Vacation, Part II - England

I apologize for getting edition number II so many days after the first, but I have been so busy playing catch up on all that got looked over while I was gone. Isn't that the worst part of coming home from a delightful trip? Well, perhaps the fact that we are still waking up at the wee hours of the morning is bad too.

I also apologize that some of the photos will be out of order, but once I got them up, I was not about to try to regroup them again.

After we disembarked from the ship we had a short drive to the hotel. The warmth of the countryside in it's beautiful autumn colors was a welcome sight. Still early in the morning, it was a good time for a brisk walk.

The flowers were stunning.

The shops were inviting.

The secret gardens were enchanting.

The morning dew on the cobwebs made for great photo opportunities.

The geese were begging.

The village roads were welcoming.

The one thing that we have always enjoyed when visiting England are the wonderful footpaths. These are designated areas especially meant for a good walk. They will take you through some beautiful countryside and you will find yourself in all sorts of interesting places. YOU have the right of way too.

Through pastures of sheep.

Across golf courses. Just watch out for those stray balls.

There are little surprises just waiting to be found.

And...always a pub for some good food and warming atmosphere.

Our dear friends met us after driving down from beyond London and spent several days with us. It is always that moment of panic when you first pull out onto the roadway while driving on the opposite side of the street, but the Brits are great drivers. We never saw even a fender bender.

They took us to some charming places and the weather was absolutely fabulous - sunny and glorious.

This was at Barton on Sea. We were fascinated by the fact that low tide REALLY means low tide. In California it is hardly noticeable, but in England when the tide goes out it goes out all the way. Notice the boats stranded in the mud? Guess if you are planning a boat trip you would have to check on the tides. It was very interesting to us. When it did come in, it came in very quickly.

We walked for miles along the shore and after we ascended the stairs we looked down to see that some horse riders were in the water cooling down their horses.

We were also able to tour the New Forest in N. Yorkshire. This was formerly the royal hunting grounds, created in 1079 by Wm. the Conqueror. It has been designated a National Park. There are many wild animals on the grounds that are owned by the "commoners" and they roam wild throughout. There are also many homes and villages within the forest. I did notice that the horses have been caught and a reflective band placed on them which I suppose is to make them more visible for vehicles.

Another town that we visited was the waterfront town of Portsmouth. It was definitely a tourist attraction, but it was fun to walk around the city none the less. The town has a rich naval and literary history with museums and ships available for viewing.

This is the historic Nelson flagship - HMS Victory, one of the most famous warships ever built. You can tour the ship and learn more about Admiral Lord Nelson. Launched in 1765, her most famous moments were at the Battle of Trafalgar.

In leaving I will show some of my favorite pictures of the homes that can be seen in England. I do love those thatched roofs!!!

Would you like this one?

Or this one?

Or how about this one?

Ahh....the spectacular colors.....

From there we caught a train to London and headed off for Scotland. My next post will be the start of our trip in Scotland. I hope you are enjoying it as much as we did.

Vacation Part I

With all the photos that I took on our fabulous trip I am going to have to break this journal into sections. If not, you will all be asleep before you get to the end of it.



First off.......I would like to introduce you to our newest granddaughter who made her arrival into the world on October 11th. We received news of her birth while we were on board the QM2 and we are just thrilled and looking forward to meeting her in person. Our son and his family live about 2 1/2 hours away from us so we will make the trip up to visit soon. Right now my DIL's mother is there with them so we will give them time with the baby before we start pounding on the door.














Our fabulous vacation started off with a business meeting in Orlando, Florida. Despite the fact that we once lived in Florida, I am still amazed at how totally flat the landscape is there. We have hills and mountains here wherever you look and there you are able to see forever. I must say that I do love the Florida skies with the wonderful clouds. The temperatures were setting record highs while we were there and the humidity only added to the heat. It is amazing the difference the humidity has on the "feel" of the temperatures.









From Orlando, we caught a plane to Newark and headed for New York before boarding the ship. Would you be nervous about signing in at this gate? After hearing about a flight that overshot an airport by 150 miles, I might give more serious thought to it.










We able to spend the afternoon and night in New York city and enjoyed a few brisk walks and taking in the sights. I love N.Y. for the vitality one experiences, but I would not want to live there. The traffic is a nightmare and that is coming from someone who drives in L.A.

We enjoyed Rockefeller Center where they had just frozen the skating rink for the winter......

and Times Square......................

and......the jewelry district. Don't you love the street lights made to look like giant diamonds?

