About Us

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Wauchope, NSW, Australia
Welcome to Elizabeth and John’s blog, where you can join us on our latest adventure in 2011. We first blogged in 2007, while we were living in Cambridge, UK (you can find it under the title 'Living with the Angels'). John and Elizabeth are married, and are both ministers in the Uniting Church in Australia. Here you will find photos and musings about how successfully we are transplanting ourselves to the verdant pastures of Wauchope, and what we hope to do. 2011 so far has been a year of great change for us, having moved from Thornleigh in Sydney to working and living in the Hastings valley. Of course, as well as working, we will be visiting a number of places of interest in the area. Here, in the future, we hope to post photos and commentary on our time in Wauchope as well as other places we will visit. We hope you enjoy exploring the blog! And ... if you are wondering why this blog is called 'the rural reverends', you haven't been paying attention.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Grantchester: The Orchard and the river

Our visit to Grantchester continued...

After visiting the church, and admiring parts of the village, we set off to “The Orchard” for lunch. This establishment is a tea garden set in an orchard, planted in 1868. Here we are at the entrance.



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“The Orchard” is considered to be historically significant due to its many famous visitors who include: Bertrand Russell, Maynard Keynes, Alan Turing , Virginia Wolfe, E M Forster and of course, Rupert Brooke. It was a most attractive space, with deck chairs set our under the trees which had lots of apples, pears and quinces on them.




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Originally it was a boarding house for students, whose request to have tea served under the trees established it as a tea house. The most famous of these tea-taking students was – you guessed it – Rupert Brooke.

After lunch, we walked down through the orchard, and over a stile, to the River Cam which flows through the famous Grantchester meadows. These meadows are considered to form some of the best scenery near Cambridge (they are about a mile from the city of Cambridge).




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While we were there, there were canoeists, punters, cyclists and walkers everywhere, as well as many picnicking families enjoying the sun and the views.




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Further up the river is an area known as ‘Byron’s Pool’ where Lord Byron is said to have swum. The three of us thought that the view was typical of the kind of idyllic rural landscape that many people still think of as typically English.




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And at least one ancient green myth was reflected in a nearby pub, called the ‘Green Man’. This pub is 500 years old, and reputed to be very atmospheric. Its hearth apparently has chalked quotes from such literati as Orwell and Huxley.


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Its close proximity to Cambridge has made Grantchester a most popular place with students, and Grantchester is said to have the world's highest concentration of Nobel Prize winners, presumably because of this.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Grantchester: the village

Last Saturday (22nd September) we spent a very pleasant day exploring a nearby village called Grantchester. Though many places make this claim, this village really is ‘quintessentially English’. It has everything – quaint thatched cottages and pubs; a meandering river with meadows on each side; an ancient stone church and one of the best ‘tea rooms’ in Britain, an old orchard which is set out with a raft of deck chairs under the fruit trees. Here's a sampling...

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We also found that there was a village craft sale in progress. Always suckers for a good craft fair, Elizabeth and Laurel made this their first stop. To all of our delight, a famous British wildlife artist, Michael Wood, was exhibiting his pictures there, and had quite a number of prints for sale. Michael illustrated all the wildlife signs and welcome signs at Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve, which is the oldest nature reserve in Britain.

You can see some of Michael’s work at http://www.michaelcwood.co.uk/index.html

Suffice it say that we all further enriched him and encouraged his efforts at his stall!

Next stop was the Grantchester Church, pictured below (outside and inside).

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One of Grantchester’s most famous residents was the poet Rupert Brooke, whose WWI poem ‘The Soldier’ is very famous. It starts with the lines:


"If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England ..."

The church is full of references to him, including his name on their WWI Honour Roll, as well as sundry pamphlets and histories about his life and poetry.



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The Grantchester church clock was immortalised by Rupert Brooke in another famous poem entitled 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester'.

“Stands the church clock at ten- to-three?”

It was believed that he wrote the poem while on a trip to Berlin in 1912. It is thought that the church clock was broken in Brooke’s day and the hands appeared to have halted at tea-time, at 10 minutes to 3.00pm. Given his known Bohemian lifestyle, it is doubtful whether the young Rupert actually spent much time in the church. There is a pub named after him though!

