|
You are on Page 6.
This page updated |
||||
|
Go to Page:
|
||||
|
6
|
||||
 |
 |
| Hurrah! The long awaited birth of Mrs. Duck's ducklings has happened. She had been sitting in a fallen down tree trunk for over a month, leaving her nest about twice a day and coming to me to be fed. Now she has presented me with her brood. I photographed her April 3, the ducklings one day old. The photo on the right is along the scenic Dorset coast at Lulworth Cove taken Sunday 30, 2003. It was somewhat windy but bright and sunny. Guy took this photo. |
| March 27, 2003 Birthday and preparations for Guy |
| Still have a slight cough. Seems these bugs get around and stay with you. I've spent the last week and half preparing a vacation package for Guy and myself. Well his birthday was March 20 and I forgot to send a card I was so deep in with my assignment. You see Guy will be arriving here in England Saturday the 29 and I want to have special things arranged for him (and me) to do! That's why I am not online as much these days, and also because I have been busy tutoring. I have accepted a post as a committee member of the Winchester U3A on Tuesday. I will receive my assignment this Monday. The Winchester branch of the U3A has nearly 500 members all of whom are retired. Through my membership in this group I have met many wonderful, intelligent and personable 'retirees' giving me a social outlet and I contribute with tutoring a group on the Mac computer. I have taught in the past, enjoy teaching, and am following a family history of teachers. For the next couple of weeks I will be spending my hours with my husband. Time is precious, this world has been changing rapidly and nothing can be taken for granted. I would hope that the war will be over soon, being in England I hear mostly the British side of the equation, but I do believe that most people can't understand why the U.S. was so determined to strike a country that has not striked them. I know one thing, it is costing us BIG bucks and I wonder where the money is coming from and wouldn't it be better spent on the US citizens in our country, for education, for boosting the economy, for furthering good will and so many other ways? |
| March 17, 2003 Happy St. Patrick's Day and I Saw the QUEEN |
Another cold gets a hold of me. It must have creeped up on me Friday as I felt very tired by the end of the day. I had been doing physical work, and rushing about to meetings trying to return in time to release my car to the new purchaser (I had sold it the week before). Anyway, Saturday as well as Friday were brilliant sunny days. I spent both running errands, Saturday rode my bicycle twice into town. I'm planning for Guy's arrival here in two weeks, trying to figure out our schedule.  Mostly juggling balls as we say. I needed to 'escape' someplace Sunday just to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather and begin to see some of England I've been meaning to see but haven't yet. I left about 7:45 am to the Dorset coast, Lulworth cove to be exact and to walk part of the extensive Dorset coastal path which stretches above the ocean along the massive chalk and fossil laden cliffs. I went alone, and had mapped out the directions the night before. I hiked a couple of hours, some very steep paths but all very accessible and well used. Wow, my hip joints are sore! This is a lovely place to walk and take a picnic. You can bring your dog and you can also hike down to the beach. I have put a couple photos above to show you how beautiful the area is. I hope to come back for a longer walk, bring a picnic lunch and this time with GUY!At left, when I saw the Queen at the Cheltenham Gold Cup day race March 13, 2003. |
| March 4, 2003 Time to write what's been happening. |
| I am about to catch up with this page. It seems a long time since I have written on this page of my personal experiences. This past weekend was one of horse trials. My near 21 year old mare left my (Her) home to go live with my sister-in-law and become the first horse for my niece Nicole. This is a temporary situation for this year only, nevertheless, I sure felt the strain of knowing 'my baby' was leaving my home. It appears she is settling in fine and will get lots of love and attention while I am away from Nicole and Leslie. That same day, rather evening, I got word that my stallion Sammy colicked. It was not what I wished to read in an email I received early Sunday morning but thankfully under the quick action of his lease owner Cliff, Sammy has returned to his normal self, and I am breathing a sigh of relief. Aside from the horse dramas, I have had a few issues here to deal with. You might have read about my mail being messed up. Well this week I have been preparing my car for sale as I have purchased a 1994 Renault belonging to the gardener here, who has himself