Saturday, May 30, 2009

Summer For As Long As We Have It

I just had to do a mini post about the weather here today. It is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!! Summer has definitely arrived in Wiltshire and much of England this weekend (smile) The sky is so blue. It has just lifted my spirits so much. I wasn't depressed or anything, but having the sun after so many grey days recently, has just awakened all of those summer feelings. I feel like going on a picnic or having a barbeque. You know, I used to take sunny days for granted back home in Georgia...no, scratch that. I never took them for granted because I relished them then too. My mother used to say she never saw anyone get so excited by a sunny day. LOL. But I guess that now I have a renewed appreciation for the days when the sun shines on everything like this. I like grey moody days too, but the sun just makes me feel alive (smile)

Our roses have started to burst into bloom now too. Beautiful! Hello Summer for as long as we have you! :-)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Bit of Rearranging

As many of you know, there have been some problems with Internet Explorer and the Followers widget on several blogspot blogs of late. This issue has caused an "operation aborted" message to pop up every time a visitor comes to the site when using Internet Explorer. When it first started to happen when I visited my own blog, I thought it was just a fluke. Then I started to hear about it at other blogs. There is an outstanding issue ticket for it in known issues on Blogger, but it is still being worked out. I had heard that removing the Followers widget might help and then some have said that if you move the widget to the bottom of the page it works things out.

This has all left me scratching my head about what to do (smile). I mean, I love the connections that I've made with all of the readers/friends that come to read my blog, so I don't want to remove my widget. There is the other option that I didn't mention, and that is to just view my blog with Firefox and I do that some too. However, everyone doesn't use Firefox all the time, so I wanted to make the best decision all around about what to do. Therefore, I've taken the path of moving the Followers widget further down the page and this has seemingly done the trick, so we shall see. I'm hoping that the issue is sorted out soon so that I can move the Followers widget back up top where it belongs. Until then, I'll look on the bright side, at least with the widget at the bottom, I can see everyone's face. That's cool to me! :-)

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A Euro Saturday Night

I have been humming this song in the shower for the last couple of days. It’s the winning song at the Eurovision Song Contest for this year. The song is by this fellow Alexander Rybak from Norway and it’s called “Fairytale”. He won with a record breaking 387 points.



The UK came in fifth with Jade Ewen singing “It’s My Time”. She has a great voice!



Brit Boy and I weren’t planning on watching it last Saturday night, but we got pulled in. I’ve watched it before since I’ve been here in England, but never all the way through like I did this year. What always intrigues me is seeing all of the entries from the various countries. Some of them are quite “interesting” I’ll just say and some are quite good :-) You never know…an international star may be born. ABBA won the contest back in 1974 and they were a big deal back in the day.

On our television system there is something called the red button and you can go interactive with what you’re watching. So they had a setting where you could sing along with the contestants and being the ham that I am, you know I had to sing along. LOL. Brit Boy joined in sometimes too. I swear we had no alcohol. LOL. We had never heard any of these songs, but singing along was so fun. It took me back to being a kid who loved to sing into a hairbrush at the mirror. LOL. My inner diva comes out!

Anyway, we had a good time and watched the whole thing. Alexander Rybak who won for Norway, wrote this song. I don’t know if it will be a worldwide hit, but I’ll say this for it, it’s really catchy in a surreal sort of way. And no matter what, he was doing his thang and I love it when people go all out doing what they love. Darn, there I go again humming it to myself, and then singing out loud. LOL. What can I say, I’m a wacky wannabee singer girl! :-)

