Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 AND 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Hello

This is just a short post to say hello :-)

I'll be back with a better post in a day or two about what I've been up to with my book and stuff like that. I just wanted to say hello.

Have a great day!

Recharging

So this is another one of my Friday Photoshop things. It's a good way to unwind at the end of the week and this week especially with all of the harsh news from back home, we all need a little bit of this. No, we don't all need Photoshop in our lives, but we need something to give our minds a rest just for a minute. Everyone has their way of choice...one of mine is Photoshop.

This photo above kind of sums up what I plan on doing this weekend for the most part. I love trees and even in the colder months when they're bare they still are beautiful to me. It's like they're taking a break and recharging until they sprout out with new leaves again in the springtime.

I won't be recharging and hibernating all the way until spring...nope, I have things to do, mainly to finish writing my book and to keep blogging here along with many other things :-)  But for this weekend I plan on being quieter and more inward so that I can recharge and be ready to go forward with what needs to be done.

Back to this photo...it's a view of the tree behind my house. And as usual, I played around with the different effects on Photoshop and this is what emerged from my play.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend. Have a great time and be safe!

Visiting Bath Once Again

Today I thought that I'd share another one of my Instagram pics as I'm fond of doing now and then. I took this photo this past Friday in Royal Victoria Park in Bath. If you've visited me a few times here you'll know that I love going to Bath. It's probably my favorite place that I've visited here in England. I like it because the architecture is so beautiful and even though the traffic can be kind of a nightmare it's still calmer than London. I like London a lot too, but sometimes the noise can get to me. I love London for the museums, theatre, and Covent Garden, etc. It's a great place to visit, but when I want to be laid back a bit, Bath is my place :-)

Another great thing about Bath is that it's not that far away from where I live. It's in the next county, which is Somerset, but it's just over the border so it's easy to be there in a pretty short time. Also, the drive through the country in order to get there is so nice. I'm a country girl at heart...always have been and always will be :-)

I've been going to Bath for years, but this was my first time visiting Royal Victoria Park. I'm gonna have to go back when it's warmer, but getting to see it with some of the fall colors around was a treat. It was a nice way to spend the day after Thanksgiving.

Have a wonderful day!

Hello December

HELLO DECEMBER!

:-)

Standing Strong

As we start a new month and indeed the last month of 2014, I'm committed to standing strong. I do my best always to stand strong and live a good life, but in light of all that happened this past week with Ferguson, I feel the need to recommit myself. Like many, I'm disturbed by not just the case in Ferguson, but in the ever-growing list of others, such as twelve year old Tamir Rice, who are losing their lives at the hands of police. Some will bring up other statistics to deflect from the issue at hand. I am not here to debate any of it. There are many, many more eloquent writers who can analyze the whole thing much better than I can and the essays and articles are out there available for everyone to read. I've read dozens and I've learned so much or I've nodded my head because something has resonated with my own life experience.

I know that I'm late with this post, but this isn't a race. It's never too late to say how you feel even when you don't feel that you have the adequate words to describe your feelings. I'll just say this, the decision by the grand jury was a disappointment, but here's the thing. I'm gonna hold my head up and stand strong.

By standing strong I mean that I am going to live my life and do my part to help. I have no idea how, but I know that I'll find it. Being me and showing up as the best me that I can is a start. There is a lot of work to do, so showing up and being ready is where I will begin. My mind is in planning mode, so please forgive my vagueness. It's so cliche, but like many others I just want to help make things better.

Spooky and Blurry Photos

Today is another photo day. As you know if you've been here before, I love snapping a pic from time to time. I used to mostly take photos on my point and shoot, but lately because of the convenience, I've been taking photos on the fly with my phone. I'm kinda retro in some ways so I held out on having a smart phone for a while. My camera on my "vintage" cell phone was a joke and everything and everybody came out looking kinda strange. It wasn't my questionable photo skills....ha ha...in that instance it was the phone. I still take some blurry photos...don't we all. Lol. But sometimes they come out pretty good.

The photo above is from my Instagram account. One of my new favorite hobbies is to lift photos off of my Instagram account and share them here after I've played with them a bit. I didn't do much with the one above though except add a retro frame to it like I remember from back in the 70's as a kid.

This photo is one that I took a few days ago as it was getting darker and darker. It gets dark really early here in the colder months. It's like somebody drops a big shade on things at 4:30 pm. Anyway, I was looking out and I wondered if I could snap a photo of the bottle on the windowsill in the dark. The bottle is actually blue, but because I took the photo with the bottle lined up with the street light, it turned this golden brown color. It glowed. The photo is kinda blurry, but in this case I think it adds to the picture. A friend told me that she liked it because it looked spooky. Ha ha! I'll take a compliment any way that I can get one ;-)

I hope that you enjoy looking at my retro-esque, spooky photo. Have a good day!

