Hi Girls!  I wanted to put up some new adventures this morning, but we have company — darling Rachel went home yesterday morning, and now we have darling Siobhan (pronounced Sha-von) come to visit last night.  We are off to Monk’s House this morning, the home of Virginia Wolff, in the village of Rodmell, near Lewes. No one will wait for me!!!  I have to go or they will leave me!!!!  If they leave me, they leave you and I can’t have that!!!  So not fair!  So we are going, then we will blog about it later!  It rained all day yesterday, I stayed in, drank tea, read my book, painted and worked on our English diary.  But today is sunny and bright and off we go!

I put this photo on Twitter yesterday, but for those of you who didn’t see it, we had the most delicious lunch with Rachel at a pub called Three Chimneys that was established circa 1420.

Every room had a little going fireplace for the chilly day!  The tables were old and rubbed, pillows were on benches, books lined the walls, and the food was wonderful.  More to come, I promise, but Joe is giving me the eye . . . XOXO

Yesterday we took our first walk. Headed between those buildings (about a block from our apartment) toward the church you can see in the back. Behind every small town in England are fields and fields, private farms that allow public walkways and there are a jillion winding grassy (muddy) paths, through gates and over fences, criss-crossing this country that have been used forever and ever.

Through the churchyard we went . . .

Can you imagine building this in 1180?  They did!  Read Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follet) if you’d like to hear about it!  Fascinating fun book!

Past the Vicarage we went …. although I have never met a Vicar (in person) and it was tempting to go up this driveway.  If you’d like to “meet” a Vicar (the only way I have), read any Barbara Pym book, which you would like Vicar or no Vicar.

 But we kept going, hitting the outskirts of town, walking past the train station.  Bluebells are everywhere, they are almost a weed here, isn’t that just the luckiest thing?

And so here we go . . . just a little bit green . . . due to all the sharp showers they’ve had around here.  There were tons of wildflowers . . . the air is perfumed with deep grass smell, Queen Anne’s Lace (called Cow Parsley here), bluebells, buttercups, and daisies.

Joe going through a “Kissing Gate” . . . the fences and gates keep the lambs and cows inside, allows the people go through . . . kissing is supposed to take place over the fence! My BFF Rachel is here, she stayed the night with us, she is British and she says it is so.  So it must be so. “Any excuse to snatch a kiss,” she says.

Over the river and through the woods, there are rushing little streams everywhere, and little old bridges that span them . . . It’s amazing all this nice infrastructure for walking enjoyment!

Across the fields, I spotted my new favorite house in England (there will very likely be at least one of these a day!).  What must it be like to wake up to the birds every day in this house?  The Wood Pigeons that peep “My-toe-hurts-Betty.”  (Say this singingish, in a high Queen-Elizabeth-voice with a little slurring, for perfect pigeon noise.)

Up and over hills, it was so beautiful out there . . . and this is what we will be doing, day after day, the entire time we are here.

Time to go back to town, back through the old graveyard we go . . .

Because it was time to go meet our dear friend Rachel at the White Lion Pub for Sunday Roast — they have a special Sunday dinner in English pubs, roast beef or roast Pork, or roast chicken with Yorkshire Pudding, Mashed Potatoes and all the trimmings.

It was the perfect day, our long walk through history, a lovely late lunch, and as shadows get longer, we’re heading “home” for a long evening of talking, knitting, and getting a refresher course from Rachel on what things mean, how things work, why this and why that.  She is our invaluable friend and brilliant interpreter of all things English.  Today we’re off to gardens, along the narrow dodgy roads; is everyone ready?  Fresh batteries in the camera? Bring your raincoat, those sharp showers may sneak up on us!  Here we go!   XOXO

Like a little theme music?  Oh yes . . . From my chair, across the wooden floor of this light-filled “lounge” (what we in America would call the living room) is a wall of windows with French doors in the middle and a little balcony outside.  We got here last night, after careening across the country via narrow, hedge-row lined roads, past brick and white-painted houses, churches, flower-laden trees, and lamb-spotted fields; we are now safely ensconced on the second story, above the High Street (sort of like our Main Street).  From my chair I can see out the windows, spottily, through trees still in the midst of leafing out,  a wonderful old house and a large monument in a wide green lawn across the street.

It feels like I’m in a tree house!  Isn’t this pretty?  The wind is blowing the leaves, it’s just beautiful!  And I feel almost back to “normal!”  Yesterday was kind of like the first day on the ship, but instead of trying to get “sea legs,” we needed to get our land legs back — we were still rocking when we went to sleep!

We stopped on the way to Tenterden, to wander around a bit and stretch our legs, had lunch at the Royal Oak Pub there (it had an organ, a wall of books, videos, and games, and a sun porch overlooking the garden, among other things, a little home away from home) just across the street from an amazing Roman wall built in the 2nd century!  We had the most delicious fish and chips there; a thick coating of deep fried goodness over tender fresh fish and a big bowl of freshly made tartar sauce and CHIPS (french fries)!

