Flowers for An Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary and over the weekend Brit Boy gave me these beautiful flowers to start the celebration early. They remind me of the flowers that he sent to me on our wedding day! :)

 

Here's to true love!

Seven Years and Counting

Seven years ago today, I arrived on these shores to start a new chapter of my life. I had flown through the night from the southeastern United States to this lovely island where I live now.

This is a picture of the beautiful blossoms that I left behind back home in Georgia. They were at the edge of a field that I had played in all of my life. So right before I left I took a picture of them so that I could freeze them in time and remember them just as they were right before I left. I guess it was my way of holding onto a bit of my roots as I was preparing to move so far away. Also, we had just lost my mom so it seemed like I was leaving everything behind and it was a tough time. When I saw these beautiful pink flowers I felt happy and calm because nature can always do its work on me in times of stress. It's hard for me to worry about anything when I see God's beautiful work right in front of my face :-)

I knew that I was setting off on a journey in more ways than one and I was intrigued to see what would come...

***

When I flew over here to England, I left in the dark of night on one side of the Atlantic Ocean and arrived on the other side of the ocean in the light of the morning. I was glad to see Brit Boy and I was glad that I had arrived safely. We drove home from the airport and I walked into our little yellow house here. The first thing that I did was to go and look out of the window and this is what I saw in the backyard.

There were beautiful pink flowers here to greet me on the other side of the world and I smiled.

 

As always, nature brought me peace :-)

It's been an eventful seven years. I can hardly believe that that much time has passed. I've gained some things, I've lost some things, but I can honestly say...it's all good. I can't complain. I'm grateful for life and I can't wait to see what the next seven years will bring and the next and the next...

Happy Birthday To My Blog

Today is an important day in my life and it all has to do with this blog. Today is the 5th anniversary or birthday of my little blog here and I can't quite believe that it has already been five years! Where does the time go?

First of all, starting this blog was one of the best things that I ever did. Writing this blog has been very cathartic especially in the early days and it has brought me such healing. When I started on this journey, I had no idea how much a seemingly simple act of writing a blog could do so much in my life. I can remember myself very vividly on the day that I wrote that first post. And in reading it back today it is like going into a time machine. I remember being in a state of mind where I was still grieving the loss of my mother even though I thought that I was doing okay. Also, I was recovering from an injury that I had suffered in a car accident. And I was trying to work through major culture shock. I didn't write it all out in that first post, but I alluded to it a little. If you'd like to read my first post you can do so here.

Even though I didn't scream it all out in so many words back then, I remember that time very well as I look back and I see some growth. No, I don't have it all figured out and I don't think anyone does, but as an ad used to say back in the day... You've come a long way baby!  :) I haven't really thought about all of this a lot because I've just been living my life, but I guess that's how it is, isn't it? We go forward and take stock from time to time, so I guess that this is me taking stock. Just like everyone else, I'm a work in progress and this blog has helped me immensely!

I had thought about starting a blog for a long while before I actually started. And then one day I just decided that this was the day and even though I couldn't have known what it would bring me, deep down inside I knew that putting my words out there would start my healing. I know it may seem like I'm making a big deal out of starting a blog, but I can't overstate how much of a lifeline it was to me as I started out.

I started this blog on March 4th and as I mentioned in my first post, there was power in the date. When I say the date, I take it into my consciousness and "March Forth" and to me it means to march forth into your life. Words definitely have power! I took a deep breath and plunged right in. And even though it was a simple act, it was my act of going forward in life. I could hear my mom saying to go on and go forward. My mom figures very prominently in the earlier days of my blog and I know for sure that having this blog to write definitely helped me to cope with her loss. I still miss her every single day and I'll miss her, my dad, and my brother for the rest of my days. But I know that writing this blog has given me the outlet that I sorely needed in those early days and I am grateful.

And speaking of gratitude, I want to say a HUGE thank you to you, my readers :) I appreciate your support so much and connecting with many of you through email and social media has been a pure pleasure. I know that my posting has been rather sporadic over the last three or so years. It's been nowhere near as frequent as it was in the beginning, but I thank you for sticking with me over these years. As you may know, for the last few years I have been taking up some university study so my posting has been all over the place and nowhere near what I would like it to be. But with all being well, in about three months (fingers crossed), I will be done with that and I can recommit myself here at this blog that I love so much. I want to return to the much more vibrant posts of old and I hope that you will come along with me as I reboot my creativity and share my little corner of England with you :)

So in closing I'll say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

FROM A YELLOW HOUSE IN ENGLAND

 

Have a great day everyone and hey, have a piece of cake! :)

Happy Anniversary

HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY TO US TODAY!