Really-Random-Playing With Photoshop-Badly-Friday

Hello :-)

So this is my really-random-playing with Photoshop badly-Friday photo ;-)

I've been working on my book a lot lately so I decided to take a break and let my mind wander and man did it wander. LOL. This is a picture that I took a few days ago. It turned out quite blurry and it was originally a black and white photo. Since it was blurry already I decided to play around with it a bit. I think it kinda looks like the world turned blue and you're looking through a screen door or a window screen. When I was growing up we had screens on the windows and screen doors that kept the bugs out but let the breeze in. So this is giving me a kinda trippy nostalgic memory of my childhood years of peering out the screens...and this time I'm looking out at a blue world ;-)

It's weird and I know it's not anything brilliant, but sometimes I just like to play. Play is good.

This visit into my Friday wandering mind is brought to you by me.....LOL!

Happy Friday!!!

Trees In Every Season

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago-ish and I just thought that I would share it here. 

As I've mentioned before, I love fall/autumn.

 I love trees a lot and I think that they're beautiful during every season. 

 In the springtime, they're bursting out with new bright green leaves...

In the summer, they're in full greenery and offering shade from the hot sun...

In the fall, they put on a show of various colors and shed their leaves...

And in the winter, they stand leafless, but they're still so beautiful.

I often think that trees without their leaves look like beautiful, stark sculptures. They're so dramatic as their prickly branches pierce the grey skies. 

What's not to love? :-) 

Flowers

Hello :-)

I wanted to share a photo of my bouquet that's been blooming out over the weekend. They are gladiolus. Aren't they just gorgeous? I picked them up at the store the other day and they're just blooming like crazy now. 

Have a great day!

Fall Color Overhead

Hi :) 

I wanted to share this photo that I took a couple of days ago when I was in the town centre. I was walking along, I stopped, and looked up...and saw all of this loveliness. I do love fall!

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Weekend

Taken somewhere in Wiltshire, England

Today I thought that I'd share this pic that I grabbed from my Instagram account. I posted it a couple of weeks ago, but since we're really getting into fall now, I thought that I might share it here too. Recycling is good  :-)

Fall is my favorite season by far! The colors are just breathtaking, it ushers in the festive season and you can wear sweaters and cute boots! Hee hee.

I took this picture through the windshield on a rainy Saturday two weeks ago. I loved how the raindrops made everything kind of blurred and trippy...kind of like an impressionist painting.

The leaves here seem to slowly be changing. Some places are more colorful than others, but I'm hoping that everything comes alive with color soon. When that happens I'll do my best to snap a few pictures and share them here. So watch this space! ;-)

Have a great Friday and a Happy Weekend!

Little By Little

Today, I'm here as promised to share one of the main things that I've carried with me from the Ken Burns Q&A that I attended at the US embassy in London a few weeks ago. Well first of all, let me just say, it was an incredible experience and I'm so grateful that I was able to attend the event. It was quite the experience to get the chance to hear such a great filmmaker discuss his work in such an intimate environment. We watched excerpts from his PBS series The Roosevelts and then the actor Stanley Tucci conducted a Q&A session with Ken Burns about the series and his work. You can read my post about that here.

I loved the whole evening, but what I truly took to heart were Ken Burns' words about his creative process in making his films. He spoke about how long it takes to complete one of his documentaries. The truth is that they can take years to complete from start to finish and they are usually about big subjects. Before I heard him speak, I had thought about his many documentaries and how detailed and thorough they are, I couldn't help but think about how daunting it must have been to get started on such huge projects. That hugeness is enough to stop many of us in our tracks before we even get started. I often think of the things that I want to write or am in the process of writing and sometimes I'm wondering if I have it in me to get it all written out.

Here's the thing though. Ken Burns said something very simple that interestingly enough was similar to something that I had read somewhere a few days before. I call it the little by little thing. When he said that this is how he shows up to do his work it was a co-sign in a way to what I'd recently read. Mr. Burns said that he doesn't worry about the work. He just gets up every morning and puts his pants on one leg at a time and shows up to do the work day by day. He doesn't make himself crazy worrying about brilliant inspiration striking like a lightning bolt because it doesn't happen like that. He said that the moments of brilliance can come in the most normal moments. The day to day showing up to do the work is how the "magic" of creativity is born.

On some level, I understood this already. As I write my book, the thing to do is to sit down and just write. The words will come and the story will unfold as it is supposed to and I'm not going be scared into thinking that the things that I want to write about are out of my reach. They are my stories so I'm going to write them in the way that I know how. If some brilliant plot twist comes to me, that's great, but if not, I think that I'll still be able to tell a good story :-)

It was a pleasure to be in the presence of such a creative man like Ken Burns and seeing him at this point in my life was just the inspiration I needed in order to soldier on.

