Viking Tea Party

Cria Love

Two new alpacas were born last Wednesday!

Believe it or not, the little guy on the left was actually premature and had a rough time in the beginning.  My other-in-law said he couldn't hold his head up on his own and was having trouble breathing.  He's now runs all over and is almost the same size as the female on the left who was born, on time, earlier the same morning.  

I think his name is, ironically, Hercules and her name is Pandora.

Pandora is now my favorite -isn't she gorgeous?

This is Pandora's mum.  Doesn't she look like a mum?  She's the matriarch of the whole herd. 

Here's Hercules having a little roll in the dust with his mum.  I'm glad he pulled through as there as already been enough tragedy on the farm this year.  Just a few days before the sheep were to be sheared, one of them fell into the stream that runs alongside the land and drowned.  Sadly, it was one my mother-in-law was particularly close to because he wouldn't feed from his mother and had to be bottle fed last spring.  And just a few weeks ago an alpaca was killed by two wild dogs.  The last time we really talked to them about it, the police were not being very cooperative even though it's suspected that these were the same dogs that attacked and killed a Jack Russell a week or so earlier.  

Thank goodness these little ones finally came along or I might not have ever had anything to blog about.  Things have been slow around here.  I've got a little bit of mindless knitting to post but the two baby sweaters I've started are either hibernating or sitting in the naughty corner due to gaping holes under the arms that I cannot tolerate.  

I've also come to the sad conclusion that I'm just not one of those women who relish and really enjoy being pregnant.  While I love feeling our little acorn kick (and so does Matt - he finally got to feel him, too, a week or so ago) and can't wait until he gets here, I'm not in love with actually being pregnant.  Not only do I feel like what a balloon must feel like (if balloons had feelings, of course), painfully expanded (with a lot more expanding to go), but I'm ridiculously emotional, crying over every little thing (like, yesterday, discovering that we were out of eggs), and the homesickness is, to put it simply, really difficult.  

But I know it'll be over here in a few months and the wait will be more than worth it.  We've started on the baby's room which is something fun and positive to focus on.  We went on a little picnic to Stourhead yesterday and bought a fantastic piece of wood to cut in half and make into shelves.  It's actually from one of the trees on the Stourhead estate and still has bark running along one edge.  It'll look great hanging above the chest of drawers (which we finally picked out last week), packed full of cute little woodland creatures.  

In other news, I think I'm going to play around with my blog layout this weekend.  I've already changed the banner - a year of flowers and a teapot is more than enough - and am happy with it but there have got to be a few other things I can do to liven things up around here....

A Quiet Canal Boat Ride

We took a canal boat trip for Matt's sisters (the twins) birthday on the Lady Lena on Tuesday. 

 

Unfortunately, it rained just about up until we got on the boat then there was a tiny break and...more rain. These photos of the boat were taken after the trip - hence the piles of snuggly lap blankets.  Despite the rain, it was a smooth relaxing trip complete with champagne.  Well, sips of champagne for me anyway. 

 

 

After the boat ride we went into Bath for lunch and cake at Ruth's flat.  Tippy top floor.  After walking the hilly streets of Bath from the carpark.  Havoc on a the pregnant. 

But there were Ben's Cookies to be had - the coconut ones are my favorites - and a quick stop at Lush for my favorite bubble bar: Karma and both of those things make the hike worth it!

Mottisfont Abbey

On Thursday we braved our hayfever and took a walk around Motissfont Abbey.  It was a toss up between the abbey and Stourhead but we've already been to Stourhead several times this year so we decided to try something different.  Although I do wand to visit Stourhead here soon as the rhododendrons should be in full bloom.  

The inside of the house holds as impressive art collection. Although, honestly, we were both more interested in the outdoors and didn't even make it all the way around before we found our way back out to the gardens.  That probably explains why the only photo I took inside was of a vase of flowers.

I'm currently reading Earthly Joys by Phillipa Gregory about a gardener to both James VI and Charles I in the 17th century and it's, momentarily, made me look at gardens even as simple as this in a new way.

