Sometimes...

Being caught in a web isn't all that bad... if you get to change your state of matter and evaporate!!

To EVAPORATION! (clinking of glass can be heard)

A good saturday...

Our senior citizen neighbors are blaring:

"'Cause I am your lady
And you are my man
Whenever you reach for me
I'll do all that I can

We're heading for something
Somewhere I've never been
Sometimes I am frightened
But I'm ready to learn
'Bout of the power of love

The sound of your heart beating
Made it clear suddenly
The feeling that I can't go on
Is light years away "


And I can hear a man singing to it at the top of his lungs!

Fantastic!

LBJ

While the mister and I were on our honeymoon in South Africa, we were able to have a private guide for our safari. Mike helped us to discover worlds we had never thought we would be interested in, let alone obsessive about. Two of the things he led the way with go hand in hand. The first is the benefit of binoculars if you enjoy the outdoors. We borrowed his swarovski binos (they retail between £500- £2500 for their low to mid range products) and discovered the wonderful world of detail. Were were nieve and unaware of the fact that we were looking through the cost of a small car, and enjoyed the benefit of being able to see that the rock was in fact a rhino. Needless to say we wanted our own and we spent the money that was given to us as gifts from the wedding on a two pairs of Nikon binos. Much more affordable, yet still absurdly expensive. From that point on I have been focusing on the second thing Mike brought to my attention. Birds. Now in the birding community, or twitchers, there is a name for birds that don't stand out from the rest... LBJ Little Brown Jobs. In our new home we have tons of these. Mostly house sparrows. They live in the hedgerow to the side of our house and frequent our bird table/ bird feeders more than any other type of bird. I watch in anticipation of their antics through the kitchen window. My binoculars stuck to my face and a slight sway to my back that I can't seem to help doing when I am looking through them. Close up any bird is incredible. The detail to their feathers, their eyes, their feet, the shape of their beaks and the way they open seed shells is something you can only have an appreciation of when you can see them very close up. So after I stocked the rayburn, put feed on the bird table, and had breakfast, I went and got my camera and my binos and waited. This is a bit of what I saw. I believe if you click on the photos themselves you can see the larger version of the pictures.

Beautiful little birds, aren't' they?

Coal day

We had our first coal delivery today. I think I have only seen coal at old time amusement parks. "This is what Santa used to put in your stocking if you were a bad little girl". It was brought to our house by a short man, bald, with clichéd black smears on his face, black hands and a once piece overall suit covered in coal dust. He lugged huge 50 kilo sacs of black nuggets into our store. It is located on the side of our house and is a square box, essentially, made from stones cemented together. It has a sliding door on the front that disintegrated when we opened it and a metal top which has the appearance of a rusted colander. We spent a few hours trying to light our Rayburn, a common first timers affliction. Notorious for firing up problems, our Regent didn’t disappoint.

We stoked, we lit, we put in the coal.. open both doors while lighting, close right away…. Open one door, close the other… less coal, more wood, more wood, throw in another fire starter……

We had shut off the hot water heater (as the Rayburn heats our water) and were starting to wonder if we were going to have to heat our nightly water on the stove. Finally, after a lot of turning of knobs and shifting of flues we got it started. We stood, leaned up against the rail, and kissed. It is one of the reasons I wanted to move here and after long last I have the somewhat middle class iconic stove working in my kitchen. The kitchen has the faint smell of coal smoke in it and is finally warmer than the outside of the house. Now to figure out how to cook with it.

The updated list for 31...

31 Things to do in 2008:

o Join a writing class. Stick to it.
o Have a wedding celebration that both the Man and I can enjoy.
o Get at least one article published.
o Submit a short story.
o Lean how to use my camera.
o Knit a pair of leg warmers.
o Get my sewing machine fixed. I did it on my own!
o Get Louis’ painting stretched.
o Make time for a yoga practice....I am getting there. Once I can keep up a practice for a few months I will scratch this one off.
o Make time for Swimming at least once a week.
o Find a way to get more involved in my community.
o Learn to identify mushrooms (join mycological society)
o Read a book a month.
o Join a reading group or a writing group.
o Be open to meeting more people.
o Start massage therapy practice and experience a 20% regular return by the end of the year.
o Learn how to do my hair.
o Clean the middle room.
o Move to the countryside.
o Get rid of clothing that doesn’t fit.
o Make clothing that does fit.
o Celebrate my birthday.
o Give my man a massage at least once every two months.
o Diversify our meals.
o Use up half empty shampoo and body soaps before buying more.
o Go one month without wheat.
o Print more photos.
o Make more alone time.
o Get UK driver’s license.
o Be able to drive alone to a forest.
o Keep up art journal.