I'm no great advice giver, but if I can offer any advice to anyone as they pursue their dreams I'd simply say....keep swimming...keep going day by day! That's what I'm gonna do! :-)

A Slight Delay

Hey there!

So, I know that I said yesterday that I'd post today about what I gained from the Ken Burns Q&A, but I haven't been able to get it up today. I had a physical therapy appointment for my leg and I didn't get back as quickly as I thought I would. Now that I'm home, I'm beat. I apologize for not getting the post up today, but it will definitely be published tomorrow.

I thank you for your understanding :-)

Getting Back Into the Writing Groove

This week I'm getting back into the groove of working on my book. I've been veering off lately for one reason or another, so it's good to get back to it. I want to share more about my writing in general here on my blog, so I definitely plan to do that more. Previously I've dipped my toe into this pond of talking about my writing here and here. I've found that when I write about writing on here, it gets my mind clicking over in a much more creative way. My word nerd self shows herself. Lol! 

This is a very short post, but I just wanted to check in. In my next post I'll share something that I've taken to heart recently about writing my book. It was because of something that I heard Ken Burns say during the Q&A session that I attended a few weeks ago at the US embassy. What he said really resonated with me. It's about showing up to do the work.

I'll be back tomorrow to share more about it. I have to get my thoughts right. Sorry for the cliffhanger. I'm a little bit frazzled today. I'm having one of those days :-)

Have a good day wherever you are!

The Weekend

These are my feet...well, this is a picture of my feet a few weeks ago :) Sexy huh? Not even! LOL. I was out having a walk in my favorite walking shoes. They ain't pretty, but they've carried me a lot of miles around England ;-)  Hopefully I'll be out enjoying a long walk this weekend too if it's not raining.

I'm also planning on working on my book , like I've been doing over these last few weekends. I usually work on it more on weekdays, but I still try to write a tiny bit on weekends to keep my mind clicking over. I'm trying to improve my discipline about writing regularly which is so important as I'm diving deeper into writing my book. Writing isn't a chore though. It never has been. Writing has always been a part of my life since I was a child. I've written a journal for many years. I don't write in my journal each day, but I write in it pretty regularly. These days I'm just working on developing my practice of writing something every single day even if it's just a few lines. I know that it's helping me to grow :)

I don't know what else I'll be getting up to, but whatever I do, I'm gonna do my best to enjoy! I mean, it's the weekend so YAY! ;-)

I hope that everyone out there

 has a great weekend also!

Until next time...

P.S. ~ I have a fun event in London coming up on Monday and I'll share the details next week.

Marathon Reading and Weekends

Well, here we are...it's Friday and the weekend begins! It's been a busy week for me, but it's all good. I'm working towards my dreams. Even though I can't see any results yet I know that they'll be showing themselves soon  :-)

This is kind of a catch up post and a happy weekend post in one. The catching up part is to share that I FINALLY finished the book that I've been reading. It seems like forever that I've been trying to finish it and last night I did. Yay! I was reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling and I mentioned it in earlier posts here and here.  As you can see from those posts, they were both Fridays. I guess that Fridays are my book contemplation days. You can also see that those posts were a month and two months ago! LOL. I guess you could say that this book has been my summer beach read that I took to the beach and everywhere else trying to finish it. As I mentioned in one of the posts, I'm not a particularly slow reader, but I have a tendency to get distracted by other things and then I come back and read some more. I guess you could call me a bite-size reader. I don't know. Lol. Anyway, I get there in the end.

Now, as promised I'll share a few thoughts on the book. I enjoyed it. As I said, in a previous post, I'm not much of a crime fiction reader but I enjoyed the book. The book is set in London and follows the investigation of the suicide of a supermodel, who falls to her death from a balcony in the swanky Mayfair area. Her brother doubts that it was suicide, so he hires private detective Cormoran Strike to investigate. Strike travels around within the model's privileged circle of friends and associates to get to the truth about her death. It's an interesting whodunit that takes readers into the world of celebrity culture.

I liked the book, but for me it seemed to drag a bit about three quarters of the way through. Still I found it entertaining and it was well worth the read. If I had to rate it out of five stars I'd give it a three and a half.

***

I'm hoping to get some rest this weekend and just enjoy being  :-)  That'll probably include watching a few movies on TV, maybe having some pancakes for breakfast, and working on my book. Also, I'm going to decide on what to read next. The list is long. I have a stack right next to the bed, so I think that I'll just kick the pile and see what falls on the floor nearest my foot. I'm pretty random sometimes...what can I say!  ;-) 

Happy Weekend to Everyone!