I was a little thrilled with this up close look at a red-tailed bumble bee because we don't have these back in Ohio.  :)

As I was double checking the species name I stumbled across this article which, ironically, names Sting as a new patron for bees.  With a "name" like that....

The walled garden is already beautiful but we're looking forward to going back next month (with a picnic!) to see the roses in full bloom.

I don't know what type of flower this is but I love it!

 

 

As we were leaving we were lucky enough to run into Murphy the garden cat (who even has his own greeting card in the gift shop).

 

 

That was Matt's favorite part! 

Hmm, seeing the stick from Matt's ice cream bar in these two photos is making me think I need to go grab a Magnum bar from the fridge....

The Best Part of The Safari Boat Tour at Longleat

 

Feeding the sea lions!  The worst part?  Even looking at the photos makes me smell fish.

And here's a not so fun fact about sea lions that I learned today: females are pregnant for eleven months and can get pregnant again two months after giving birth which means they can potentially be pregnant pretty much all of their adult lives.  

Yikes.

Lots of Photos and A Little News

Ack, it's been three weeks since I've updated!  Mom and Dad's visit was fantastic.  We did a million things yet there were a million more things we didn't get to (just to name a few - Oxford, London and the Isle of Wight) that will just have to wait until the next visit.  

Strangely, I didn't take many photos but here are a few from our days out...

This was probably my favorite day - a warm, sunny afternoon in Brighton.

 

It was even warm enough to have chips and a cold beverage on the beach.

 

We also spent a cold, rainy day in Bath where we started out at the Fashion Museum where Matt's sister, Ruth, works. 

And, of course, the Roman baths.  And, yes, that's a duck over there on the right!

 

Of course, we took a trip to Stonehenge.  I'd never been even though it's only about twenty minutes away from Salisbury.  I'd had heard you couldn't get close to the stones any more and was expecting them to be so far away you'd need binoculars but was pleased to find that they were only about a hundred yards away or so. 

 

On the windiest day of all we drove to Old Sarum where the remains of the original cathedral stand. 

From the top of the fort ruins, even on a cloudy day, the view of the "new" cathedral was beautiful.  

We also had lunch out at my mother-in-law's farm where we not only said hello to the alpacas...

...but we also got to see the twin lambs that were born a couple of days earlier!

Actually, when I say "we" I really mean "everyone but me" because while they all went to ooh and ah, I had to hang out on the porch. Why, you ask?  Because lambs can potentially carry diseases that could be harmful to pregnant women....

And I'm pregnant!  That's right, Matt and I are expecting a little acorn of our own in November!  I'd like to talk about it a little bit more but, honestly, that little acorn is getting hungry and if I don't eat something soon, I'll regret it.  I've been lucky enough to avoid morning sickness but I do start to feel a little nauseous, cranky and headache-y if I don't have a bite of something every couple of hours.   So more on our great news a bit later!

Oh and my cold beverage on the beach in Bristol?  My daily diet Coke! 

Sneaky feeling, sneaky feelings, you can't let those kind of feelings show

I just spent an hour or two talking to my grannies for the first time, I think, since Christmas.   I've been terrible about keeping in touch with anyone (save my parents - we have an almost weekly video chat with them) and I finally figured out today why that is.   Talking to people from home just reminds me that much more that I'm not there. 

I had a surprisingly good grip on my homesickness during the Christmas season and I thought maybe I had seen the last of the worst of it but, no.  It still shows up occasionally.  Sneaks up, really, and I find myself in tears during something as mundane as a walk around the cathedral, thinking how much I'd like to be back in Ohio. 

Because of these sneaky feelings, talking to my grannies is kind of like going to the gym.  I dread the way I'll feel before I call them and am even a little sad while talking to them but it leaves me feeling pretty good.  And it's really nice to hear the excitement in Granny Creva's voice when she says, "Am I talking to who I think I'm talking to?"

It'll get better and it is better some days but...it's really hard.  I miss my family and my friends.  I miss American restaurants and shops that are open past five-thirty.  Thank goodness I have a supportive husband whom I love very much or I'd be a mess.  So far - knock on wood - the married part of life has been easy, wonderful and a million other positive adjectives.  It's just the living in another country that's hard.

Sigh, enough of that.

