southern tour

our southern tour consisted of bath, glastonbury, hiking in tintagel and penzance, st. michaels mount, salisbury, stonehenge and stourhead gardens. oh, and jane austen's house, where i bought mansfield park. my favorite one.

me, tourist version, at the roman baths. ps- the water is real warm. also very green, as you can see.

lisa, ashley and me at the roman baths. friends forever.

bath abbey. i just love gothic architecture.

brooklynn and i got lost. then we found this vast garden. quaint and perfect.

pensive ash.

wild blackberries roam free in england. absolutely everywhere. i ate at least two handfuls of them. and i definitely got really nervous about getting the runs real bad. but i couldn't help myself. and luckily, i didn't.

kinsey and me at merlin's cave.

laura and emily sitting on a cliff. t-a-l-k-i-n-g.

hostel in salisbury. we went to the cathedral at night. and it was really super beautiful. i missed taking pictures at st. michaels mount. but they mostly would have been of catching crabs and playing with someone else's dog. it was great fun. i even put a starfish on my forehead.

i've had a hard time figuring out if i like garden's or not. we have been talking very philosophically about them and whether or not they are art. john and peter brought up the word sublime while we were in tintagel... and i think it sort of tainted me. i had this perfection in my mind, this sublime depiction of cliffs and humidity, and then we went to stourhead. and it just felt silly. then i realized i was just thinking too hard and i tried to enjoy the constructed beauty of the place.

widescreen shot at stourhead gardens. pretty beautiful.

friends at stonehenge. we took our sweet time.

there's stonehenge! and natalie.

oh, tony. our beloved coach driver. "great road, eh?"

conclusion: i still love my life, a lot. going home to london is a dream. i will try to be better at taking pics and posting them. also, on halloween... i'm gonna be in paris... shyeah.

buddy

this is Buddy, also known as Ax. sometimes we go outside together.

sometimes we draw in my notebook.

sometimes i read books to him outloud in the park.

he's good at making friends.

other times we sit in the parlor and just have a good time.

his heart is a locket.

feed the birds

climbed to the top of saint paul's cathedral. it was magical. i have pictures of the view. but this captures the moment better.

for honeybush

dear dearie, i'm sorry i haven't printed these and sent you a real piece of mail. but these pictures were taken with you in mind. enjoy.

love,

me

oh cambridge

subtle nuance is redundant. sorry, intellectual world. had to look up how to spell "intellectual".

oh beautiful cambridge.

river cam

one of the many gorgeous colleges at cambridge. its name is escaping me.

punting. best. with laurie and laura.

our dishy punting guide, omar.

"i bet you a million pounds you all make blogs."

elsa. cutest cutest baby. she's the daughter of one of our program directors.

i really am enjoying myself. sometimes i feel a lot older than some of the girls here. it's helping me understand how much life experience i do, actually, have. i feel confident here. i am making the effort to have time to myself because 45 girls this age is making me crazy. i'm beginning to hermit some times of the day, but i still feel productive. and i'm still at south bank every weekend with friends. making friends, keeping friends. balancing it all out in this historic city. i think i'm building a motto. i'll post it when it's finished.

my subtle nuances

these are a few things i've pinpointed while living in london. don't feel obligated to read them.

something that makes me feel good about myself:

-being on googchat and having someone chat me.

-being on googchat and seeing two people are typing something to me at the same time.

i prefer staircases where i can take them two at a time. too steep is too hard.

i like cold apples better than room temp apples. i like crisp apples better than cold apples. i like all peaches better than all apples.

i prefer smaller groups of people. 2-5 people total is ideal.

though i do not always detest crowds.

i prefer cream to broth.

i don't put sugar in my tea.

i like knowing/planning what i'm going to eat. it makes me feel like i have some control.

sometimes i like just toast and butter. no jam or nothin. other times i like cinnamon-sugar on it.

i like taking care of people. and i feel good at it.

i don't often actually listen to my body when it tells me to sleep. hence, a blog post right now. ah, well.

sitting at my window in my favourite dress

european spelling. its the new thing.

i finally figured out where my blasted photos go when i save them on my e-cam.

a new ring.

i am recently very grateful for internet. and all of it's magnificent capabilities. i watched two talks from the relief society broadcast that happened while i was fast asleep. so far, it's wonderful. who knows when the internet will be working well enough for me to finish it.

also, i am getting very excited for two things:

-find out whether i get a niece or a nephew in a matter of days.

-being with my whole family. together. all of us, at once. it will be loud and busy and magical.

i officially have the travel bug

well, here i am. last week we went on a little excursion to the north. we went to hadrian's wall, and stayed in york. then went to edinburgh for two nights and stayed to see the beautiful city. i had a blast there. somehow, it's more accessible than any other city. maybe i'll do another post of some pirated photos, but for now, you're just getting what i have now.

after edinburgh, we went to the lake district. stayed in ambleside. laurie had a birthday and it was the perfect day. hiking, ambleing and eating. and birthday wishing. lots of sheep. we were there for two days as well and we hiked to wordsworth's houses and to ruskin's. i love this country so much. i filled my belly with lots of apples, ciabatta and cranberry wensleydale. yum yum. here you go:

at hadrian's wall.

at hadrian's wall.

i had a moment with this tree at Chatsworth.

just a cool bathroom at the scottish national gallery of modern art.

kissing the elephant outside the elephant house, where jkr wrote the hp series.

extremely happy and alone in my room at our last stop of the week. a bed and breakfast.

mostly because of my view.

i slipped first thing on our last day of hiking. lots of fun mud.

i walked on water at ruskin's house. ha!

this was actually just the other day at Kew Gardens. really phenomenal place.

as you can see, my jacket is getting lots of use and it is becoming more and more useless. maybe a little gortex for christmas is in order??

closet under the stairs

this is my studio space. it is kind of great. there are only paintings out in these photos. but my ceramic work is taking off. i'm not quite sure how to manage all the time away though. i'll need some great ideas to keep them plastic.
in front of the tower of london. an interesting place to be sure.
this is the grand entrance to the victoria & albert museum. blown glass against this super rich old interior. interesting to me. i'll be there tomorrow. i love that place.

things are going well. we're off to scotland first thing monday morning. i walked with L from covent garden to the center today. just over 3 miles. it felt good. and we walked right down oxford where all the great shops are. too many great shops.

tonight is the thames festival. we'll see how that goes. i'm excited though!

love this place. love my life.

iglesia

i went to church in spanish today. it was wonderful.

right after i went to the v&a for a few hours.

all by myself.

all day.

in london.

i had the best day.

adventure day

today, instead of being assigned groups and being asked to follow the same route as everyone else in our crew, we got to pick our own groups and were given suggestions. new bestie laurie and i took our liberties. but we ended up by the tate britain, parliament and regent's park. it was lovely.

parliament. so ornate and beautiful to me.

so happy. finally eating at a quaint cafe in camden.
my delicious falafel wrap with house made hot sauce.
obligatory. now its out of the way. and the best thing? i don't think anyone saw me take this picture.

i love city living. i have always wanted to live in a city. i just never thought my first would be on a different continent.

to everyone

south bank of the river thames.