Green

 

I just thought that I'd share a picture today. 

I love being out in nature! 

My favorite color is blue, but my second favorite color is definitely green :-)

Have a wonderful day!

Sending Love

I just wanted to check in and say that I hope that everyone has a good weekend. 

SENDING

TO ALL

Spotlight: Atlantic Impact

Today I'm excited to share something wonderful that I've been given the opportunity to be a part of recently. It's a program that's offered through a great non-profit group called Atlantic Impact. Their objective is to support youth and introduce them to traveling internationally in order to broaden their horizons. Their goal is to provide each high school student in their district from the city of Detroit with a postcard.

I think that this is a fantastic program because it will expose the students to other parts of the world outside of their neighborhoods. When I was contacted by the organization I was so happy to help. I am getting ready to send the postcards pictured above to Detroit with short messages on each. As I wrote each one I thought about myself at their age and how I would have loved to receive a postcard or a letter from elsewhere. I didn't get to do much traveling when I was a child or teenager and I certainly didn't get to go abroad. I was a grown woman when I took my first trip outside of the United States. So I'm very excited for these young people because they are having the seed of international travel planted in their minds early. This makes me so happy! :-)

In addition to the postcard project, the organization offers students a well-rounded experience that teaches them valuable skills to use in their own communities and as they travel throughout their lives. Atlantic Impact says it best on their website when they highlight the skills that can be acquired through completion of the program. Some of those skills are:

 *Adaptability   *Leadership   *Responsibility   *Determination   *Patience

*Initiative   *Intellectual curiosity   *Critical thinking

*Understanding of global and cultural matters...and so much more

(from Atlantic Impact)

If you'd like to learn more about Atlantic Impact or if you'd like to get involved in helping, please visit their website at atlanticimpact.org . You can also follow them on Twitter here .

This Hard Week

This is a simple post because there is nothing that I can add to all that has been said this week. It's been a sad week and a hard week. In my personal everyday life, things are fine, but some of the events of this past week have been on my mind a lot. I am not naive though. I know that horrible things are happening all over the world every single day and I don't overlook them at all. And if I tried to write about all of those terrible things I would never be away from this keyboard. This blog has never really had a heavy tone to it and it's by design. I am not a blogger who can write well about things like that because frankly I might go off way too much. It's good to speak one's mind and I do that in my life more and more as I mature, but I try to keep heavy things at a minimum here. Believe me, this is not a cop out and I am not afraid, but I know that writing about things like this are not my strength. Plus, there are MANY people who are excellent at tackling heavier issues in their writing and I've read a lot of that this week. We all have our roles and I know mine at this point in my life. There may be a day when I can funnel my turmoil about the heavier things into my writing, but this is not the place. That time will come.

Pens and Writing Things

As you can see in the picture above, I have a lot of pens. Pssst! This only scratches the surface. I LOVE PENS! I love pens in the way that some love shoes ;-) I like shoes, but I LOVE pens!


As I've been mentioned in my previous post here, I'm currently working on my first book. I have a laptop and I write on it, but I've always been able to get my words out better when I write them out by hand first. After I write things out in longhand, I type everything into my laptop. I used to think that this was just a quirk that I had, but over the years I've heard of others who write this way. And of course there are those who type directly into their computers. To me that 's what makes it interesting though. Everyone writes in their own way and it works for them.

So back to my pens...

I do have quite a collection of pens in many colors. Some get used for specific things and others share duties as I scribble away. The green one on the left is actually a pencil that my cousin sent to me. She sent me several and I'm so grateful. I never have to sharpen them and they write great.

It's interesting when I look at this picture right now and think about the fact that I've had some of those pens for years. Some came across the Atlantic Ocean with me and they're still serving me well after all this time :-)  The fifth one on the left is a fountain pen and I use it for a variety of things. This fountain pen reminds me of my dad. This isn't his pen, but he used to sit at the kitchen table and jot down notes and he always used a fountain pen. My dad was beautifully old school and he had the handwriting to match. Even as a young child I was aware that his signature was awesome. He wrote with a flourish as he signed his name. The "W" at the beginning of his name was so elegant. He was a normal hardworking man who worked with his hands as a carpenter, but those same hands wrote the most beautiful cursive W that I've ever seen :-)

Pens are one of my favorite things in this world. They've served me well as I've written short stories, essays for school, and my most revealing journal entries. It's amazing to think that our thoughts can travel to our hands and out through our pens no matter what we are writing. I think that's cool. Maybe I'm a pen geek...but I'm fine with that. Lol  ;-)

Until next time...

