The Ciel Show

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Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Even as I bask in the Colorado sunshine

and revel in the 'getting things done' energy that follows a return home--cleaning and re-organizing my bedroom and closet, getting more items ready for the DressUp Box, running errands... I have set up the next flight to England. Son-in-law will be away for 2 weeks in mid-March, and so I am heading back to help out. It isn't that my daughter can't handle the single parenting--By then, I am pretty sure she will be comfortable with it--but... another 2 weeks in England, hangin' with my younger... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, January 30, 2017

It feels like Monday

I know, it is Monday... but I usually don't know what day it is, and Mondays are like other days except I can get to business stuff that wasn't an option over the weekend. But for a lot of people, it's like Jet-lag day. Maybe we should just call it Jetlagday. When I wake up at 3am Mountain time, it is like having slept in to 10am England time, and for a while my brain works and there is energy and drive to get things done. And then... by 3pm MT, I am done. I suppose it will take a few more days... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Sunny first morning home

Three weeks away isn't really that long, but it sure feels like it! Just as being there with the little family in Lancashire felt like being there all the time. "Now" is a funny thing that way... But in three weeks, of course I can miss my cat, and miss things like warmish temps in winter (at the moment) and sunny sunrises! It was winter-grey and damp and rainy and cold in England, with a couple of really pleasant weather days. I didn't mind--it's part of the England experience. But I'm sure... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Of exhausted Teddies

As I've boasted before, I have no television connection at home, only getting shows and movies through Netflix. They ought to add a category for game shows, I'm thinking. ANTIQUE ROAD TRIP is sort of a game show: two antique experts drive around the UK purchasing whatever they think will sell well at auction. Each starts the trip with 200 pounds, and tries to make a profit when each show ends with an auction. The viewers get to see them through the hunt and sale, the competition being to end up... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunny day!

Not only sunny, but relatively warm, ~10C today! This afternoon was a good time to go back down to the ruins of the Walley Abbey to take a few new pictures. They are in the process of uploading to flickr even now, to join the shots of last night's sunset and some of this afternoon's Golden Hour, looking across the Ribble Valley towards Stonyhurst College and Longridge Fell. Wee Elsa is 6 weeks old now, beginning to notice things that require looking at, to make eye contact--especially with... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Foodstuff

We drove to Blackburn today to visit the shopping mall where there's a photo store where Elsa's passport photo could be taken. Of course, by the time she needs it, several months from now, she will look quite different. She might, for example, have hair by then. But, yes, she will need it to come to the US. For several reasons, they've decided to move back to the US, the most important being so that Daddy can spend more time at home and less time traveling through the skies for his work. We... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Thursday morning

It was dark when I woke really hungry just before 7am, and the cats wanted to go out, and one of the dogs, but at least one of the cats doesn't get to go out at night in the dark, so I wasn't so sure about a pre-dawn excursion. Hollering at the dogs with gleeful intonations about Going Out! also seemed a bad idea: let sleeping babies lie! So I made a bit of breakfast, and came back to bed and laptop. An hour and a half later, it is a grey morning, layers of cloud and mist hover over the vales of... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Morning note...

We are bound off to Oswaldtwistle this morning, where Mummy and Baby have a baby yoga class, and I'm told there is an interesting market to explore. My camera has gone powerless, and I'm still in search of an adapter for the US plug to fit the UK sockets. I thought one would be here as it was on my last visit. Frustrating that there is not, nor did the Homebase store I went into yesterday stock the US to English adapter. Amazon will deliver one in the next day or so, but until then, and... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Getting about

It is predictable that this squally creature will sleep in the car... for the time being. We who have been parents of small babies know that this phase will not last long, and that it will become more and more challenging to go out with Baby. Today was a grocery shopping expedition with lunch, and tomorrow perhaps we will go to a castle called Skipton. We do go for a bit of road trip when the weather allows--not when there is likely to be ice or snow, naturally, but when roads are merely wet.... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

being grandma

Infants cry a lot. Well, they squall and rage and twist their sweet little faces into gargoyle visages, having not yet learned what comes between serenity and protest. I remember how, as the mom, my tension over the noise of discomforts and outrages fed into the cycle, everyone's anxiety increasing as attempts to calm always seemed to fall short. I see this in my daughter's struggling with her baby's unhappy moments--some of which go on for a considerable time! A mother suffering from sleep... Sign in to see full entry.

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