                                                       ~~~~~           

I'm knitting a sock!  Actually this isn't an entirely new concept.  I've probably mentioned that I've knitted two other socks before - socks who will never find their mates - but this time I'm determined to cast on for the second straight away.  Granted, I haven't actually finished the first yet - just another inch and a half to go - but I'm going to hang on to that determination.  I really want to be a sock knitter. 

Lots of painting and rearranging going on around here in preparation for my parents' visit in a month and a few days.  I did something in the sitting room tonight that I'm going to ask for opinions on tomorrow (it was too dark to take photos by the time I'd finished). I like it but ...it could also be thought of as just messy or maybe even as a shocking abomination.   Ah the suspense....

Yesterday was Date Wednesday so we drove to Alresford where we hadn't been since my very first visit.  They have a great coffee shop there called Caracoli and it was - along with a couple of shops and a creepy bookstore - the reason we decided to spend the afternoon there.  Their hot chocolates are very artistic.      

I'll never tire of taking photos of things I eat and drink.

Oxford & Owls

I've been here since the end of September and, until Monday, we'd hadn't been to Oxford to see Matt's dad and stepmom.  I also finally got to meet one of my sisters-in-law on that side of the family - the other is in Spain for a year.  After breakfast and a little catching up, Matt's dad dropped us off in town where we wandered around for a little while.  The Ashmolean was closed and Matt wasn't feeling well so we just did a little shopping - we'll save the museum and touristy things for another day.

 

We also stopped at The Jericho Cafe where Matt's dad recently ran into Mark Haddon who wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Thom Yorke from Radiohead [not on the same day, of course]). 

I am so topping my next batch of flapjacks with chocolate ganache.

One of my favorite places was the Blackwell bookshop - three floors full of books.  There's a knit group that meets up there for lunch on Wednesdays, too, so I might tag along with Matt to work one Wednesday soon and check it out. 

I had crocheted this little guy the night before but until we got home he was nameless. 

I think Blackwell is perfect for a bird with a bookish reputation. 

 

Percy the Owl pattern crocheted with an E hook and random yarn.

Duck Walk

It rained so hard this morning that my jeans were thoroughly soaked from the knee down by the time I got back from having tea with Sandy (my mother-in-law - it'll just be so much easier to call her by name from now on).  Within ten minutes of shedding my wet clothes and pulling on pajamas, the clouds parted and there was the blue sky I didn't think we'd see at all today. 

So I decided to go for a walk, feed some ducks and take a few pictures.  For this outing I packed the following:

 

- a shopping bag in case I decided to stop at the Oxam bookshop in my way home.  I did and picked up Vanity Fair and the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I'm already two-thirds through it and am already thinking about hunting down the second. 

- a teeny, tiny, bright green moleskine

- my Filofax wallet

- my everyday camera

- my mouse change purse

- my Canon camera.  When I turned it on I realized I'd left its SD card in my computer - thank goodness I had my little camera with me.

- bright pink Clarins lip gloss tossed in for some unknown reason

- camera lens

- duck food.  Unfortunately, this is really only for feeding ducks whilst they are on dry land (it sinks in water) and most ducks automatically start quacking like crazy and hop in the water when they think you have food.  Needless to say, a couple of pigeons were fed by me today but no ducks.

- my iPod.  Soundtrack to my walk: Strict Joy by The Swell Season.  If I were a little less sane, I might have thought I was really in a movie. 

Of course, by the time I got to the park, it started raining again but it was light enough that I stood under a giant willow and stayed dry.  

I took a lot of photos but only kept a couple.  It's hard to go wrong with the cathedral and blue sky.

Or a cookie cutter cathedral...

I also really like the texture of the wall surrounding the cathedral....

I'm listening to Pillars of the Earth right now and it was really interesting to hear the bits that took place in Salisbury as they were building the "new" cathedral (this one).  Even though a few people have recommended it, I've shied away from that book for a long time thinking it would be too slow and heavy like books about that time period sometimes tend to be.  I bought it for $5 on Audible a few months ago but I only started listening to it last week after I (finally) finished The Road.  I'm only a couple hours in (it's 41 hours long) but it's fantastic and not at all what I expected.  