Friday afternoon we were picked up by the Cunard bus to take us to the Brooklyn terminal to board the Queen Mary 2. Our excitement on the bus was a minor traffic collision with the bus of the Minnesota Twins baseball team in N.Y. to play the Yankees in the playoffs. May I repeat, the traffic is a nightmare there?

After passing through heavy security, we were shown to our staterooms. What an incredible experience that was. The staff is simply amazing and the vessel itself is indescribable. Here we are up on the top deck with fabulous views of the cities of New York and New Jersey, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Sailing occurs just at sunset. We were escorted from the harbor by armed Coast Guard boats.

Departure time is determined by the tides as there is a narrow window of time for the huge ocean liner to pass under the bridge without hitting it. It truly is just a matter of a few feet when it goes under it.

This is the entrance that one walks into when one steps on board. It is the grand lobby and soars several stories high. There are all sort of comfortable chairs, a grand piano and fresh flowers everywhere.

The picture does not do this metal sculpture justice, but it was spectacular - as though the ship was coming right out of the wall.

There was so much to do on board with live theatre, a planetarium, eating, lectures, eating, computer and photography classes or simple relaxing. Did I mention eating too???? The seventh floor is the walking/jogging deck and that was busy all of the time. The crossing follows the Gulf stream so the weather and the water are at a pretty constant 70* for the whole trip. We passed within 50 miles of where the Titanic went down so many years ago.

Here we are out walking on the deck on the coolest day with gale force winds.

There are numerous restaurants on the ship and each one is fabulous. The food in the main room is always served in the most elegant of ways, much like a fine restaurant. Four of our nights were formal wear with tuxedos and formals. It is so nice to get dressed up like that and to see everyone else dressed so elegantly as well.

We arrived in Southampton, England around 6 a.m. and it was still dark. We were both awake at 4 a.m. when we first noticed the appearance of lights on the shore. We got dressed and went out and sat on our deck while the pilot captain boarded the ship to bring it into port.

The sun had started to come up in Southampton and cast a stunning reddish color to the town when we disembarked. We both hated to leave the elegance that we had so enjoyed over the last six days. The first few days on solid ground was an unusual sensation after so many days at sea. This was such an easy way to adjust to the time difference as you set your clocks ahead one hour each day. That was much easier than flying home and being eight hours ahead all at once. I'm still awakening at 2 a.m. each day.

England to follow. Stay tuned.

Wednesday's Thoughts

This will be just a quick post as I am running here and there. The next one will definitely be longer.


The first week of autumn has quickly flown past and Christmas will be here before we know it. It always seems as though once Halloween is here the others are right behind. It seems hard to imagine. I can remember as a child that I thought the days would never come.



The other day I was merrily working on a project in my sewing room and I happened to see something flit across the yard. Upon closer inspection this is what I noticed it was.

A Roadrunner!!! We have them occasionally and it was a delight to see him/her in the yard. I guess there are advantages of not having a dog.










My DIL celebrated her 35th birthday today and her request was for a set of towels with her name on them so that no one else would use them. This is what I made up for her.

We will be busy babysitting nine of our grandchildren for the next four days. Their parents will be out of town and we are delighted to have them. Needless to say, there will not be a lot (if any) of computer time during that period.

After that we will be one vacation for a few weeks. We are headed to England and Scotland via the QM2 from New York. This is a late celebration of our 40th anniversary. We are terribly excited about going and looking forward to visiting with some dear friends. I have a few hand sewing projects lined up to take along with me.

While we are away we will be adding another grandchild to our family. It will certainly make the return trip exciting knowing that we will get to meet him or her once we get home.


I will miss catching up on what is going on out in blog world, but will do so as soon as we return. Please all take care while we are away as I don't want to read any bad news when I get home.

A New Friend

As I mentioned in a previous post, I participated in The Friendship Bag Swap and my partner's swap bag arrived at my house this week. It came all the way from the Netherlands! Dorine was my secret swap partner and we have quickly become friends. She speaks Dutch and yet she writes beautifully in English. She has also started doing an English translation on her blog just for me!!!!! My Goo*gle translation left a bit to the imagination. Not only does she enjoy sewing for her grandchildren like myself, she also has a background in nursing. Can you believe how well we were paired up? Please check out her blog.





















