Hereford Cathedral

I have seen more cathedrals in the last 6 months than I have in my entire life.
All of the towns I have visited thus far have had at least one massively gorgeous cathedral for me to poke around in while my husband is off in boring meetings.
(I think I’m getting the better end of the bargain)

Anyway, business meetings were arranged in lovely Hereford and I cheerfully tagged along.

I was grateful to be accompanied by the best tour guide ever, the Hereford Cathedral cat.

Despite my lack of religious belief, I always light a candle for my Grandfathers who have passed.

An hour inside the cathedral and the weather has already gone cloudy!

Goodbye Hereford! xx

Aquae Sulis

Bath is a marvelous place. One of England’s most stunning treasures.
It is a city simply brimming with history.
Architecture. Gods and Goddesses.
Shadows and light bending around sculpture older than anything I’ll ever leave behind.

Here’s a miniature history lesson for you!

As Legend has it, Prince Bladud, who was afflicted with leprosy, was cured after bathing in these naturally occurring hot springs. In gratitude, he founded the City of Bath here in 863BC.
This Prince became the 9th King of the Britons and is also said to be the father of King Lear. (FANCY!)

In 43 AD the Romans conquered Bath and cultivated the city into a spa with temples and shrines to Sulis Minerva, Goddess of wisdom, healing, and sacred waters as well as Aesculopius god of medicine and healing.
The Roman bath houses are well preserved and incredibly beautiful.

And creepy (in the most excellent way).

I visited in October, just as the leaves were starting to take on Autumnal color.

Bath Abbey

Inside the Roman Baths

The calm waters…still protected by Sulis Minerva?

Love is abundant.

As is beauty. And my travels continue…. xx

Dreams of Devon

When I was a little girl, all I wanted was to be near the ocean.
I remember my step brother going to the beach when I was eight or nine years old, and begging him to bring me back a bottle filled with sand and sea water.
I think he had probably been to the beach 20 times in his life at that point, so he looked at me sort of funny.

Thankfully, he’s a sweet guy and a good brother, so he brought me my bottle.

I recall sitting alone in my room and holding this olive oil bottle full of microscopic specks of glittery sand and fuzzy water up to the window so the sunlight could work its magic.
The light streaming through the blinds gently illuminated every swirling golden grain, and I looked up in amazement at all of these sparkly little bits.

I had in my possession, an actual part of the ocean!

And then I started crying.

I’m not sure why exactly.

Probably because I just really wanted to see the ocean.

The idea of something so vast, so limitless, so anonymous… it really stirred my little baby heart.

Just put my feet in the water.
To sit on the shore and feel the frothy sea blanket crash over my legs…I guess these thoughts were simply more than I could handle.

Much to my disdain, we were not a family who took vacations and sadly, Tennessee is landlocked.

I was a teenager the first time I ever saw the sea with my very own eyes, and the love affair has never ended.

I have been to the beaches of Florida, California, Mexico, and South Carolina.

And now I can add Devon, England to my list.

Oh gorgeous Devon…

All this sea watching stimulated the appetite.

So Fish & Chips it was!

Very much what we had hoped for.

I decided to skip this stuff though…

I think this has been here since 1972…

But seriously, how cute is our little receipt?

There was also interesting literature next to the table…

No time for Wookey Holes or crazy helicopters with giant inflatable children’s heads…back to the beach with us!

It was nice to see something familiar… I also <3 Nashville!

The town was lovely as well. Full of swans and little bridges…

I feel so abundant and overflowing with gratitude these days. So many of my dreams have come true and continue to do so. I am full of love and creativity for the first time in more years than I can honestly place. I sincerely wish everyone I hold in my heart could bear witness to all these twinkling miracles I get to experience on a regular basis.
I’ve always tried to be a good person. An honest person. Sometimes I have achieved this and other times I haven’t lived up to my own expectations.
But I have always had good intentions. I have always wanted to do well by others and kept a deep pocket of dreams tucked inside my chest cavity in hopes that I might find a way to have them become a reality.
I never imagined that I would find a man who could share these dreams, who understood my crazy brain and my restless soul and my need for both absolute peace and riotous adventure.
A person who can love me for all my sass mouthing, my moods, my child-like frustration with how the world works. But having love like this softens you. It strengthens you. I feel like I have so much to give!
Truly, My fountain is full of joy and spilling over into the streets.
This world is a gift. To be traveled and marveled at, to be shocked and confused by. We are meant to see it all. The things that make us ache with laughter and feel nauseated with sadness. It causes us to value our time here. Until we are all back into the ground or out into the stratosphere.

I swear I’m not trying to preach.

I’m just really fucking happy. And I find that I fight this a lot. I fight being happy. Because I haven’t ever been open enough to feel it or be capable of handling it.

It’s safer to always be on the edge of the abyss.

I hope you will stick with me and get something delightful out of my little experiences in this oh so strange world.

I’m just starting to really live my life and it’s more than I could have ever dreamt for myself clutching that bottle of dirty sea water so many years ago.

xx

Richmond Park

Soooo… there is this park in London with lots of deer and they just run around and hang out and generally aren’t bothered by your presence.

