Springing In To Monday

Hello friends and happy Spring! It's official and the pollen falling here confirms that. We have our outdoor rugs rolled up and furniture covered in a weak attempt to keep it at bay and minimize clean up. It helps, but she's a force y'all. 

I feel like pollen is a she. 

Anyhoo, the weekend...let's discuss. And link with Holly (Pink Lady blog) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) like we do every Monday. 

Friday morning hubs and I ventured out for a mostly easy hike. It was cool when we got started but warmed up as the day went on. We followed what's known as the Oconee Bell Trail at a nearby state park and were rewarded with some blooms. 

For those not in the know, the Oconee Bell is a rare flower of the southern Appalachians, found only in a few locations in the mountains of South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. The bells grow along slopes beside streams and rivers and have a short bloom time (just a couple of weeks) which is now. 

Saturday this particular park was having an Oconee Bell festival, but we wanted to beat the crowds so did the hike on Friday. We pretty much had the trail to ourselves which is how we like it. 

This trail marker is very 'me'. 

The trail is a mess. 

Well, the trail is passable, but that recent ice storm did some serious damage and the woods around the trail look like a war zone. 

That blue sky makes it all okay. 

This particular park sits on the lake just above ours and it's spectacular. There are very, very few homes on this lake, maybe 50 or so, and it's just beautiful. It's popular with fisherman, kayakers, and waterfall chasers and the view from the ranger station parking lot is stunning. 

I snapped this picture from one of the docks where the water is about 15 feet deep, and you can see the bottom. Our lake is crystal clear, but this one is a step above that. 

We came home and had lunch and then hubs took my car to have the tires rotated and I took a nap. I'm overly tired from all the recent comings and goings and more and a nap helped. We watched basketball and hubs says I'm a little too invested in my brackets but I what can I say? I like winning-ha! I'm not but I'm tracking my teams anyway. 

Hubs grilled salmon for dinner and I made spinach and brown rice to go with, which made the eating on Friday feel mostly healthy. 

Saturday morning we had breakfast out then went furniture shopping. Without getting too deep into the weeds here, my mom, who currently lives with my younger sister, is going to be moving south, and we need furniture for this new space. Honestly it's hard. We're doing what we think is the right thing at the right time and I'm praying all goes smoothly in this big transition. 

The 9th decade of life comes at you hard. 

I was charged with finding some furniture and hubs went along for moral support and common sense. We had a very pleasant experience with the salesman and it was all pretty straightforward, so hopefully when the time comes delivery will be the same. 

It was 84 degrees here on Saturday and you won't hear me complain. I worked on some odds and ends paperwork that needed attention, and we watched more basketball because we love us some March Madness. I also read, worked on my blog, and did all the laundry that was in the hamper which feels like it should be celebrated. 

Hubs grilled burgers for dinner and I made a marinated cucumber salad (recipe here) that will be on repeat this summer.

It stormed just as we were getting ready to eat and we were rewarded with a rainbow-

Sunday morning started on a high note, with a beautiful sunrise. I snapped a picture from the covered deck and the reflection of the trees in the lake was so pretty and peaceful. 

We left for church as we normally do, but encountered a hiccup en route and almost missed it. 

Remember how I said we had the tires on my car rotated on Friday? Well we had a flat on the way to church Sunday morning. It's been a long time since I've had a flat tire, but I'm glad it happened close to home and not this morning when I would be winding my way along the sparsely traveled twisty-turny route to my daughter's house in Tennessee.  

Thankfully we were only a couple of miles from our house and about a mile from a gas station. A gas station who's air was out of order, which was a bummer. We phoned our roadside assistance and explained we probably didn't need a tow, just enough air to get us back home and they sent someone our way. He was friendly, quick, and tried spraying some foam on the tires to see if he could spot a nail, but nothing. Doesn't mean there isn't one, but from our various awkward angles we couldn't see it. 

