Auditioning Shoes for England

As you read this, I will be touring Merry Old England! I have always liked why my college history professor said about England. He always referred to it as “The Mother Country”. One of the students asked another “What part of England is Dr. Smith from?”. The other answered wryly “Mobile”, which of course, is in our own rural Southwest Alabama. Along with Dr. Smith, I have always been something of an Anglophile. I love all things British. Team, hot, not the sweet tea that has been called the table wine of the South. Okay, I admit it, I make the tea hot in the morning to drink at the start of the day, but in the afternoon, I pour the leftover tea into a big glass of crushed ice. I don’t sweeten it, though. Really sweet tea sets my teeth on edge! I’m really looking forward to drinking tea with the locals over there.

I have made up my mind not to buy many souvenirs. The pound is made up of two dollars, which means everything costs twice as much. I learned a shopping lesson in Italy, a few years back. I debated hard about whether to buy this beautiful pottery pasta bowl. I was afraid I would break in on the way home. I didn’t buy it. I came back to the US and found a very similar one by the Italian pottery maker at a local discount chain. It was less than half the price of what it would have been in Italy. I plan to try to buy some tea that I can’t get at home. I may treat myself to a scarf or something easy to bring back. I have learned that if your bag (we are only allowed one) weighs one pound over 50lbs, we’ll have to pay $150. That will cut down on your buying quick! My everyday china is by Portmeirion, an English company. I can get all I want of it at the same discount store I bought the Italian bowl at. I’ll let you know how well I stuck to plan when I get back,

As I write this, I should be packing. My clothes are lying next to the suitcase for editing. I know that I am limited on what I can put in my 1 suitcase. I will debate with myself the rest of the night about what to take. Everybody tells me it will be damp and chilly, so I am planning accordingly. I am going to layer my clothes. The one thing that I know for sure about my wardrobe is that I will be taking two pair of the most comfortable shoes I own. I have been auditioning shoes for months to find the best candidates. Believe me, it was not a beauty contest. Neither pair is very pretty, but they make my feet feel well cared for. I promised my feet long ago, that I’d never do anything to hurt them again! If my feet are warm, I’m warm all over. If my feet are not hurting, I can walk many miles. My goal is to see everything I can in the short eight days allotted to the trip. I am going with friends that I have traveled with before, so I know we’ll be a congenial group. The only place I anticipate any trouble is try to drag my dear friend into an Indian restaurant. My daughter has traveled to England a number of times and says that the best food is the Indian food. There are a lot Indian restaurants because of its being an English colony for so long. Nobody has anything nice to say about English food except the pub food. I love to eat. I am like an army, I travel on my stomach.

The one thing I must do while I am there is to have a high tea somewhere. I love to go the Windsor Court, the English hotel in New Orleans for tea. I feel so elegant eating the frilly food served on those pretty little stands while harp music is being played in the background. Another thing on my MUST SEE list is the food hall at Harrods, which I understand cover several floors. There is bound to be something special amongst all those. Anther on the list is the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.
We’ll also be making excursion to Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury, Windsor and a very long day trip to Paris via the Chunnel (the tunnel that runs under the English Channel). We leave at 4:30 am for that, but some things are worth it.

I can’t begin to predict how things will go, but I can predict one thing – I’ll be wearing comfortable shoes. The two pair that made the cut will assure me of that!

I love living in rural Southwest Alabama. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see the world. I must admit, though, it is hard to leave now that the cold has gone away  and I can sit on the porch. A neighbor and I enjoyed wine on the porch last night. I’ll have the rest of my life to do that, Going on this trip will give me some new stories to tell on the porch.

Weather Looking Up!

It’s grey, cloudy and warm! I love it! I’m back on the porch which is where I belong, not huddled by the fireside. As one of my friends said yesterday “If I had wanted to be this cold, I’d have moved to Vermont. This has been a weird, cold, not all together pleasant winter. The best thing I can say about it is that I’ve learned to build a mean fire! I have used almost two racks of wood in the process. That isn’t normal for rural Southwest Alabama! I live in a big old house that was designed for cool summer living. I do have insulation and storm windows, but there are still drafts I have to plug up. My heating bill hit the stratosphere this winter, as did everybody's that I have talked to. We got through it. Like Forrest Gump. That’s all I’ll say about that.

This week I’ve been able to get back on the porch. My wind chimes are kicking up a mighty tune because it is windy... but, hey, what else do we expect in March. I’ve had two meetings on the porch already this week. We’ve gone through a whole German stolen and a package of cookies – both procured from that local storehouse of the incredible – Dirt Cheap. You just never know what you might find there. I found a shipment of foreign baked goods. They had all kinds of holiday treats. They have upgraded my porch entertaining to a whole new level.

I don’t mind the cloudy weather a bit. I don’t even mind the stormy deluge I drove home from Montgomery in last night because I WASN”T COLD!! I hate it when I can’t enjoy the yard. I love the daffodils that are raising their frilly heads now. I love the camellias that brighten the landscape this time of year. I watch for the first roses to go on sale. I don’t like those prima donna tea roses that have to be petted. I like the heritage ki9nd that the settlers brought here from the colonies with the clippings stuck in a potato to keep them moist. There’s a historical fact for you. I often wonder about how the earlier generations did things. I just love to think of them riding in a wagon holding potatoes with rose cuttings. I have planted my first roses at the end of last month. I went to a lecture at the Rural Heritage Center on roses and the speaker told us that November was not too early to plant roses and that February was not too late. So why do they just go on sale now? I put them out anyway. My roses live, but in the past season droughts, they have not thrived. I did better last year because I bought some organic rabbit fertilizer locally from John Hall who raises rabbits. It is fine fertilizer and roses really love it. I’m going to buy more this year.

This time of the year, I love to walk around my yard and see which buds are swellings. When you see a lot of buds on the shrubs, it generally means that spring is just around the corner. I really love living in Rural Southwest Alabama where the growing season is so long. We enjoy flowers months longer than most parts of the country. My goal is to have something blooming at every season of the year. I’m getting there! All my life, I have been a flower picker. I just couldn’t resist picking flowers and making bouquets. It’s my way of celebrating life. If I’m at home, I’m going to have a bouquet in the living room. Right now the bouquet is daffodils and “Koss ME at the Gate” as my grandmothers called it. I think the pass-along plant name is winter honeysuckle. It smells loudly like the finest French floral fragrance.

I just hope that his is not a false alarm. I hope spring really is just around the corner. I think it must because the red maples are blooming along the roadsides. After them come redbuds, then dogwoods and finally the beautiful purple clusters of wisteria. It is beautiful alone the roadsides, but is scourge of my yard! I spend more time that I’d like to getting rid of it. I have an erstwhile gardener who works hard for me when he needs a few dollars. He spends a good deal of his time in jail (for not paying child support) or drinking. He is a very hard worker, He is not reliable about coming at specified times, so when he shows up, I let him work a few hours. He usually shows up on the weekends when he is short of cash at around 3 pm and works until dark. I take him when I can get him because plants seem to love him. I think he must have a good heart underneath all that liquor smell. If I let him borrow money, he will disappear for a few months until he thinks I’ve forgotten. I never let him borrow over a few dollars, so I don’t worry much about it. I take the gardening help where I can get it. I have a good friend who has turned her husband into a gardening helper. We jokingly call him “Leroy the yard boy”

I never dreamed I’d feel the pull to getting my hands in the dirt that I do this time of year. It’s like something is missing from my life if I ‘m not planting. Pulling weeds doesn’t evoke the same longing, but I’ll do that, too just to get my hands in the dirt. Welcome Sweet Spring Time to rural Southwest Alabama!