This was a photo that I took from her blog of the Friendship Bag. I love how she used her traditional fabrics when she constructed it. Inside she tucked all sorts of wonderful goodies from her homeland - a darling thimble, a wonderful 2010 calendar (so I can think of her each day), a fabulous magnet, a brochure and some gorgeous fabrics.

I LOVE these fabrics and can't wait to find a special project to use them. Thank you so much, Dorine.

Over the weekend we went to a Dodger vs. Giant game with some friends of ours. A day at the ballpark is a great way to spend an afternoon especially when your team wins.

During the games they always have a roaming camera that they call the "Kiss Cam." The idea is that if they capture you on the big screen you are to kiss whomever you are with in the picture. There was one couple where the guy got down on his knees and proposed. I am sure it was all planned ahead, but cute just the same. Of course you could not hear the words but you could see her reaction. It was great.

That was accompanied by this sign being flashed. I don't think the poor girl ever saw the sign, but someone behind her held up a huge sign that said "She said YES!"

This week I have been working on Halloween costumes. Since many of them are in parts while I await fittings, I do have this Little Red Riding Hood cape to share with you. I'll share more as I finish them.

Our son's family gave DH a remote control plane to him for his birthday. The kids all love going to fly the plane with Grandpa. This was not a good flying day as we had several crashes. Perhaps it was because of the fog!!! Maybe the little remote pilot needed to be flying IFR. Oh wait, I don't think the plane got up that high! There must be another good excuse.

It hasn't felt like autumn here. Our leaves have started to change but the heat has finally hit. We had a high yesterday of 105*. Of course I love the heat so you won't hear me complaining. The humidity was only 5% and that made it the perfect condition for fires. We had one that broke out in our county, but it has not been too bad. The winds are calm and they have it fairly well under control. The media always makes it worse that it is.

My roses always tend to take on more fall colors at this time of the year. The red and peach colored ones make for such a lovely fall bouquet. I picked these this morning and took a big bouquet to my mom's as well as placing some around the house.

Thank You

I want to thank everyone for all the fabulous help that has been given to me as I try to figure out the photo problems that I have been experiencing. I read and re-read each comment and e-mail and I will be attempting other means of uploading my photos. It is amazing how many different ways people can upload photos. I am impressed with all of you. So....thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!







So....instead of playing with the computer I have been working in my sewing room on things that I know I can do. One great thing about blogging is that there are so many wonderful avenues to explore. There are swaps, benefits and all else. I have enjoyed participating in several different ones and will continue to do so.







This week I have been working on a couple of fun projects. One is for Amanda Jean who was requesting 12" blocks for quilts to be made for the Quilts of Valor program. The Wonky Stars are done in red, white and blue. If you check out her blog you will be amazed at the number of people who volunteered to make a single block when she was asking for help. Mine is finished and ready to be shipped off. Thanks Amanda Jean for such a great project.


















Another swap out there is from Jane's blog. It is the Disappearing Nine Patch done in red and aqua fabrics. Each person makes twenty five blocks which are then cut into four pieces. Those 100 blocks will be sent to Jane and distributed to all the participants. I have loved doing both the Wonky Stars and the D9P in the past and both of these were fun to do again.

As well, I have been doing some embroidery work for our son's restaurants. I do their embroidery for their caps and work shirts. All are done and ready to be picked up. Guess I could have ironed one of the shirts before photographing it, but you get the picture. They are polo knit shirts so the wrinkles are only temporary.

This is my next project. My DIL found this child's rocker and asked me if I could make a new seat for it so she can fix it all up. It should be a fun project as well. There are so many fun things that could be done with this little chair.

I am surprised that my Plumerias are doing so well with the cool summer that we have had this year. These at one time belonged to my dad who started them from small cuttings. I wish that I knew the names of them, but I don't. They are the flowers with which the Hawaiians make their leis so you can imagine how wonderful the patio smells when they are in bloom. I love this red one.

This is the actual tree with the flowers on it. Isn't it lovely?

This is another one in yellow.

It seems hard to imagine that the first day of autumn is just a week away. Although the temperatures are telling us that is so, it is still hard to believe. Enjoy the last week of summer.

One More Try

Since Blogger has been giving me such fits about where I want my photos to be placed, I am about to give up this activity called blogging. Again, I cannot move my photos around as I wish so the order of this blog is going to be very random. I took the advice of others who have had the same issue and loaded my pictures in first rather than the other way around. Now.....I have to add the story around my photos.