Friday, May 15, 2009

Star Trek

I just wanted to do a really short post about the movie Star Trek. We went to see it on Tuesday and I'm still talking about it. LOL. It was GREAT!!!!! Loved it!!!! Brit Boy posted about it earlier in the week, so I'll just say ditto to everything he said. LOL. The theatre was pretty full for a weekday afternoon, so we sat closer than we would have normally, but it made it even more exciting. It felt like we were inside the film at some points. I'm afraid of heights and there's one point in the movie where there's a fight and I kept thinking..."go inside and fight so I don't have to wince at the height"...that's all I'll say so I won't ruin it for those who haven't seen it. (smile) I don't want to say too much about it. I will say that I used to watch the original series of Star Trek and I've seen the other films, but I was never a fanatic about it. I loved it all, but Brit Boy was a bigger fan than I was, until now. LOL. This new film was just great. We are gonna have to go see it again. So for all of you ladies out there who may or may not be into Star Trek, let me just say, it converted me quickly. LOL. Enjoy if you decide to go!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Devizes Doily

I wrote at the end of April about us spending our wedding anniversary together at Westonbirt and also visiting the market at Devizes. That was a great week. (smile) I shared at the time that we bought a colorful dish when we were at Westonbirt to commemorate our anniversary. I love that little dish.

Well, I wanted to share a few other finds that we made that week. We try to purchase little, inexpensive, interesting things that we can have around our home to help us remember this time in our lives. (smile)

I really loved it when we went to the market in Devizes. They have a weekly market and then they have a collectibles/antiques market there also. So when we went down there, we picked up some neat little things. I love looking at things from the past, so I was in hog heaven as we browsed around the collectibles/antiques market. (smile)

One of my favorite finds was a napkinish-doily. It is so lovely to me. They had a pile of things like this. When I saw it, it instantly made me think of back home. We had pieces similar to this around home when I was growing up. They had been my grandmother’s things and had been passed along through the family. I love the continuity of my grandparents’ and parents’ possessions in my hands. These things feed my sense of self and I feel connected to them. And even though this doily that I found in Devizes, here in England, never belonged to anyone that I’m related to, I felt a connection anyway…a connection to another human being who owned this before me and used this in their daily life. I wonder about this doily’s story. I guess that the story continues with us now. (smile)

Here are a couple of photos of the doily, but they don’t do it justice. It was hard to photograph. But I hope it comes through okay.





We picked up a couple of other things, so I’ll be sharing those another day. We are planning on visiting some more, so if we find anything else interesting, I’ll surely be sharing it with you all :-)

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Trooping the Colour, Here We Come!

I have some fabulous news! Brit Boy and I are going to see Queen Elizabeth in June. We’re going to Trooping the Colour. This celebration is the Queen’s official birthday parade and is held on a Saturday in June, every year. The Queen’s actual birthday is April 21st. This is a wonderful display of true pageantry and I can’t wait to be there to watch it all unfold. I sometimes can’t believe how things have been turning out for this American girl who still feels like a tourist sometimes :-) I come across to the other side of the Atlantic with no wish lists and through Brit Boy and me giving everything a try, we get in to see all the things I would have wanted to see if I’d had a wish list when I arrived. Who knew that being a plucky couple got you this far :-) Sometimes I feel like we ought to have our own reality show. LOL. Anyway, I’m very grateful that we are getting a chance to go experience something else great together. What a blessing. We definitely know how lucky this all is. Often when we get opportunities like this, it reminds me what happens when you put the effort out there in life to go for what you want...you never know what can happen :-)

Our tickets arrived yesterday. So when Brit Boy came home from work, I sprung the envelope on him. He blogged about it last night. We had to apply for the tickets through a public ballot, which is very similar to how we got tickets to Wimbledon. Here's the post about that. When we originally thought about going, we had figured that we would just turn up on the day and stand along The Mall, and see what we could see. But then we figured that we may as well apply to be put into the public ballot and see what came of it. Well, we got in and our tickets are ready and waiting for June :-)

This should be very cool, because we will see the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and some of the other royals. Brit Boy and I saw Princes William and Harry back in 2007 at the Concert for Diana, so we may add to our list of royal sightings substantially in June. We have to dress up for the occasion, so Brit Boy will have to get all suited up and I will be getting to work on my outfit. Wish me luck! ;-)

So it’s an exciting time around the yellow house. I’ll definitely be sharing all the details from our day out on June 13th! Have a great day :-)