Anniversaries and Royal Weddings

I wanted to give you a bit of a preview of what’s coming up in regards to our ongoing adventures here at the Yellow House. Well, we’re headed to London in about sixteen days and it promises to be very interesting! ;-) As many of you know, Prince William will be marrying Kate Middleton on April 29th, so London will be alive with activity for sure. But here’s the deal...they are getting married on me and Brit Boy’s 5th wedding anniversary! So it’ll be a double celebration in our eyes.

We had already planned and booked our trip to London for our anniversary and then we found out that the royal couple would be getting hitched on the 29th. So we figure that as long as we’re going to be in London anyway to celebrate our big day, we may as well see what we can see with the royal wedding. It should be fun and eventful to say the least! :-)

Brit Boy and I have seen several of the royals before. Check out my post here to go down the Yellow House memory lane. So to be honest, we’re not going just to catch a glimpse of a royal or two; we’re going to check things out to be part of the collective experience. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see them all and I’m not saying we’ve become jaded about seeing them or anything...far from it. Seeing them will be great. It’s just that to us it will be about sharing a collective experience with thousands of others and that should be cool. And it’s a part of history, so it will definitely be something to write in my memoirs one day ;-) Shared experiences like this are so rare these days due to so many things going on all the time at the same time. So it will be cool to share this moment with others.

And also, Brit Boy and I will just be enjoying hanging out together away from the crowds at some point and just enjoying our anniversary. Five years...who knew it would go so quickly?! :-)

Brit Boy and I will be sharing photos and such on both of our blogs. We hope we get some kind of photos of something and not so many of the backs of peoples’ heads. LOL. We shall see....anyway, watch this space and Brit Boy’s blog here to read all about our adventures!

The countdown to our adventure begins...

Burgers and Anniversaries

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I’d finally do my foodie post. Well this isn’t that post yet, but this one is a sort of random weekend post that has a bit of food involved so I’m halfway there ;-) I haven’t done one of these weekend roundup random posts in a long while and it’s fun to do it again to give you an idea of what my weekend was like. How was yours? :-)

So here goes...well on Saturday night we had cheeseburgers for dinner and they were really tasty. I hadn’t had a homemade burger in a while so this was a treat and I went a little crazy with loading things onto it. LOL.

Here’s exhibit A...




Brit Boy and I sort of did our own things with toppings. We both had cheese, tomatoes, onion and lettuce and that’s where the similarities ended. I don’t remember what else he put on his because I was mesmerized by mine. So as I said before, I got carried away, but I tell you, that’s my kind of carried away. LOL. I piled on a bit of mayonnaise, a bit of ketchup, and some sweet chili sauce. It was so messy, but SO doggone good! What a triumph and I was a happy woman after this ;-)

Sunday was a big day. It marked the day five years ago when I arrived here in England to live and I still can’t believe that it’s been that long. It’s truly like they say...time flies. It was very interesting that it fell on this day because yesterday was the day when we were supposed to fill out our Census form. It is supposed to be filled out on a certain day and it just happened to fall on my anniversary day. They do the Census count here on the years numbered ‘1’, such as 2001, 2011, 2021, etc. So I thought it was quite cool that the day coincided with my anniversary day and one more thing...we switched over to British Summer Time here on the same day! Whew, that’s a lot :-) Here in England, British Summer Time is when we move our clocks forward. So it was an interesting moment in time for me yesterday.

Now it’s onward into this new week...and I’ll be sharing more of my food triumphs and my not so triumphant food experiences. Also, I’ll share the countdown to our next adventure in London that’s coming up next month!

Until next time...

An Escape From Plumbing Hell

Hi everyone. Brit Boy here just dropping by to make sure that everything is still tidy around the Yellow House :-) And also to give you all an update on what has been going on in the last few days.

We have spent most of the week, indeed most of the last month, waiting for our shower to be fixed. I mentioned over at my blog a few weeks ago, that the plumbing in the Yellow House leaves a bit to be desired, and yet again we have had issues with our electric shower. This is a shower that is only a few months old too, having been installed when the previous one fell into such disrepair that we were told we would be taking our lives in our hands if we used it!! The new shower worked fine for a while, but then a few weeks back the shower head started to fall apart every time we used it. So we replaced the head ourselves, at our own expense, only for the wall unit to the start gushing water from the bottom with next to no water now emanating from the head.

At this point our hearts sank. We knew that this meant dealing with the property agents, and through them with our landlord. Past experience has taught us that this would be a tortuous process, and indeed this time was no different. To cut a very, very long story short, I am now sat here four weeks later – yes you read that right FOUR weeks later – waiting in for the plumber to finally come and install a new electric shower. The list of excuses has been laughable, but at least something finally appears to be happening. What our phone bill will look like when it comes I dread to think as I have had to call the agents virtually every day to force them into some kind of action. Apathy doesn’t even begin to come close to describing their attitude.

