Weekend Trip to England

Saturday, I woke up rearing to go to a photography expo taking place at the same time/location of a craft fair. We were going to make a whole family day out of it, but when I arrived, the whole thing was fairly blasé. The theme of the photog lectures was photographing nature, so we decided to instead go out into nature and take some pictures there.

We drove through the countryside on tiny little one lane roads that reminded me greatly of England. Then we parked and climbed England Mountain at the Wildcat Mountain Natural Area, maintained by The Nature Conservancy.
Make certain that you vote in the poll of which of these two butterfly shots you prefer.
We encountered a fungus humongus.


And we saw some lovely tiny lichen.
Next we saw a stick insect. He was bookin' it across the trail.


At the 1.5 mile mark, halfway in, we came upon this little spring house.

Near the spring house was the Smith House, on old homestead, abandoned well before anyone thought of modern conveniences like plumbing, electricity, or rat poisoning. Livia went in first and then came out screaming that there were rats in the ceiling. Of course, I had to go in and photograph the place, and it gave me an extreme case of the heeby-jeebies. If you yourself don't take a lot of photos, you may not realize this, but photography is extremely hazardous. When you're looking through the viewfinder of the camera (or even at the LCD screen on a digicam), you lose all sense of everything going on around you. You could easily lose your balance from tripping over huge gaping holes or a gigantic rat could sneak right up on you. I went in aware of this vulnerability, so I had the girls guard me. I didn't manage to see any rats myself.

We had a marvelous time and appreciated our own house when we arrived home.

Movin' and Shakin' - Full Circle

So, I've been asked to quit blogging about the dog. Which has left me with nothing to say. But today, our move was finally completed, so I thought I'd update folks on what's been happening. 22 July, they came and took away my beloved car -- The Golden Calf.
6 days later, we left England. This was made tolerable by the fact that Ariel upgraded all of us to business class. The girls and I agreed that we will never fly coach ever again. Upon arrival, we rented a car and checked into Homewood Suites -- our new home. We got a great deal on a two-bedroom suite because we booked for 30 days. Just upstairs from us was Tom and Jill K. -- an American family from our post in England (Kira's former neighbors). Oddly enough, we were the K-family's sponsor when they came to England. That seemed weird, but made a certain sense since we had all come from the same State Dept office and all live in the same area stateside. But later we met a family and in our conversations found that they had also been at RAF Croughton the same time were were -- when the husband was the base commander. That was an eerie coincidence.
The hotel was only a few miles from our house, so each day we went and did some work on our house while it was still empty. We painted the entire house Belvedere Creme, which I like to call "booger." We also gave our contractor Terry a key to our house, and though he was still working on another project, he started working on our basement in August. (He's still working on our basement). Finally, I began painting our hideous orange oak kitchen cabinets. (Sorry, I failed to get a true "before" shot with the doors still on the cabinets.) Watch the refrigerator.





When I was down in SC, I suffered from some serious fridge envy with I saw my Dad's new refrigerator. Ariel mocked me until I showed it to him, at which point we started making arrangements to get ourselves one.
The movers came and delivered our first shipment of stuff -- 13 crates, 7 tons. All from England. However, all of the things we had put into storage were no where to be found. Unfortunately, into storage we had put important stuff like lamps. Our house has almost no overhead lighting, so we lived in the dark for a while until Ariel was able to get some fellows to track it down.
Did you notice in the kitchen pictures the crazy dark grout? When we tiled the floor many years ago, the grout in the kitchen never set up right. And it never sealed quite right either, so the grout had darkened considerable, and looked gross. Yesterday, I stripped the grout with sulfamic acid, and today recolored the grout with some colorant/sealant from TileLabs. It looks 100 times better.
And then my car arrived.

Dog Days

Above and below: Blitz, 7 weeks.
Blitz will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. Already his ears are starting to perk up into adult position.
He's quite the digger.

And he's a biter. He loves to play tug-of-war with his lead.


He's still working on looking menacing as a watch dog, guarding the house when I go check the mail.

