I See Dead People...

(Sorry... I had to do it)

Jesse at Saint David's Cathedral in Wales, UK.

Welcome to the Jungle... errr... Garden!

Wandering down the streets of Churchill can be a beautiful, relaxing past-time. Historic buildings, thatched roofs and vibrant gardens stretch off in every direction -- except at our house. I've decided that we've officially become an embarrassment to the neighbors (one dear chap, Allen, came over to trim the hedge that separates our gardens as it was becoming such an eyesore). Well - don't take my word for it... have a look...

A typical garden walkway in Churchill:

Our front garden (a.k.a. "Yard"):

Our neighbors have vegetables and fruit trees:

We have dead bunnies:

(seriously.. I found this hiding in the foot-high grass)

Hopefully by the time ya'll come to visit we will have turned this little weed patch into a proper English Garden - but nevertheless, even through the weeds, it's still beautiful here:

And Noah Built the Ark...

So the day after Jesse arrived in England the heavens opened and *whoosh* half of middle England was washed away in the worst flooding in decades. Fortunately, as you can see in the pics below taken from our backyard, our house is on a hill so we didn't have to worry about any damage to our home:

Rather than sitting around in a cold house with no TV, Internet, Cards or Scrabble board we decided to brace ourselves for the cost of petrol and hit the road in our snazzy new car (below), but first it required a little bit of researching - which occurred in the various pubs and coffee shops of a lovely little village called Stow-in-the-Wold:



As most of you already know, we eventually decided to head out to Wales for a totally fantastic trip along the Welsh coast. If you're interested in viewing our complete set of photos with descriptions, including some fantastic castle and bird pics, please follow the Flickr link on the right of the page. But for now, here's a small sampling of what we saw (including gannets, puffins,"Saint Patrick Point" - the place where Saint Patrick was said to have left for Ireland, Carew Castle, and Saint Davids Cathedral:

6 Weeks Later....

She FINALLY gets internet! WooPWooP!!!

So with a LOT of patience (and a healthy volume of gin & tonics), I've FINALLY settled into the new house, bought the new car, have the new phone # and internet and am actually starting to feel a little bit at home here in the UK. Of course nothing could feel like home until the ferrets have christened every corner... but if all goes well today at the vet (wish Jesse good luck - he's taking all 4 at once!!!) all 6 of us well be settling in here soon!

Ok - so where to start? Before former students (*cough * LiVolsi * cough*) have the opportunity to make any more rude comments on my facebook page about the lack photos I guess I better get busy trying to bring everyone up to speed. I might have to do this in a number of posts as I'm pretty challenged with the photo/text layout thing here. So beware of blog-blitz. No worries though, soon Jesse shall come and make all well in compu-world...

Anyway, let's start with the neighbors:

Not kidding. Ever read any James Harriot? Yes, it's like we've landed in the middle of "All Creatures Great and Small". There will be more on the local wildlife coming shortly, but for now...

So I continued to stay at the lovely Mill House Inn for the next few weeks, quickly becoming spoiled by their great food. Eventually it was time to go, but fortunately my last day at the Mill House was Jesse's first day in England -












so after a "final meal" at the Mill House (which Jesse mostly slept through - an old couple in the corner thought he was drunk!) we finally moved into the new crib!