Since the weather has finally decided to become summer, much of my time has been spent enjoying the outside. I've been spending a lot of time in the garden and not a lot of time in the sewing room. I did manage to work on a Christmas quilt with redwork "Days of Christmas" embroidery. I am still not happy with the border so will redo that with something else, but I love the wonky stars. They were so much fun to do and go up so quickly.

Last week we managed to get out of town for a few days and headed up to the High Sierras for a little fishing, hiking and just enjoying ourselves. Coming home, this was the view that could be seen for miles and miles of the big Station fire that has been burning in Los Angeles. We were worried that the road coming home would be closed, but we managed to get through shortly before they closed all the canyon roads down.

We spent our time with our daughter, SIL and their ten month old grandson in Mammoth. One of the days we took the gondola to the top of the mountain, ate lunch and hiked around a bit. It is tough breathing when you are at 11,000 feet plus elevation, but the views were spectacular. Unfortunately, the area was impacted with all the smoke from the fires.

Isn't this an interesting tree? We came across it while hiking and I thought it was strange that it had two completely different types of needles. When we got up close to it we noticed that there was a second tree growing right in front of the larger tree. Too funny!!!

The drive was a little long for a ten month old who had to be restrained in the car seat. Of course we made a lot of stops, but it was cute to see his different expressions. They would fluctuate from this.....

to this.

Apparently all of God's creatures are appreciating the fact that summer has finally arrived to our area. This delightful little fellow was perched atop the Society Garlic bushes and enjoying the sunshine.

This weekend our son and his family will be home to celebrate Labor Day and my husband's birthday with the rest of the family. My husband was actually born on a Labor Day. Guess laboring on Labor Day is the right thing to do.

So life has been good.

Merrily, I roll along..

Okay......I give up. Blogger will not allow me to move any of these pictures again. Somehow it did move one to a place where it doesn't belong. Sooo.....if you are reading this, please excuse the chaos of the blog this time. You will have to use your imagination as to where the pictures go once you have read the words. I guess I could call this post "The Back to School Challenge." Sorry.

The days slip by and then the weeks are gone. It is absolutely mind boggling how quickly the time is going. Why wasn't it like that when I was a child eagerly awaiting my birthday or Christmas? Life it too good.

Other than the weather, August has been a fabulous month. I have one quick complaint about the weather as I know that no one wants to hear it, but where is our summer??? I finally broke down and put the electric blanket back on the bed yesterday. All week it has been in the low 60s with thick fog at noon!!! This is suppose to be sunny California with tanned beach babes, etc. What has happened? Have I ever told you how much I love the heat? Perhaps the complaining will be heard. I can only hope.

It's been a great time to spend time in my sewing room. I had one of my granddaughters come over and we had such fun sewing up a couple of outfits for her along with a little purse. She told me that she was going to keep the purse until she was as old as I am. Hmmm. I wonder how old she thinks I am. I told her that I would want to see it then at which she promptly replied, "But Grandma, you'll be dead then." When I informed her that I would ONLY be 110 she told me that I could come sew at her house then. Out of the mouths of babes!!!!

I have also been wanting to tackle one of the disappearing nine patch quilts that I am seeing on so many blogs. It was really fun and super easy. I am going to make it into a twin size and put it on the twin bed in the kid's playroom. It's bright and will stand up to lots of little ones climbing on it.

Since I have joined the Friendship Bag swap, I made a couple little bags this week. They are quick and easy to do and would make great gift bags. I played with some embroidery work on the front of it and I am really loving these little flowers. They are designs from John Deer and are cut after completing the design so that the flowers are three dimensional.

Another project that I worked on this week is a romper for Christmas. It is done in red corduroy and was quick and easy. I thought it would look really cute with a little white turtle neck shirt underneath. Can you tell how much I enjoyed the embroidery class I took a few weeks ago? My husband says that he would not be surprised to see his underwear embroidered one of these mornings. Hmmm!

My mom continues to stay healthy and we are all thrilled. She was here the other evening for dinner and my daughter popped in as well. Since her husband works evenings, she joined us for dinner and we were able to get some cute pictures of the four generations.

With big families, there seems to always be a birthday or two or three. Our little redheaded grandson had his 6th birthday this week. Some of his cousins decided to dress up and parade around his chair singing the happy birthday song. Can you tell that he was less than impressed?

In closing, here is a picture of one of our other birthday babies. We actually had seven little ones hatch, but the rest have already gone to their adoptive homes.

Have a great week, everyone.