It's a boy!

Blue Blizzard Wolfer, called Blitz, was born July 19th and adopted August 30th. He's an American Eskimo Dog.
We bought Blitz from a couple in Roanoke, about 4 hours away, so we were worried about the drive home with a puppy. He howled in his kennel for a few minutes (still in the Roanoke boundaries) before I put the kennel on my lap and pet him. He is so incredibly soft and fluffy. We had a lovely ride back, anticipating getting to know our new pet. We wondered how Little Man would react.
Now, we've only been in our house for 3 days at this point, so LM had been exploring and experiencing new things already, so when we set the kennel on the floor, LM came down to greet us, and his nose was twitching, trying to figure out what that strange smell was. Then he saw this big ball of fluff come out, and LM's tail fluffed up like a bottle brush and he retreated to the stairs with this look of "What is that abomination?!?"
On the advise of a book I read, I made Blitz this grass box to give him an indoors potty place. He thinks it's the best thing in the world -- to dig in, nose around, and sleep. Despite every puppy book I've read and am following, he still prefers to pee on the hardwood. I can take him out every 15 mintues, he'll pee, but he'll always save some for inside. If he survives potty training, he'll grow up to look like this ↓
Facts about the breed:

• American Eskimo Dogs ("Eskies") are part of the Spitz family of dogs which includes the Samoyed, Malamute, Pomeranian, and the Icelandic Sheepdog.
• They were originally called the American Spitz since they are a close cousin to the German Spitz, but during WWI, due to anti-German sentiment, the name was changed to reflect the first kennel that bred the dogs: American Eskimo Kennel.
• The breed became popular because they were first used as circus dogs -- walking the tightrope. As the circus would travel the country, people would see this beautiful, friendly white dog, and the circus folk would sell the puppies.
• Like all true Spitz dogs, the Eskie has Teflon-like hair. When they get muddy, you just let them dry, then the mud falls right off.
• Eskies and their Spitz cousins are all nearly hypo-allergenic.
• They have no doggy odor.
• They like people and children.
• Standard Eskies (they come in miniature and tiny sizes too) are a medium dog, growing up to be up to 35 lbs and 20 inches high at the withers (shoulders).
  

American Girl Goes Home

There appeared only one week in the calendar that we could make the drive down South to see my family, and it came with little to no notice. So we emailed my family, said we were coming, and rented a car for Ariel who stayed behind to hold down the fort, feed the cat, and supervise the contractor who's working on our basement. It was a She-Wolves road-trip.

We first stopped at Dana's house. I didn't take any useful pictures, but we had a great time, and will definitely need to spend more time visiting at the next opportunity.
Next, we went to Nana's house (my mom). The plague had hit, so we saw very little of my grandparents, but we did get to visit with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin (who is only 2 years older than Lena), to spend some quality time with Nana, and she gave Lena this beautiful kite for her birthday.
Livia didn't want to have her picture taken. The crocodile tears are the best.
Finally, the girls with their Nana.
On the way through Chester, we took a tiny detour so I could show the girls where their daddy grew up.

(Yes, Tracey, they painted the bricks white almost as soon as they bought the house from you.)

Finally, we arrived in Lancaster where we played with the dog, ate lots of good food, played with the dog, went to Charlotte, played with the dog, swam with Uncle Ross (my brother), and played with the dog. Dad's dog, Summit, was beloved by both girls (and me) and he was given a super dose of attention while we were there. The girls cried to leave him when it was time to go, and Dad reports that the dog moped around the house for a few days with no one to love him like L&L did.
My "little" brother Ross -- he's 6'3".
Go, Wolfpack!
Lora, Dad, L&L, and Summit. Livia is happy because she is petting Summit. Lena is sad because she's about to leave Summit.

The Envy of Less Happier Lands

	This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi paradise; This fortress built by nature for herself, Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
		from Shakespeare's Richard II

"There'll always be an England, And England shall be free, If England means as much to you As England means to me."