A Super Moon and a Rainbow

Happy Monday! I just wanted to share a couple of quick pictures from my weekend...well actually from yesterday. It was a wonderful evening and I saw two miraculous things in the sky at the end of the day. First of all, we had rain off and on all day, along with lots of wind. It felt very much like fall is on our doorstep again. 

When I looked out at one point I saw this beautiful rainbow across the way. I took the picture below at the window so that's why there are dark edges in the upper corners. I thought that it might move along quickly before I could get outside, so I just took it from inside. It was glorious!

 

I knew that there was going to be a super moon last night, but I wasn't sure if we would be able to see it here since it had been so cloudy all day. Thankfully though, the clouds parted and that big beautiful moon showed up for us. My battery on my phone was dying when I took this so I'm so glad that I got this quick picture :-) 

As I watched the super moon I got a wonderful feeling of how this was something that many were sharing and seeing all across the world, wherever there were no clouds. The moon is amazing.

Bookish Weekends

It's going to be a rather bookish weekend about here this weekend. I have a few plans, but as we all know it's hard to get to everything and that's okay...because it's the weekend and weekends are to be enjoyed however we want. So even though I have a list in my head, I may veer off and I'm cool with that :-)

I'm hopefully going to finish reading this book below, The Cuckoo's Calling.

I've been reading it for a while but as I said in this post my mind wanders and I stop and start sometimes. That's just how I am ;-)  But I'm nearing the end of the 500-ish page book and it's been interesting. As I mentioned before, I'll share my thoughts on it once I've finished so watch this space.

Also, I'm going to start reading through a book on home decorating called House Proud that was sent to me yesterday for review. It's a beautiful book and features some gorgeous Louisiana homes. I'll be sharing my thoughts on it in the near future also. I LOVE books that show how people live so this should be intriguing.

And finally, I'm going to put some work into my book that I'm writing. As I mentioned in this post, I'm writing my first book and I'm so excited. It's been on the backburner for a while, but now it's right up front in my day to day thoughts. It's interesting to look back at parts of it that I've written a few years ago. I can sort of chart what was happening in my life when I wrote certain bits by looking at my handwritten notes, because I'm a person who is always writing in the margins about everything...shopping lists, things I want to remember, you name it. Lol. I'm a note-taking, list-making person so I guess that I leave an autobiographical trail of my life in my various notes. So alongside the writing of this book, I'm getting a look at myself as a human being. I love that.

Well, I guess that's all for today. I'll definitely be sharing more about my writing because I am finding it so freeing as I mentioned in my other post :-)

What are your plans for the weekend? Whatever you do I hope that you have fun!

Until next time...

Taking a Look at My Pictures #6

If you're a regular reader of my site, you know that I love taking pictures. I must admit that I took more of them in the past, but lately I'm getting back into it. My picture taking kind of suffered like my writing did during the time when I was completing my degree. But now I'm getting back into my pattern of documenting things through photographs. 

Sometimes over the years my pictures have been really wonderful and sometimes they've been kind of lackluster, but for me that's the fun of it. I never know how they'll turn out. I'm no professional as you can see, but I love capturing a moment :-)  

Today I'd like to share a few of my recent pictures. These were taken back in June. The sky was looking stormy and we ended up having a thunderstorm. It reminded me so much of summer evenings back home in Georgia. I'm not crazy about the lightning, but I love how the sky churns and puts on a show of various shades of grey. I took these in black and white, but even if they'd been taken in color they would've been very similar. It got so dark. These are kinda blurry, but I still love them...imperfection is real and it's cool :-) 

    

 I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my pictures. More to come!

Until next time... ;-))

Writing and Feeling Free

 

As I promised in my previous post, today I'm going to talk a bit about my writing and I will share more from time to time. It's funny to me when I think about the fact that I've never really talked about my writing here and I've been writing this blog since 2008. Some of my original goals for writing this blog were:

1. To reach out to others because I felt isolated in those early days of living here
2. To share my experience as an expat
3. To get back to writing again

Over the years I've explored the first two goals a lot as is evident here on my blog. And even though the third goal did happen within the act of publishing my numerous posts, I realize that I've kinda been a writer undercover here at my blog  :-)  It's not like I've hid it, but it just struck me recently that I never really mention writing outside of blogging here. I may have mentioned writing a little bit, but if I did it's been so long that I can't remember. LOL.

Writing this blog has brought so much into my life in ways that I could never have imagined. I've become friends with people that I probably wouldn't have connected with otherwise. I've had the opportunity to share my experiences in a new land with all of the wonderful people who have read my blog over the years. And I've been given the chance to experience new places and things through blogging. It has been a blessing. You know, I just read back what I wrote and it sounds like I'm giving up blogging...that is not the case at all :-)  In fact, I have a renewed interest in blogging and all things writerly lately so I hope you'll keep visiting me here.

