"How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice…"
– George Eliot
Category Archives: England
April showers bring…
Flowers don't worry about how the're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.
– Jim Carrey
That's my thought for the moment. Actually I have a lot of thoughts at the moment but that one sums up. I am reading Joyce Meyer's The Battle Belongs to the Lord this month. She says,
"I believe that the devil assigns demons every morning to sit on each of our shoulders and whisper in our ears,'What are you doing to do? what are you going to do? what are you going to do?'
It is so liberating to say, 'Lord I don't know what to do, and even if I did I couldn't do it. But, Lord, my eyes are on you. I am going to wait and watch for You to do something about this situation – because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.'"
Ours isn't the worrying about how.
We just have to turn toward the light to find beautiful.
of bagpipes and buttresses
My husband and I snuck away to Lincoln overnight last weekend. It was a fantastic relaxing trip. The castle heights area near the cathedral was charming. We walked and walked that evening and ended up back up the hill as the sun was setting.
So, bagpipes. You either love them or hate them. I love them. LOVE them. With a passion. There was an outdoor performance in progress when we got into the courtyard. We took a short video with the phone. Hopefully it won't make you dizzy. : ) Videographers we are not.
you’re getting warmer
"…warmer, warmer, NO! colder, ICE cold!"
Did you play that game as a child? We are playing a similar game in England lately. It was cold, cold, cold and then we had a few gloriously sunny weeks. The flowers erupted into bloom and the kids shed their coats. We turned off the Aga, which had been on far longer than usual into the spring. And I snapped away, fortunately, because it is the memory of that little pocket of toasty weather that is keeping us going as we are hunkered down together under blankets tonight.
We are enjoying that too though. Yesterday we flung open the windows and were spring cleaning like mad. The kitchen got a good scrubbing and my husband cleaned the cellar storage which has been lingering untouched since we moved in. Our cellar is a Grimm's style scary dark stone dungeon where we would rifle through moving boxes for a missing item and then dart back upstairs as soon as we could. Now its nicely sorted and stacked.
Today we braved the cooler temps and hiked the woods of Norfolk a while. Back home, I attempted to watch some software tutes while they watched their movie. I sent one boy for headphones so I wouldn't disturb them. I thought I had it situated but did notice the sound seemed a little far off. And what else was that? "Mom!" huh? Oh, the kids! They were about falling off the couch laughing. I had my headset on just fine and the video rolling but I guess I didn't plug the cord in. <g> Yeah.
I am so not of this century. But I have figured out enough to have been in nearly hourly contact with my boys this weekend despite all the other activity. Big things (good) happening in their lives. We are staying in the thick of it from here and I'm planning to be there for a week next month. So, that is where my brain is right now. Which may account for the headphones.
Or not.
Random weekend notes – we are reading The Children's Homer at lunchtimes. The boys love it.
Brendan just discovered Usborne with this book on Britain and is really liking the format
We watched this movie and liked it despite so-so ratings. Maybe because it hit home having lived in the American West.
New fave magazine: The Simple Things
Fave dinner last week: Cheese Philly Steak Stuffed Peppers
Better wrap up here. A few more pics:
bottom pic is from my phone. I don't think I have a "real" picture of our road and the daffodils are on the way out now. It was lovely though.
Spring lambs in the Cotswolds
Fortune runs against the bias…
Queen: What sport shall we devise here in this garden,
To drive away the heavy thought of care?
First Lady: Madam, we'll play at bowls.
Queen: 'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs.
And that my fortune runs against the bias
– Shakespeare, Richard II
The Castle Bowls (lawn bowling) club was in good form Sunday afternoon when my husband and I passed their way. There were lively jabs exchanged and a fair bit of advice offered from the onlookers. We found ourselves oddly transfixed and cracking up at regular intervals.
I should add that we apretty much know nothing at all about lawn bowling. So I haven't the foggiest idea who was winning, only that everyone was in high spirits. Wiki tells a fascinating story of the history of the game which made my eyes cross. So I still don't have the foggiest idea, just that it is charmingly British and made for a right jolly stop on a lazy afternoon out.
Visiting with Jane
Of course our main motivation for visiting Bath was Jane. My middle girls are not as bookworm-ish as their brothers but they are definitely enraptured with all that Jane's heroines embody – virtue, wit, style, class and ultimately in my opinion, growth. This trip anchored the novels and movies and many, many hours of discussion we have shared. Gave it all a structure to hang on.
You can read more about walking in Jane's footsteps here. Below are some snaps of our little pilgrimage.
The gravel walk made famous in Persuasion, which is our next read.
Tea at the Jane Austen centre, for all but Miss Moira who ordered hot chocolate wherever possible. I can tell you every single time we have ordered hot chocolate in this country it has been impressive.
Above: the Royal Crescent and below walking back to town center along the gravel walk.
Celebrating nature in days past
Ecologically minded media would have us think that the cultivation and preservation of natural resources are newly discovered concerns. Visiting the grounds of old manor houses indicates otherwise. In fact in the days before the state came on board, it was private collectors who painstakingly preserved rare bird and butterfly specimens or coaxed rare blooms in conservatories. Many of these collections remain in homes now in the care of the National Trust in Britain.
I loved how this child darted between the trees just as I focused and ended up looking like a little dryad. : )
And back out into the sun. Do you see that sun? Oh how we soaked it up. Having lived further south I don't think we noticed the change of seasons happening so definitely as we do now. The days are distinctly brighter and longer right after spring's official beginning per the calendar, just as they become distinctly darker and shorter in short order come fall. We are so glad to see blue skies again when we have them.
So here's my nod to Earth day. Some natural English beauty coming this way this week.
And listen, if anyone is still with me here, I do hope you will leave your email when you comment. It hate that I can't easily respond. It's such a bother I know but spam was killin' me for a while there.
Lincoln in springtime
“I have the European urge to use my feet when a drive can be dispensed with.”
-Vladimir Nabokov
We have passed a long weekend walking in Lincolnshire. Up and down steep cobbled streets, up and down spiral castle towers, and wandering through old cemetaries. Too tired to post more. Putting my feet and the rest of me to bed. : )
hitting the road
Couldn't say where. All I know is the weekend involves a suitcase and a picnic basket. : )
Starry Sky Journal 