Monday, June 1, From Jason's Diary

Woke with a bit of a headache. Had tea which brightened things up. It was cold and damp, so we decided not to Punt on the Cam. We lounged around in the morning with the Hardymans.

We decided to walk to "The Orchard" (a tea house/orchard) in Granchester Village.

"The Orchard, first planted in 1868, became a Tea Garden purely by chance. A group of Cambridge students asked Mrs. Stevenso of Orchard House if she would serve them tea beneath the blossoming fruit trees rather than, as usual, on the front lawn of the House. They were unaware that, on the spring morning n 1897 they had started a great Cambridge tradition. The students enjoyed their rural tea, and word spread around the colleges...."

The Orchard became famous as the hang out of a group of young bohemian writers, poets and intellectuals that Virginia Woolf dubbed the "Neo Pagans": Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russel, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Meynard Keynes, among others.

Anyway...

It was a gorgeous afternoon. Cool. Green. Wet. Their were cattle in the fields and picnics along the way (people punt down the river and picnic).

The Orchard lived up to any expectation I might have had. It was so peaceful and relaxing to take our tea outside. The climate reminds me a lot of Camano Island, WA. The scones piled with clotted cream and jam were delicious, as was the brown tea. But, best of all, was to be with old friends, to talk and laugh and remember. Is their any better gift from our heavenly father than friendship?

We relaxed in late afternoon. Jenny and I went out with Julian and Debbie for dinner (Indian). We talked about the joys, sadness of gospel ministry; and got caught up a bit on our histories.