Workin' Our Way Through the UK!

I knew There was no way one week on England was going to be enough for me, so I had to come up with a cheap(er)  way to stay. I found a website called WWOOF. Actually my farm partner, Coleen, Mentioned it awhile back but it took me awhile to look into it. In a nutshell, it is a site for people who want to do some farm or gardening work in exchange for room and board. The site has lists of people with farms all over the world. I thought this would be perfect for me, what with all my farming experience and whatnot. I had to explain to everyone over and over how it would work and most of my family thought i was nuts for wanting to do it. Personally I could not see how they didn't think it was the most exciting thing I had ever wanted to do. 

After enjoying the week in London, I got Craig and Jack packed up and got them a taxi to the airport. Then Mason and I hopped a train for our first job in Cambridge. We got to the train station and was met by our host Dave. Once again, I tried to get into the wrong side of the car. I just don't think I could get used to the wheel being on the wrong side of the car. It was only a 10 minute drive to Dave's place but he had a bit of road rage. It was kind of funny because he seemed to really hate people driving white vans. He did not drive much he tended to ride his bike most places.

We got to his house and met his delightful but senile mother. She has a short term memory of about 1 minute so if you left the room she forgot about you. She thought Mason was adorable and called him a "Cheeky Monkey" and thought all the girls should love his red hair. I agreed. She loved to make tea and would forget that she made it so she made about 20 or so cups of tea everyday. 

Dave was an Ex Vegan who was just starting to eat meat again. He had developed some health problems and could not get enough nutrition on a Vegan diet (No Kidding) so I cooked for him. I reintroduced him to bacon and baked chicken and some other goodies. I feel I left him a healthier omnivore. He also taught me a few things. I had never eaten chard but it looked so colorful and yummy and the way he steamed it made it delicious. He also made beets for me that I actually liked. He julienned them and mixed them with carrots so they were quite sweet and crunchy. He also made a baked Camembert cheese and it was amazing! I will definitely be making all 3 of those things. 

The Last of the London Tour

London was more fun than I can simply describe in words. The only thing to mar it was missing this ugly cat!

We took a loooong walk to Buckingham Palace. They were filming something there and it drove me crazy not to know what it was. On the way we got to see the Guards area. We were greeted with this handsome guy...and the soldier he was carrying.

This is the Arch at, I think, Trafalgar square. That was a busy place, full of tourists. We didn't stay long there.

Below is the Traitors Gate at the Tower of London. This is where the Traitors, like Anne Boleyn, were brought to the dungeon and ultimately their doom.

The Bell Tower at the Tower of London.

We went to Westminster Abby. It was stunning. They do not let you take pictures inside but we did have our first official Tea there. I am not a fan of scones, or skanks, as mason calls them. They are very dry if they are not fresh out of the oven.I do like clotted cream though...a lot!

There is a chance this is the outside of Westminster Abby but I'm not positive. Still a remarkably gorgeous building.

A picture of the Shard on the left and the Thames.

This is the Tribute to all the lost lives in WWI. There was a cascade of poppies, one for each life lost, at the Tower of London. It was a very gut wrenching way to show how many people Britain lost.

Ah, One of the best pub names. It should be followed by :Bag of glass and Bag of sulfuric acid.

Mason was wore out so he needed a bit of a video game break.

After seeing so many breathtaking sites, I decided that I could not possible stand to just visit the UK for 8 days so I figured out a great way to stay longer and still afford to eat,occasionally. On the next post I will tell you all about it.

Sightseeing In London!

The next few days passed in a blur! We only really tried to see one or 2 things a day so that we didn't overdo but we still managed to make ourselves so tired and sore. We did get to see some great things, though. We walked over amazing bridges, we rode the London Eye and took a Thames river cruise. We saw Westminster Abby, 5 minutes of the British Museum (We definetly have to go back to that!)

A view of Big Ben.

     We got to walk across the top of Tower Bridge and look down at the city. That view was great but the view from the London Eye was incredible. It was My Hubby's and mine 19th anniversary so the Eye was our treat and it was worth every penny!

The Eye

    We spent all day seeing the Tower of London. It is actually 20 towers! We got to see all the crown jewels and the armor and weapons room. There were several passages we didn't get to see but I really would have liked to visit them. Of course there was a torture room with a rack and manacles. I know a lot more torture went on there but they didn't really want to expound on that. We got to see real beefeater guards and they and their families get to live at the tower(s).

One of the famous Tower ravens.

Me with a Beefeater Guard and Guide.