  Had to take a photo of this house surrounded in bluebells; you can see it’s just in front of that same Roman wall, across the street from the pub, with a path and a gate that was calling my name.  We didn’t follow that path, because we know they are everywhere in this beautiful country; we will have lots of chances!   And we wanted to get “home.”

We stopped at the grocery store when we got into town,  before we found our rental; knowing we would want to make it feel more homey — we bought the little necessities of life, flowers, milk for tea, apples, a big chicken, some vegetables and laundry soap.

Of course we travel with little reminders of home, this is a kitty felted by Kellee; can’t travel without a kitty!! Hardly takes up any space and doesn’t make a peep!

This gives you a little more of the picture of the lounge.  And this morning, I feel great!  Not swaying anymore!  Joe is still asleep, I have tea of course, in my William and Kate mug.  It’s 12 degrees celcius which I had to look up.  The way you find out what that means in a way you can understand (fahrenheit),  you have to multiply the number by 9, divide by 5, and add 32!!!!  Then you discover it’s almost 54 degrees!  Blue skies above, chirping of birds, mooing of cows, and whir of washing machine in the kitchen — just like home (except for the cows)!  There’s a Laura Ashley store in this town, I found out last night (yay), and our favorite market, Waitrose (where I will find the thing I love, “Breakfast Milk”)!  I don’t know what else is here, but we’re going to find out!  And we’re going to take you with us!

Plus, before I go, I thought you might like to see what we were seeing and doing while you were watching the ship go under the Verrazano Bridge leaving New York on the Queen Mary II.  Finally!  I can send video again!  Wasn’t that just thrilling???

XOXOXOXOXOX

The New York Police Department was with us (in boats and low-flying helicopters) until we hit the open sea; I thought the juxtaposition between the violins and the machine gun, the soft lights of my favorite knitting spot on the ship, The Chart Room, the falling light on the gray water and massive bridge was very interesting.  I was so excited at that moment I was running around with the camera like a crazy lady. It was wonderful.  I just loved hearing how you were watching too, the magic of the computer and the internet!

And this is the view this morning from the kitchen sink…. are we in heaven girls?  Yes, I do believe we are!!!  Just to remind you, we have a Quest, to fulfill our dreams for the next seven weeks, maybe enough to last a lifetime; to fill our inspiration cup by wandering through old churchyards and gardens, stone cottages, castles, country house hotels, past timeless hedgerows, under ancient horsechestnut trees, and over hillsides of wild bluebells, fields of wildflowers and baby lambs, tea rooms, pubs, flea markets, bookstalls, ancient oak trees, and country villages, on our way to visit Beatrix Potter’s house in the Lake District …. having the tinkle of little shop bells be our main music of the day!  With the camera in hand at all times!  Here we go!

Happy Mother’s Day Girlfriends!!! ♥

We’re packing now and putting our twelve (12) bags, yes, embarrassing (and that’s not even counting your bags!!!), outside our room for collection right now.  We’re probably going to take up the whole hallway.  While I’m typing, Joe is putting the bags out. Then we go to sleep (or we try) and then we dock at 6:30 am tomorrow, May 11, and disembark at 9:30!  It’s hard to leave because it’s been such an awesome trip (awesome really is the correct word!) but wonderful to know we get to do it again in about seven weeks!

Here we are, earlier tonight, in Lowely’s charming Uncle Michael’s (he’s between me and Joe) beautiful two-story stateroom for a Bon Voyage to the Queen Mary cocktail party!  They (Michael and Ken) are off to Rome tomorrow, and we are off to Beatrix Potter’s House via lots and lots of gardens!  That’s my new haircut, which actually, despite the fact that to you it probably looks just the same as it always does, is a really good haircut!  I will have to travel on ships every two months for the rest of my life because I always get my best haircuts on ocean liners!  Too bad, but it must be done!

I can’t believe whoever is in charge of the internet on this boat just let me put up these  photos; I will not push my luck and just live to believe that in England I will have more of everything a person needs to do a blog in less than three hours per post!  But tomorrow girlfriends, we are going to pick up our car, then all pile in (I know, difficult for us all to fit after what they’ve been feeding us, but we’ll work it off soon, by walking around wonderful gardens!) for the trip east to Tenterden in Kent, where we have an apartment (don’t know exactly what it will be like!  It’s an adventure!) on the High Street!  We will be stopping for lunch at the same exact place we stopped the very first time Joe and I came to England together.  The restaurant is perched on a cliff over the water.  You’ll like it!  I may not get the computer hooked-up tomorrow; we have driving, map-reading, unpacking, and grocery shopping to do, but I’ll try!  Depends on the internet-powers-that-be!  We stay in our Tenterden apartment for two glorious weeks.  Get ready because we’re going to take you to some wonderful places!  My dad and his wife Jeanie got this dream necklace for us just before we left. ♥ XOXO

It’s cozy and warm in the rocking, sometimes creaking, cocoon, stateroom.  Even though it looks like it’s raining, it’s not!  Room service brought us delicious crunchy potato pancakes, watermelon and pineapple slices, English muffins and orange marmalade, coffee and cream.  The TV plays soft classical music, violins and cellos to start the day; and I can see the sun is trying to break through.  Another day . . . I get my haircut at 11, but now, I think it’s time for a nap!

