Dainty Kitty

Acorns

Matt doesn't need to bring me acorns (an inside joke from the adventure) - I can carry one with me where ever I go. 

Instantly gratifying tutorial here. 

How Do You Open a Hershey's Kiss?

I found out yesterday that, throughout my entire life, I've opened hundreds of Hershey's Kisses the wrong way.  Matt figured it out after only two (it would take living in another country to not have had your first Hershey's Kiss until you were just shy of 37). 

Not that there's really a wrong way but when I Googled how he did it because I thought it had to be a fluke, I found that other people did it that way, too!  I was just flabbergasted and almost embarrassed. 

So tell me, how do you open your Hershey's Kisses?

Winchester Cathedral & Jane - November 12th

I really do love Jane Austen but have to confess that I had no idea she was buried at Winchester Cathedral until Matt asked one of the tour guides where she was buried.   Jane was easy to point out because there are always flowers by her marker.

The marker, which was added later, reads, Jane Austen. Known to many by her writings, endeared to her family by the varied charms of her character and ennobled by her Christian faith and piety was born at Steventon in the County of Hants, December 16 1775 and buried in the Cathedral July 18 1817. "She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness".

This is her original marker. 

It was surrounded by tourists when we first walked.  After we toured the rest of the cathedral ("toured" is used lightly) I asked Matt if we could go back and visit Jane for a few minutes and I got her all to myself.  It was kind of an overwhelming few minutes.  It seemed silly to cry but I really did have to hold back a few tears.  

Speaking of Austen - I got to watch the Lost in Austen series while I was there.  It's really clever and I recommend it for a couple nights of girly fun.    Matt was a trooper and watched the last two episodes with me but if you're not familiar with Pride and Prejudice...yikes.  And to come in halfway made it worse.  I appreciated the effort, though.  :)

Stourhead - Tuesday, November 11th

The past couple of days have been really hard.  How do I combat missing Matt?  By reminiscing.

A month or so before I left, I started a thread in a West Country group on Ravelry looking for not only yarn shop suggestions but just interesting things to do in general.  I felt a little guilty that I was showing up on Matt's doorstep for two weeks, "Entertain me!"  Lots of people suggested a visit to Stourhead.  The house was closed but a fellow Raveler who works in the gardens assured me that they would still be beautitul in early November.  And they were.

This is one of the first views as you walk down into the gardens.   Here you can see the Palladin Bridge and the Pantheon. 

 

From The National Trust booklet that Matt purchased on the way in:

Not far from Stourhead House, the flat meadow suddenly falls away into a steep valley at a spot known as 'Paradise'.  When  the sun sets over the far slope, glinting off the lake and gilding the hanging woods, it feels just like that. 

Here, from the 1740s Henry Hoare II created the perfect landscape garden.  He dammed the stream to make a huge lake, around which he laid out a circuit walk.  As you progress round the lake, you take in a series of carefully composed views of classical and Gothic buildings set against wooded slopes.

We had come to The Temple of Flora before we read about Henry's pre-Hollywood Hollywood sets and were completely at a loss.  The outside was incredibly ornate but the building itself was just one room that was maybe about six feet deep.  After reading those paragraphs, the gardens took on an almost magical quality. 

Especially when you walk around a corner and spot things like this -

   

A tiny robin posed on a wooden bench.  Robins in Ohio look like tough, escaped convicts compared to their sweet, little, brown, English cousins. 

There were grottos reminiscent of Labyrinth that lead to amazing views or up secret paths.  Unfortunately, this grotto lead to the death of my camera -

 

I was getting ready to snap a photo not unlike this when my camera slipped from my hands and landed in a puddle, right on the edge of the lens.  Unfortunately that meant I didn't get as many photos of Stourhead as I'd have liked to.  Thank goodness I got this one of the Temple of Apollo -

 

I think, of the entire vacation, this is my favorite photo.  Later we walked into a grotto that led to a secret path that took you up to the Temple with an amazing view of the gardens.  It's the perfect picnic spot on is our list of things to do when we go back. 

I was lucky enough to cross off a few things on my 101 in 1001 list (the list is a mess - I was cleaning it up at one point and haven't gotten back to finish).  Here I got to cross off number seventy-four, "Kiss in the rain."  We'd already talked about the list and he had mentioned that he wanted to help me cross off a few (I was hoping number 98 was one of them and it was - just a day later) so when it started to rain just a bit and he stopped walking, I knew just why.  I actually crossed that one off my list several times, all over England and a few times in Paris as well...not that we really needed an excuse to smooch (red lights were also an opportunity we took advantage of as often as possible). 

And to continue with the magic of Stourhead, it was raining just enough to give us a beautiful, full rainbow as we drove away.  Absolutely amazing.  This was one of my very favorite days and I can't wait to go back and see it in other seasons - it'll always hold a very special place in my heart. 

Ouaf! Ouaf!

Putting words to a photo - putting words to the entire trip - is just impossible.  For now, a photo taken outside our first Parisian café where I had a tartine and and wonderful cup of café avec de la crème.

love.

 
 

View from a Paris cafe.

So I was lousy at posting on the other blog while I was on vacation - I guess I should have seen that coming.  Who'd want to crop photos and blog when you have countryside to see...or a warm boy, bed picnics and silly British television waiting for you downstairs.  Not me.

Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, I'll be able to post some photos and stories.  I have notes from the first week (both of us at the airport in Paris, scribbling in our journals, laughing and trying to remember when we did what) but we need to plan a journal date to get the rest of it down on paper.  So many memories - such a wonderful time.  I'm a very lucky girl who's very much in love.

Back Only to Leave Again

My unintentional blog break was actually nice even though the silence was contagious and made me a non-commenting lurker - even on my very favorite blogs, the people I call my friends.  When I get back, recharged and reGeorged (a story for another post), I'll be back to normal. 

Until I get back, I'll be blogging here at Find Yourself a Cup of Tea - home of the banner that only cooperates forty percent of the time.  Anyway, that's where I'll be - a place that's friendly not only for Matt's eyes but also those of my family and my coworkers.  I'm hoping to be able to put together a few words but I'll at least (hopefully) be posting photos every couple of days.

Only one more day of work (and tons to do there so it should fly by).  So much to do - so much to pack and so little room.  I can't believe I'm leaving in less than forty-eight hours.  I'm nervous and a little scared but you also couldn't beat the smile from my face and I literally tingle when I think about any aspect of the trip.  In just a little over two days I'll be in a car in another country, sitting next to this person that's meant so much to me for these past few months. 

Even though we'll talk tomorrow night I ended our call tonight with, "See you in a couple of days" just because I could.  I really can't wait to call from the airport and say, "See you tomorrow." 

Anyway, since I washed six loads of laundry and nearly packed my ridiculously full suitcase I think I deserved a little mint chocolate chip ice cream.  It really should be polished off before I leave anyway....

Baby, I'm-A Want You

The bread turned out absolutely amazing and with this tutorial/recipe it was so easy. 

A couple of late night photographs....

The cats and I are going to have a French themed morning tomorrow.  I'm going to make French toast with my homemade bread and flip through books on Paris, making lists of sites to see, while they sit at my feet and, um, miaou.

I really need to knit myself a beret....

A Tough Day and a Soft Loaf of Bread (I Hope)

I just ended a very busy two days of work with too many glasses of wine out of a plastic cup, sipped in an office chair at a plastic table set up in my parking lot. When I left it had just started to rain and someone had opened the utility closet and everyone was huddled inside. 

My office is full of hardcore tailgators.  Seriously.

I'd had enough, though.  Leaving the office at nearly eight last night, hoping to the beat the UPS guy to the drop box, making it but calling Matt from the parking lot in near tears because some of our reps are so self centered, talking and laughing and realizing this is what people who like each other do - lose sleep (it was after two his time when we hung up) to make sure the other is happy - and then reading for a few minutes before falling asleep.  Oh and there was a crying jag in there, too, because Matt sent me that sweetest email.

I recently pulled out a box of things that normally go on the inspiration board that hangs above my desk here at home and found a quote by Emerson that, I kid you not, I probably cut out ten years ago and have had hanging somewhere ever since.  I never really understood it but it still meant something to me: "I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred.  I wish the days to be like centuries, loaded and fragrant."  Now, with the impending Adventure, I get it.  That's is the reason I snipped that quote out of a magazine a decade ago.  I'm amazingly prophetic (I did mention that I've had several glasses of wine, right?). 

In other news, I'm in the midst of baking my first loaf of bread.  It's got ten more minutes to rise before I put it into the loaf pan and let it rise another hour.  I'd actually forgotten about the second bout of rising but I wasn't about to screw this up so I read the directions carefully (even after several glasses of wine), thankfully, just in case.  I just took a little peek under the towel and I'm very impressed - even though it's going to be dark when it comes out of the oven, I'm definitely going to take a photo. It's my first bread baby - no matter how odd it comes out, I'm still going to be proud.

Yeah, I think it's time to kill this wine buzz...I should really eat something....

How Did I Miss This?

I’m woefully behind on unpacking and putting things away.  Mostly the putting things away part – I’m pretty good at pulling things out of boxes and putting them on tables and shelves until I find a place for them.  It gives me a false sense of settling in because I get to throw boxes away.

 

Anyway, I didn’t hang my calendar up until this afternoon but even then I didn’t realize what I’d missed earlier this week.  It took mention of it in a couple of blogs before it dawned on me that I missed the first day of fall on Monday.  No wonder I’ve been wandering the grocery stores looking for pints of cider (so far only gallons and as much as I love cider, I know a lot of it would go to waste so I’m waiting patiently) to heat up and top off with spiced rum. 

 

That also explains my desire to do absolutely nothing but knit.  Yesterday I cast on A Scarf Askew with the blue fibranatura yarn that I’ve cast on, oh, about three, four or maybe even five different scarf patterns for Matt.  I spotted this one when Ginny queued it recently and I think it’s going to stick – especially since I’m about a foot into it. 

 

Speaking of Matt – it’s time for the All Matt, All the Time portion of my blog.  I point this out so that uninterested parties can change the channel, root around in the fridge for a snack or whatever. 

 

I spoke to his family this afternoon.   I can’t wait to meet them.  He keeps pointing out that I should be there with them now which is really comforting.  If I squint my eyes I can almost feel like I’ve met them all before and that I really should be there building sandcastles and relaxing.

 

Not that I really want the month of October to disappear or anything because it’s my favorite month of the year but…November 7^th can’t get here fast enough.  Even with the previously mentioned body issues the excitement is pretty amazing.