here, especially now that it’s spring!)

No, I can’t tell you where we’re off to next, and while I do love a surprise, it’s cause we just don’t know! We’ve explored so many options on so many continents and settled on the resolution we keep coming back to: we’ll have to play it by ear.

If you’re stressed reading that, not to worry, it’s a tiny matter ;)

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us."

- Henry David Thoreau

A few fun updates apart from Yes, I made it to England and back into Nathan’s arms, hooray!

I got a job freelancing remotely— after 3 unsteady and jittery weeks of grinding and researching— and I finally get to put all of my recent studies to use, for a wage!

Nathan and I have a gorgeous hiking holiday planned for summer after his exams are over. We’ll be hiking the Lake District and I could not be more stoked. (Yes of course I’m reading Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter to prepare.) Like Chirripó in Costa Rica, I now have an enormous physical goal to reach. Unlike Chirripó in Costa Rica, I’m feeling healthier and stronger than ever, and on this adventure I’ll feel that difference.

I’ve become a jogger — I know, it’s horrendous, a jogger?? Really, Lauren? — and we’ve found all of these fun ways to exercise and train and build strength that are new and fun for me. My favorite is definitely the garden gym, when it’s sunny out and Nathan moves all his gym stuff into the backyard so I can do a barbell squat in the sunshine. Love.

I won’t drone on about my gEt FiT jOuRnEy, but I will say I am so grateful to be in a place (mentally, emotionally, spiritually) where I feel healthy and capable enough to lift weights and run and summit a mountain (inshallah).

It’s officially springtime here in Suffolk, and I never knew what that could mean for a place that actually has real spring. I’m having a bit of a seasonal awakening, if you will, with flowers I’ve only seen in expensive bouquets just growing on the side of the road like wildflowers.

Even on the cloudiest of days, this place never seems dull when the birds wake before dawn to trill out the latest gossip and the bees get to work on budding cherry blossom trees in the most delicate pink. Hedonistic daffodils are splayed for all to see, the geraniums look dipped in electric orange paint and tulips, oh my! simply egotistical in their effortless beauty. (I’m not kidding, it’s a floral, seasonal, primavera-l awakening up in here.)

Sending love from across the pond, and pictures from my recent runs to help you feel bathed in this springtime glow.

Lau x