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(Notice the careful angle of John's photography, carefully designed to reflect the largest amount of light from the flash at the most strategic place on the photo!!!!)

The oldest part of the church, the tower, was built in 1420. Other work was carried out in the 1600s and 1800s. It also has three churchyards, with some most interesting and old headstones and monuments, one of which is pictured below -- along with Elizabeth and Laurel, our friend who took us there, standing at the church door; followed by Elizabeth and John in the churchyard.

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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Around Cambridge: river, greens and parks

As we've said, water birds can be seen most days on the river, and the ducks especially have quite a fondness for tourists, as they are fed regularly by picnicking Britons. As soon as the sun comes out, so do the rugs and deck chairs, and the various grassed areas are taken up by sun worshipping British people.

Here they are on Jesus Green...


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and on The Backs...


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Jesus Green is a large, well-mowed park behind Jesus College -- and so not far from where we live.


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Midsummer Common is across the road from Jesus Green, and its grass has been left to grow in order to attract and sustain wildlife during the summer.


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Parker's Piece is a highly-manicured piece of land a little further away. It has no trees except around the border, and on the day we took this photo it was being used for cricket.


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The banks of the Cam are very popular for the pastime of picnicking, as are the various pieces, parks and the college ‘backs’. This last is a long grassed area behind the older colleges. Here are some pictures from the sunny day when we walked along The Backs.


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The classic view of King’s College Chapel can be seen from The Backs.


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The Cam presents quite a contrast between the wealthy (relatively speaking) tourists, picnickers and students, with the residents of many of the canal boats, the urban poor, and homeless people, all of whom can also be found around the grassed areas and waters of the Cam. Like most cities, the well off and the poor live side by side here.

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Around Cambridge: the river Cam

Tourists, students and locals meet up on the River Cam, where punting is a popular tourist activity. Many of the professional tours are piloted (punted?) by experienced student punters, and at times the Cam is as crowded as the streets.

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It appears there has been a war with Oxford over punting, as the Cambridge University website refers to ‘that other university’ who does not know the right way to punt. It would seem Oxford punters stand at the front of the boat, where Cambridge punters stand at the back (the correct position apparently, at least according to the University here).


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The river Cam is also part of Britain’s extensive canal system, so there are many canal boats along its shores.


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Many of the canal folk actually live on their boats, and they do many ingenuous things to make their lives more comfortable. We have seen 3 with mini wind turbines, which can generate enough electricity to power a Caravan fridge. One enterprising boat owner had solar panels along his boat rooftop. Many are equipped with small potted herb & vegetable gardens, clotheslines, canoes, bicycles and outdoor furniture. With housing so expensive, quite a number of people in Britain have chosen canal boats as a cheaper way to live.


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As the canal boats move along the river, from time to time they need to move thruogh locks. Here is the one closest to us in Cambridge.


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The last inhabitants of the Cam are the water birds. Swans and ducks are seen most days on the river, and the ducks especially have quite a fondness for tourists, as they are fed regularly by picnicking Britons.

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Around Cambridge: the tourists

As well as a University town, Cambridge has quite a reputation as a tourist destination (think King’s College Chapel Choir here).
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The age of the city, as well as the preservation of its mediaeval buildings, makes it a very popular tourist destination, both with British people and tourists from abroad.

On weekends its tiny cobbled streets are packed with people seeing the sights, touring through the colleges, and in term time, queuing to hear the famous King’s choir sing.

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The student residents are also out in force on a fine day (actually, they are out in force most days!) on their bicycles, so dodging the bike is a popular (and necessary) pastime on the streets.


Oops, we've been so busy dodging the bikes
that we haven't taken any photos of them.
Have a look in a week or so,
we might have uploaded one by then!!
But in the meantime,
here is the traffic jam on Bridge Street,
a few blocks away from our flat,
where there are roadworks in progress.


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As well, the students are always trying to convince us to join other tourists on the punting tours of the River Cam -- many of them work for the punting companies, either touting for business or as punters on the river.


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