Somewhere beyond the sea...

...somewhere waiting for me, my lover stands in golden sands and watches the ships that go sailing!!!

The sea always brings out my romantic side and even though Robbie Williams, Will Young's or Bobby Darin's lyrics are far removed from Charles Trenet's original version of La Mer, it is no doubt the perfect song to hum along to whilst strolling down a rugged coastline or beach.

Thanksgiving seemed to be a great time to take a trip to North Carolina. Steve's Parents were in town and the call of the wild made the boys...(all of them, even the youngest) grab their fishing gear and take a trip to the Outer Banks for some fishn!!
Us girls had to tag along and we also tried our luck with the rod. Unfortunately we relied on the guys to bring home the food;-)

Given the lack of talent, we found other means to occupy ourselves like building sand castles or taking photos for the light house series. As usual, time flew past and the few days in Nags Head are already a distant memory.
It was great to, once again, experience the wonderful late November weather (even though it was unusually warm) and enjoy the fresh ocean breeze and the all inspiring waves crashing onto the shores.
We took a long drive all the way down to Ocracoke island, of course the last part was by ferry as it is an island!!! That day was cold and breezy and we watched the most beautiful sunset and rise of the moon...simply awesome;-)

As we were all in party mood when we got back to Richmond, we took the opportunity to celebrate an early Christmas while we were all together. It was a really lovely evening with roast lamb instead of the boring old turkey and lots of presents, much to Finley's delight;-))
Steve and I went out on the town afterwards and got really drunk, like you do at Christmas.
The next morning we said goodby to the grandparents, hungover and heavy hearted as they departed for England.

To all you bloggers out there...Have a wonderful Christmas and a truly awesome New Year!!!!

What's new!!

Since nothing majorly exciting has happened lately, I have to either make something up or post whats happening in our everyday boring life. There is however, no real point in making things up, as this blog should be a true account of our life in America, therefore I will just go ahead and tell the truth.
Well, let me start with Halloween, which was as usual a great event here in Richmond as well as all over the world, I assume;-) I had great plans for the entire family to take part in the annual scary pumpkin fest
and I had already purchased some floppy ears and a little tail for myself and was busy searching for a smoking jacket for my lovely husband, who would have made a great Hefner, on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, Finley and I caught a nasty flu bug and ended up in bed for a few days and Steve and I never made it to Juniors Halloween party dressed as Bunny and Hugh;-((( very, very sad!!
We did however, make it to Wednesday nights Trick or Treat parade on Hanover Street, which was a real TREAT and quite an EYE CANDY...get it??? I did not bring my camera and I still hate myself for it because this would have been very interesting for you people at home.
Never mind, maybe next year.

From Thursday last week until Thursday this week, I looked after Lilly, my friend Martina's little girl. I thought it was a great opportunity to see if I could do two!!! Turns out I could and now the pressure's on;-0 What to do...another child or perhaps just borrowing Lilly for the odd occasion???!! Only time will tell;-)
Sarah also came to stay for a couple of days and we got in touch with our inner child at an outing in Richmond's Children's Museum...we had a truly great time as you can see for yourself!!!

Last night Finley stayed the night with his new girlfriend Lilly while Steve and I went on the first proper date in two years. Needless to say we made to most of it. After watching Bill Plymton's adult cartoons at the Canal Club downtown, 18 hot wings at BWW (I am still suffering), countless drinks at the New York Deli and Star Light (by than memory loss had set in???), and of course a cheeky cigar on the front porch with half the rugby team, we found ourselves unconscious in our wonderful king size/memory foam bed with the bed being the only one who might remember whether we did have that great sex we promised ourselves before we went on this alcoholic rampage!!!!;-))))

Country roads, take me home.....!