Once the tire was inflated we drove just a few miles more to the tire center where the car had been on Friday. My daughter was already at church but said my son-in-law could pop out of the service and pick us up.  Conveniently the tire center was exactly 900 feet from the church building so said we'd walk over and they could give us a ride home. 

We left the key in the key drop and hopefully it's a simple fix because I'm going to spend a few days with daughter2 this week, and my plan was to leave first thing Monday morning. We shall see. 

We made it to church just in time for the message and then rode home with the 'kids'. As soon as they dropped us at home we climbed into hubs truck and took ourselves out to lunch. It was 88 degrees and sunny and we shared an order of fish and chips and a salad with a view. 

As we drove home there was a breeze, and if you're not familiar with the south this time of year you should know that breeze was a literal cloud of yellow dust. 

I put a chicken dish in the crock pot once we were home, one of our favorites that I make pretty often. It's called a mediterranean chicken (linked here). The recipe calls for you to brown the chicken first, but I skip that step and it's still delicious. I always make this lemon-cucumber couscous salad to go with and it's really good too. 

This has nothing to do with anything, but our amaryllis is blooming...

...and she's a beauty. Happy Monday everyone! 

An Apple A Day Keeps The Hodgepodge In Play

Who else thinks October is flying? Thank you for joining this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post. I always ask participants to at least comment on the blogger before them on the list because comments keep s a blog hop hoppin'. Happy Wednesday! Here we go...

1. Monday was National Apple Day...did you eat an apple or enjoy something made with apples on Monday? Do you like apples? Do you prefer your apples raw, baked, or in cider? Do you have a favorite variety of apple? 

I did have an apple on Monday. The variety was Empire and I grabbed a few at the market because they looked firm and unblemished. Sadly the one I ate Monday was a bit mushy-ick. I sliced it and sprinkled it with cinnamon which helped, and am hoping the others have a better texture.  

I don't have a favorite variety but just go for what looks best on my particular shopping day. I tend to buy Gala and Honeycrisp for eating and use Granny Smith for baking. I love apples, one of my favorite fruits, and pretty much always have some on hand. I like them raw, baked, in cider, whatever...it's all good. 

2. Do you think there's any truth to the saying 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'. Of the following healthy habits which do you find easiest to incorporate into your life and which is the most difficult for you to adopt-

adequate sleep, a balanced diet, plenty of water, eat breakfast, don't smoke, exercise, limit alcohol,  include fruits and vegetables in your diet, manage stress, limit screen time

Not sure there's scientific proof of that particular saying, but there are many health benefits to eating an apple so it's possible. A trainer once told me I should have an apple every day. I read eating one medium apple a day is good for lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation. 

Of the healthy habits listed the easiest one for me to keep is 'don't smoke'. I've never been a smoker and it's never held any appeal for me, so that's not difficult to manage. Most of these healthy habits are part of my daily life, but if I have to choose one as most difficult I guess it would be screen time. 

3. Who taught you how to drive? Do you enjoy driving? Would you rather be the driver or the passenger?  Do you have a favorite scenic drive near you? 

I enjoy driving and am fine in either seat. I got my first license in the state of NJ. At the time you couldn't even get a permit until the day you turned 17 so I was just beginning my senior year of high school when I started driving. Hubs got his license in Tennessee and I think he was in the 9th grade lol. 

Driver's Ed was a part of our high school health curriculum. It wasn't behind the wheel, more like 'Scared Straight' where they showed us all the film clips of horrible accidents resulting from someone not wearing a seatbelt, drinking, having too many friends or distractions in the car. Let me just say those film clips stayed with you. 

My dad taught me to drive. I don't remember it being stressful for either of us, but perhaps if he were here to tell the story he'd remember it differently. I was not an impulsive teen, and I was always a rule follower, so those traits probably helped in the driving department. 

