Home at last from Madrid and I have so much to share with you!
Tag: travel (page 7 of 8)
I’m leaving for a few days on a little adventure. I am going to Madrid. A city I have never been to before. This year we are taking our annual department Art trip and myself, along with 5 other colleagues and 54 students are heading to the gorgeous city of Madrid.
It is a lot of preparation and planning, but it is all worth it. I am very excited! I will get to see Guernica in person and after studying it so many times in school in my Art History classes, this is a big deal, as well as Las Meninas and a personal favorite artist of mine, the dynamic Edward Hopper and his oil painting, Hotel Room.
Mr. Michie took me to see a Hopper exhibition at the Tate Modern a few years ago and it was wonderful. We got to view Nighthawks in person, we must have stood there staring at that for ages. I was amazed at the scale, it was bigger than I had imagined, even though I had read the measurements countless times before.
That is one of Mr. Michie’s favorite paintings and we have a copy of it in our house. We used to play a game with each other and pretend we were the people in the diner and if we had been there what would we have ordered. I usually wanted something from one of my favorite local haunts at home that I couldn’t get here; a girl can dream can’t she?
We are also going to an exhibition of Imogen Cunningham’s work. Her photographs are something I am truly looking forward to. She constantly experimented with her craft and getting to view her prints will be a absolute treat! She was also a contemporary of other photographers I like and have used to teach the students about photography in my pinhole camera class.
I hope to come back with lots of pictures for you guys and interesting stories. In the mean time I will leave you with pictures I took in London over the weekend. While Mr. Michie was presenting at a conference, I was out shopping, walking and breathing in the sights and sounds of my city! Take care my friends, I shall see you soon.
Oh, the First of September! Where did you come from? It seems only yesterday I walked out of school with the sun on my back, heading toward vacation and Summer with open arms.
August brought a visit home to see new places, to see my family, a baby shower for my sister, shopping, eating, eating tomatoes that actually tasted like a tomato! August brought, getting to talk to my mom in person instead of skype, getting to see my dad every day. Getting to play with Maisy, the cutest dog in the world!
August brought suntan lotion and heat and skin warmed by the sun as you swam in the pool. August brought one hospital trip for me after a really bad case of food poisoning, where my dad was still my dad, no matter how old I am and held my hand as they tried to start an IV. It brought my first trip to the Wakarusa Dime Store, home of the famous GIANT JELLY BEANS, where my mom and I tasted almost every flavor and I got to see her beautiful smile and laugh.
August brought a road trip from Indiana to Viriginia, where I drove past Upper Sandusky, movie “home” to Doris Day. August brought me having to tell my family goodbye, to watch their beautiful faces as they waved and blew kisses from the other side of the ticket gate. I hate August, I love August. I am so blessed for the time I had, but I am ready to see them again.
School starts on Tuesday and I am not sure I am really ready for it, this time around. I still feel worn out from being sick and flying, but Tuesday will come whether I am ready or not and so this new school year shall begin.
Mr. Michie and I went out yesterday to run a few errands and the sun was out, but it was cool and breezy, the light is changing, Autumn is on her way. It won’t be long before we turn our clocks back and the night creeps in faster and more candles are lit in the cozy cottage behind the racing green door.
(Image Found at Golden Gems)
I’m just a girl from Upper Sandusky, she said. Oh, Upper Sandusky, the town where Doris Day hailed from in That Touch of Mink, I am so glad I drove past you!
Have a wonderful weekend!
I love this video from Kinfolk. My aunt keeps bees. There is something so beautiful to see, as those bees buzz around their white boxes and flitter too and fro through her garden, the fruits of their labor turned in to a golden sticky flowing river of wonderfulness.
Honey is one of the sweetest parts of Summer. Fresh honey on a warm biscuit just out of the oven that has been slathered with butter, is one of the best breakfasts I can think of. By biscuit, I mean a Southern biscuit, not an English one, aka cookie!
I am doing a little harvesting of my own this August and am going to enjoy where I am right now. So, for the next few weeks I will be taking a break and just posting images of my adventures, here and there.
Happy August! Happy Summer! I am welcoming you with open arms that have longed to feel your warmth against me.
Kinfolk Story: Honey Harvest from Kinfolk on Vimeo.
Yesterday we left our little farm cottage and headed home, back to our own cottage. I grabbed my camera from the kitchen table, while Foxy was finishing his packing, as I wanted to take a few more photos before we had to catch our train.
