An American in Wales
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The Gallery: In My Backyard
This week’s* theme for The Gallery on Tara Cain’s Sticky Fingers Blog is: My Backyard. One of my most favorite parts of the house we have been renting for the past two years is the back garden. It is vibrant, wild and colorful, and has narrow paths,tall hedges, hiding places and arches. If you ignore the 15 foot trampoline on the left side, it looks magical. The kind of place you expect to find fairies hanging out (although, if you look too closely at that hedge, you’re more likely to find a dog toy, instead. There is enough flat area for a boy to kick a football, play tag, or…
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Happy Blogoversary to Me!
Woo hoo! Today is my blogoversary!!!! *throws confetti, blows horns* A blogo-what, you say? Three years ago today my blog was “born”. THREE. Years. I’ve come a long way from a blog with the original intent of simply recording memorable moments of my kidlings and keeping our far-flung family in the loop. In the meantime, the blog has grown, I’ve expanded the content, moved continents, moved blog hosts, and had a redesign *whew*. I’ve blogged about my daughter, whining, glitter, my son, how he helps his sister, weeing on the floor, posted photos proving strong genetics that exist in this family, and moving overseas and speaking the language, just to…
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You Want Me to Eat…What?????
One exciting thing about moving to a different country is the opportunity to try new foods. Granted, British cuisine has historically been panned (particularly by the French) as being plain and bland. This is definitely not the case, although I will say that much of the food we traditionally associate with the United Kingdom falls in the category of comfort foods. There was, of course, a learning curve as many foods we eat in the US are known by different names here: eggplant = aubergine zucchini = courgette french fries = chips Whereas (potato and other) chips = crisps gelatin = jelly (and don’t think that doesn’t cause puzzled looks…
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A Path That Shouldn’t Have Been Traveled, or I Hate Cows
In a few weeks we will be moving to a new house here in town, as our lovely landlords will be returning from Australia and need their house back. And as much as I love the quirkiness of this house, the garden, the great location, the fab neighbors and – my favorite, the amazing Stoves range*, the next house has double-paned glass, insulation and a two-car garage. This is an upgrade, to say the least. I know how difficult it can be to find an upgraded house that has all your needs in one and matches your style. You can click here to see a wide variety of homes if…
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Wordless Wednesday: After the Rain
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Project We: When In Vienna
When in Rome, do as the Romans do, correct? So I assume it follows that when in Vienna, do as the Viennese. Which, apparently, is drink coffee and eat cake. Lots of cake. Lots and LOTS of cake. And ice cream. And not just a simple scoop of ice cream, but masterpieces of sundaes. Or banana splits. And strudel. Oh. My. The strudel. I could eat this every single day. But then I’d be as big as a house. Yes, we had a lovely time in Vienna. We saw palaces. We walked and walked. And when we needed a break? Coffee. And Cake. And no, I didn’t Weight…
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Q & A (All you didn’t need to know. Curious?)
A while back when I added a page for the blog to Facebook, I put a call out on Twitter for asking for people to “Like” my page so that I could get my own URL for the page. Thankfully, enough people responded to my plea for me to make it happen. Since one good turn deserves another, when In The Powder Room put out a similar request so that they could reach 300 “Likes” (sheesh – and I only was asking for 25…) I retweeted their request….and coincidentally soon after reached their goal. She (likely mistakenly) attributed this to my tweet. To prove to me that I have more…
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Silent Sunday
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If You Really Knew Me
If you really knew me, you would know that I am self-conscious around people I don’t know. Painfully so. If you really knew me, you’d understand that I’m horribly awkward meeting new people. Mostly because I’m afraid I’m going to get tongue-tied. Or stammer. Or spit when I talk, or something equally mortifying. Think of the moment in “Bridget Jones’ Diary” when our girl Bridget arrives at a garden party dressed for what she thinks is a “tarts and vicars” party. Awkward, no? If you really knew me you would know that my poker face is crap, so in situations where I need to mingle, it’s highly likely that I have…
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Ali Baba and the Absentee Blogger
Despite my intent to blog on a more regular basis, sometimes life gets in the way. Last week, that roadblock took the form of a pantomime. I’m was a nervous wreck, mostly because I’m really struggled with my lines. While I realize that one aspect of the “panto” (as it is casually referred to here – I know my friends back home that sitting confused, picturing white-faced French guys pretending to be stuck in a box) is that there is always quite a bit of ad-libbing on the night of the performance — that doesn’t sit well with a Type-A perfectionist such as I. I also panicked because the second…