If you ever need to put yourself in your place, this is a good spot to do it.  We are SO not in charge.  What an amazing planet!  I took this photograph just before sunrise from our balcony.  I have videos too, which I can’t wait to show you, but too much bandwidth is required for them from the ship; we’ll have to wait until we’re back on land. In them you will get to hear the wind, and see the movement of the ship on the water!

 And the ship isn’t really all that small, but it sure feels that way in the immensity around us.  Here’s the hallway outside our room.  I guess the reason people come away on vacation is to shake things up a bit; our little every day world and schedules are challenged, we don’t have quite the control over our environment as we generally think we do!

So we make up for it with tea and dancing every day in the Queen’s Room at 4 pm!  As sweet salve to the travelers’ souls, we get this kind of beauty. The orchestra plays Cole Porter and we are served cucumber sandwiches, radish slices on buttered peppered bread, smoked minced ham with mayonnaise, and egg salad; soft, powdered sugar scones with jam and clotted cream, and tiny cream puffs and napoleons.  Yesterday we sat with a darling young couple from Germany; heard all about their lives, their home in Hamburg (it sounds beautiful there!).  He travels to China all the time, for his business as a designer of LED lighting; they own a 19th century manor house in Hamburg that they rent out for weddings and anniversary parties.  So interesting to hear about the politics and cultures of other countries, not filtered through news media.  Yesterday, the Scottish couple we sat with, the husband was a policeman; although he looked to be about fifteen, tall, thin, blonde, wearing a blue checked shirt, and not a bit like a policeman; and his wife, darling in a cream colored shawl and top to match, was a water tester for their city.  They were both born and raised in Inverness; they met because she was his little sister’s best friend.  In the evening our table partners are a British country doctor (who does watercolors) and his wife, who’s lived all over the world and has stories to go with it.  We are not in Kansas anymore dearest Toto.

Four times I have done this post and four times it has disappeared.  As I said, I don’t have quite the control over things as I do at home!  I got smart this last time, copied it first.  So when it disappeared, I just pasted it back up.  I’m going to now try to go directly to post.  Say a little prayer that it goes through.  Loving your comments, you funny girls. ♥ You are my anchor to reality! xoxo

Thought I should take you out on deck for a breath of this fresh sea air!

And this morning, before you all got up, I had tea and knitted and watched the BBC on the telly.  You didn’t move a muscle.  Must be all worn out from all that dancing last night!

Under a beautiful moon . . .

I am shocked that they let me put up three photos.  I’m going to push my limits, use up precious “minutes” to get one more gorgeous photo of Joe in his tuxedo up here, here he is, last night.

Nope, darn it, it’s just not going to let me!  He looked so elegant, will show you later.

To answer a couple of your questions, yes, we did bring Pete.  Can you imagine how long he had to wait to get back to sea?  Poor little sailor boy.  And yes, he trip is going way too fast.  We set our clocks back one hour each night, which makes it even shorter!  We’ll make up for it on the way home.

Sat with darling young Scottish couple for tea yesterday, and for dinner, we had an English couple sitting next to us.  I want to compliment you all on your impeccable manners!  I was so proud of how cute we all looked.  I took lots of photos again today, and sooner or later, I’ll be able to show them to you.  OK, must go, minutes flying by!  Talk to you soon, thanks for coming along.  Love reading your comments, you’re so funny!!!   XOXO

  All you wonderful stowaways, get dressed, we’re going to lunch at Todd English!  After lunch, the Queen Mary offers so many choices of what we can do next . . . You can choose between dancing lessons (today it’s the Slow Waltz), or line dancing; or off to Canyon Ranch fitness, or a watercolor art class.  We (Joe and I) have to be at UK Immigration Inspection at two, I think you should all make yourself scarce (passports being required and all that).  I’ll meet you at the Hostess Corner for needlework and knitting, or maybe you’d rather do the Martini Mixology class.  OR, the ocean air might have gotten to you, so you might want a nap!  Tea is at 4 pm.  Or, go stroll the deck, nine times around is three miles!  Tonight, the dress code for dinner is Formal.