Anyway, back to the point of this post...pardon me, I ramble sometimes. LOL. That's the fun of a blog though...something that I'd forgotten. This is my place to ramble if I like. It doesn't have to be perfect because hey, life isn't perfect.

Okay back to the point  ;-)  So I'm going to share more about my writing here from now on. I'll weave it in with my photos and various posts. It won't be a detailing of plot points from my book or anything, but it'll just be me being me. I'm like every other writer in that I don't want anyone to read my book until it's done, but talking about my love for writing will be a joy!

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm in a writing mood lately. I've been working on this one manuscript  for a few years off and on. It really got put to the side while I was finishing my degree, but now I'm interested in finishing it. Here's the thing though. It's like somebody turned on a switch and I have ideas for two other books. Well, to be fair, one of the other two ideas has also been with me for a while and I've been making notes. The third idea just popped into my head a couple of weeks ago when of all things I was making the bed. LOL. Hey, you never know when inspiration will strike I guess ;-)

Even though three ideas are floating around in my head currently, I know that I need to take them one at a time. And if some ideas pop into my head, I'll just keep doing what I've always done...I'll keep writing down my notes.

This post is longer than I planned for it to be and I was rambling, but it has been therapeutic. You know why? It's been helpful because I spoke my truth and let my intentions out. I'm usually a private person and that's fine. I think privacy is important especially in the times that we live in. However, I know that creatively I need to release the dam sometimes and be free! I'm a laid back person as well and it feels good in my soul to just not hold back so darned much. Thanks for reading this far...I appreciate it! :-)

Until next time...

A Quick Literary Note

Just a quick note....

As I mentioned in my post last Friday, I'll be sharing some thoughts about my literary pursuits this week :-) My next post will be about that...either tomorrow or Thursday. I'm intrigued to talk about my writing here because I've never really done that to any extent. It'll be fun share where my heads at right now as I go on this journey to finish writing my first book. I hope that you'll come along with me :-)

Until next time...

Happy Weekend

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend!

I do love summer weekends. If the weather's good, I usually get out and enjoy the sun while I can. This summer we seem to be having much more of a warm summer than we've had the past few years so this is great! The weather people here are predicting a heatwave of sorts this weekend and I say...

BRING IT ON!!!

It won't be a scorcher, but it'll be hot for England and I'm so ready. And I know that some of you reading this are having scorching hot summers and just want things to cool off. I totally understand. I really do. I remember my Georgia summers. So I'm hoping that you get a cooling breeze wherever  you may be. But when you hardly ever get sunny weather like this, you just really relish it when it comes :-)

For the past few summers we've had downright autumnal weather some days, so I'm relishing the chance to wear shorts and sandals while I can :-)

So in celebration of the sun and all things summer, here's a pic that I took at the beach in Bournemouth a few weeks ago.

P.S. - In addition to enjoying the warmer weather, I'll be working on my book. I'll share more about this next week :-)

Pictures From My Week

Today I'd like to share a couple of photos that I took this week. They're just random shots that I took on my phone but they have been a good part of my week. 

This is what I saw yesterday morning...a beautiful blue sky and some lovely slowly fading roses. The blue sky is always welcome and it reminds me that summer is finally here in this corner of England. Yay! As for the roses, I've taken pictures of them many times over the years and every year they seem to be a little different. I guess that they are in actuality because each rose is unique and the roses aren't reincarnated ;-) They smell wonderful and they remind me of back home. We had white, deep pink (almost red) and light pink roses in our front yard. The smell of roses always takes me back to being a little girl in our front yard in the summertime :-)

The picture below shows what I'm currently reading. It's The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka J K Rowling under another name. It's about 550 pages long and I'm roughly 200 pages in. I like it and I'm not usually a crime fiction reader. I don't know when I'll finish since I'm a preoccupied reader sometimes. Lol. I love reading very much, but I can get distracted sometimes. Once I finish though, I'll write up my thoughts on the book and share them here.

So there you have it...a look into my week.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend. Have fun! :-)

Happy Wednesday

   

Happy Wednesday!

The Weekend

 HAVE A

WONDERFUL

WEEKEND! 

 

Taking a Look at My Pictures #5

Here's another one of my pictures. I took this the other day when I took a morning walk. It's so peaceful at this spot. I go there when I need to clear my mind and it works every time :-)

Happy Monday

Just a quick note to say.....

