To The Peaks..........And Beyond!

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Our time in the Chelmsford area of the UK ended with emotion and reflection on the many years Rowan’s family spent in this wonderful countryside east of London.  This place will always be held close in our hearts and minds. Luckily, there are still friends in the area that will continue to bring us back here.

Our next stop on this trip will take us north to The Peak District and Sheffield, where we will spend time with Rowan’s sister Alex and her family winding up some business and getting out for some fresh Yorkshire air.

We wasted no time in getting out into the Peak District National Park for a hike. It is very easy to do this as sister Alex lives just on the edge of the park. We had a fabulous walk in the rain (who cares about the rain in England!) through the stunning heather (in full bloom), amazing ferns and electric green countryside.

 Wet Rowan

 Mark & Hannah

 Sister Alex and Luke

 Heather in full bloom

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Our next adventure took us to Renishaw Hall & Gardens (http://www.renishaw-hall.co.uk/), the current home of Rick and Alexandra Sitwell and the historical home of the Sitwell family. A notable member of the family was Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), a poet and eccentric. The house and gardens are stunning and especially on the beautiful day we had to stroll through them.

We came upon many pieces of art throughout the gardens. The title of this piece is 'Moon Gazing Hares'. Exactly!

They have left many dead tree trunks throughout the garden and turned them into sculptures with some very clever results.

Rowan with her sister Alex and family.

So, why does my garden never look like this? :o) The English really do know how to do gardens!

 The Budlia bushes were covered with peacock butterflies. Fantastic specimens!

 You will find the most beautiful thistles used in many English gardens. I will need to look for some of these for our garden back in the US. A really stunning texture and color and something the bloody dear won't eat!!

   We found this fabulous photo of Edith Sitwell in the little museum at the gardens. A real character I wish I could have met. Quite the fashion plate!

  Our time with Sis and her family went by in a flash (time does fly when you’re having fun!). Our next stop is Wales and the Brecon Beacons to see the two uncles, Bob & Hugh.

Stay tuned……………

The absence, and getting back to life.........

All of our followers have probably wondered where we have been for nearly a year. Well, there have been many changes in our lives. We have lost three members of our family from the UK. Rowan's Mum, Dad and Aunt all passed in the last year so our hands and hearts have been full. We also lost our dear friend Bob here in the US. We are just now coming out the other side of all of that, so are getting back to getting back to our lives.....which now includes a little blogging.

We are currently in the UK (for the 4th time in the last year) winding up the last bits of family stuff and also getting some well deserved r&r. Here is a short photo essay of what we are up to:

 Rowan and her sis had a memorial bench made in honor of their parents to be placed in the Hyde Hall Gardens (https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/hyde-hall) , part of the Royal Horticultural Garden Society in the UK. Their mother & father adored the gardens and we spent many hours there with them while on visits to the UK.  Part of the bench inscription saying "sit and rest a while".

 Rowan and I having a rest on the bench.

The bench is under a huge shade tree with beautiful views of the English countryside and gardens.

 

We are staying with our good friends Hilary and Wendy. No absence of good food (as you can see by the clean plates).

 We had one big task to finish up on this trip - packing up the family items we need to ship to the US.

We spent a few days at the storage locker sorting, wrapping, taking inventory, valuing and packing everything for its journey to the US by cargo ship. The shipping company came and collected everything for crating, so now we wait for 2 months until everything arrives to our front door in one piece.....we hope! :o)

 We have also made a trip out to the bluebell woods (stunning in the spring when they bloom) in the country by the old family house where we scattered the parents ashes under a huge holly bush last Christmas. Rowan's whole family made daily walks with their dogs out through these woods their whole lives so it was the perfect place for them to rest. Rowan constructed a beautiful flower wreath where we had scattered them. It was a beautiful sunny day and we noticed a bird nest just above the tree. Perfect!

We made another trip to lay flowers by Aunt Runa's grave out in Hutton, the village where the two sisters were born. Runa is buried with her parents (Rowan's grandparents) at the old church graveyard.

A lavender plant for the auntie and grandparents.

Oh, and I can't forget at least one food picture. Can you say rib eye and duck fat chips??? Yes, the chips (fry's for you Americans) are deep fried in duck fat!!!!!DELICIOUS! Please do notice the stray veggies on the plate used exclusively for artery scrubbing. :o) There is also a piece of yorkshire pudding on the left.

I AM IN HEAVEN!!!

Stay tuned, more coming from across the pond............