I live on a lake so there are many scenic drives in my daily life. The drive across this bridge just a couple miles from my house is a favorite-

4. What small habit has had a big impact on your life? 

Daily Bible Reading

Keeping a prayer journal

5. Tell us about something nice that's happened to you recently? 

The day we got home from our two-week holiday in the aftermath of a hurricane my next door neighbor brought over homemade soup and sourdough bread for dinner. So thoughtful! It was nice not to have to worry about cooking when we were jet lagged, had a mess in the yard, and a freezer to empty and clean out. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We've been enjoying our new griddle and it's a learn as you go kind of thing in terms of trying new recipes and figuring out the heat, etc. 

Hubs loves to grill so I mostly do the prep work and make any sides we're having, and he cooks the main.

 We grilled (and by we I mean he) a pork tenderloin on The Green Egg on Sunday and it was so good. 

We had about half left over so we cubed that and he made pork fried rice on the griddle. 

We used this recipe, and it was delicious! 

Hibachi-Style Griddle Pork Fried Rice  

We mostly cooked as instructed but used leftover tenderloin that had been grilled in a garlic and black pepper marinade so lots of flavor. I made the rice early in the day so it could sit in the frig all day and this is key. 

Have a great day everyone! 

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Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 574

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog then hop back here tomorrow to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1. Monday was National Apple Day...did you eat an apple or enjoy something made with apples on Monday? Do you like apples? Do you prefer your apples raw, baked, or in cider? Do you have a favorite variety of apple? 

2. Do you think there's any truth to the saying 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'. Of the following healthy habits which do you find easiest to incorporate into your life and which is the most difficult for you to adopt-

adequate sleep, a balanced diet, plenty of water, eat breakfast, don't smoke, exercise, limit alcohol,  include fruits and vegetables in your diet, manage stress, limit screen time

3. Who taught you how to drive? Do you enjoy driving? Would you rather be the driver or the passenger?  Do you have a favorite scenic drive near you? 

4. What small habit has had a big impact on your life? 

5. Tell us about something nice that happened to you recently.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Stray Thoughts And Observations

There are a few things I've wanted to mention here, but mentally I feel drained. Doesn't everyone these days? Our area is still very much all about the devastation left by Hurricane Helene, and now here comes Milton hot on her heels. We're not expected to see any weather related impact from Milton, but some of the linemen and other folks skilled in disaster recovery and relief, working so hard to get NC up and running, will need to shift their immediate focus to Florida. 

Add to that war in the Middle East, the heartbreak of Israeli families whose loved ones continue in captivity or worse, and the most contentious election cycle the US has experienced in a long time and whew. It's a lot. 

Is it any wonder people are feeling like their emotional bandwidth is full? 

When everything feels huge writing helps. And writing about nothing is okay too. Life carries on in an everyday kind of way even as it teeters on what feels like the edge of a precarious cliff. 

Our trip feels like it happened a million years ago but of course we've only been home a week. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and it's made me extra grateful to have had the opportunity to live abroad in an era before the internet took over and everyone decided they needed to see the world. 

And pose in front of it. 

There are lots of what used to be little out of the way places that are now filled with tourists. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't travel, I'm just saying it's a different experience than it once was. If you could see the queue of people standing in line for an hour just to snap a photo of the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 wall in Kings Cross you'd know what I mean. 

There's less discovering something for yourself with the world in the palm of your hand. 

We opted not to go back into London after the day spent there because there were just so many people. Throngs of people. And protests. And then more people. In 2024 the world feels somewhat less stable than it did even right after 9-11, and I have a greater sense of caution in big crowds than I did fifteen years ago. My teenagers used to hop around London with friends and honestly it felt fine. 

There were no Iphones, but they did have a 'top up' phone and we'd put money on that so they could call in an emergency. Mostly though, my teenagers learned how to figure some things out for themselves and that most certainly helped shape them into who they are today. 

Timetables were little printed cards you held in your hand. You checked the tube maps (actual maps hanging on the wall) to figure out what line you needed, and you had a paper ticket you entered at the gate to get to the correct track.

There's an app for absolutely everything now so all your travel related documents, questions, and needs are right at your fingertips. So long as your phone is working I mean. 

