It just wasn't cricket!

Protestor nearly gets his head sliced off!

I completely forgot to watch the boat race at the weekend, despite my good intentions....something to do with an unwarranted belief that my house was going to view that day and urges to do a complete Spring Cleaning.

I was gobsmacked when my English Mum, living in Australia gave me a blow by blow account of the drama that unfolded as she listened to the race on the radio!

If you don't know about the boat race, it comprises two boats of 8 men and one cox, one for Oxford, one for Cambridge. The course covers 4 miles of the River Thames. The crews have trained for years for this prestigious and traditional event and it IS an event that is watched, nay enjoyed,  by thousands world over, whether or not they attended an Oxbridge college.

Two miles in to the course, the Oxford cox alerted the crews to the fact that a man was swimming in the water, about to have his head sliced off by the flashing blades. The race was halted while police arrested the man, a protestor against elitism. PURLEEAASE............

The man, an Australian, as it turned out was angry. No kidding...really? As someone who was cox of the 3rd boat at her Cambridge college (I was pretty bad at it but it was still a lot of fun) I can attest to the amount of training that goes into an event like this and as an ex-pat who finds such events even more important now that I am not surrounded by them,  I mourn the disruption of a pageant which is usually fun and part of my cultural heritage, especially by someone who isn't even part of that heritage!

I hope they throw him in the Tower of London!

Union Jackie's Old Glory!

Union Jackie's first product! For Dawn, my dear friend and Girl Friday at TSJCL!

I Know that pride is not a pretty virtue and generally as a rule I'm a pretty humble gal, but I do have to say that I am SO proud of this attempt at applique!

In my desire to have a business one day which sells artisan made English crafts here in Texas, I thought I might try my hand at some new skills, applique being one of them.

Photographic artist: Lindsey Porter

I think it has turned out pretty well, although I can already see a coupla things I would change to make it even more gorgeous :)



I love the colors and the cheerfulness of the flag. The hearts make it country and the gingham and the spots make it English.

Just wait until you see the English Country Garden wall hanging I am working on! Liberty of London fabric(esque?), quintessentially British in its quirkiness.

FUN!!!

Cambridge Blues

Not only are the daffodils and the bluebells springing to life on the backs of the Cambridge Colleges as I daydream, and Robert Browning's lines,"oh to be in England, now that April's there", are going through my head, but now also an email from my alma mater plopped into my inbox this morning to alert me to the fact that

The 158th Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race will take place on Saturday 7th April at 9:15 A.M.

(obviously it will be about 2:15 in England!)

and the beauty of it is that it will be broadcast live  on BBC America! Terrific!

Just wanted to alert you to this tidbit of Britannica (akin to Americana) that is taking place this weekend.

Obviously anyone with real taste and breeding will be rooting for the pale blues - Cambridge that is :)

On Saturday I will be watching the telly while wearing my Newnham scarf and rooting for my lads to cruise to victory under the Putney Bridge. Can't wait!








Time

Congratulations Your Majesty!

Official Diamond Jubilee Portrait

It's a funny thing but apparently if one is frantic busy  and never has time to watch the world news, let alone the BBC world news, you miss what's going on in the world. When my brilliant friend sent me a copy of the Daily Telegraph for February 18th, I realized that one's monarch had recently (February 6th) celebrated the date when 60 years ago she took the reigns of our kingdom upon the death of her father, Colin Firth (not really).

I believe that the hoopla that celebrates this epoch making event will take place on June 5-8 but it seemed a shame to me not to recognize the real date right here, even post de facto!

It was a really strange feeling to read an English newspaper though. I can't say that I have read an English newspaper in 13 years, or since I arrived here. I was blown away by how intelligently it was written (apologies for implied criticism of Austin American Statesman) and how much of a cultural nature I am missing out on by my mourned lack of proximity to London. Theater, galleries, museum collections, public lectures. Wow. I am impoverished by my inability to see any of them. But...who am I kidding? I work full time, drive 3 hours every day and have 3 children...AND as I have already told you, I don't have time to watch any news so it's highly unlikely that I would have time to do any of the cultural things I miss even if I was living in Bloomsbury with all of it on my doorstep!

So...I will continue to be virtually cultured and live it vicariously through the Internet and other publications. It's all good!

Off to a State Latin convention in San Antonio today after practicing for it for 3 months. Can't wait (for it to be over.)

next blog, I think we'll go royal! I've a renewed interest in the monarchy!

Not quite Jan Constantine!

The Countdown has begun!

Spring is here. In fact, Spring Break has been and gone, but the light of the summer is on the horizon and with that comes for me a new venture, one that gives me a sense of relief and hope and endless possibility - but one that I am oh so annoyingly not permitted to blog about just yet. I will reveal this great mystery just as soon as I can! You will hear it here first and just be assured that at last it will allow me more time to write.

Traditionally Spring Break seems to make me feel more English. Perhaps this is because the weather seems so much gentler and more akin to what we experience in the U.K. or maybe it is simply that I have more time to do things that interest me and they are often to do with my heritage country.

So, in terms of baking it was a luscious golden fruit cake that filled the house with a rich fruity aroma that had the kids all running to the kitchen to see what they could scrounge. Then there was a very tasty leek and potato soup and a shepherd's pie. I don't really like making shepherd's pie because it never takes me less than an hour to go through all that peeling and chopping, but my middle offspring loves it and I'm too frazzled to make it during the school year.