Okay, some french fries (see?  I'm still an American!), a warm blanket and the rest of Dead Until Dark are waiting for me downstairs....

You'll Have That

It was "you'll have that" afternoon today.  We walked into town to buy National Trust memberships and then drove out to Stourhead for a nice, chilly, autumn walk.  Unfortunately, though, we were about ten miles away when Matt said, "I know this is a silly question but you do have our membership paper, right?" 

Argh.  No.  Instead of sticking it in my purse, I had dropped it in our shopping bag (a cute burlap one we'd actually purchased at the National Trust shop a few weeks ago that says "Truly Madly Greenly") and that shopping bag was sitting on the floor in our sitting room.  A few minutes later we saw a sign for Longleat and decided to salvage our day by taking a drive through the safari park.  Last year it closed the day before I came to visit Matt and we just assumed that it would be closing around the same time this year which would be next weekend. Unfortunately, we were wrong.  It closed this past weekend.  

So, yeah, you'll have that.

But Matt had spent the weekend at work and will be working a lot more this week so it was at least nice to spend the day together.  

And we got back just in time to have a fun little photo shoot by the cathedral.

 

 

Susie's Reading Mitts
Poems Yarn
US 5 / 3.75 mm dpn needles
Very cosy!

 

Wardour Castle

After a fantastic breakfast of potatoes, bacon and French toast unlike any French toast I'd ever had (with herbs grilled in the egg instead of drenched in syrup), we had planned to walk over to Polly's for tea but as we were walking out the door, Matt suggested we go for a drive instead. 

We ended up in Shaftesbury, about a half hour or so away from Salisbury, where we wandered a little bit before walking down to a little cafe called the Salt Cellar.  Unfortunately, although the view is stunning from their front door...

...the service was terrible.  We sat at a table for about ten minutes as the waitstaff blatantly looked the other way when Matt tried to catch their eye.  So we got up and left.  Tthe brownies at the next cafe were worth the wait, though.

On the way home we stopped off at Wardour Castle.  It's set so far off the main road you begin to wonder, more than once, as you feel sick from all the twisty roads, if you've taken a wrong turn or if there even really is a castle.  There is, though, and it was so stunning I took over a hundred photos!  Thankfully, I will only subject you to a tiny handful.  :)   

Due to the sun, I couldn't get a very good photo of the front of the castle -

 
but the back was really the photo worthy side anyway.

 

Its one thing to wander around the ruins of a castle but they have actually repaired the floors so you can explore all four floors and really imagine what it would have felt like to walk up the winding staircases, dressed in the gowns of the 14th century.

Perhaps you might even pause on your way to the hall for dinner to peer out the window at the changing leaves of fall....

If it were four hundred years later, though, I guess you might have paused to carve your name in the stone while your parents weren't looking.

 

Graffiti from the 1800s!

A little Wardour Castle point of Alan Rickman interest: I didn't know this until Matt pointed it out (obviously, since I didn't even know the castle existed until we passed the sign and he asked if I'd like to check it out) but Wardour was used as Robin Hood's ancestral home in Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Anyway, if you come to visit me from the states, we'll  most definitely take you to see this castle in person.  It was really amazing.

When we got home we had just enough time to get snarf a bit of frozen pizza and change before heading out to Southampton with Matt's mum to see The Sound of Music.  Really fantastic.  I've been battling a pretty terrible case of homesickness, though, for about the past twenty four hours (since we had a nice, long Skype chat with my parents) so, oddly, I was in near tears for almost all of the performance.  I have no idea why - it's not like Austria reminds me of Ohio or anything and, even though Mom and I have watched lots of musicals together, The Sound of Music was never one of them.  Anyway, all of that homesickness stuff is a post for another day - or perhaps not a post at all. 

I need some cathartic knitting, I think.  I haven't really sat down to knit in about a week so I think I'll channel my Ginny Finished her FLS jealousy in to a couple hours of knitting of my own.  Matt's at work today, it's too cold and rainy to walk anywhere and I'm getting pretty good at pushing the overwhelmed feelings away and ignoring the stacks of boxes to unpack in the conservatory....