Tagged: holidaze

30
Nov
2013

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

It’s the last day of November! It’s Ek Family Thanksgiving Day! It’s Saturday! I have posted every day for 30 days and I have to say I’m pretty proud of sticking to it, when I was so doubtful at the beginning. It’s hot in the house because the oven has been going since around 10 a.m. this morning. Two turkeys are done and resting on the countertop (under guard) and Anders is peeling potatoes. I have asked twice if he wants help but he keeps refusing me. I bought 9 kilos of potatoes. That’s something like 100 potatoes. We have...

28
Nov
2013

HAPPY TURKEY DAY

I just got home from a very long day of work and then shopping and then wreathmaking workshop. I made one big beautiful wreath and bought another one and a whole box full of poinsettias, big ones and little ones to decorate the house with. My wreath has holly and holly berries and pine cones and GOLD spraypaint and did I mention it’s beautiful?? But I don’t have any photos (yet) because my phone died and my car charger broke, to boot. I hung my wreath on the front door and now it is officially the start of the holiday...

27
Nov
2013

LITTLE PLEASURES ADD UP TO TREASURES

Elizabeth put up a beautiful post on the Squam blog about 100 things she’s thankful for and Megsie followed suit with a fantastic list of her own. I could pretty much just swipe everything from both their lists, but in the interest of actually WRITING my own list and not just copycatting others, even if things they are thankful for are also things I’M thankful for, here are 100 things I’m thankful for right now, in no particular order, on this eve of Thanksgiving 2013. alone time :: internet access :: clean water :: a veritable plethora of books to...

26
Nov
2013

LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING UP

The past few days and nights have been below freezing, but that clear chill kind of cold that is perfect winter weather…ice crystals and blue skies and dragon-breath. It’s been perfectly clear, no clouds at all, even at night and the night sky is as black as pitch. The stars sparkle against it like they’re diamonds lying on velvet. Orion is slumped so far to the left that he’s practically somnolent. When I take the dog out for one last round-the-block walk, the grass crunches under our feet and the street sparkles in the light from the street lamps. We...

27
Oct
2013

NOTHING SPECIAL

A whole day to myself and I didn’t do anything special…unless you count being completely selfish and not doing anything special. The clocks went back last night, but my brain’s influence over my body was negligent…I still woke up early and then couldn’t get back to sleep. It’s disconcerting for someone who defines the essence of weekend as the chance to sleep in. And here it is a quarter to nine and my eyelids are trying to clang closed: end of the day! Go to bed! SLEEP. Stupid eyelids. Stupid brain. It’s Daylight Savings Lag. One hour turns you into...

16
Aug
2013

NATURE’S ROLLER COASTER

When I was young I LOVED roller coasters, with a white-hot heat. Standing in line for 2 hours to ride a 5-minute loop-de-loop? No problem, let’s go again! Which was kind of strange, considering that I’ve suffered from motion sickness since I was an infant. I’ve never been able to read in the car, and I always offer to drive because riding in the backseat? Not an option. Up until I was in my twenties I was a roller coaster fiend. Bring ’em on Cedar Point! What’cha got, Great America? I’ll see your Space Mountain and raise you one Demon...

21
Jul
2013

LONDON, PART THE SECOND

Goodness, time gets away from me the second I start working again. I made it through my first week of work after 3 weeks off, but I need to post about the rest of our trip so I can move forward. 🙂 We took the train from Covent Garden out to Watford Junction (which, incidentally, is close to where my UK office is), which took several changes and a very long time. From there, we took the a shuttle to the Warner Brothers Studio, where the Making of Harry Potter tour holds court. The bus was covered an a giant...

15
Jul
2013

LONDON, PART THE FIRST

We left Salisbury on the 11-something train and found our way to our final destination…a few blocks down from the Gloucester Road Underground station. Anders had downloaded an app called Tube Map which made our visit much easier…it has the full London Underground map with all kinds of information like departure times, lines, notifications about delays or closures, when the first and last trains are going, etc., but the best part is that you don’t need to be online to get routing info or stand by the huge confusing full map and trace lines in a confused attempt to figure...

09
Jul
2013

STONED ON SUNSHINE & SIGHTSEEING AROUND SALISBURY

We had mostly great weather the whole time we were in England. Lots of sunshine and I even got sunburned a bit, which is rare since I don’t sit in the sun very much. After we left the boat back in Leighton Buzzard, we took the train to Salisbury. I think of England as being so small and populated that it’s coast-to-coast towns but there sure is a lot of beautiful landscape and farmland everywhere. Salisbury is a lovely old medieval town with a great deal of ancient architecture. All you have to do is look up above the first...

05
Jul
2013

LONGBOATING

We flew into Stansted and took the train to Leighton Buzzard, where we spent the night before picking up our longboat the next day. After dropping off our suitcases in the shipyard, we walked back into town and hit the Tesco for groceries, enough to supply breakfasts and a couple of other meals for the week on the boat. We didn’t see much of Leighton Buzzard, just walked around a little bit, and spent a pleasant hour in the church of All Saints which had a lovely old cemetery huddled within the close. When I looked up Leighton Buzzard on...

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