Oast, like toast, not like out... which is how I say it

When I woke up this morning there was a giant pheasant on the stacked hop poles in our back yard. I got my camera but didn’t manage to get a close enough snap of it before it took off into the brambles. So here is a borrowed photo:


There are a bunch of things that I have learned since skipping off to a new county. First, counties are like provinces, for the 2 Canadian readers I have. They aren’t like American counties, where there are tons of them per state. They are big, they have an identity and they are much different from one another in attitude, local foods, and did I mention attitude? So here we are in Kent. Western Kent, at that. Very close to our old county of East Sussex. Second, much like the silos in Canada, the oast houses of Kent and parts of Sussex are a steadfast part of the landscape. I have only seen them in Kent and we live across the street from a few of them, the conical shaped buildings that I have posted photos of. These buildings are used to dry hops, which make beer. Now scattered along the road on my drive from one village to another are signs that say “Hop Bines £5”. It always makes me laugh and say “I think it is spelled vines”. I say it even if I am alone. The farm we live on grows some hops but it isn’t its primary crop. We have some old hop poles, which are like telephone poles, that have been taken down and stacked at the far end of the garden. About 30 lengthwise and then 30 width wise. They are stacked higher than I am tall and can be seen from the aerial view on goggle maps. So when I woke up this morning to the phesant on the hop poles, I couldn’t help but think I was having an authentic Kent experience.

As I walked outside to chop wood for the day, the smell of wood smoke from the nearby chimneys lingered with the faint smell of cow manure. Each detail excites me. I feel like I am finally in England.

Big ol' 32

It was my birthday a few days ago. Convieniently D was home for a 2 day mid tour break. We managed to make it off the property, to a historical site on the other side of a small hill. The above was a photo taken of our home from the opposite side to the one I have posted before. Of course, autumn is my favorite time of year. It was our first mushroom hunt and we saw at least 15 different species on our two hour hike. Here are a few of them:


Even though this one is half eaten, I had to take a photo of it. It is one of the phallus mushrooms. I hadn't seen one before and needless to say, it was exciting!




Random horse photo insertion.




Disease (?) ridden oak.


Purple mushrooms! Oh yeah

At the end of it all we had some deep thoughts, some great sex and some very naughty games thanks to the sex shop I work in. It was a birthday I won't forget.

32 Things To Do

The list will grow with time. For now:

• Make a fire by friction method
• Learn to do simple quilting
• Be a proud fat activist and do something to promote self acceptance in my community
  
• Put in vegetable garden
• Grow 25% of our diet (during summer months)
• Keep up a yoga practice
• Get published (with pay)
• Learn how to ring church bells
• Instigate more local adventures with my man
• Learn how to spell schedule
• Write more letters to dear friends
• Finish knitting my leg warmers
• Learn how to spin wool
• Build a client base for massage therapy focusing on the demographic that I enjoy working with
• Set up an Etsy account and sell some thoughts
• um... have lots of fun having sex (and get knocked up? maybe?! seriously... should I even put that down as a thing to do?) um... now I feel shy
• hmmm... have baby in the late summer. That last one happened rather quick, didn't it?
  

In the air

It was before 5 in the morning, the dark shadow of my man entered the room. He walked over to his side of the bed, and crept in beside me. I wrapped my arm around his chest and fell back asleep. It has only been two weeks since I last saw him. His two day break is going to fly by. That isn’t the reason I am writing, however. It is because of this early morning wake up that I actually rose before my regular waking time that I had such a beautiful morning. I know I mentioned the geese already, the ones flying south for the winter, but as I was standing in my backyard picking blueberries and blackberries for breakfast, about 100 geese honked their way over the fields. The mist was still rising and the slight frost on the ground gave me a giddy feeling. I turn 32 this week. All of these Autumnal reminders tick off one more year on this planet. This will be the first one I get to spend with my man. WOOHOOOO!

Oh my god, I can hear the church bells ringing from the village up the road!

I love it!

My first post from my writing room

In the past few years my mother has started talking about the sound of the Canadian geese flying overhead on their way south for winter. It makes her heart dance. The little body of water they live close to is a stopping point and for a few days ever fall it is a loud honking fest of geese. Tonight, as the houses start to glow a bright orange and I watch the smoke rise from the houses on the far hill in the distance, I listened to geese flying over head. I thought of my mother and how some of her dreams have died in the past few years. I make a promise to myself to be aware of my life here. To be appreciative... because even after 30 years of marriage, it can still go tits up.

The Rain Stopped, but for a moment...

Home.....

Ease

I left the parking lot of the grocery store and wound down the twisted lanes. Hedgerows narrowing the road, restricting the view around each bend. A few minutes after embarking on my homeward journey the trees formed a tunnel over the road. The rain stopped, the light dimmed, the trees embraced me in my little car. Then air, release, rain. This transitioning from light to dark, from trees to hedges, from bends to straight-aways, was making my heart sing. The last turn has views over the patchwork rolling hills. White sheep against green. Smoke rises from the houses. I round one more sharp bend and enter the property. I pass the big red tractor, the office buildings, the work shop. Pulling into my space, two men wave at me. The old one fixed my window the day before. His hands were black with his chores from the day. He won’ t look me in the eye. I am just as shy of him, truth be told. But I like him. I loaded my groceries into my car and called my man. I am happy to be here.