Wednesday, August 28, 2013

London!

First off, in case anybody was wondering, it is completely possible to plan and prepare for a five day camping trip (all days in different locations, mind you) in one day. The day before you leave, to be exact. Because we did that today and it wasn't even that big of a deal.

Call me crazy, but it seems to me like we take an awful lot of vacations lately and you know what? It's okayyy! Thanks for the four day weekend, United States Military! And thanks for Labor Day, United States (thinking maybe I should spell it labour due to my current location?)

Moving on.

So, London. It's obviously a must-do/must-see whenever people come visit us. We live about two hours from this wondrous city and have been there too many times to recall. But somehow I always see it with fresh eyes when we go with new people. We see and experience different things as well as the old standbys because who doesn't want to take 50 pictures of Big Ben and the Eye every time you find yourself in London? But it's all the new experiences that have really helped me to SEE London. I have easily been to London more times than I have been to Seattle which is saying something considering I lived less than 30 miles away from it for about 18 years. Womp womp.

So here are way too many pictures of London as seen mostly from the famous London Sightseeing Tour Bus (because we had never done it and we were still really tired from Ireland). But first we made a quick stop at the British Museum to show Denise the best artifacts. It took us over an hour to see less than 20 things. The British Museum is really big. 

And now the ridiculous amount of pictures.

 
 
 
  
 
 

There just happened to be a giant pillow fight in Trafalgar Square the day we were there and it was hilarious. You could see feathers floating in the air for blocks and blocks. It was something out of a dream, probably.

 

Then we made it over to Big Ben just in time for the most gorgeous sunset.

 

We capped off the night the right way with a spin around the London Eye.


Days seem to pass more quickly in London. Or is it just me?

So we're off to get back to nature, breathe in some fresh air, you know. Because we don't do enough of that in rural England. We'll probably come back completely exhausted and smelling like smoke but our hearts and souls will be full of wonderful experiences. And marshmallows. And plus Forrest has a little bit of leave scheduled after that so we can sleep for three days. Win-win. 

Farewell!




Tuesday, August 20, 2013

sometimes I don't know what to write about

I have been feeling very uninspired around these parts lately. It has been very quiet and I have cleaned out my sock drawer. Other than that, I can't think of anything of consequence really to write about. Not that my socks are of much consequence anyway?

Summer has pretty much abandoned us reminding me that fall is almost here which reminds me once again that we are still here.

Am I the only one over here crying for summer to stay? Don't leave! I didn't get to wear shorts enough! I don't care about pumpkin flavored anything, all I want is more of your bountiful summer produce and a popsicle or two. 

But it's gone. You can tell when the wind blows. It's a fall breeze a-blowin'.

We've had a few partially cloudy almost 70 days and then we've had a lot of horribly balmy with zero sun days. I have never really experienced those before. This is not Seattle humidity, this is Alabama in the middle of summer humidity. But it's so confusing because there is no sun! I'm too cold if I wear shorts, too hot if I wear pants. I drip sweat if I do any type of light aerobic activity but I shiver unless I have a blanket when I sit still. The temperature changes by about 15 degrees when the sun peeks through but my confused body does not really appreciate all of this no sun but so muggy you'll die with air-conditioning business.

Anyway

I've been knitting again!


I kind of took a break for a while mostly on accident, because, you know, summer and traveling, but also because my hands were tired and I made way too much last October-February. This post didn't really do what I did any justice. In Novemberish, I started a pair of cabled socks that I had planned to use as a Christmas present. But when I was working on the second sock, I noticed that my finger kept falling asleep. Strange right? I guess it was because of the way I was holding the needles and cutting off my circulation and probably because I was knitting for like six hours a day or more, whatever. So I stopped knitting them because it's really weird to not be able to feel your fingertip (but I can feel it now!). And I started or finished some other project and forgot about the lonely sock.

Then a few weeks ago, I heard a small voice coming from my knitting basket. "Finish me," it cried, "finish me so you'll stop feeling guilty about everything in your life" and then that dang half-finished sock wouldn't shut up so I gave in and now I have a pair of socks and some owl mittens. 

And you know what? It feels good to be creating again. It feels good to be done with a project I started eight months ago.

But then I remembered that knitting just makes me want to make everything. So I have two or three finished projects and 37 more that I found on Pinterest while still working on those two or three. It's a really vicious cycle and I wouldn't recommend it unless your husband really likes it when you spend lots and lots of money on wool. Mine sure does.

So now, I knit.

I still haven't accepted in my heart that summer is ending but I'll keep knitting so that I have something to wear in the fall.