The Last Six Months - Part 1

A long overdue update on the happenings over the last 6 months. A LOT has happened.....

SPRING

There is no end to the little construction projects we have to finish up around the house. We started this whole remodeling thing back in 2010 and just when we think we are about finished, we look around the house and realize we still are not enjoying things like sitting on our little window seat to drink our coffee in the morning sun. Soooooo, when I realized I wanted to do just that, I got right to finishing that little project. To make the project easier and faster, we went and special ordered a couple of prefab window seat drawer units at our local home improvement store. They are now offering special heavier duty base cabinets just for window seats. We got two units with drawers and then built them in to the space we designed for the seat in the dining room. We sized the cabinets a bit deeper than the opening so the bench seat would be wider for laying down and taking those morning naps in the sun :o) All you have to do is space them out, secure them to the floor/walls and frame them in. We then had to build in the angled corners back to the wall and seal in the kick plate at the floor.

.....PRESTO! We added the drawer pull hardware, a few random cushions we had laying around just until we get a proper cushion top made, and now all we need is the sun to come out so we can sit and have that morning coffee. Oh, and NAP!

Next project (oh yes, there is ALWAYS more).........was to get the built in hutch made for the entrance to the kitchen. First we had to build a small wall next to the fridge, sheet rock it, etc. You have to know how excited I was about the prospect of sheet rock dust in my house again!!! UGH! After the mud had dried, I sanded the wall with the shop vac hose in one hand and sanding block in the other.

 

Nancy Hiller, a local cabinet maker and furniture builder designed and built the oak hutch for us http://www.nrhillerdesign.com/ . She will also complete the rest of the kitchen cabinets in the style of our original 1950's existing cabinets later this year, so stay tuned for that.

The hutch will be a transitional piece between the bungalow style of the dining room/entry and mid century style of the kitchen.

The piece came out just beautifully! I am in love with the big drawers in the bottom cabinet. We are just delighted with the piece and can't wait to see what Nancy will do with the kitchen!

Next on the 'to do' list........getting started planting the yard. Our friend Jonas is helping us construct and plant a permaculture garden - go here for information on the permaculture concept: http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/key_concepts/ Our goal is to be able to eat from most of the plants we put in our yard or have them bring things to the yard like bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. We are also working on developing a natural watering system for the yard. Here is the beginning of that..............

We are creating berms and swales in the yard to naturally collect water run off from rains. Here is Rowan and Jonas working on that for the front yard.

Jonas brought in a load of really good compost dirt, natural poop fertilizer and mulch.

The rain water will naturally run from the house towards the street and be caught in the berm. The water will seep into the berm to keep the plants on the berm deep watered for much longer than top watering will.

Planting was next on the agenda and since food is such an important part of our lives, the vegetable garden was first. These photos are from about 6 weeks after planting.

Kale, Radish, Garlic, Tomatoes....

 Chard and Spinach

 More Tomatoes, Bok Choi, Rhubarb, Parsley, Onions

 Carrots, Radish, Cucumber

 Lettuces

Early Summer dinner fixings from the garden

 Dinner! :o)

We are also planting a considerable amount of food producing plants in our front yard landscape as well as some ornamental's.

Sage, Rosemary, Lavender, Alpine Strawberries, Lilac and various Hosta

 Hosta

Red Twig Dogwood and two Gooseberries

 In May we headed for Seattle to attend a conference, visit some family and get married :o)

We saw many old friends from all over the world at the conference.

Jenni, Arvydas, Rowan, David, Ina and Carol

A random driftwood sculpture we found on a walk along Lincoln Park in West Seattle.

The Russian spa we went to with Arvydas. Hot pools, steam baths and relaxation.
Part of our beauty treatment before getting married :o)

At the Space Needle in Seattle Center.

Making pizza with sister Pat

 

Another spa visit with sister Pat. This time to Olympus, a Korean spa. We will be soooo relaxed after this one, and extra gorgeous for our wedding!

 Going to the Justice of the Peace at the Seattle courthouse. Our pals Alex, Natalie and sister Pat in attendance. We really couldn't believe this was about to happen in our lifetime. How far we have come since Stonewall!! What a great day for equality and LOVE!

 

Here comes the judge! Us with Judge Bender, who gave us a very sweet ceremony.

 Our very special witnesses- Don, Pat, Alex and Natalie

 Many thanks to everyone who helped make this day extra special.

Cheers to us! ...To a happy and long life together!

More coming in Part II. Stay tuned..............