i can't resist

...I'm totally copying this from my friend Beth.

It turns out...snails actually really are cute!!



I'm not sure I'm going to stop eating them, though.

bank holidays: no joking around

Given that I can't keep up with any of the other trips (large or small) and associated pictures that require posting for your viewing pleasure...I thought another trip away to pile on the picture-posting stress would be a good idea.

Seriously though...a(nother) trip to Ireland is around the corner! Mick and Abby and I are going to Northern Ireland for 4 days! Yes: I'm going to be on vacation with a 4 year old person. Nobody panic: I will have supervision!

What prompted me to share this bit of information with you, my dear reader, when I don't typically pre-share all of my other holiday plans? Well, because it seems the British don't kid around with their holidays, and that makes me chuckle a little bit.

Almost all my friends here and several work colleagues (total English phrase I can't not use) are all fleeing the immediate area for the bank holiday this coming Monday (thus creating a 3-day weekend trip, at the least). If some of us weren't going to other parts of the UK, I'd be nervous that there would be a mass exodus of the entire country, leaving nobody to watch the cricket matches! Oh wait...nobody watches those anyway.

a few pictures

There are heaps of photos I'm working through to post an album of Houston, LA, Christchurch and Edinburgh sometime soon.

However, for now I offer a few random snapshots...because something is better than nothing, right?

Mick loves trucks...and they are EVERYWHERE in Texas. Yeehaw!


Obligatory stop in Houston for boots and a hat. Yes, we're at "Boot Town".


Mick's mom (mum) in Christchurch with tiger-faced Abby. don't you LOVE her dress?!


The fam (L to R): Abby, Mick, Nanny Ruby, Margaret, Barry.


Beach huts along the quay in Mudeford (near Christchurch).


View from Mudeford toward the Isle of Wight.


Heather "accepts" a flyer for a Fringe show in Edinburgh.


Ensign Ewart pub...this one's just for Kelly. :)


I guess the Cow Parade came through Scotland as well...?


And finally, one for all my punny friends...a souvenir shop in Edinburgh.

return...with a guest blogger

Ladies and Gentlemen,

After a season of relative silence, I offer a return to the blogging world by way of a guest post courtesy of my Mick. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dovie asked me to do something about this photo for her blog ages ago…apologies for the delay…even though you didn’t know there had been one until just now.

A couple of years ago I was watching a news report that had something to do with Canterbury Cathedral. I really can’t remember what it was, and to be honest it really doesn’t matter. The news reporter was standing at the bottom of this flight of old and worn stone steps while saying his bit to the camera.

For some reason the thought struck me that these steps were a symbol of hope. When the steps were first put in place they would have had sharp square edges and have been completely smooth and flat. The thought of changing the shape of those hard stone steps simply by walking on them would have seemed ridiculous. Yet hundreds of years later, thousands of feet have walked up and down those steps and slowly over those centuries the shape of the steps has changed.

Sometimes I look at situations that seem just too vast for me to realistically expect any significant change. It’s at times like that when I need to remember the steps, remember my God and faithfully play my part.

Dovie and I went to Canterbury Cathedral earlier this year and walked up and down those same steps. We took this picture as a reminder of hope.