Monday, August 31, 2009

Summer Fun

We had a good weekend around the Yellow House. And our weekend still goes on. Today is a bank holiday here, a public holiday, similar to Labor Day back home and to me, it’s the unofficial end of summer. It is making my mind turn to autumn and what lies ahead :-)

But this weekend, Brit Boy and I have been enjoying our end of summer and end of his vacation from work. So in honor of that, yesterday I made us a couple of brownie and ice cream sundaes and soon after I took this picture, I promptly plowed in with my spoon :-)




I had a great time making these and we had a good time eating them :-) A treat is a wonderful thing every now and then and a summer treat is even better!

I've been looking around recently and there seems to be some really great value holidays to Benidorm out there. Having a trip to sunny Spain along with this summer treat above is my idea of paradise! Here's to holidays, food, and fun!

Monday, August 24, 2009

An Engagement Revisited

Five years ago today, Brit Boy and I were engaged to be married. We were visiting Stourhead which is a beautiful estate in southwest Wiltshire. I had no idea that this would be the day that he would propose to me. I was over here for a visit and I just thought it was a nice day out. We walked around the main house on the estate and then we set out for a walk around all the trails through the beautiful gardens. There are several other buildings on the site that peek out of the trees. It's gorgeous there.

Stourhead

Stourhead

It was a beautiful day and a wonderful experience.

Stourhead foot bridge

Stourhead holds a special place in my heart.

So this morning, Brit Boy went out early to do an errand and I didn't go with him since I needed to study. Well, he comes back into the house with a big bunch of flowers for me to commemorate this wonderful day in our lives.

Multi color chrysanthemums
white chrysanthemums
purple and white flowers
multi color flowers
multi color flowers


What a wonderful day this will always be!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Smoothies For Two

This is one of our favorite things around the Yellow House these days ;-) We are so into drinking homemade smoothies lately. It’s our drink of the summer. This wonderful strawberry smoothie was consumed a few days ago. (smile) Every time we have these I feel all refreshed.



One day last week, I got all creative and decided to make us a special one for dessert and I was really wanting chocolate. But we didn’t have any chocolate syrup around here. We did have something that was supposed to be chocolate, but it tasted more like caramel. We had tried it on ice cream, but it didn’t really work well. So it got shelved. Then when I was craving some chocolate to put in our drink, I thought of this strange chocolate/caramel hybrid syrup.

So I squirted some of it into the blender along with a bit of milk and vanilla ice cream and got a huge surprise. “Eureka!”, I cried. LOL. Well, actually I just said…”mmmmm”. It tasted really great. So now our weird hybrid syrup has a use in the Yellow House and Brit Boy and I can have tasty smoothies of yet another flavor. (smile) We won't have this one too often as it is more dessert-like, but we'll have to have one again soon...maybe tomorrow...hee hee ;-)

So it’s been a smoothie summer around here. It may have to be a smoothie fall/autumn too…and winter… and spring…LOL.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Mini Cam Moments Three - The Museum

This past Wednesday, Brit Boy and I went on a day trip to London. It was great to get a day out. We took the train into Paddington Station and then took the tube/subway to the South Kensington Station and arrived to see long queues to get into the Natural History Museum. We thought for a minute that we should maybe give it a pass and just go somewhere else, but then we decided to try for a minute and see how fast things were moving. In the end, it didn’t take much time at all. We got in the shorter of the two queues so it worked out well :-) The museum itself is beautiful to look at. The architecture is extraordinary inside and outside.

Here’s a quick photo of the outside that I took as we shuffled along to get inside.




Here are a few photos from inside too. This is a photo of one of the numerous display cases inside. The collection was really impressive.




Here’s a photo of one of the dinosaurs on display in the main area. It was massive.




And here’s a view of the beautiful inside architecture of the museum. The many arches reminded me of the inside of a church. It was lovely.




We had a really great time. The last thing I want to share is this little video that Brit Boy and I collaborated on. It was filmed with my trusty little retro mini cam. So this is the third in my Mini Cam Moments Series. It’s just a short video showing the view from the train as it speeds along very fast. The video came out kind of weird and atmospheric, so the sound is strange and the video gets wobbly, but I love that it's strange. (smile) I thought that you’d like to see some of what I see when we take the train. It’s been edited together so some of it’s from heading to London and some of it’s from heading away from London. My retro camera made some of the sections with trees pixilated since we were going so fast, but you get the idea of what it looks like during our countryside journey. (smile) There’s also a bit showing what the inside of the museum looks like. So I hope you enjoy it. Have a great weekend! :-)

Monday, August 10, 2009

My Second Mini Cam Moment - Butterfly

We had a nice weekend around the Yellow House. The weather turned out okay too. Brit Boy has been on vacation this past week and he's off this week too, so we've been doing lots of hanging out. We're planning on taking a trip into London on Wednesday so we're looking forward to that.

On Saturday we had sunny weather and it brought the butterflies out. Here's a short video I filmed with my handy little retro mini cam. So this is the second in my mini cam moments series :-) We have a white and purple butterfly bush or buddleia as it's sometimes called, in our yard/garden and over the last few sunny days, we've been visited by various colorful butterflies. I looked it up and it seems that this is a peacock butterfly, but I'm not absolutely sure. It looks similar though. I'm hoping to get some better video on another sunny day. Butterflies don't hang about so it's hard to catch a good glimpse :-) Anyway, I wanted to share this mini cam moment with you all to let you see a bit of our summer. I did this video from inside whilst looking outside since I didn't have time to make it outside. The clanging sounds in the background are Brit Boy in the kitchen :-) I hope you enjoy this and I hope to get more when the sun shines and the butterflies return again. Have a great day!

