Tuesday, April 27, 2010

A Spring Pause

Yesterday I went out into the wilds of Wiltshire with Brit Boy :-) It turned out to be a pretty day, after a bit of a yucky start weather-wise. Brit Boy had a gap between two appointments that he had, so we pulled over into a roadside rest spot and waited. The road turned out to be more busy than it originally looked and was certainly more busy than Brit Boy remembered from his days before we met, but still it was a lovely spot :-)

You would never know that I took such tranquil pictures while a constant stream of traffic went past just out of the sight line of my camera. I love finding peace, even in the midst of the world hurrying by :-)

So I’d like to share a few photos that I took as we blocked out the traffic and tuned in to the beauty existing right alongside it all. I hope you enjoy coming along with me and Brit Boy! Please take a breather with us for just a moment and soak the peace in :-) I love that the new leaves are finally showing up on the trees. I love that new green of spring!





On these last two, I started to play with the black and white setting on my camera. They didn't turn out stellar, but I like them. I just like having fun and seeing how it all turns out. I just love black and white photos :-)




I hope that you enjoyed taking a peek at what we got up to yesterday :-)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day 2010

Happy Earth Day everyone! :-)

I love this picture of our planet. It reminds me of how precious our life here is.




And I just love the green wildness of this picture. It makes me happy. This is from back home in Georgia. It just makes me think of life...



Have a wonderful day everybody! :-)

Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Volcanic Fallout

As many of you may have already heard, we’re under a big cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland currently and it’s halted air travel here. I really feel for the people who can't get where they're going, especially those unable to get to weddings, etc. But I think that it's definitely a case of better safe than sorry.

On a side note, it’s interesting to me that every since the cloud moved in somewhere up there, we have had some of the most beautiful blue skies that I’ve seen in a long time here in Wiltshire. What’s up with that? LOL. It has been absolutely beautiful and we’re loving it!



Today was the first day that we noticed a film on cars here in Wiltshire. We went out yesterday, into town and it wasn’t noticeable, but today you can really see it. It kind of looks the way your car would look if you lived along a dirt road. It’s intriguing.

Above: You can just see a slight film on the hood here

Hopefully it won’t get too much worse. Let’s hope not. In the meantime, everyone take care! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Going to London to See The Cat Again

Hello :-) I can’t believe that it’s been a week since I last posted. Sorry about that. I’ve been out and about since the weekend. Brit Boy and I had a fun weekend in London and then over the past few days I’ve been out with him around Wiltshire. I love following that fella ;-)

We had an amazingly great weekend in London! It could have been so much worse if the rail strike had went ahead, but thankfully the strike was called off and our train was running. I think I’ve written here before about how it’s hilarious to us now that every time we go into London on the train there is some kind of strike or closure on either the train or the tube possibly looming. It’s quite funny to us now :-) But thankfully, the crisis was averted and we headed off to London on Saturday afternoon.

Back in December, Brit Boy and I went to see the West End production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, starring James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad. If you missed my post about it, you can check it out here.

When we went the last time, Brit Boy and I really loved it and soon after, I had the thought that we just had to see it one more time. The idea of seeing the final performance seemed thrilling, so we bought two tickets for this past Saturday night. After experiencing the final performance of “Speed the Plow” two years ago, I imagined that Saturday’s performance would be great. It’s fun to see the actors out of character and thanking the audience for their support. So we were not disappointed this time either.

I want to rewind a bit though. We arrived at Paddington Station on Saturday afternoon and then took the tube to the Marylebone stop. Our hotel was a short walk away. Here’s a photo that I took out of our window.




We rested for a bit and then got dressed for our evening out. We headed to the tube and went over to Covent Garden. I LOVE IT there! :-) It’s such fun. We went back to Sophie’s for dinner again like we did the last time. The food was great this time too. This is our new favorite place :-) So when we can afford a treat again and we’re in London, we’ll have to pay them a visit again.

After we ate we headed over to the theatre which is maybe a block or so away. We had a bit of time to kill so we walked around to the stage door to see if we could see anybody from the cast going in. There were others there too hoping for the same thing :-) We were lucky and saw Derek Griffiths, who played Reverend Tooker in the play.

Then we walked back around to the front of the theatre and made our way inside. We were lucky enough to get seats only one row behind where we were last time and we were dead center. The Novello Theatre is a beautiful place. Here are some photos of the interior. The photos are a bit grainy, but I hope you enjoy taking a peek.







One bonus of the night was having a celebrity spotting :-) I looked to my right and saw the actress Lynn Whitfield one row ahead of us. I was thrilled. She is so beautiful!

The performance was stellar! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I was so inspired creatively. As each of the leads made their first appearance, the audience applauded this time. And at the end when the cast took their bows, the audience gave them the standing ovation that they truly, truly deserved! And then the cast was joined onstage by the director Debbie Allen this time and she was given yellow roses. I admire Ms. Allen’s work so much, so seeing her was a definite bonus. My memories of wanting to be in the TV show Fame came flooding back. LOL. What an incredibly talented woman she is! Our night couldn’t have gotten any better.

We enjoyed a nice walk back through Covent Garden and soaked in all of the nightlife. Then we caught the tube and went back to our hotel.

The next day, Sunday, we headed back home. It was a really wonderful weekend!

P.S. Please check out my other blog. I have some info on some giveaways.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Reach For The Stars

I’m a couple of days late with this, but I wanted to highlight something great! Many of you may have already heard the interesting news and maybe some of you haven’t. Well, I wanted to highlight the coolness that is going on in space right now :-) There are now four women in orbit at the same time, which is a record number. I think that this is wonderful!


The crew of space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission. From left: are Mission Specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and Stephanie Wilson; Pilot James P. Dutton Jr.; Commander Alan Poindexter; and Mission Specialists Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson. Photo Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett


The Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 5th, carrying seven astronauts to the International Space Station. Three of the seven astronauts on this Discovery mission are women. They are: Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, and Naoko Yamazaki. And to round out the four in space, there is Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who is already living at the International Space Station. This apparently is only the third time in NASA history that three female crewmembers have been aboard and heading out to space at the same time.

I think that this mission sends a powerful message. And I hope that it inspires young women to go for whatever they want in life. The sky is not even a limit, because space can take you even further :-)

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Happy Easter


I just wanted to post a short Easter greeting to all of you who celebrate :-) I love the renewal of spring and recalling my memories of Easter when I was growing up. When I was growing up, we had Easter speeches that we did in church, which were short pieces of poetry that we performed in a special program on the day.

Those memories stay with me all of these years later because it was a time of simplicity and community. I'm glad to have had that experience in my life. Also, I love poetry, so getting to speak it in public was so fun for me, even though I was a shy child. But I simply came alive while I recited the words, because it was doing something that I loved :-)

So I hope that you all enjoy this day, whether you celebrate Easter or not. Have a glorious Sunday! :-)