Have a great day!  :-)

Taking a Look at My Pictures #4

Here are a couple of other pictures from my trip to the V&A. If you missed my previous post, you can find it here. As I mentioned before, I'm going to share my various pics here to let you see what I've been up to recently. I had a lot of pics in the previous post, so these were put to the side momentarily, but these are from that same day. I love the V&A and it was the perfect place to spend a rainy afternoon. The photo to the left shows the tunnel that you walk through from the tube and it guides you right to many of the great museums in London. A guy was performing the song "Billie Jean" on his saxophone as I was walking by. He was really excellent.

The picture above is inside of the V&A. There are a series of busts and statues in this part of the museum. The room itself is beautiful and the art just adds to it.

That's it for today, but more are coming...I never stop taking pictures! Lol! Have a wonderful day!

Taking a Look at My Pictures #3

Here are some of the pictures that I promised to post. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I've been snapping pics here and there so I want to share them. If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that I have a history of posting various pictures. I don't do this nearly as much as I used to so I'm going to start spilling them all here...watch out! Lol! I love documenting things so I'm always taking a quick pic. Some of the pictures that I'll share are kinda random and some of them like the ones today are from a particular outing :-)

These are some pictures from my day in London a little over a month ago. I was in London for a press event and afterwards I had some time to myself, so I had lunch and then wandered. It was great! It was a rainy day so I spent more time indoors on this trip. I went to one of my favorite places in London...definitely my favorite museum...the Victoria and Albert Museum, also known as the V&A. These dresses are a part of the wedding exhibit that they have going on now. It's a wonderful place to visit on a sunny or a rainy day. I hope you enjoy my pictures!

Christian Dior display

Beautiful piece that hangs in the entry area

Another view to show the dome above

Wedding dresses exhibit

Have a great weekend!

Some Pictures Are Coming

Hi :-) This is just a quick note to say that I will be sharing some pictures in the next couple of days. I've been getting back into a picture taking mood recently so I'd love to share some of them. I used to share lots of photos here in the past and I want to get back to that much more :)

It will probably end up being a few posts so that I won't overload things with one big post. I hope that you'll come back and take a look!

Have a wonderful day!

Yellow Fields

Happy Monday!

Today I'd like to share a picture that I took a couple of weeks ago when I was walking out in the countryside. It was a beautiful day. The yellow that you see is a plant called rapeseed. It's a very widespread crop that is grown around here. During the spring, the fields are colored with sunny yellow as if someone went through with a big paint brush. It makes for really beautiful scenery.

Have a good day and week!

Happy Weekend

Have a wonderful weekend! I think if the weather is anywhere near as beautiful as it is today then I see some walking in my future this weekend. What are your plans?

I hope that you have a fun weekend!   :-)

Saturday Walks

I was out earlier taking a walk and this is the beautiful sky that I saw. I love Saturdays!

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend!

Music Spotlight: Baliva

A couple of weeks ago, I was in London attending an event. Afterwards I decided to take a walk. It was kind of a rainy day, but I wanted to check things out to see what was happening in the city. As I was walking through Trafalgar Square, I heard this beat. I listened as I was walking by and I was like...Hmm, I like that! So I turned around and went back to find out where the music was coming from and I saw Baliva there performing right near the National Gallery. I stood there and watched him finish his performance and then we talked. We talked about our favorite hip hop artists and it was cool. I was so impressed with his music so I asked if I could interview him and he said yes. Here's a bit of background on Baliva.

Baliva is a hip hop artist, writer, and speaker based in London, UK. He was born in Harare, Zimbabwe where he spent his high school days in a R&B/rap group. The group received national airplay for their first single “Love is Magic” in 2000 which led to many shows in Zimbabwe’s capital city. Baliva moved to London in 2001. You can learn more about him at his website here.

To give you a taste of his music, check out his song from 2012 called "On A Mission".

And now, without further ado, here is my interview with Baliva. Enjoy!

What made you choose the name Baliva?

I wanted a name that reflected who I was and at the time I was preaching about Christianity and I wanted to be remembered for something. But I couldn't think of anything. One of my fears in doing music was the bigger you get the more you might forget who you are. So a friend told me a story about a company in America that put their values into their business name, so that anytime they go to their business name they remember who they are and they stuck to those values so I thought okay, I'm a believer, but I didn't want to spell it in the traditional way so turned it into an acronym.

B stands for Believe;  A stands for Achieve;  L stands for Learn;  I stands for Inspire; V stands for Value;  and A stands for Authenticity.  And those are some of the values that I always wanted to be a part of me no matter how far I got. And that became the name and it kind of stuck with me and that was ten years ago this year.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a performer?

I started in the last two years of school. Every break time we would memorize songs and then show off how well we memorized the songs on the playground. It became a common thing everyday to the point where we all memorized different parts of certain songs and we merged into a group. We progressed to a demo and then got into a professional studio and it was after that when I realized that this is what I wanted to do. I didn't really know if I wanted to do it as a career or not, but I just knew that I enjoyed doing it.

