I have been hacked

I have been hacked on my hotmail account and my facebook account. Anyone receiving a request asking for money is being scammed. I am not in Wales or any other place that I do not want to be in having been mugged and attempting to get home. Please use the blog to contact me for now, I will let you know when I have sorted my above mentioned accounts. I am sorry if anyone was worried about me, just know that I am safe xo L

American suburbanite still in American suburbia

It has been a month now and I am still in the States. The British consulate has had my visa application for more than 3 weeks and no response... yet. I am still hopeful and looking forward to getting back to Rural England. On the interesting side saw a leucistic house sparrow on my walk this morning. Will go back to see if he stays in the same area and take pictures soon.

The American Suburbanite in Whitby...

Had a great day at the sea side this week. The weather was sunny and warm and the breeze was soft and gentle. I walked barefoot at the beach and felt the sand between my toes... such a lovely feeling. Who needs an expensive pedicure when you can walk on the beach for free. I even dipped my toes in the North Sea! It was half term for the school children though and the place was packed, absolutely heaving. People everywhere, sick children (which I could have done without) and your typical novice at the sea side. Loads of sun burnt skin, poor English skin does not cope well with the sun, however low the UV factor seems to be compared to other parts of the world. Whitby has a number of historical and heritage sites. They stake claim to Captain Cook and Dracula! We did not get sucked into any of the typically tacky seaside attractions, just window shopped the Whitby Jet jewelers, had a meal of fish-n-chips and snacked on an ice cream cone. After our walk around Whitby, we drove to Robin Hood's Bay. Here, we witnessed the completion of a coast to coast cycle and walk. The walkers were taking their pebble from the West Coast of England and throwing it into the sea at the East Coast. It is a 200 mile journey, and something I think I would like to complete before leaving the UK... The coastline in Robin Hood's Bay is much rockier than at Whitby. We took advantage of the low tide and explored the tide pools. In just a short while we found tons of snails and limpets, a chiton (I think), a crab, some small goby like fish, and a couple of shrimp. I am sure there was much more there, but it was a short visit as it was already early evening when we arrived. This was a place I could spend a whole day checking for little critters under rocks and sea weed. I look forward to spending more time on the coast of my new little island home.

rain rain go away...

The weather turned out quite nice on Monday, went for a lovely long walk and enjoyed the country air. I had a great sighting of ;the house martins playing in a puddle. They were so involved with their puddle, they didn't fly away when I approached. When I got home I was able to hang the laundry outside. Tuesday however was gray and miserable all day long. Took me ages to get motivated to do anything. It was a good day for curling up with the cats and our outdoor explorer even came home to get out of the rain. I finally got moving around 3:00 pm.... I started painting the "office" a closet where we house the computer. Note to self, rough plaster takes ages to paint, especially deep red. The weather has cleared again today and should be warm and in the 70's through the weekend I plan on being outside as much as possible!!

more about English Weather

I have been such a bad blogger, nearly 2 weeks since an entry. I blame it on the weather. We had sun and temps reaching the 80's! I spent every minute I could outside, for "summer" only lasted a short while, it was so cold last night we had the heat on. As I type this morning, I can hear the wind rush by the house, feels like another cold day. Aside from the cold, I am enjoying spring in England. The days are amazingly long, the early light of dawn by 4:30 am and the last light of dusk not fading until nearly 10:00 pm. I have to keep this reward in mind as winter steals the light by 4 pm. We have enjoyed our long evenings as much as we can taking long walks, bike rides, playing bowls (lawn bowling). All activities easily accomplished with several layers on to keep us warm!!

pics

s'mores were so good, we had them again and took some pictures... so yummy. How can chocolate and gooey marshmallows be bad though?

The Sunday Roast

If Saturday was all American, then Sunday was all English! It all started with a Sunday Roast, which I will admit, is one of the best meals of the week. We had lamb with roast potatoes, veg, with home-made Yorkshire puddings and gravy. Now for my American friends pudding has several meanings and a Yorkshire pudding is nothing like the snack we pack in our lunches! It is a pop-over. You basically mix the ingredients (eggs, flour, milk) and put into muffin tins coated with HOT oil. Cook at very high temperatures and hopefully the batter rises and puffs up. I used a mini muffin tin and a true Yorkshire pudding tin. I have to say, my American mini muffin tin produced a nice Yorkshire pudding, where the Yorkshire pudding tin fell flat! It was a bit more like a savory pancake than a pop over. The lesson, keep things hot when it comes to "yorkie puds"!!

After our dinner, we watched the 20-20 cricket world cup final. England beat Australia wit 3 overs to spare. I actually understood and enjoyed the game (match). It took me a while to figure out, but I think I would be interested in watching more cricket, at least the 20-20 variety. There are 3 types of competitions; test matches can go on for days... and end in a tie, kinda boring; local competitions, I am guessing similar to minor league sports, and just really depends on the teams playing as to whether or not you get any decent action; finally the 20-20 matches puts 2 teams against each other for 20 overs (a set of 6 balls or pitches) by each team. This game can finish in a few hours and does not end in a tie as frequently as the other matches.

Now that we had rested after our great big meal, it was time to work off a few of those calories, and we did so with a bicycle ride. It had been at least 10 years since I road a bike so we took it easy at first and just did a little lap around the village. I became more confident with each pedal pushed and we ended up doing about a 3 mile ride in the end. Not much for all you big cyclists out there but it was a good start. We rode the path adjacent to one of the fields then on the road and up the hill back to the village. It was definitely a work out for some of those leg muscles I forgot I had! All in all, a fabulous weekend full of both American and English traditions!!