It wasn't quite West Virginia, but the next best thing and John Denver was right in believing the country side would be like home. Wintergreen a ski and hiking resort on the border to West Virginia is what they call mountains here in Virginia. What we found was a mass of rather large hills as we would call them back home, beautiful never the less and part of the Blue Ridge mountains with the Appalachian Trail snaking right trough it. We hiked for two hours on the old Appalachian Trail...I have no idea what made it older than the new one as it looked exactly the same - same trees, rocks and views!!!
Unlike Bill Bryson and his good friend Katz in "A Walk in the Woods", a wonderfully funny account of his attempt to walk the entire trail, we did not encounter any bears rummaging in our rubbish or in fact chasing us down the mountain side. What we did see, however, were huge metal containers with chained doors, which I was rather puzzled about at first. Turns out the bears are very good at opening conventional bins, which consequently have to be almost padlocked to be save from Teddy.
Anyway, the hike was nice, great view and lots of fresh air. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of Finley slumped in his strange backpack construction at the end of the walk...the fresh air got to him and he seemed unconscious. I also felt a bit tired and in need of being carried as we had a couple of beers the night before and not much sleep due to our son acquiring a couple more teeth in his ever expanding collection. This did not in any way stop us from having more beer the second night and thanks to my lovely husband, who slept on the floor in the living room next to Finley, frequently peeking out of his crib and suffering from acute insomnia, I got lots of sleep.
We also visited some wine and berry farms on the foot of the mountain, drank some really nice berry wine and found a wonderful location in a wine farm for a picnic next to a little stream. The picnic consisted of two glasses of wine, which we purchased for $6 each (a bottle was $20????), a couple of packets of little cheesy goldfish crackers (hmmmm) and some beer we drank out of our wine glasses once the good liquid had evaporated.
All in all, I have to say, it was a very relaxing weekend. The weather was gorgeous with the most amazing blue, blue skies competing with all those fabulous colors of the autumn leaves.
It was not quite like home, but good enough for the time being and only an hour and a half drive from Richmond.

Avebury

One of my favorite places in England is Wiltshire and to the occasion of Finley's Christening I managed to take some of my family members to the prehistoric landscape of Avebury where ancient stone circles form one of the most important megalithic monument in Europe.

I am not trying to spoil the story, but the Christening did not actually take place amongst the ancient stones or the 5000 year old burial ground and we did not in fact indulge in some pageant rituals...would have been interesting though. The trip was merely a day out with great people and the day could not have been more perfect.
As so often in England, the clouds where really low that day and at times I thought I had to duck as to not bump my head on the grey mass.
It was a mild day, rain was in the air and we were greeted by Silbury Hill,a 40meter high artificial mound that is said to have been built 2660BC. Legend has it that the devil was meant to drop a huge sack of earth on the town of Marlborough, but failed his target - just goes to show...nobody is perfect!!
This is just one of the many legends that have been attached to Silbury Hill and I am sure there are other sites with lots of stories to tell.
Anyway, as I was looking for a place to park my car, somewhere in the little village, I almost crashed into a motorbike, which happened to drive straight towards me. After a lot of cursing it occurred to me that it may have actually been me who was on the wrong side of the road. Those silly habits of the Brits...right is good enough for everybody else!!
With shaky knees but very happy that I was not there 2 1/2 thousand years ago (it could have been a sack of dirt on top of me instead of a bike!!) we parked our car at the National Trust car park and paid 5 Pound (exploitation of God's natural wonders??? or whoever put those stones there a long time ago) to leave the car in a field in the middle of nowhere;-)) By the way, I'd pay 50 Pounds just to be able to experience the feeling you get when you enter into the county of Wiltshire with all its chalk horses, stone circles, ancient burial grounds and a past of Celtic traditions and myths.
Avebury is nowhere near as busy as Stonehenge and a thousand times prettier and not commercial at all. To the contrary, it seems like a sleepy little village with a pub and a couple of souvenir shops. In fact since last time I was there, which is now quite a few years ago, nothing has changed at all apart from the menu at the Led Lion. There are quite a few of our four legged woolly friends scattered around the ancient stone circles and one has to watch very carefully where to place the foot.
However, I have attached some photos of the place, which to a certain extent portray the mystic aura that surrounds Avebury. With this as background some of our photos seem unrealistic and staged...probably because they are;-))))