In terms of reading I was captivated by C.J. Sansom's 'Sovereign', a murder mystery set in Tudor England. I've never really been a big fan of the Tudor period. It's so harsh and dark and I grew up a stone's throw from the Ann of Cleve's House in East Sussex which had a horrible spooky atmosphere that just compounded everything I sensed or knew about that time of history, but Sansom's hero, an unlikely, hunchbacked lawyer was plausible and compelling and I found myself sucked in to the plot. In fact I will go on Amazon after this blog post and try to get a used one cent copy of another of his books!

Another book I picked up at Hobby Lobby was Jan Constantine's 'For the Love of Hand Stitching', a beautiful, slightly (who am I kidding, completely) above my level of ability embroidery and applique book. It has been a lot of fun to resurrect sewing skills learned at my rarified private girls school! My first two offspring were gung-ho about learning this art and creating some of the gorgeous projects in this book. Sadly their enthusiasm lasted as long as it took to make their first mistake and now they are back to their previous passtimes which is how I have the time to blog this post :)

 

I'm looking forward to more adventures as the spring blossoms into a highly anticiipated summer....

Will I have to change my blog's name?

Well hey there! It has been a while I know! Since I last blogged it has been a bit of a whirlwind. Dad had a heart attack on May 8th and instead of the parental much anticipated visit to Texas, Texas went to visit them with offspring 1, 2 and 3. Yes! We flew all the way to Brisbane for 7 weeks to reassure ourselves that Dad was fine - and Thank God he is - and we had the best time visiting with the fam! Have already booked our flights to do the same thing again next summer - although Dad, I sure would appreciate it (as they/we say around here) if you would omit the heart attack step :)

So - September is here and even though it's 100 degrees still, the part of me that is still English feels that it should perhaps be Autumn and the pull of the misty mornings and mellow English fruitfulness is calling loud and clear. Stupidly I swung by Barnes and Noble to pick up a Country Living UK Edition. Stupid! Stupid! When will I learn that it makes me feel worse rather than better??

So, on the eve of my last step in the Naturalization process here I am wondering whether I will have to change the blog's title if I am soon to be a real, honest-to-goodness American? I've paid the huge amount of money to the US government, and the Immigration attorney, I've had my fingerprints taken and filled out a ton of paperwork. I have learned the 100 questions for the civics test and am now just waiting to have my interview and oral examination.

Exciting, strange, weird, a whole range of emotions and a gamut of new opportunities. Maybe now I will get involved in politics as I will at last be able to vote in a Federal election??? I'll let you know. In England we say that "God is an Englishman." In America we say 'God Bless America". Please God, bless an English-American too!

Bertram - Home to the Oatmeal Festival and perhaps to a Brit or two also?

It may not have escaped your attention that sometimes I get a bit homesick! Saturdays are notoriously bad for homesickness because even though you are still busy, the usual frenetic crazy routine of the week is gone and there is a bit of room to remember that your nearest and dearest are a long way away and that you are not in your home town doing home town things.

I think today I had a bit of a break through in this regard!!

For anybody who doesn't know, Bertram is a very small rural Texas town. We proudly boast 1122 people on the city limits sign and I'm not altogether sure that I have yet found the one horse...

However, a family trip to Bertram today gave me the warm fuzzy feeling that I might be beginning to belong here! We managed to occupy a whole morning in this town and spend only the princely sum of $11 - not including our delicious breakfast at El Rancho :)

Children 1, 2 and 3 expressed the desire to walk along Main Street and go into the Feed Store to pet the chicks that were advertised as being for sale in there. We'd never been to the Feed Store before and I can tell you that it was our loss. A lovely lady called Joanna made us very welcome and Mr. Henry showed us his luxuriant tomato and dill plants which made me very happy as I love discussing gardens even though I have no green thumb at all. It reminds me of Great Grandad and his perfectly manicured pocket handkerchief garden!

We ambled along next to the Balcones Rock and Gem Shop also on Main Street, which is Daughter #2's favorite place in the world (this from a child who has been to England, Australia and Italy!). This girl could spend hours in that shop if I let her and I think that the terribly kind and patient proprietors, Becky and Jerry would be quite okay with hosting this junior geologist for as long as it took her to agonizingly pick out the gems and rocks it takes to spend her allowance.

This shop is truly one of a kind, an experience not to be missed. It's a geologist's and jewelry lover's Aladdin's Cave and even though what sparkles may be fool's gold rather than the real thing, it is simply stunning!Take your kids! Take your Grandkids! They'll come away with treasure and a lovely poster explaining all the rocks found here in Texas!

We were feeling pretty good by now so we returned to the car to drive home for a lunch break. We parked outside the yet-to-be-revealed "Globe" theater. I hear it's going to show classic movies, perhaps serviced by a tea room in the somewhat restored cottage opposite it. I can only hope!

After lunch we bit the bullet and got children 1, 2 and 3 a haircut in Poofy Doo's. How could you resist a place with a name like that? The ladies in there showed patience beyond what was believable especially seeing as they had been fixing prom hair all day for tonight's festivities! Shout out to them!

The day came to a close with a giant ice cream cone in The Moose, where I am proud and astonished to say, works Bertram's other English daughter . The first time I heard her switch out her Texas drawl for a Scouser (Liverpudlian - think Beatles) accent, I'm sure my jaw bit the ground in a most unbecoming way!

Bertram, Oh Bertram! Famous for your Oatmeal Festival on Labor Day weekend. Thank you for your hospitality. You did much to make this gal smile today!