So, goodbye to the morning mist across the fields, that dampened my face as I spread our leftover pieces of toast onto the bird table in the morning. Goodbye, to my little moo cow painting that greeted me while I had my tea and goodbye to the teddy bear face hidden in the beam, that smiled at me while I sat in front of the fire:
Goodbye Mr. Bumblebee, I will miss your buzz, buzz, buzzing in the herb garden while I go about my day:
Goodbye my evergreens, I can’t wait to come back so I can collect your miniature pine cones to decorate my own little cottage with:
Goodbye Spring blossoms and Mr. & Mrs. Robin, who sung so sweetly to me in the light of dawn and as the light faded into dusk:
Until we meet again, goodbye little cottage in the countryside, I shall miss you!
The rain that was pouring when we arrived subsided early in the morning and we got to spend our first real day in nothing but sunshine! It was still very windy, it made my fur ruffle, but it was lovely nonetheless!
We got up yesterday morning and Gigi went to work making everyone breakfast from the breakfast basket in the cottage. We had fresh local bread and bacon with scrambled eggs, it was heavenly.
After breakfast we got ready, put on our wellies and headed out. I wanted to do one of my favorite walks. It is the long way round to the pub, but on the way, you pass fields you can cut through, an adorable village hall, a charming stream, an old church that has been there since medieval times and lots of farms and fairytale-sque cottages.
Wellies on and bundled up, we headed out across the fields with the mud sticking to our boots, we soon washed that off in a huge puddle and headed for the hall. It was just as I had remembered it from the Summer. Quaint. From there is was down the stream and across the fields to walk the tree lined avenue up to the church.
It was still decorated for Easter with brownware pottery vases that hung off the pews filled with wild flowers and daffodils! I sat down by my favorite stained glass window in there and in the cool of the church and the silence, I just reflected.
We moved on after that heading back down the avenue but this time walking under the old gatehouse and came across a field with a big fat pheasant in there, who just studied us, while we gazed at him.
Next through the storybook village, where people sell their fresh jam, eggs and vegetables from their doorsteps and then on to the pub.
After such a long walk, I was ready for a pint! It is a local pub with a good micro brewery attached and I was more than ready for my favorite ale from them, however, “Lovely’s Fair” was not in season, so we tried a pint of “Stella”, a single hop pale ale that had a little bite at the end, but went wonderfully with my sausage and mash. Our bellies were full, my whiskers were covered in gravy, so Gigi helped me clean them.
We headed out to go home and cut by one of the big farms, their paddocks full of new mamas and baby lambs, all running around soft and fuzzy looking. Their little lambikin ears sticking out and raising up as we spoke to them, adorable! We took the long way home to enjoy a bit more of the countryside views.
We spent the evening, listening to music, dancing around and staying cozy by our little fire. We all went to bed deliciously happy as our lungs were filled with country air, our bellies filled with good food and our hearts filled with the love of life and good company!
Last night, we arrived at our little cottage in Sudbury and it was bitterly cold. The rain whipped all around the house and the wind shook the windows. While Foxy went to collect a bucket of coal and some logs to start a fire with, I worked on making everyone a hot cup of chocolate.
We all sat by the fire, drank our hot chocolate, ate popcorn and played scrabble. Foxy won, but only by a whisker!
Today, the rain has gone, the sky is clear, the sun is beaming down on us, the chickens are running around outside and we are going out to see what adventures we can get up to next!
It was delicious!
Wishing you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day today!
Foxy and I are going in to London. He is taking me to an Art exhibition, down to Marylebone High Street to do a little shopping and then out to dinner.
We haven’t decided where we want eat yet. One of our favorite places is a great hole in the wall diner, that serves the most marvelous hamburgers, but Foxy has mentioned that he might possibly want to go to a Chinese restaurant we love in Soho.
However, the sauce on the noodles always sticks to his whiskers and since he will have on his best bow tie for our evening out, he might not want to get messy, but we shall see…
We are on Christmas break now and ready to enjoy the holidays. Today, The Flying Scotsman took me on a date to a Winter Wonderland.
We walked through rows of little chalets blanketed in lights and greenery. The smell of hot chocolate and fresh doughnuts and gingerbread filled the air.
We came to a little Candyland village and decided to walk through. It was so much fun. Foxy found his favorite: sparkling watermelon slices. I ate gummy bears and vanilla marshmallow milkshakes.
My wee Scotsman played Christmas music for us on his bagpipe while we strolled along. It was a lovely day!