The countryside is where it's at. It's beautiful and ancient and green, and in every little dale and borough there is something to see. Not with your camera, but with your own two eyes. To feel a sense of history and place and wonder as you stand where others have stood, and see what people made centuries before you were born with rough hewn tools and their bare hands that still stands today. 

We did a lot of driving, mostly on small roads with high hedges opening up into big vistas. We crossed many a roundabout, and hubs and I both say that in general we think people in the UK are better drivers than Americans. I know the narrow streets and multi-lane roundabouts and single track roads with oncoming traffic in your!! lane all feel a little bit crazy to those of us who learned to drive on this side of the pond, but somehow it works. 

People seem to obey the rules of the road, and this of course helps. The passing lane is for passing. Keep up with traffic. If you're approaching a roundabout the highway number is painted in the appropriate lane so you know exactly where you need to be. 

Also roundabouts. Just go round again if you somehow ended up in the wrong lane. 

There's very little honking. 

One thing that felt especially odd to us was how fast the speed limits were on some of the smaller roads. We were on a 2-lane road with high hedges on either side and I kept asking hubs how fast he was going because it felt like we were literally flying. He was going 45 and the speed limit was 60!! In the US you don't find two lane roads with hedges on either side with a speed limit of 60. 

Hubs loves driving in the UK. 

You see very few police officers/speed traps on the roads in England, but there are speed cameras everywhere. So many cameras. And there are signs telling you there are cameras so no excuses. 

Driving in the UK is definitely easier with GPS, but you miss out on the feeling of accomplishment you get when you navigate a place on your own. When we lived there we carried pages of printed instructions off of Mapquest and also had a huge atlas book in our car. We used it too! Actually I like an atlas because it allows you to see the whole of your trip which I find helpful. We're all about verbal instructions from our devices now, which I'm not complaining about exactly because my sense of direction is pretty much nil, but driving around England was more of an adventure before GPS. 

And we always carried a 'torch' aka flashlight in the car back then too, so we could read house numbers or house names as the case may be. Now we all have phones with flashlights at the ready. You don't have to figure out as much on your own or learn by doing like you did in the early 2000's. It was nerve jangling fun and I'm so glad to have had that experience. It helped shape me into who I am as well. 

We rode a lot of buses while visiting my daughter, and unless you live and commute in a major metropolitan area of the US chances are you never ever ride a city bus. When we'd have visitors and  suggest a bus they would usually recoil at the idea. But in England everyone rides buses. 

My daughter has a bus stop very near her house and this is most often the easiest way to get around her area. Like everything else bus lines, timetables, and tickets are all on your phone and she had it all figured out before we ever got there. She knew which bus we needed to be on (there are many many), where to catch them, and where to get off depending where we were going.

My daughter. 

She treks all over her city with three kids in tow, usually 'wearing' one while the two oldest each grab a hand to hold. Sometimes she's carrying shopping bags too. Y'all. It is something. She weighs about as much as a feather and it's no wonder.  Her youngest of course can walk but in general you're moving at a clip so as not to miss the next bus. Plus safety is a factor and it's just easier to have the littlest one contained when they're moving from home to bus to town and back. 

The boys always want to ride up top (a lot of the buses are double decker) so it's get everyone on board, show your ticket on your phone to the driver, schlep three kids up a flight of spiral stairs and then find a seat. Her boys act like they've been riding public transport all their lives and one of the cutest things you'll ever see is my almost two year old granddaughter, with an arm outstretched at the bus stop to let the approaching driver know he needs to stop. 

One thing I've been thinking about a lot since arriving home in the wake of a hurricane is cash. We still have a large supermarket chain in our area that is cash only because their servers are underwater in nearby North Carolina. We found on our recent trip to England so many places would not take cash. Most places it seemed were card only. 

Helene (and also Hurricane Sandy several years ago) have shown me we don't want to be a cashless society. At least I don't. When there's no power your card won't work and you need cash. 