      I think that same day we went to the Tower of London experience. Most of that was crap for me. It was like a haunted house with really loud noises and a horrible bridge with a psychedelic vomit inducing shaking and strobe lights. It made you feel like your stomach and eyes were battling to stay inside your body! I just shut my eyes and let my son, Jack lead me around. Ironically that was the best part for the kids, I did enjoy the history of the bridge and how they had houses and shops built on both sides, plus a huge church. It all burned down in the Great London Fire, but I bet it was something neat to see. Even though we took Public transportation everywhere we did a ton of walking. I haven't been so sore since the Army!

We rode the Tube everywhere.

Just a random guy skiing in the street of London??

The RMS Belfast. 

A wall left over from William the Conqueror.

Beautiful architecture on a street corner.

The Thames and Big Ben/Parliment.

Still Lots more to share... stay tuned!

London...Pt 2 Grocery Shopping

So the first thing we did was go to the hotel and take a long nap. I am sure we only got up to eat. There was a really nice shopping center next to us at Canary Wharf so we went there, We had some really good hamburgers with actual green chili! I was not expecting that in England. We had to have chips, of course, and they were wonderful.
   It was too late to do anything but explore the mall a little so we did that and found a grocery store and got a few drinks to take back. It is so fun to look at different supermarkets. The drinks alone were so different I could spend 20 minutes looking at them. I got a Scottish soda with a cult following called Irn Bru.   It was pretty darn good. Kind of like a fizzy sweet tart. We also tried a new drink called Coke Life. It has stevia and half or 1/3 of the sugar in regular Coke. It was good and I hope America gets it because it is a little less evil than regular Coke.   There were tons of drinks with either currents or elderflowers added to it. England seems to love these ingredients because they put them in all kinds of things. I need to try this because it seems popular.

They do seems to have a lot of healthy breads for less money than America but with the exchange rate of pounds to dollars it is hard to tell. I do love that there is very little High fructose corn syrup and GMO products here. There are a few recognizable brands here, like cereal, but I am not sure if they are made with the GMO corn and wheat like in America so I am just avoiding them. I don't need the carbs, anyway.
     One of the most fascinating differences was that the eggs were sold on the shelf instead of the refrigerator. They vaccinate the chickens here against salmonella so they are able to do that. They probably do not wash the eggs either which is better to keep the eggs fresh. The different kinds of eggs available was also a surprise. They had several different kind of chicken eggs, not just white or brown, but different breeds. 
They also had duck eggs for sale, You definitely do not see that in America grocery stores.
 They also seem to mostly sell them in 6 packs not by the dozen.
 The abundance of organ meat, different kinds of animal fats like duck, goose and tallow are also readily available. This is so awesome for a cook who wants to try new things. Let me tell you...Potatoes cooked in duck fat is AMAZING!! The next installment will contain restaurant details and tales of our site-seeing.

London Baby!!

Well we made it to London. The plane trip was not too bad for me but My poor Son Jack totally got the bad end of the stick. He was sitting next to a pretty girl and then she was moved to put some smelly, coughing Hugely fat mom and her daughter. The daughter had to ask jack to help her several times because the mom totally ignored her. Poor Jack!
   Still, we got to London at 6 Am and got a very expensive van to take us to our hotel. Then I found out that the stupid Marriott doesn't give you points if you go through a travel site like Expedia. I am pretty mad about that I plan on calling Marriott on it. The only other downside is not having free internet but otherwise the hotel was very nice.

The Canary Wharf Marriott

View from the Hotel

Another view from the hotel

More tomorrow...

My Never-ending To Do List...

OMG, I am never going to get all this stuff done. I have cleaned this house for hours and it just seems to get more dirty! My To Do list is never ending. Here is a sample:
Pack for Me, Jack, Mason
Get enough Dog, cat and turtle food to last 2 weeks,

Wash the laundry, fold, decide what to pack, donate or put away
Go to the store for anything we need (A Lot) Especially new clothes for the kids.

Clean the kitchen
Clean the fridge in the garage and turn off
Make sure neighbor knows how to take care of the animals
Get medicine refills
call the bank and credit cards to tell them we are going
Haircuts

Dentist
Doctor visits
And it goes on and on. I am trying to get the kids to help and this is the look I get:

 Still, even though I am close to losing it, I know in 35 hours when I am on the flight I will just have to say I did the best I could.
I am sharing my bed with 2 suitcases and lots of plastic bags of stuff I need to take. Also there is a cat in every suitcase. It is so nice of them to make sure we have their hair on everything so we don't miss them too much. I will have to make sure there are no actual cats inside any of these bags. I don't want to have trouble at customs!

