english ponies are delightful

In a field nearby there lives a herd of ponies.

I drive by these ponies several times a week but I'm always in a rush and can't stop to take pictures. Or I do have time and all of the ponies are soooo far away from the road. It's like they know.

I squeal with glee pretty much every time I see the ponies because they're so wonderful! Especially the babies! Baby ponies, could anything be more adorable?

So I finally stopped last week on the way home because the ponies were in the front of the field and I had nowhere to be. It took some coaxing (i.e. waving grass around) to get them to come right up to me and I yelled, "hey, ponies!" way more times than maybe absolutely necessary. But it worked! I wouldn't say I'm a horse-whisperer or anything, but I did get to pat a few noses, so.

We'll miss you English ponies!

P.S. we're moving out of our house next week (!!!)

P.P.S. Packing is stupid.

Wrest Park on Columbus Day

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

Last Sunday evening, Forrest bought a tire on Ebay. This tire just happened to be located a fair distance away and I thought to myself that this was the perfect opportunity for a Columbus Day road trip (since he conveniently had the day off and all).

That is how we found ourselves at Wrest Park for a day out of afternoon tea and gallivanting around 92 acres of beautiful estate. 

I think that fall is usually the best time to visit places like this, especially when the country in which one resides does not observe the same holidays as one's homeland (aka they all have to work and we don't!).

The flowers were still blooming, the leaves were all casually spectacular, and best of all! there were about five other people there. I think the rain kept them away. And it didn't even rain most of the day. After we wandered through the house, I think we saw two other people in our entire circuit of the grounds.

It felt like the deepest breath of the freshest air.

England is the type of place where you never feel like you have any privacy at all. You can travel to the most remote corner of Scotland and there will still be people right around the next bend. There are just too many people here.

It's stifling is what it is.

This day out to be alone by ourselves was exactly what we needed. 

There may also have been some Opera and/or Gregorian chant going on in the echoey orangery (Forrest..). 

These old mansions are going to be the part I miss most about leaving England, I think. I kind of feel rich when I go them? Or at least I feel like I could be rich. Forrest and I imagine our rich life together and talk about our servants, etc. I really enjoy the libraries myself.

I can't believe we're leaving here in less than a month! I'm so ready to go but I'm also not. Leaving anything is hard, I guess. 

some of the best news i have heard in a long time + tardis socks

I have been really absent from this blog for a while for a few reasons which aren't even that real. It has been nagging at me for several days and then I told myself, "Self, you can't edit 5,000 pictures and knit a sweater and write blog posts and make dinner and move across an ocean all at the same time."

And so I haven't.

But I have knitted a sweater and made dinner. And I finally finished all the seasons of Grey's Anatomy so now I'm caught up to where the normal world is. I have a really hard time watching weekly shows and that is why I was nine years behind. And I finished Parenthood. And now I have nothing to watch anymore when I knit.

I also finally loaded all of my pictures from our week long camping trip in August to my computer. Don't even get me started on the fact that I've barely even looked at any of the pictures I took in June when we went to Scotland and saw some of the coolest things I have ever seen in real life.

Then we went to London again and I took another million photos. So expect to see those in like a year.

ALSO BIG NEWS RIGHT HERE

(did you catch my sneaky hint in the first paragraph?--wink)

We know when we're leaving! (more or less). So expect to see us again back in America in about six weeks! And we can't wait to see YOU. This is big news, people. It's only the question that I get asked any time I see anybody these days. And I finally have a real answer! So, pending a longer government shutdown/any unforeseen complications that may or may not arise (pleaaaaaase, let nothing else arise), we'll be Americans again so soon (like the mid-late November in case you're really bad at adding weeks) And we can't wait!

Also, Forrest will be retired! This is a huge deal and a big blessing to us because of the extra benefits he (and I!) will receive rather than if he had just been medically discharged. So now he will be retired at 24 and that's probably the youngest retirement I've ever heard of. I also really love saying it because it makes me giggle a little bit. I mean really, who retires that young? It's a tiny bit hilarious (probably just to me).

Probably more on these thoughts at some later date when I have some sort of existential breakdown. Leaving the UK gives me sad feelings sometimes. But going back to the states gives me even bigger happy feelings and I'm twirling around inside right now!

Thank you to everyone who has been there for us, prayed for us, encouraged us, and helped us to be patient. I knew they couldn't make us stay here forever but sometimes it really didn't feel that way. It seems like all of our prayers have been answered in the best possible way that they could be and doesn't that just feel wonderful? I just have this huge weight off of me now that I didn't even know I was carrying around.

So for now we are just waiting out this government shutdown (hoping we get paid after the 15th) and thanking our lucky stars that we're leaving in November and not October because there are some really stressful things going on right now for people who are trying to leave. The countdown is on!

*****

Another reason, well the main reason until I started typing too much, for this post is to show off some socks that I made for my friend Rachel for her birthday. Her birthday is in April aaand I finished these in August. But I think that these socks maybe made up for it because she's the biggest Dr. Who geek that I know. I even started watching Dr. Who because of her. For those non-Whovians out there, the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) or police box is the space ship that The Doctor uses to travel through time and space.

Here is  where I got the the pattern. You have to know how to knit a sock already to follow it so it's more of a chart. I did an afterthought heel and a pretty standard toe in case you were wondering. I used a really soft cotton yarn and I thought they came out pretty great. The TARDIS kind of looks 3D in real life.

Stitching the letters was a lot harder than I thought it would be. 

Happy (late)  birthday, Rach! I hope your feet enjoy time-traveling.