Okay, sorry, rant over now! To take our minds off of our interminable plumbing woes, Dori and I decided to go to the movies this week. We are probably the last two people on the face of the earth to see Toy Story 3, and so that is what we plumped for. We apparently watched it in glorious 3D, but I have to say that I really didn’t see that. I guess the picture looked like it had a little more depth to it, but there wasn’t enough of a difference to me to warrant an extra £1.50 on the ticket price. Anyway, that being said, we had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the film. We even had a KFC beforehand. Don’t tell me we don’t know how to live the high life!! :-)

Oh, and one last thing before I go. I want to wish Dori a very Happy Anniversary!! It isn’t our wedding anniversary, but the day of another important event – one that changed the course of both of our lives. I will leave it to Dori to tell you what that is, if she so wishes, when she returns.

Have a great weekend everybody!

A Bit of This...A Bit of That

Well, it’s Monday again…time for a new week, but before I go ahead, I figured I’d rehash a few things from around here :-) So this will be a hodgepodge post…a bit of this…a bit of that.

Saturday morning, I finally turned in my latest bit of work for my freelance and feature writing course and I was glad to hit that send button to carry it on its way to my teacher. I love completion :-) It had been a heavy assignment since it was all about the law and I am no law student ;-) But it was interesting. It was all about libel and slander and defamation…all that stuff which is a no-no. It also covered reporting restrictions if you’re covering a court case. I imagine I won’t be wading into this arena, but it was still helpful. Good stuff for a freelancer to know.

There was a lot of reading and I had to reread certain bits of it again in order to wade through the legal stuff that my artsy mind has a tough time with :-) But I think I did a good job on my assignment. This time I didn’t have to write an article or anything, I just had to write lengthy essay type answers to questions about scenarios they gave me. Fingers crossed that I’ll get good feedback.

I’m not that far from finishing the course and it has definitely helped me to feel more confident in article writing since I was more of a creative writer before. So it has definitely been time well spent :-)

I took this photo this morning.




It’s what remains of the gorgeous flowers that Brit Boy gave me on our engagement anniversary three weeks ago today. I’m amazed that there are any left after all this time. There was such a big variety of blooms and they slowly died away bit by bit, but as I told Brit Boy, the love never dies :-) I love that the last ones standing are these sunny little yellow ones. I mean really…what else would be left in a place called the Yellow House. LOL. I imagine that they will fade away this week finally too, but I’ve definitely enjoyed having them around :-) Life’s simple pleasures are the best.

Have a great day everyone! :-)

A Westonbirt Day Out

This week Brit Boy and I have been hanging out together more than usual. Brit Boy had a vacation week, so we’ve been having a fun time. We also had our wedding anniversary this week, so it was celebration all around for us. On our first anniversary, we visited Paris and that was just amazing. I will have to share more memories of that in a future post. Then fast forward to this time around which we spent here around Wiltshire.

Monday and Tuesday of this week, we mostly did errands and took a trip into town. Then on Wednesday, we had beautiful weather, so we took advantage of it and went to Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. It is a beautifully green and glorious garden and woodland that you can just wander around in and enjoy. You pay a moderate admission, but it’s worth it and the money goes to keep the place going. For the beauty and tranquility it brings, it’s worth every penny.

Westonbirt is one of the first places that I visited on my first trip here about six years ago. On that day back then, it was a windy, cold day in April, but on Wednesday, it was fairly sunny and warm. (smile) Westonbirt is one of my favorite places, so I’ll take it in any weather. I think that the reason why I like it so much there is because it reminds me of back home in Georgia. It reminds me of the woods back home, where I loved to wander and to see nature up close.

It was a nice drive there on Wednesday. When we arrived, we went ahead to have lunch since we hadn’t eaten. They have this food hall which is very nice and organic looking. It’s all wood and glass and reminds me of a renovated barn. You can sit inside to eat or you can go outside. But even if you eat inside, with all the windows it’s like you’re outside anyway. It has a great natural vibe. (smile) We sat inside.

We both had chicken, served with onions and vegetables for lunch. Then for dessert, we shared a piece of strawberry cheesecake…and let’s just say it was DIVINE!!! Here’s a photo that says it all…mmmm…it was so rich and delicious.




After we ate lunch, we ventured out for our walk around the grounds. Here are a few photos of our walk around this gorgeous and peaceful place.











Another thing that I love about Westonbirt is that they have plants and trees and flowers from all over the world. They take such good care of the gardens. They also give lectures there and concerts. There is a wonderful gift shop there too, filled with beautiful things of natural beauty. We decided to buy a little something to remember our visit by, as well as our anniversary. It’s a lovely little dish that we’ll place in its own little spot.



It was a wonderful day out. On the next day, we visited the market town of Devizes, here in Wiltshire. But I’ll leave that story for Brit Boy’s post today. So if you’d like, take a trip on over to his blog and check out the stuff we picked up at the market. Have a great weekend!