ANNOUNCEMENT!

I've been holding myself down by the throat with this, awaiting all needed confirmations, but now I can TELL YOU: My Lovely Mother and I will be journeying 'across the pond' in July, to ENGLAND!!! I've been so excited that I can't make myself focus -- studio? pffft. Dishes? yea, right. Laundry? waz ees laundry?

No no, rather, I'm just twirling through the house, sitting on my patio roost with my left brain off frolicking in other people's flower beds while I fantasize with delight about where we'll go and what we'll do. We have long-time family friends there with whom we'll be staying -- myself with a wonderful couple in Sheffield, and My Lovely Mother in Manchester with her host from her last visit (who also met us in Paris, and again in Italy, and joined our gallivanting there).

We are presently putting together our MUST DO list. We've already made arrangements to:
1. stay at The Mount Guest House in Portinscale, Keswick [in the Lake Country] for 2 nights and 3 days, to visit the home of Beatrix Potter, to meander through green fields, down to the water, to sketch and walk and write and nap with our backs against REAL (as opposed to palm) trees ... (are you picturing the soaring endless grasses from Sense and Sensibility? Well, I am!)
2. Visit Chatsworth House, home to the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana.
3. And a trip to York is under discussion.

Other than that, I've only asked for three things:

1. Fish and Chips
2. English tea with scones
3. A visit to an old graveyard where I can shoot pictures of patina'd statuary

My bros, the twins, lived in England for a period of time, and have also commanded me to have a pint in their honor at a pub near my hosts' home in Sheffield. I'm looking forward to that as well.

We aren't doing any sort of mad galloping dashes. My Lovely Mother and I are both the type of travellers who prefer to do something one day, then take the next to sit with our friends (new or old), talking, sipping coffee, preparing a meal together, relaxing, in order to allow us to THINK about what we saw, talk about it, absorb it, really appreciate it.