When we travel we like to keep a very loose schedule. We don't want to book every minute before we even set foot in country but in 2024 booking some things ahead is sometimes necessary. We love to go where the locals go and eat where the locals eat and we love to meet people along the way and think about all the ways our lives are different, yet the same. It's not as easy to get off the beaten path now because it feels like people have a giant check list and they are going to check it. I get it but I don't love it. 

We always make room for spontaneous side treks and unexpected finds. For sitting in coffee shops and plazas and on park benches to watch and taste and learn. We did a lot of that this trip and it's our favorite. 

Add grandchildren to the mix and it was pretty much the perfect holiday. 

Coming Full Circle

Our last full day in the UK was Monday. The forecast was for a mostly rainy day, but as my daughter told my grandson, 'if we don't go out when it rains here we'll never go out'. So out we went. It does rain a fair amount in England, but it's generally manageable in that you can go about your day if you have a proper jacket, proper footware, and a brolly or hood. 

As we were driving along my daughter asked me if it felt weird for me to be sitting in the passenger seat while she sat on the 'wrong' side of the car and navigated roundabouts and single track lanes and new places and parking. 

Yeah. A little. 

Teenagers. Sigh. 'Twas a sweet season. Mostly lol. 

We moved to the UK when Daughter1 (on the left) was fifteen. She actually first learned to drive here at the age of seventeen, on a manual no less, sitting on the right side, driving on the left. We hired an instructor and he pulled into our driveway and she climbed into his small slightly dinged car and he told her to go. She had not the first clue about how to make that vehicle go. 

Never in a million years could I have imagined that one day she'd be living back here again, driving me around the English countryside with three kids in the backseat, yet here we are. When I look at this moment I'm struck by how very much God loves us and knows exactly what we need in our current circumstances to make us ready for the future He has planned. 

On Monday we visited Wimpole Estate, a country house begun in 1640 that sits on 3000 acres of park and farmland now owned by The National Trust.

Absolutely fabulous. 

Wimpole is listed in the Domesday book of 1086. At that time there was a moated manor house with a 200 acre deer park around it. The estate was held by the Chicheley family for 250 years beginning in 1428 with Henry Chichele who at the time was Archbishop of Canterbury. 

The last of his family to hold the house was the politician Thomas Chicheley who was responsible for the 'new house' completion in 1650. It changed hands a few times through deaths and marriages and financial strains and such until finally in 1938 George and Elsie Bambridge purchased the home. Elsie was the daughter of Rudyard Kipling and used her inheritance from him and the royalties from his books to make some much needed refurbishment to the house and grounds. 

She did an excellent job. 

We had the nicest day here and all of us agreed this was one of our favorites. There's what's called a home farm on site with rare breed farm animals and the property is spectacular. So very well maintained and cared for.  Protected too which is always good in an era of development. 

I love a black barn, and these had that charred look-

They have a great layout in the barnyard and stables for you to get close to the animals. 

Baby pigs y'all! Just two days old and I totally get why Fern had a fit and would not let her father take Wilbur for 'fattening up'. 

Sheep are always my favorite and there were whole herds in the pasture and some in the barn too. 

There were also all sorts of chicken breeds we'd never seen before, cows, ducks, donkeys and enormous Shire horses which are beautiful too. They're a rare breed and the farm is working to keep the breed alive. 

The property is extensive but they've cut beautiful pathways all around and you can even walk out into the pasture where the sheep roam. 

And then there's the house, which is stunning. We were able to visit upstairs, the main level, and the basement too, which had quite the Downton Abbey feel. 

The library was amazing-

And of course they have their own chapel-

There are several cafes and a restaurant on site and we had lunch in one of those. There was a small drizzle or two throughout the day, but for the most part the rain held off and that's so often how it is here. It was a wonderful way to wrap up our stay in this beautiful country. 

My blog is where I 'dump' things...thoughts, pictures, opinions, memories and hopes. I know these posts have been the equivalent of inviting people over to see slides from their holiday, and I appreciate you following along. I do have a few stray thoughts that I'll mush into one more post before resuming regular life here. Have a great day everyone!