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Back On Track Tuesday

Brit Boy went back to work today. Yesterday was a bank holiday here, so we had one more day to hang out. We watched a couple of movies and just relaxed around home. Speaking of movies, we have some buy one get one free tickets that we're having to use up before June, so we’re so excited to see the new Star Trek movie and Angels & Demons. We saw The Uninvited last week and it was pretty good. It had a twist at the end and it was kinda spooky. The thing that really stuck with me though was the beautiful house that this family lived in. The house was on the edge of a lake and it just looked so peaceful. Loved it! (smile) I love movies and so does Brit Boy, but lately I’ve been really into enjoying movies while I check out the house in the background. (smile) Guess I’m looking forward to our future house.

Anyway, around the yellow house, I’m just getting back into my groove after my little break with Brit Boy. First thing this morning, it kind of looked like we’d had a party all week, so I had to straighten things up a bit and get some laundry done. I also got back on my exercise again. I hadn’t worked out in over a week so I needed to get back in the groove. I’m trying to take better care of myself these days. (smile)

And then, once I got the household engines running again, I sat down with my laptop. I’m here typing out this blog entry on one screen and I’m working on my other writing on another. I’ve decided to get back on track with this part of my life too…writing. I neglect it sometimes and when I do, I feel like something’s missing. So I’m going to get more focused upon doing the writing that I love in hopes that one day someone else will read it. (smile) Stay tuned.

So today is a getting back on track day…Happy Tuesday! :-)

Friday, May 01, 2009

A Westonbirt Day Out

This week Brit Boy and I have been hanging out together more than usual. Brit Boy had a vacation week, so we’ve been having a fun time. We also had our wedding anniversary this week, so it was celebration all around for us. On our first anniversary, we visited Paris and that was just amazing. I will have to share more memories of that in a future post. Then fast forward to this time around which we spent here around Wiltshire.

Monday and Tuesday of this week, we mostly did errands and took a trip into town. Then on Wednesday, we had beautiful weather, so we took advantage of it and went to Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. It is a beautifully green and glorious garden and woodland that you can just wander around in and enjoy. You pay a moderate admission, but it’s worth it and the money goes to keep the place going. For the beauty and tranquility it brings, it’s worth every penny.

Westonbirt is one of the first places that I visited on my first trip here about six years ago. On that day back then, it was a windy, cold day in April, but on Wednesday, it was fairly sunny and warm. (smile) Westonbirt is one of my favorite places, so I’ll take it in any weather. I think that the reason why I like it so much there is because it reminds me of back home in Georgia. It reminds me of the woods back home, where I loved to wander and to see nature up close.

It was a nice drive there on Wednesday. When we arrived, we went ahead to have lunch since we hadn’t eaten. They have this food hall which is very nice and organic looking. It’s all wood and glass and reminds me of a renovated barn. You can sit inside to eat or you can go outside. But even if you eat inside, with all the windows it’s like you’re outside anyway. It has a great natural vibe. (smile) We sat inside.

We both had chicken, served with onions and vegetables for lunch. Then for dessert, we shared a piece of strawberry cheesecake…and let’s just say it was DIVINE!!! Here’s a photo that says it all…mmmm…it was so rich and delicious.




After we ate lunch, we ventured out for our walk around the grounds. Here are a few photos of our walk around this gorgeous and peaceful place.











Another thing that I love about Westonbirt is that they have plants and trees and flowers from all over the world. They take such good care of the gardens. They also give lectures there and concerts. There is a wonderful gift shop there too, filled with beautiful things of natural beauty. We decided to buy a little something to remember our visit by, as well as our anniversary. It’s a lovely little dish that we’ll place in its own little spot.



It was a wonderful day out. On the next day, we visited the market town of Devizes, here in Wiltshire. But I’ll leave that story for Brit Boy’s post today. So if you’d like, take a trip on over to his blog and check out the stuff we picked up at the market. Have a great weekend!