I love Kickstarter!

For anyone who hasn't heard of Kickstarter, it is a crowd funding website that allows you to either start a project like a new business or donate to someone who is starting something you want to support.  I have had the honor of helping several people get their businesses off the ground.   It is amazing that for a small donation of $25 or so you can make someone's dream come true. I have just started a Kickstarter campaign for myself.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/423091653/mid-life-crisis-meets-organic-farming-dream

 I really believe going to several farms in the UK will be beneficial not only for the farmers I will work for but for myself. I miss farming like nothing else but I just can not do it by myself so this is my chance to farm my brains out with like minded people. I really hope to have fun and meet some great new friends. I think it will help Mason grow up a little. He needs to see what real life is like and get away from those darn video games! I know he thinks he will hate it but I think he will be surprised.
   I had my Best friend visiting me this week but now she has left so the countdown to England starts tomorrow. I have sooooo much to do!!

It has been a crazy month so far...

When August started I though the toughest thing I would have to deal with was my 39th birthday. I was terribly wrong.

I am NOT 93!!

The first thing I had to deal with is my house in Colorado. We need to sell it but we have the best renters. Unfortunately, they can not buy the house but they are going to move out in September so I need to get the place ready to sell so we don't end up with two house payments. The first set of renters we had were a nightmare and I can not deal with that again!! I wish the best for my friends in their new house but I am looking at about $5-10K worth of repairs and upgrades to get it on the market. I am afraid that I will end up paying someone to buy my house and that will really upset me. I love that house! I just want to pick it up and move it to Virginia.

    The next fun thing was my dad, who was already sick, got really bad and had to be taken to the ER. After hearing this I got a ticket and flew out to Colorado to deal with the house and to try to relieve some of the burden off my brother and mom who normally takes care of my dad when he gets bad.  He spent a very confused week in the hospital, where he was barely aware of reality and he fell and broke a rib in the hospital too. My poor dad is a fall risk and extremely paranoid so he is always trying to escape the hospital. He can't walk for more than a few feet without falling so they gave him some medicine that made him more mobile but made him absolutely loony! He was talking to lamps and thinking I was going to be shot. He also seemed to think I was staying in a homeless shelter. The funniest thing was I thought it would be a huge surprise for him to see me since he didn't know I was going to fly out there. The joke was on me, though, because he hallucinated that I came out so he was not surprised at all!
   I stayed with my brother Andy and it was quite a week. I love Andy to death but we fight like cats&dogs.  We definitely see the world differently.  He sees everything as black and white or right and wrong and he can be very bull headed with what he thinks is right. Still he is a wonderful guy and I hate fighting with him. I hate that he has to deal with mom and dad in addition to his MIL moving into his house, loss of a job and starting a new business. I hope that he doesn't turn into a stress ball and explode.
   I enjoyed Colorado but it doesn't feel like home anymore. Speaking of home, I got to see my house. All in all it wasn't too bad. My renters, also my friends and former neighbors, are taking very good care of my house. I wish they could stay, I wanted them to buy the house so bad. Thanks to the deadbeats before them, though, I have to do a bunch of little things to get it ready for selling. I did have a nice birthday dinner and cake while I was there and even God gave me a present.

So I have 3 weeks to get all this crap done. I will add my travel to do list on my next post.

I Finally Got My Passport and Tickets to England!!

I Have the two most important things to start traveling. It only took me 38 years to get a Passport and it took me about 6 months to decide on when to go and where to stay.

I am getting both excited and a little freaked out. There is so much I want to see and do in the UK but since the whole family is coming I have to make sure they are getting to see stuff too. I did find one thing that really made me happy...There is a LEGO Land in London!!! That is something we really want to go to so it is so convenient that we don't have to go to Florida to do it.
   I have been doing pretty well on selling my crafts. Doctor Who starts again in August so Hopefully I will get lots of people that want soap with Doctor Who toys in them. The Following ones are the Glow in the Dark ones.

I finally sold my first Teacup candle. I am so happy. I had to ship it to England so I hope it gets there safely. The cost of shipping is insane!!

These are just a few of the Tea Cup Candles I made. Most of the cups are vintage and collectible.

All of these are on my Etsy.com store under freespiritfarmcrafts

I have so much to do before the trip and on my next post I will tell how I may not be coming home but staying in the UK for an extended adventure.,,Stay tuned.