Friday, August 07, 2009

Fifty Things

I got this meme from Heidi at Health Nut Wannabee Mom. I did it on Facebook a couple of days ago, but I'm posting it here with more info and a couple of updates I just made to it. Life is ever changing :) I thought this was a great opportunity to let you all know more about me. I don't know how interesting I am, but I hope you enjoy reading my list :) Please take this meme if you like...it's fun.

And hey, have a great weekend! :-)

1. What time did you get up this morning?
At 8:30 am... although I usually get up at 6:30am with Brit Boy, but he's on vacation this week, so I've been sleeping a bit longer.

2. How do you like your steak?
medium well done

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
The Taking of Pelham 123, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Currently - Private Practice; all time favorite - original series Bionic Woman

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
New York City

6. What did you have for breakfast?

Cup of herbal tea and cheese toast(have to get my cheese in for the day :))

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
Italian food

8. What foods do you dislike?
Green peas, soft-boiled or hard-boiled eggs, jello, liver

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
Somewhere with a great view

10. Favorite dressing?

Ranch dressing

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
Rover 45

12. What are your favorite clothes?
jeans, t-shirts, dangling earrings, sandals, shoes that I can just slip on easily and go, my swanky black trenchcoat/raincoat(very good in England ;-), dresses sometimes too

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
Italy, France(been there, but would love to go again), Monte Carlo, Lapland, Switzerland, Japan, South Africa ...the list goes on and on :-)

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full
I shoot for half full, but it just depends on the day

15. Where would you want to retire?

Somewhere living next to the beach

16. Favorite time of day?

In the daytime it's 11am and at night 11pm....there must be some pattern here ;-)

17. Where were you born?

Georgia, USA

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?

Tennis

19. Who do you think will not try this meme?
Don't know, but it's cool either way :)

20. Person you expect will try this meme first?
Don't know again :)

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
Everybody

22. Are you a bird watcher?

Yes sometimes

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
I said more of a night person before, but then I had more of a think on it. I'm a bit of both I guess, but then this goes back to the 11 o'clock thing. I get really energetic around 11am and I'm good for quite a while. Then I get really energetic around 11pm for a couple of hours. LOL.It's like clockwork and it never fails. There must be some numerology going on here. So from eleven til twelve I'm wide awake...so call on me then and you'll get 100% of my attention. LOL.

24. Do you have any pets?

Only a mechanical dog for now; we'll add on in the future

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share?

Nothing comes to mind, but you never know what's coming :)

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
Everything...the Bionic Woman, an actress, a musician, anything where I could have fun

27. What is your best childhood memory?
Helping my dad plant the vegetable garden in the spring

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
Not sure ????? We had cats and dogs when I was growing up, so I guess I like both.

29. Are you married?
Yep...to Brit Boy :)

30. Always wear your seat belt?
Every time!

31. Been in a car accident?
Yes and I got hurt...a van hit the passenger side and I got bumped into hard and had trouble walking for a while. I'm fine now.

32. Any pet peeves?
People talking loudly in public on cell phones, people making out in line/queues and they're really going at it (get a room) :)

33. Favorite pizza topping?

mushrooms

34. Favorite Flower?
Any blue flower or a calla lily

35. Favorite ice cream?

chocolate

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
KFC or Pizza Hut

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test?

Zero

38. From whom did you get your last email?

Colette

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?

Harrod's...that store truly has everything :)

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?

Said hello to a grumpy neighbor...they didn't answer back...oh well.... ;-)

41. Like your job?

It's a work in progress...trying to reinvent myself with a new career

42. Do you like broccoli?

Yeah, I like it okay...especially when I can put a bit of cheese on it ;-)

43. What was your favorite vacation?
Paris, France for our first wedding anniversary a couple of years ago

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?

My husband

45. What are you listening to right now?

The theme song to the tv show Monk...I love that show

46. What is your favorite color?

blue

47. How many tattoos do you have?

0

48. How many are you tagging for this meme?
I'm leaving it open for anyone who wants to try it

49. What time did you finish this meme?
11:44 am

50. Are you a coffee drinker?

On occassion, but not often...the caffeine makes me too hyper. I'll run around like a cartoon if I have too much coffee, but it sure tastes good...LOL

Monday, August 03, 2009

Mini Cam Moments in Salisbury

Last Tuesday I went along with Brit Boy for an appointment he had in Salisbury. I’ve been meaning to share a bit about it, but I’ve been doing school work for the last few days and am now just getting caught up.

A few days before, I was looking around some stored things and found my mini video camera that I’ve had for years and never use anymore. The camera is very tiny and old school and makes funny little pixelated, jumpy movies. (smile) It gives the movies a zany quality that I like. We have a new video camera, but now that I’ve found this one again, I’m going to use it and make my funny little movies. (smile) So here’s my first video in my series. I’m calling my series “My Mini Cam Moments”. I’ll be doing them periodically and sharing them here. This video is a test of sorts that I did to see if it’s still working.

This is a short video of us driving into Salisbury with a view of lovely Salisbury Cathedral in the distance with a few groups of trees along the way. (laugh) Enjoy!



Also, I took a couple of photos of the flowers on display along the way here and there. The first one was taken along the road in Salisbury where I recorded the video.



This second photo is in a village along the way back home. I just thought that both flower displays were beautiful and so summery. I hope you enjoy seeing what I see when we’re out. (smile)



Well, that’s all for now. We won’t be going to Salisbury this week, but if we go anywhere good, I’ll certainly share it here. Happy August!