Look what I just did!  How exciting!  It let me put up these flowers!  OMG, and look, I got a photo up!  It would not let me do this yesterday — Joe thinks maybe not as many people are on their computers right now!  Could be . . . now we’ll see if it goes through.  This is our Cocoon!  See the computer, that’s where I am right now.  See the view?  That’s our view. We love it.  Can’t believe we got all our stuff in here!

 Lowely’s (you know who Lowely is) Uncle Michael is on board!  We went to his room to have cocktails last night. They have one of the most amazing rooms on the very back of the ship, two stories, with a view over the pool!  Very modern, all sparkly, with a spiral staircase and glass tables.  Nice to go visiting on our home away from home.  OK, off I go.  Saving these minutes until I have more to say.  I feel like I’m really pushing my luck and want to make sure we get at least this! Have a wonderful day!

Yesterday, in the middle of the packing, my eyes landed on this souvenir doll Joe got when he was twelve, on his way home with his mom from England on the Holland America Line (I forget which boat!) so I thought I’d take a picture of it to show you.  It survived really well, except for the time the top of his hat apparently got a little too close to the fire!

Rather frightening face don’t you think?  Bad dreams could come from this.  But as you will see, he turned out to be quite a fine fellow.  And as you know, it is rare for me to take a picture these days without my little shadow popping in.  My adorable little shadow.

Jack is thinking, “Him? You’re taking picture of him? Why?”

“What is he?  A doll?  Can he fetch?”

“Do you like him as much as you like me?  Look at his eyes!  He can’t even focus.  You want a friend that can’t focus?”

“La dee dah, I won’t look at him.  Then maybe she will get rid of him.”

“Nope. Still there.”

“But hey, he doesn’t seem so bad — he’s kind of growing on me.  He sure doesn’t talk much; he must not be related to you!  Does he have a name?”

“He’s soft!  I have my own human!  Is he human? He looks sort of human!”

“I like him.  He can lay on me.  Let’s call him Pete!  Take our picture; I’ll pretend to nap; lay him on me!”

 And so it goes.  Right this moment I can hear the pitter patter of little feet running around upstairs; Jack and Girl playing!  They’ve been doing that all this week!  I think by the time we get home, with no interference from me, my two kitties will be bonded. Sometimes mom just has to get out of the way!

SO, I have to go, as you know!  But here are some links, most of them have come in from our girlfriends, I thought I’d put them all in one place so you will have this easy reference: First off, the MOON, Saturday is the full Flower moon.  We could have stormy skies at sea and not be able to see it, but we know this is what will be shining down on us; and YOU, the biggest moon of the year. Be sure to go outside and make a wish on it.  My wish is that I can take photos of moonrise from the rail of the ship!

Next, you might want to take a virtual tour of the Queen Mary II.  This is the BEST LINK for the ship, you can see EVERYTHING!!! Just put your cursor on the words underneath the British gentleman and choose what you’d like to see. Put your luggage in the stateroom of your choice!  Then meet us in the Commodore Club for a Pink Champagne Cocktail!

Next, when the ship pulls out of its berth in New York, it will be going under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge past the Statue of Liberty on its way out to sea.  There’s a web cam, you can watch us go, live!  Don’t worry if it’s raining; ships do fine in the rain … it might rain because it’s spritzing here right now!  But if it’s dry, look for me on deck, I’ll be waving at you!

This camera is perched on the bridge of the Queen Mary herself.  Day and night, it provides a view of whatever the Captain sees all the way across the Atlantic, like watching the hummingbird nest only with nothing in the nest! When the first lights of land are visible, we can see it from the TV in our stateroom and run outside to call “Land Ho!”  You can look at it right now and see what the ship is doing; I just looked, it’s almost daybreak out there; the Queen is approaching New York to pick us up tomorrow!  No Land Ho for them yet, but soon!

This next link has nothing to do with the ship; but if you live in California, and are itching for some FUN … it’s time again for the Remnants of the Past Vintage Show in beautiful San Luis Obispo. You know this is my friend Judy Watkin’s show; rated the best in the country by both Romantic Homes and Country Living Magazine, among others!  I was there last year; it’s a Girlfriend’s Extravaganza, just a great weekend in the California sunshine, among the flowers!  I’d be there this year, except, as you know, I won’t be here!!!  It’s not until June 2 and 3; so if you want to go, you’ll have plenty of time to plan.  Be sure to say hello to Judy for me!  She’s just as sweet as she looks! ♥

 Last but not least, I want to leave you with a little bit more music . . . one of my very favorite songs by Marilyn Monroe . . . she’s singing Bye Bye Baby to her boyfriend before she sails away to Europe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  He’s sad she’s going, but she has a way of talking him right out of it!  (I’m so lucky I’m taking my boyfriend with me!)  She’s on the loose but she’ll stay on the square!  I know I’ll be singing this as the ship pulls out!  Singing Bye Bye Babies … that’s to you! We’re going to England!  Hooray!!!!  XOXO