‘About time for KC to bring her brood across the pond.

I MISS you and wish you were here.

After driving over Hill and Dale (and some of this area is called “the Dales” known for country wandering) we came upon the city of Harrigate.  It is a good size, victorian, home to an Air Force Base as well as a large radar installation (Huge Golf Balls detecting anything and everything in the entire W. Hemisphere).

We were hoping to meet up with a JAG officer just assigned to the area and pass on a hug from his RB mother, but we didn’t connect.  Beautiful flower beds, shops and a deeeelightful lunch at ” The Slug and Lettuce” restaurant (I didn’t have a salad, I had cottage pie and a strawberry cider).

The first is an outline of rock walls and crumbling arches that defines a very sophisticated community of friars near the river Whalley.

The second was a decayed structure which was half in ruins and half restored and has been in continual use for 850 years as a vibrant church community.  

They were both in awesome surroundings and a real testament to faith through the ages.

But this is the Abby that means the most to me  :)

Just kidding, it is not Westminster Abbey that I feel most fond for, but my diva of a grandaughter (andy the editor’s words):

Picture rolling lush green hills, dotted with fluffy sheep and frolicking lambs, stack stone fences and corner pubs, steak and kidney pie, and puddings, pints and pubs. “oh to be in England, now that spring is here (name that author).”

Daffodils line every lane and drizzle freshens each morning.  Tho’ we still bundle up as it’s in the 40′s and 50′s, inside it is cozy and the aromas of Karls cooking warms the soul.

Hoping to help Gail during her (English) Mothers’ Day rush,we found we were of most help staying out of her way in the teeny flower shop. Steve was a “runner” for some deliveries  but we depended on Karl to show us more of his neck of the woods.

What I enjoyed was the art, the history, the snow, the overnight train, the friends, the metro stations, and the cleanliness.

What I  won’t miss is is being cold, the incomprehensible language with 33 letters in their alphabet, the smokey public areas, the food, traffic with no pedestrian rights, the pushing, the lack of smiles, the omnipresent police/military.

So here we go…on to the next chapter!

It was one year ago today that we left for Manchester on our way to Volvo and Montalcino. This week’s trip will be to the Open Air Market in Little Italy on Saturday to replenish oils, spices, and memories. Bene, molto bene.

We returned home with some inklings that all was not normal, so doctor appointments started lining up. Sonagram, pap,biopsy, specialists, waiting, and then the day you have a date with an oncologist. How do you be cheerful as you walk in that door, the one at the very end of that long hallway?

But just like the adventures in Europe, the doctors, nurse-practitioner, staff and volunteers at Scripps-Mercy Hospital, Scripps-Green and RB joined with all my friends and family to hold me up in prayer. Betty and Mary and Andy babysat me after surgery, Donna cooked and Steve e-mailed updates. I was so loved and cared for that fear NEVER had a chance to take hold. Radiation zapped some strength, but not the knowledge that God loved me and had placed me amongst the most wonderful people in the entire world.

I need to get a map with some bright pins to mark all those special destinations I hold in my heart. Just not sure where to put the trip to cancer pin, cause  I don’t want to forget it…it too became a good memory.

We have had such a marvelous time here…it’s become safe haven for us, but it is time for the BIG ADVENTURE

Designing Woman

Gail Usher

• Shop Owner
• Newly Elected Chamber  of Trade President (by a landslide)
• New Rotarian
• Hollies Fan
• Good Friend
• Devoted Daughter, Sister, Mother, Confidant, Girlfriend.

Gail is THE designing force behind all that is good and creative in Barnoldswick! 

And right now she is one tired puppy, having survived yet another Mothers’ Day in England. Heading up a staff of 8, she served the community and handled 450 orders on Saturday and nearly 100 on Sunday (all while being hostess to two foreigners from across the pond).

Cousins

Carol and Chris Howarth live in Barnoldswick, they  have one son Warren, who is married to Michelle and they are parents to Owen! ( are you with me so far?) Carol and my Dad are cousins: my Dad’s mother (Marion Mc Nabb Fear)  is half sister to Carol’s dad, Sam(Nice). That makes us related! They are also the ones who introduced us to Gail (her favorite florist) when we were here 6 years ago. . . and the rest is history.

We have fallen in LOVE with Owen; rosy cheeks, blue eyes, spikey hair…and he even comes with the cutes accent. And his favorite sport is golf.  Owen turns 4 in May.

Owen