Renewal

Happy Sunday!

The photo above features my beautiful maidenhair fern. She's a bit of a resurrection and renewal story for real. Half of her had gone all brown and yellow only a couple of months ago. She was in a sad state. I'm not as green thumbed as my mother was, but I'm working on becoming a better gardener. I love the peace that it brings.

I realized that I was overwatering her and perhaps the bone-chilling ongoing cold of our Wiltshire weather was not helping. Before, I tried to think of what my mom would do and then after thinking it through, I realized that I was overwatering my fern. I thought that I was doing what was right, but I realized that I was suffocating her...drowning her...so I took a step back. And guess what? She's been flourishing :) It's been a lesson for me to relax a bit more in growing as a gardener, but also in my life. The lessons are there and I'm listening.

Have a good Sunday wherever you are :)

Saturday Evening

I'm enjoying taking in the slower vibe of this weekend. As I mentioned on Friday, I'm working on getting back to some things that I love. I got a new can of chai so....yay!!!! :) And I've been working on my book. 

While I'm having my chilled out weekend, I've also been soaking up the good things and for me that often means a bit of nature. I took this picture yesterday evening as the sun was going down. I love the mellow vibe and I love that gorgeous color in the sky. Saturday evenings are my favorite.

I hope that you're having a wonderful weekend wherever you are :)

Repair Sagas and Taking a Break

Hello there! I'm sitting here at the dining table as I tap away at my alive and kicking laptop again. Yay! :) As I look across the room I'm getting an interesting view...it looks like October outside. LOL. It's a kind of odd scene...we have a couple of pretty pink roses that are peeking into the window and most of the backyard is green, but it's all being battered by fierce wind and rain. It's been like this off and on for days and days and days. I know that it's scorching back home and I know how that grueling summer heat can be, but right about now I'd take a tiny bit because wearing wool coats and sweaters in June is just so wrong!!! LOL. It's all good though ;-)

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm back in possession of my laptop and I'm finished with my exams. Yay again! So now my attention has been turned back to the business of running this house and giving some quality time to blogging. The latter is much easier because I'm here back in the blogging saddle, but the former is a mess! As I mentioned in my previous post, I was expecting a visit from a repairman the next day. Well, he and his assistant showed up after a month of wrangling with our landlord. Our landlord loves to NOT get things fixed and some may say, well that's just the way some landlords, not all are, but I say it's still not acceptable when we pay our rent for service and don't get it. The repairmen came to fix our hot water heater and to fix a faucet that was past the point of dripping and just running in a trickle that we couldn't fix.

So after explaining the situation to the middle men on a regular basis for a month, whilst I was trying to study for exams, we FINALLY got these two things fixed this week. In addition to this, we've also been trying to get our washing machine fixed and that is still broken a month later. Arghhhhh! Here's the craziness that is our landlord. These repair guys were sent out to assess things a couple of weeks ago and they were also asked to check to see if the lack of hot water was affecting our washing machine. So these repair guys reported back and told the landlord that the washing machine is a cold water intake and it has nothing to do with the hot water heater. However, our landlord didn't believe them!!!! What? So they sent out yet another repair guy and he goes back to report exactly what the other guys said...that the hot water heater had nothing to do with the washing machine. But the landlord was still not believing!!!! From experience with the landlord I can tell you that this was not truly due to his disbelief...this was good old-fashioned cheapness. We've been down this road before and I'll tell you, God willing, this is the end of the road for us at the end of our lease in several months. We are grateful to have somewhere to live, but we are past tired of dealing with this every time. No two day repair should take 4, 6, or 8 weeks! But don't worry...this won't be the end of the Yellow House by any stretch of the imagination, because the Yellow House for us is a state of mind and it's not about the structure. We will carry the Yellow House with us always!  :-) Plus, even though our experiences have been messed up, we will always have a soft spot in our hearts for the first house that we shared as a married couple...and that is something more powerful than any physical structure because it's about LOVE! And anyway, we've already decided that when we build our house in the future, it's gonna have to be yellow in some way...the Yellow House is just us...me and Brit Boy! :-)

So the middle men/property managers saw our side in this and have told the landlord that they are not upholding their end of our contract. This got the ball rolling...ever so slowly. But as I said we are still waiting on our washing machine to be repaired and I'm still breaking my back trying to wash everything by hand...not fun! I'm just glad that the hot water and faucet are finally fixed. Maybe by the time of the Olympics we will have a washing machine again ;-)

And that's my mini vent about our ever continuing repair saga...the condensed version! Thanks for indulging me! I'm going to do my best to relax some this weekend and just forget about the washing machine. I also want to relish in not having to study this weekend after this long while. Woo Hoo!

Next time, I'll be back to happier topics. I'm going to share this great book that I've read recently. It was a fun read! And I hope that everyone has a great weekend! :-)

Rejuvenating Sundays

I had a good weekend. How was yours? :) We went into town to do some food shopping on Saturday and then Sunday, Brit Boy and I enjoyed our separate pursuits.

