Family Staycation Day 1

Dads in England get two weeks paternity leave upon the birth of each child. Because of timing and visits from our parents, the hubby didn't take all his leave right when baby #2 arrived, so he is taking this week for some rest and family time. We girls are so excited!

Day 1 was just a rest day. Both daughters managed to have a great night sleep, and not wake up till 8:30, so Mummy and Daddy enjoyed a bit of a 'lie in.' A pot of coffee, sugary breakfast treats, and family play time meant a 'pyjamas till lunch' kind of day.

Fishy also started a new bedtime routine, including story time with Daddy, and she is now reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the first time. We'll see how her attention span holds out!

A nice quiet family day was just what we needed to start off this family week. From here on out, we've got things to do!

Just Normal Life

So life has settled down a bit lately. Our travels have subsided till baby girl makes her appearance in June. But we're still very much enjoying life in London, whilst occasionally venturing outside the city limits. I thought I'd compile a bunch of the random photos that have been filling up my phone lately. 

“It was true, she thought, that the big things awe us but the little things touch us.”

Bess Streeter Alrich,  A White Bird Flying

We spent a morning at the Tate Britain museum, and found this little gem in its galleries. I can't tell you how often college friends, and I mused over this photo and the stories of its time.

A few weeks later, we went down to Brighton for the day with some friends. While I've been in England long enough now to not expect the quaintness of Jane Austen's Brighton, I didn't expect it to be a kind of Jersey Shore of England. I saw more blue/green hair than I've ever seen before. I also didn't see Brighton beach. The mist from the sea floated inland about 10 minutes and stayed all day. It was bright and sunny farther in, and back in London, but not on the beach. We briefly saw the outline of the pier, and saw the waves along the shore 20 feet out from the pebbles. That's it.
But I have now been to Brighton. :-)

The other week, I opened my curtains one sunny morning to this stunning view, and it's reminder that yes, I do live in one of the biggest, and busiest cities in the world.

A bit of excitement in our routine was the chance to go to a rugby match! We saw the Saracens vs Harlequins (for those of you that know rugby), and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was similar enough to American football that I could appreciate the basics, though I know I didn't get it all. And I enjoyed it MUCH more than the football (soccer) matches we've been to. Way more chilled and fun!

But I was amazed at the crowds going into Wembley Stadium. Apparently there were about 70,000 fans-- a record for the Rugby league. It was crazy!

  

And then we left the stadium afterwards and hightailed it for the tube, trying to beat the rush. The crowd going in had nothing on the crowd leaving after.

Here's a small perspective from the stairs going into the tube...

and if you can see it.... the path on the other side of the bridge is completely packed with people. About 30-40 people across... for half a mile. Just crazy!!!

But spring is on the rise, and with it, London is showing off its flowery side! I love it!
I actually found this amazing tree (tree? massive bush?) last summer, but forgot about posting it. Two stories of wisteria! And the property was for sale. I wanted to buy it on the spot!

In March, all the crocuses burst out, defying the cool temps with their bright colour!

And these beauties have popped up in the park near us! I love spring, and was so happy to find London's parks full of it, not just cement and concrete!

So thanks for stopping by and sharing some of our little moments. We're enjoying them, and I hope you are too!

English Miscellany (with Danielle)

Once again, I'm looking through old photos I've taken and trying to get caught up on my picture posting. So today has less of a theme- but does include quite a few shots from the time when my friend, Danielle, came to visit in October! But it's mostly a hodgepodge collection. I kind of like it- quirks and oddities in our daily lives!

Lets see what we have...

For starters: the hubs and I discovered this awesome little car... parked on the sidewalk... right in front of a sign that says "No Parking". Oh, I love London!

And on a walk, I looked down a side alley to see this. Where else in the world will you see a random piece of artwork larger than a car (ok, a SmartCar, not a real car) hanging on a building above a dumpster?!

Oh yeah-- does anyone remember this beauty? On Facebook, I posted this article that boasted the 'world smallest home' selling for £275,000 (that's about $420,000) in Barnsbury, about a 10 min walk from our place. It looks better in their pictures. And I cannot believe the price of real estate around here!

Change of pace: I LOVE this view! It's  on a bridge in the middle of St. James' Park, between Buckingham Palace and Victoria Embankment. You can see the London Eye on the right, and a gorgeous palace-type place, that is apparently, the Royal Horseguards Hotel.

Buckingham Palace... and the flag is up, which means the Queen was in residence in that day!

Another of our favourite nights out... walking from the Southbank, through Borough Market, along to the Globe Theatre, and across Millennium Bridge to this spot in front of St. Pauls!