purchased a newer 2002 Renault. So I have now a much nicer vehicle but I'm trying now to sell a car which is not one in demand, as it is a 1989 Nissan. (Cars of this age are lucky to fetch about $750). So meanwhile I am fielding calls and transferring title, insurance etc while persisting to ride my bicycle because the larger car uses more gas, whereas the bicycle doesn't! Plus I need to keep in shape. I've also had just this past week a visit from my 'cousin' and his wife. I have not seen him in over 10 years so I was very excited to know they would be in London for a week. I went to London on the train Thursday to spend the day with them. We met at the Tate Gallery and after a fine dim sum Chinese meal in Chinatown, we then went to the British Library. I invited them to come to stay with me in the countryside so on Firday they arrived via the coach to Winchester. On Saturday I took them to Salisbury, we walked around and viewed the Cathedral. Then I drove them to stonehenge, a quick look around and a few photos then back into the car northward to Avesbury a village that is surrounded by many similar neolithic stones like Stonehenge, only they are in circular patterns throughout the town and nearby hillsides. The weather turned cold, windy and rainy so we returned home. They had to fly home to California early Sunday morning so that was my week. I have been giving more of my time to tutoring seniors on the Macintosh computer which has been rewarding. Through my membership in the U3A I have met many interesting retired people and have become more involved with the social groups and historical interests groups. I hope to get back into painting and writing as times goes on. |
| March 3, 2003 Mail sent to the UK address during Jan. 27 - Feb. 28 has all been returned to sender!! |
| BIG HORRIBLE MISTAKE! I returned to my UK address in January not knowing that the normal postal carrier was on holiday. For nearly a month, all my mail came as expected. But when the usual postal carrier returned, he didn't know I had returned and took it upon himself to place a 'kill' order on my mail and have it all returned to sender. He didn't inform me, he didn't even check to see if I was in residence, he just had all my mail sent back. So I stopped receiving mail about the beginning of February. I called after the 2nd week of no mail and after I met a friend who said they had mailed me a check which I didn't receive. The post office assured me nothing abnormal has occurred and that I had the same carriers as before. But when a further week went by, and my husband's Global priority pacakge from the US did not arrive, I knew there was a big problem. Also several other important pieces of mail did not arrive like my car insurance documents and a large payment coming from London. Upon contacting the PO again, it was discovered that the carrier had placed this kill order but that all my mail would have been returned to sender. I don't think the people who sent mail have received it back. I believe it has all been destroyed. If you sent me something during this time period, I would not have received it and would not even know what it was that you sent. Please contact me about what you sent that would be now perhaps destroyed (or returned so they tell me!?!). I do apologize for not finding out sooner what the post office was up to, even though upon my first inquiry I was told nothing had changed from the usual. |
| Feb. 2, 2003 Building our European base |
| First off, I'm over my sickness! I'm happy to say as many other people have been catching colds that have lasted longer than me. Our European Base: Many of you may be unaware that I was born in Hampshire, England. My mother is English and so half of my ancestry is here in this country. My maternal grandparents were very important in forming my love of horses as I spent many of my childhood summers visiting my grandparents and riding horses in the Hampshire New Forest. Although I emigrated to the U.S. as a baby, and spent my life growing up an American, and vieew myself as an American, I am now returning to my established roots here in my birth country. There is no reason to ask why I am here as I 'belong' here! Furthermore, with the growth of Europe, its combined economy and shared single unit of currency (the EURO) many American companies are investing in this future growth, myself included. Being born in Great Britain, and GB being a part of the European Union, I can legally work and live in any country that is part of the European Union. I can set up shop in France, Spain, Greece, or Italy to name a few of those countries, however, because of my family connection to England, I have decided to establish my European base here allowing me to have contact with my English family. My husband Guy, whose ancestry is part English, part