Planet Wilder

This house of ours isn’t the most up-to-date. It’s not ancient by UK standards… or the US even… but it’s not new. Somehow though I love it. Even the wall needs redone, the door hardware can be better, the house can use less keys (there’s a key for EVERY window it seems), toilets can use some changing and the kitchen cabinetry can use a face lift this house feels really cozy.  The house does have a lovely garden. It can use more love but it’s lovely and large. We have the nicest landlord I think and that’s a big deal when you’re renting. Also, there are nice markets nearby, a wonderful friendly neighborhood, the pub is just a few steps away and my family’s here.

My biggest sacrifice though is the above. The stove is gas which is lovely but the size… wow, I’m waiting to see how my 13″ and 5.5 lt Le Creuset will work on that thing. It’s already tight as is right now.

But, despite this fact I’m still not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. I just hate moving and if we do move there better be movers or other people to help and it’s to the most perfect house. Mediocre will not be worth it, ha!

Jovie is practicing for her birthday. HA!

Well, not really but she LOVED the Oreo cookie we gave her. I should have taken a picture of her when I took the last few crumbs from her. Tears + cookies combined. She took a nice long bath after that ordeal!

This girl really loves to eat. She wants whatever I eat and she’ll be very upset if she’s not chewing when we are. We had Indian the other day and she ate curry like a champ. There was cumin, cardamon, cinnamon, coconut milk, etc.

Oh, let me tell you about the British baby food. It’s exotic! I make Jovie’s food and right now she’s pretty much eating whatever we eat but now and then, when we travel, we’d get her some grocery store food and we picked up these Plum Baby brand food. These foods are filling. A lot more expensive too but for her, one container was good for four feedings. So the 2.35# price wasn’t so bad. Food content: Quinoa, pesto, lentils, etc. The taste: It’s got more spices for sure! I think my dishes are better (because it’s fresh) but for baby food, it’s got a lot of flavor — spice flavoring! It’s great!! I think if a lot of babies are on these baby foods they’d have better taste buds — they’d grow up eating more than fish sticks and chicken fingers… or they won’t be eating hamburgers in Indian restaurants.

The military has the term allotment in their system but this isn’t what I’m talking about here.

Today Drew took us to the town’s allotment. It’s just a nice little walk from our place. An allotment (do take the time to read more on allotments via this link!) is a piece of land that residence can rent for a fee. The residence here use their allotment space to grow food although we saw tulips here and there and chickens.

The above photo was somebody’s scare crow we’re guessing. Now, question is, you think the other birds would get it? Drew said it’s quite Ed Poe.

Ok, I’ll add another photo, one less disturbing than the above…

Each area has a number and in this photo there are at least four different allotment owners.

I’ve really been liking just pushing my shutter release button and taking random pictures without looking at the viewfinder. I learned this in my photography class. My instructor said this is the best way to capture people naturally. What you want to do is set your camera to a decent aperture, set the shutter accordingly, hang the camera around your neck and start walking while clicking. The best way to click is with a remote in your pocket. Remember, we don’t want them to know you’re taking pictures.

Another way is to pretend you’re just holding the camera and shoot shoot shoot. I’ve also done where I was acting like I was just setting the exposure and then looking away and shoot shoot shoot.

The point of it all is to make yourself look inconspicuous.

Photo taken in Cambridge, UK, city center. The corner of Church Ln.

There are the kids walking to school. This was M’s first day at the village school. She’s been ready to go since Friday! One big difference between this school and the one in Missouri (besides the uniform) is that everyday we’ll be walking to and from school. The school is just a few blocks away and every day we see other kids and mom/dads walking to and from school. A very good habit for us and we look forward to our little walks each and every day!