The view from The Millennium Bridge towards London Bridge and the Shard.

And the view from the Southbank (on an evening we happened to be attending Julius Caesar at the Globe!)

All right... back to a bit of reality. Here in England, we have Primark- the clothing equivalent of Walmart. Hence, a wall full of adult footie pajamas. Seriously, people?! Do you wear these?

Oh yeah- a bit of a theme to some of these pics! I realised I haven't posted many pictures from Danielle's visit. Danielle came in October to squeeze in a bit of a girls trip before wedding the love of her life just a few weeks ago! They're now settled in marital bliss, but I get to remember her 'back when' she was just a fiancee roaming the streets of England!

We took a couple day trips: the first to Oxford. I posted previously about The Eagle and Child (and the Inklings who met there), as it was the highlight of our day, but the rest of the town is worthy of sharing too!
The Radliffe Camera (camera meaning 'room' in latin).

I love all the winding passages one finds throughout Oxford.

And kind of cringe at seeing banks and coffee shops in such amazing old buildings! (Though this could theoretically just be a reconstruction to look old!)

I want one of these!

And this spot signifies the place where Ridley, Latimer, (Oct. 16 1555) and later Cranmer were burned at the stake for opposing Catholicism. It is here Latimer spoke the famous words of encouragement: "Be of good cheer, Ridley; and play the man. We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England, as I trust, will never be put out."

On another day, Danielle and I took a bus journey out to Bath (pronouced with a long ah... or so I've been told!)
The Bath Cathedral.

The Royal Crescent... famous for its groundbreaking curved architecture. (I tried to make it panorama, but couldn't get it to work, so you get two pictures.)

The Weir under Putney Bridge

I loved these sweet rooftops sticking out through the trees. And, if you look closely, up in the hills, you can see bits of the mansion at the Prior Park Landscape Gardens.

The first half of our day was grey and dreary, but the clouds parted just in time for sunset, and we realised that the Bath limestone was made for the golden hour.

Sally Lunn's... which is famous for... wait for it.... its bunns. Considered the oldest house in Bath, it dates back to 1482, though Miss Sally Lunn, a French Huguenot baker, didn't take up residence until the 1600s, when she brought with her a recipe for these large buns.. half bread, half cake, usually cut in half- but eaten in a variety of ways- for savoury sandwiches, to a morning toast, to cinnamon-sweet!

Just to give you some perspective on how old that is: this is artwork taken from the late 1400s.

And being French in the 1600s, Sally may have worn something like this:

Or this:

When I walk these streets, I lose perspective on how much history has happened here. How many shoes, sandals, bare feet have walked the same streets? What peasants, tinkers, merchants, servants wandered the same alleys? What careers have been built and lost? What families have been grown in times of piece and scattered in times of war? What swords have swung and bombs have dropped? Ultimately, what lives have lived here? What souls walked this path? And how many died knowing Christ?

I love how small I feel in the history of England. I love how small I feel in modern England- with its mix of slow country life and the urban multi-cultural worlds (plural) of London. When I take the time from my errands and photo shoots, it really is amazing, and I'm so grateful to be here to experience it!

Scotland Adventures

Again- we're recapping 2014 today on Caledonian Road... and today's adventures take us to the bonny hills of Scotland! The hubs and I snuck up for a long weekend away... spending a day in Edinburgh before staying with some extended family of friends from church. It was amazingly wonderful of them to welcome us in their home, and the highlands of Banchory (I think we were right on the border of the highlands, honestly) were breathtaking! Loved it!

Edinburgh... a city of ups and downs, winds and alleyways... just breathtaking!

The hubby took me for an early morning coffee, and then up to Calton Hill to watch the sun come up over the city!

Then we hired a car and began the drive to Banchory.

Our friends took us for an afternoon walk up Scolty Hill. It doesn't even count as a mountain in Scotland, but it had me stopping for breath, and the views from the top were incredible!

The afternoon sun still lit the hillsides, while a wall of rain travelled down the valley between.

We even got to see a rainbow!

Remnants of August's heather still dotted the hillside, though we were a month too late to see truly purple hills!

And the stone walls were covered in moss unbelievably thick! Such a contrast of stark, barren hillsides with rich, overgrown valleys. Breathaking!

And not bad for a wig too! Especially if you're going for the chia pet look!

On the way home, we drove through high altitude, dry wind-swept valleys. Honestly, parts of it reminded me very much of my old home in Colorado... driving over Monarch Pass on the way to Gunnison, no guardrails between you and the drops, the fog lower than the treeline, and a barren beauty all around.

We loved Scotland!