German, also sees the benefits of this growing global economy here in Europe and has encouraged me to establish our business here. This is not to say I view my American Crabbet customers any less important, no way, it is to say that I am ernestly trying to spread the benefits of my contacts in the Crabbet world to further horizons. The world is shrinking. We can more easily contact one another, airfares have come down, our communications via technology have jumped into warp speed, but it is still we as 'people' with faces and voices that form strong bonds and friendships. I hope I can further these friendships, connect the dots as it were, and spread the love and growth of our beloved Crabbet influence Arabians through my presence here in Europe. |
| Jan. 20, 2003 My New Year could have been more healthy |
| A week of being sick and coughing. I'm sorry to be so remiss in updating much. I had returned to England Jan. 9 and on the 10th I began my move. Moving is not fun, and luckily I did have help. The day before I arrived to England, there was snow in London. Unusual I am told, however, I was arriving from sunny 74 degree Los Angeles, so my body wasn't prepared for that much change. Also with time zone changes and the move, I think it was a given that I would catch a cold. This past week has been awful as I haven't much energy to unpack what was moved, and the more I try to recover the lack of sleep and changes in my body have not been pleasant. Let it said I had little energy to do much of anything this past week. I have many emails to catch up on and locating some things that were packed is also taking more time than I'd like. Hopefully you all have had no trouble with the new year ticking over and have stayed healthy. Should I throw in that I am missing my husband, family, dog, horse and home??? |
| Dec. 30, 2002 Monday night football and HAPPY NEW YEAR! |
| My husband is a '9'er' fan, meaning he loves the San Francisco 49'ers. I happen to be a Rams Fan, since they used to be the Los Angeles Rams. Most of you should know, they are BIG RIVALS! Tonight they are playing each other. My husband informs me he will be absorbed watching his team kick my team's butt. I understand. I used to love to watch football, played it myself all the time years ago. He tells me the Rams are using their 4th string quarterback. I watch as I eat my dinner of salad with left over Christmas turkey meat. He is enjoying a toasted turkey sandwich with avocado. My team will end up losing, and they are out of contention (so I am continually reminded). How I love being home and watching (American) football! I've had a drink of Gerwurztraminer wine with my salad. Soon I am yelling at my lame team saying "duck, run the other way, get a real job" and so forth. But I am having fun. Before this I was packing boxes to take to England and baking a coffee cake for Guy. Before that I was answering emails and running diagnostics on my laptop. Before that Guy and I went to Vancouver WA so that I could have a haircut and we ate Thai food at our favorite Thai restaurant. The owner remembers me, and says, "Are you still in England?" I enjoy eating with chopsticks and tasting my special meal with spring rolls. Soon I must send out invoices on web ads that have gone without payment. Soon I will have to format an ad for the Arabian Link magazine. Soon I will have to move my IRA accounts and tear down our Christmas tree. But now, I am enjoying being at home with Guy, being myself (that is SO wonderful). The rain we've had today made it rather a miserable day to be out. I couldn't walk Kona this morning. She was disappointed. Thankfully I rode Phoebe yesterday. Life is good. Happy new year to all my friends. |
| Dec. 22, 2002 Website is maxed out! |
| My website has reached the limit of space to the plan I signed up for. I have been researching where to move my site to a host that offers more space and less cost. Because of this 'mexed' out status, I will move shortly so I am not charged a higher rate for going over my space limit. The website takes a lot of time, for which I earn a modest amount. I hope for more advertising on this website to help with the costs. Currently I have $16 in my busines checking account. This is typical for the end of the year and for paying fees, permits and subscriptions to the internet hosts. On the home front, I've been busy cleaning out my office and sorting out things that Guy had no idea what to do with. We are all very happy to have Guy's attnetion to my business these past 2 years while I have been in England. He works full time and is very taxed by the time he gets home, so doing more work that he is not used to doing, proves how devoted he is to me and my work. THANK YOU GUY! We are now decorating for Christmas, albeit a bit late, and I then I will be baking that turkey in