I went there.

This is what I saw.

Enjoy!

I named this guy Admiral Chill pants. Cuz he don’t care.

That’s my hot husband looking hot in his leather in some nature. mmmm.

Big blue sky.

And my big smile. Twas a happy day.

xx

Tintern Abbey/Hot Husband

One of the delicious perks of snagging a hot British businessman is being able to tag along on the the awesome little business trips he takes. Quaint bed & breakfasts with gorgeous panoramic views of the picturesque green & grey countryside.

Fresh air.

SHEEP!

One of these trips happened to take us to lovely Wales where we bedded and breakfasted and took a tranquil stroll around the ruins of the Tintern Abbey.

Obviously I don’t need to convince you that Tintern Abbey is a thing of remarkable beauty and epic History.

Just use your eyes.

I mean, look at the damn thing.

Utterly breath-taking.

Pulling a door handle that is 881 years old sort of blows my mind.

And all the sweet little surprises reaching through the ancient cracks and crevices…

Magic and intrigue and ghosts from another time…

You just can’t help but be a sponge to this sort of thing.

And my shockingly handsome soul mate is quite easy on the eyes…

I could just stay here forever…

Alas, I must return to the city…

xx

http://www.castlewales.com/tintern.html

Exploring Chicago Post-wedding Part I

Shame on me. Always disappearing from this here blog world without even a warning or a friendly goodbye.
On top of that, I never even got around to posting all the Chicago food/art photographs that I promised I would! And now it’s January!
Seriously, shame shame shame!

Well, the only way to make up for it is by making up for it!

Chicago is just windy and busy enough to have provided me with the perfect training wheels for my big move to London.

Post wedding, we drove from Cleveland to Chicago to spend a lovely week with my brother-in-law & his wife and a couple of Simon’s friends from London (and I spent an additional week alone waiting for my belated marriage visa to arrive safely).

Here is my brother-in-law gleefully peering up the skirt of the infamous Marilyn Monroe statue in Chi-town.

The newlyweds atop the famous John Hancock tower.

The view from said tower:

It was REALLY high up and I was getting a little dizzy/clammy/panic-stricken…

I’m talking about REALLY HIGH.
When you go to the bathroom at the bar on the top floor the wall is simply a giant window so you step out of the stall feeling like you are about to topple over and directly out of it.
Which makes you feel queasy and generally uncertain about your safety.

So then we got some cocktails and everything seemed okay again…

Mandarin and Strawberry you-aren’t-going-to-die Martini

Long Island death-is-not-imminent Iced Tea

See? Feeling much better now!

And then we were starving.

We happened upon this little vegan gem a couple of blocks from our hotel in Boystown and gave it a whirl.

I’ve been trying to help my husband improve his eating habits (per his request) and I thought, what better way to show him how easy it is to eat healthy and not have meat or dairy in the equation?

The food we ordered was out of this world. Simply shockingly good.

Sweet Potato Quesadillas

The Rockin-Morroccan Veggie Bowl with fried tofu tower of freedom…okay I added that last bit…

UN-chicken sandwich

Wickedly decadent peanut butter parfait

And the guiltiest pleasure of all, the exquisite French Lavender steeped Lemonade

(Be careful with this lemonade as it is danger-zone level sweet and will give you a sugar crash like you have never before experienced)

My darling enjoying his coffee after our first Vegan feast as a married couple!

The thing is, I’m not vegan. I’m not even vegetarian. I prefer to eat vegan or vegetarian, and much of the time I do.
Basically, it’s not a priority for me at this point so I try to eat as plant based as humanly possible, but if I want a piece of salmon or a mango lhassi, by Jesus I’m gonna have it!

I was really and truly impressed with the level of service, knowledge, and care the staff at Native Foods displayed while we were there. Not to mention that the food was sensational and incredibly filling. It was also fairly pricey, but I felt that it was definitely worth the splurge (so much so that I went back two more times during my two week adventure in Chicago).

My husband was really impressed as well and it made me really happy to see a self proclaimed “Meat & Potatoes Brit” branch out and try something new and probably somewhat scary.

http://nativefoods.com/menu/

So, that being said, after we feasted it was time for some art!

My friend Nikki was nice enough to get us a couple of free passes to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Sometimes I love Modern Art…

(This was my favorite piece hands down! By Nick Cave no less!)

Sometimes I find it irrelevant and irritating…

But that’s one of the great things about going to art museums, you get a chance to explore how you prefer to see the world.

I apparently like mine filled with porcelain woodland creatures.

I also had the pleasure of visiting The Chicago Art Institute while I was stuck on my own the next week. I wish we had gone together! It was jaw-dropping.
Simply epic.
And I took a healthy amount of photos so get comfortable!

WASN’T THAT THE COOLEST? Le Sigh. I <3 Art.

Also, I was truly impressed with how well my camera did in all of the different parts of the museum, some rooms very very blue and bright, some were very dim and red…everything just came out splendidly!

Well, until the next post (sooner than later I PROMISE! SCOUTS HONOR) see you later! xx