Brit Boy went to a football/soccer match on Sunday and I got the chance to have a Sunday like I haven't had in a long time. We love each other and enjoy spending time together, but as you all know, it's nice to have your own 'me' time sometimes. I was happy that he was able to go off and have his sporty day with his friends, just like I loved my day of doing just what I wanted to do...even if that was enjoying doing nothing ;-)




The photo above shows you a bit of my day...a little snapshot (things landed on the table in shifts, but here's a bit of what lived on the table for a bit of the day). I sat here in my favorite chair and had this little table beside me as I painted my nails, listened to my ipod, watched tv, had a snack, and kept my notepad nearby to jot stuff down. I like jotting stuff down in notebooks. I always have :-) I sometimes just draw a little picture or write a snippet of something I hope to turn into a story someday...I just love having a notepad nearby so that I can doodle or whatever...it's one of my things that I like to do. Having this time on Sunday made me realize that I need to hang out with my notebook a bit more ;-)

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday with no need to cook lunch or dinner or plan anything. It was a good rejuvenation and I needed it! By the time Brit Boy returned I was renewed. He came back home in the evening and had enjoyed the day out in London. And after having separate pursuits for the day, we were able to come together once again in the end...

I hope everybody enjoyed their weekends too! :-)

Quaintness, The Moon, and Rocking

Today I want to share more photos and thoughts about my trip back home to Georgia. This post is gonna be kind of random and photo blog-ish, but since it’s hard to remember things day by day, I figure this is the best way to share a bit of my trip with you all :-) I hope you enjoy taking a look.

I took some photos as we were driving along like I often do when I’m here in England. I love catching things on the fly even when they come out blurry ;-) I enjoy that for some reason. Anyway, on one of our road trips, I snapped a picture of this shed/barn. I just thought it looked really quaint and rural :-)



Here’s dinner from one day. You all know how I love taking pictures of food ;-) Funnily enough though, this is the only food picture that I took the whole time…I’m slipping. LOL. Anyway, my sister prepared this meal for me one day. It was really tasty.



One evening I went outside as the sun was going down just so I could enjoy it all. I love this magical time of the day :-) I was greeted by this pretty sky with a bit of the moon there to set it off. It was so beautiful to experience the peacefulness of it all. I loved the color of the clouds as the sun bounced its light off of them.

I took these pictures one morning as I stood on my sister’s carport. The light in her yard in the mornings was amazing. I loved the peace of it all.






I love rocking chairs because there’s nothing like sitting in one on a front porch and just letting the motion take you off on a trip of pure relaxation :-) The morning light loved the rockers too!



Thanks for coming along with me as I show you back home. Next time I’ll share more pictures from my journey!

The Weekend and An Upcoming Trip

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a bank holiday here yesterday that coincided with Memorial Day back home in the US. So it was a longer weekend. For the most part we hung out around home, except for Brit Boy's trip on Saturday.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Brit Boy went to see his favorite team play at Wembley on Saturday. Well, they didn’t win, but he really enjoyed the whole experience. I’m glad that he had such a good time. Check out his blog post about it ‘here’. While he was at Wembley, I stayed at home and chilled ;-)

When I wasn’t on the sofa this weekend, I was planning out things for my upcoming trip. I’m really excited because I’m going home to Georgia for a good long visit :-) Brit Boy accompanied me on the trip back in November, but this time I’m going on my own. He’s fine about it though. He will be fully engrossed in watching the World Cup while I’m gone…he will be in sporty bliss…LOL.

I’ll be back home in Georgia for nearly three weeks, so I’ll have plenty of time to relax, catch up with friends and family, and get invigorated. I love living here, but sometimes no matter where you are, you just need a change of scenery sometimes, you know :-) So it will just be good to get the jumpstart that I’m needing right now. I’ve been having a bit of wanderlust lately, so this will be just what the doctor ordered. I just hope that the weather is sunny when I get to Georgia…if it is, it will be like a tonic ;-)

While I’m gone, I’m gonna try to post a couple of photos each week to let you see what I’m seeing or doing on my adventure home. It will be sort of like a photo blog for this period of time I guess. I don’t know what the photos will be depicting, but that’s the fun in it…who knows what will show up in the photos…that’s the beauty of it all :-) So I’m intrigued to see what develops and I hope that you’ll check in to see what I have to share.

I don’t leave until next week, but now that the day is drawing near, the days are going fast. I’m busy making lists and thinking about what to pack and more importantly…what NOT to pack…LOL. Decisions…decisions.

So I’m off now to add to my list. I’ll be sharing my progress this week as I prepare for my trip across the Atlantic. :-) Have a great week!

A July Saturday

I haven’t posted in a few days. I’ve been working on my homework assignments for my course in feature and freelance writing. I’ve completed my latest assignment, so I just wanted to take a moment to check in and let you all know that I’m not abandoning my blog (smile) I’m just having to learn how to schedule it all together better. I think I’ve hit upon a plan so that I can post more.

As for what I’ve been up to, well I’m sort of chilling today and enjoying the nice weather. This is the first sunny day we’ve had in a while, so I’m lapping it up. (smile) Today is Brit Boy’s day to cook, so I really love that. (bigger smile)

Earlier we watched this movie called, “They Came From Beyond Space”. It was originally released in 1967. It was about alien goings-on in rural England, so when I saw that in the description, I figured I had to see it. (smile) It turned out to be a wonderfully quirky film and Brit Boy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s so good to have a husband that understands my love of quirky movies and things like this. But here’s the thing….he understands because he is very much like that too. We love a bit of the surreal. (smile)

Right now we’re watching this show called “Creature Comforts”. It’s a cute clay animation type show. There are these talking animals that make you laugh because they say things that humans would. I love stuff like this.

So I guess you can tell what our Saturday is about this week…kicking back. (smile) I love weekends like this when you can just do what you want, even if that’s doing nothing at all. Ain’t life grand!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m learning about balance in getting my homework done and getting my blogging done and then living the rest of my life. So today’s activities are the ones that I put into that living my life box. I think I’m gonna do okay. Have a great weekend! :-)