a couple days time. I've already been making apple pies from our own apple trees and spoiling Phoebe my horse with lots of left over apples. I've got 4 weeks to organize what hasn't been done in the last 2 years and then also organize for the next year. It isn't enough time that's for sure. For those of you asking about the Pure Crabbet Directory it will not be all inclusive. This means I will not be able to put all the entries I have received, as space and cost dictates what fits. I will be printing it out with some ads to offset costs. This next year depends a lot on how much advertising support I receive to complete all the projects I have in store. Please tell everyone you know that 2003 is the time to stand up and be included here. |
| Dec. 15, 2002 Birthday and back Home at last |
| I can't believe how fast my time is going! After Thanksgiving I flew home to Washington state to be greeted by my husband Guy. It was SOOO good to be home at last! We celebrated another birthday for me. After a delicious meal at Outback steak house, we went to see the new James Bond movie. Very entertaining. During the day I have been organizing our home, trying to get my 2003 business projections in order and going through months of paperwork Guy has left for me. I'm cooking, yes, I am happy to be cooking for him. and . Of course Guy and I are sharing as much quality time together as we can as I will be back to England in January. I've also ridden my horse Phoebe who is very rotund in shape due to lack of exercise. We had good weather for the first week back at home, but now the rain has come for the last 5 days. However it is very warm here, like in the mid-50s and even at night it's warm. We went to Guy's company Xmas party last night and the temperature on the way home was 51F. We are not expecting any snow at this rate. I've been exercising my dog Kona each morning walking her for 2 miles up and down our hilly road. I have also gone to my former workplace at the Columbian newspaper to visit my friends there and talk about the Crabbet Convention, the reason why I left my job there two years ago. If you are reading this, you might now know that I intend to have a busy 2003 with several printed projects. The groundwork is being laid now. |
| Dec. 1, 2002 Shop till you Drop! |
| I spent Friday after Thanksgiving and Saturday amongst the throngs of Christmas shoppers. Friday I left the house at 7:45am and managed to survive the crowds at the department stores. Saturday my highschool friend Anita Chang picked me up and took me to this huge mall called Ontario Mills (see their website). There were 6 of us piled into Anita's sister's van and we hit the ground running. I must admit, I am not a big shopper, and being in England this year on a very limited budget I couldn't buy myself things anyway, but I've gotten myself some clothes and shoes now as well as Christmas gifts for my family. Hey, I'm helping to stimulate the economy. I even bought a small toy off of Ebay (internet auction site). I'm still in Los Angeles with my parents. I'm using my Dad's computer to surf and answer my emails as my computer doesn't want to send out, only receive emails. We are going to do some diagnosing on the cause later today. I've discovered that my DVD player on this laptop also is not operating. Guess it's been awhile since I tried to play a DVD. That was before I had all those computer crashes in May of this year. I'm redesigning several pages on this website in between family obligations. Problem is working here I don't have all my tools at present and my parents have 2 cats indoors, to which I am allergic. I have to get out of the house every few hours to spell myself. Hope you all had a great 4 day Thanksgiving holiday. |
| Nov. 27, 2002 The Day Before Turkey Day |
| The grocery stores are crowded with Thanksgiving shoppers. My parents and I went once already to buy a turkey, 24#s. My brother's family and my sister's family will come here to my parents to have Thanksgiving meal. Sunday my other sister and her children will come here. Today my folks and I will venture out to get all the rest of the shopping. I'm not looking forward to it only because of the crowds. I do love seeing all the Thanksgiving pieces, the nuts, pies, yams, marshmallows, wine, potatoes, turkeys, cranberries, rolls and hams. Yes, it's almost time to stuff your face, regret it the next day, but be thankful for having family and life in order to enjoy it all. We are all very blessed and this time of the year is when we take stock, assess how truly fortunate we are, and give THANKS. Kiss your children, parents, and loved ones. I wish all my American friends out there a wonderful Thanksgiving week. The rest of you reading this who are not American, please do know I give thanks for having you in my life also. |