What artists inspire you? Who are some of your influences?

From the beginning, the first artists that I got into were like Coolio and Warren G. Then as I got older it was Jay Z, the Fugees, Lauryn Hill and later it became Nas and Cross Movement, who are a Christian hip hop group from Philly. They were a big influence on me and that's from the hip hop side, but then I've always listened to other genres.  I love Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone and Michael Jackson. I consistently listen to Michael Jackson. He's been a big influence.

What led you to performing the style of rap that you do?

Music was more or less my everything and I made it more important than anything else in my life. I think when I became a Christian I felt that I needed to get rid of anything from my past, like chasing fame, so over time I became involved with music projects at church and it really built me up to do music again. But now where I see myself, I don't see the divide between secular and gospel. I'm a Christian and I believe in God, but in some songs I may not necessarily talk about God. I do songs that are more positive about different things, but I'll also write a song where I'm worshiping God. Now I'm at a place where I try to express what's on my heart. Like Bob Marley for example, if you listen to his music he shares about his faith, his love life, his political views and he also has a good time and you get an idea of who he was as a person and his values and that's more of what I want my music to be like. My music has sort of gone through three stages, so when it started out it was love songs about school crushes. Then as I got older it became more political, so I did songs about things like poverty in Africa and then when I became a Christian it became about me being a preacher and spreading the gospel through hip hop. And in the stage that I'm in now, I still want to talk about social issues...I want to talk about the gospel...so I want my music to be all-encompassing.

What do you hope listeners will get from your music?

I hope that people will feel empowered. I think we live in a world where fear is often placed on us in so many ways that people almost feel disempowered. So I think one of the things, especially with this upcoming album, is to empower people who feel oppressed. I want people to get so many things I guess, but I think hope is a big one and to just know that God is there and to use my life as an example of how God's been there. And I want people to feel free, because I think when you listen to music the worries just disappear and you're put in this whole other world. Often when I'm performing in the streets, you know, you'll see homeless people who will come and they'll stay for like five minutes and you can see for that moment in time they're free. Or kids will come and dance. Music just has that power.

Your previous answer leads to my next question. I met you in Trafalgar Square, what do you get from the experience of performing there?

The thing I always say to people...I perform in venues, I perform in schools, but one of my favorite places to perform is the street because you meet people and there's no stage, so people come up to you and you get to meet so many people from so many walks of life. And you really get to talk with them and hear their stories. But also the other thing is the smiles that you see on people's faces, especially when they catch the one-liners and it doesn't matter their age. You know, you get people in their nineties listening to you.

I went to a house concert where they had this touring band that were in the UK performing in someone's house and there must have been about fifty people there and the band was performing and just sharing songs. People were talking back to them and I think there was no sense of celebrity. I think that the whole celebrity kind of culture has robbed music of what it should be, which is a way for people to just connect with each other. So I like that about the street, because it takes away the barrier.

I see from your website that you have your third album coming out. When will it be released and what can listeners expect from it?

The album will be out on the 1st of September and it really is a very introspective album. It's sort of looking at different aspects of my life...dealing with things like rejection, dealing with issues like money, and self-worth...those are sort of the three themes. Love is a big part of it, so it's very introspective I think. People who I've played the album for have said that. I've been told by friends that it's diverse and personal.

What are your future goals that you'd like to accomplish with your music?

I'd say on a practical level, I definitely want to travel and be able to go around Europe and to Africa in the more short term. I guess with my music I just want it to be something that...like I know what music's like for me, like the albums I have in my iPhone that I listen to. They really help me make it through the day sometimes. Like when I'm really having a hard day and I know which songs to put on...like the words of the song are gonna make it alright. I want my music I guess to be a soundtrack to people's lives, you know, particularly those that may not have people around them who may understand them. I think when you share personal stories, people get a sense that, oh I'm not alone here, that actually someone else goes through what I go through. I once wrote something where I said that I'd like it to be the older brother for that young guy looking for an older brother or a friend for that person looking for a friend. So ultimately I'd like that to be my legacy...to be looked back at to find that encouragement. I mean, I'm listening to Michael Jackson's stuff and he's long gone and I'm really enjoying his lyrics. I never realized how socially conscious he was with his lyrics. So it's very encouraging. These days I'm trying to be more conscious of doing that with my lyrics. I mean, I've written stuff before that have torn things down but I'm trying to get that balance you know.

 ***

As I mentioned before, you can find out about Baliva at his website balivamusic.com

You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook .

Also, in a few weeks I'll have Baliva back to discuss his upcoming album that will be out in September, so watch this space!