| Nov. 22, 2002 Arrived in sunny Los Angeles |
| It's great to see the sunshine. My flight to Los Angeles from Heathrow was very smooth and uneventful. The long plane trip afforded me some time to look through a fashion magazine. I actually don't ever look through one until I take a long trip. My I've learned a lot about how to hostess a Christmas party, so maybe I should have one. Anyway, when I was waiting on the curb at LAX for my parents to collect me, I noticed how large the cars seem here, and so many new shiny ones. I guess that's because I'm in LA where people like to drive cars as a fashion statement. One lovely Jaguar pulled up and on the license plate it said SWTLOVE but the O was actually a red heart. How do they get to have a red heart in their license plate? Then after my parents came, on the freeway home to their house, we followed a white van with the license DIRTBAG. Why would anyone want to have a personalized plate saying that? It was all rather humorous and slightly surreal, but that's LA for you. |
| Nov. 21, 2002 Will be in my Home and US office in Battle Ground all through December |
| Traveling back to the US for the Holiday season. I'm all over the place, packing for my trip back to the US on Friday 22nd. Also I have been tutoring a retired couple on their Mac computers so they can survive until I come back, that takes time. I've have been franatically writing Christmas cards to my English family and friends to post before I leave the UK. Sleep? not much, can't seem to rest my brain or body. Oh well soon to be on US soil in Los Angeles, must be warmer than here! Look below as I have added some photos from our recent trip to Normandy France. |
| Nov. 3, 2002. Where have I been and why? |
What have I been doing, where have I been, you might wonder. As you know, writing takes not just time, but one has to have the creative juices flowing, without interruption, and with thoughts collected. I have not had these conditions for quite some time. I have been extremely frantic prior to the Convention, then following it, I have had exhaustion and depression, the event took its toil on me in more ways than you will know. Then delightfully before I got too sullen, my husband Guy arrived Oct. 2 and he spent most of the month with me. This allowed me to direct my interests towards ourselves and shared activities. We discussed our respective careers, home life, future plans and of course managed to get some sight seeing in as well as visit family here in the UK. He was on sabbatical from work, and I too shared time away from my computer. I do apologize to many of you who wrote to me and have not received answers in due course. I am still catching up. I have also had to update and secure computer documents to give to Guy to bring back to the US for safe keeping.
While he was here we managed to take a trip to France. Guy had wanted to see the D-Day beaches and tour the memorials and battle sites. I just wanted to get away with him, but my lesson in WWII history was sharpened immensely by this trip. We have our close family friends to thank for the trip, John and Mary Griffin, who have known me since I was born, not far from where they are currently living in Southampton. They have a house in Le Vey, in the 'Swisse Normandie' area of Normany near the river Orne (see picture right).
Now that my 'head' has begun to slide into that familiar groove called 'The Crabbet Habit' I am preparing my 2003 projects with excitement. I am also writing down ideas that seem to be flowing non-stop. How to make them all become a reality is always the problem as I am virtually a 'one-man band.' You who read this are my invisible 'companions.' Hearing from you shows me that we are all in this together, and that you depend on whatever I manage to accomplish on the behalf of our Crabbet Arabians.
|
There we enjoyed French food, (picture left) and viewed the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the Battle of Hastings 1066. We visited the D-Day beaches of Juno and Omaha, to Arromanches where the Allies built a huge harbor and pier to transport equipment ashore. I had no idea. We walked on Omaha beach and peered into the German pill box fortress (pictured below) on the shore. We visited Falaise and eeriely walked down the 'corridor of death' where the Germans were pinned while trying to cross a ford in the river during a retreat. John took us to the museum in Caen, an excellent modern museum filled with war photos, artifacts and film. We also managed to stop at Pegasus Bridge where the Allied gliders overtook the Germans and secured this important thoroughfare.
|
This page updated
|
||||
|
Go to Page:
|
||||
|
6
|
||||
Classifieds | Greener Pastures | Links | Books for sale | Order Form | Items for Sale
Last Modified
Copyright 1996-2007 Silver Monarch Publishing All Rights Reserved