Sunday, June 27, 2010

Europe Trip, part 6, Windsor!

Now for another installment of photos from Hannah and I's trip to Europe (London and Paris). Here are links to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5, if you haven't seen them already.

Today, photos from Windsor... the queen's "favorite weekend residence." We were all totally delighted with our (self-guided) tour of Windsor.

Windsor just seems to go on and on and on.... unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside of the castle, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The artwork and opulence were astounding.

A fabulous garden... in what once was the moat!

We arrived in time to catch the "changing of the guard." It was a much longer ceremony than I anticipated (all of 30 min).

With music too!

Some more floral elegance.... it was *everywhere*, it seemed.

On our way back to the train I had to pause and capture a bit of cobblestone history... just imagine all of the people who have trod this street!

Check out this little leaning restaurant! The crooked house of Windsor. Built in 1718. I suppose if I were that old I might have a bit of lean to me too!

I have one last post yet to come with photos from the Paris part of our trip.... hopefully later this week.

And, on the home front, we've been fully entrenched in summer here. Our oldest son Nate was home for almost a full delightful week on vacation from the Army (Ft. Benning, GA). We so thoroughly enjoyed our time with him. He totally doted on his siblings... taking them swimming and kayaking, playing ball in the backyard, playing card games. I enjoyed our late night talks.


Tom and I even took the older children and Nate to Worlds of Fun, an amusement park here in Kansas City. Tom and I's tickets were an anniversary gift from our oldest daughter Micah and her husband! Cool anniversary gift, huh? I hadn't been there since I was in high school. (which was, um, a few years ago!) Our main priority at the park was to ride the roller coasters as many times as possible. (I *love* roller coasters!) It was so hot (95 F.) that we had no wait in lines at all. So we were able to terrify ourselves to our heart's content.


We were all sad when it came time for Nate to return to his responsibilities as a chaplain's assistant. We do have fabulous memories from the past week and we can look forward to the next visit though.

This summer, although young, has already been punctuated with lots of bicycling and swimming. I *love* getting to live, fully-engaged with my family. Until I injured my hip last week Tom and I were running together too. (more on some things I am learning about running as a result of my injury soon)

Are you like me? When you embark on a new passion, do you tend to totally immerse yourself in that topic? My topic of late has been triathlon... swimming (*so* much to learn here), bicycling and running. It is never good enough for me to simply read one book... I am always compelled to completely deplete our public library system of each and every pertinent book on the topics of choice that were written in the past 5-7 years. You never know... there could be some really important info in one book that is not covered in another!

The problem with my approach is that I can tend to let other important things slide. Can you imagine? My family actually wants meals... and three times/day, no less!

So I am gradually cooking large quantities of meals, for us to eat now and enough of each dish to freeze several extra meal-sized portions. Here's a link to one of my ground beef cooking plans.

I am planning some chicken meals for this week. That's usually how I plan my batch cooking. I don't cook lots of different meals for weekend straight like I used to, but instead I'll plan 5-10 different recipes each featuring one type of meat. Then I simply cook a super-large quantity of one meal each day, eating one portion for dinner and freezing the other meal-sized portions for a later date. It is so helpful to have lots of meal options in the freezer.

Yesterday we butchered about 100 Cornish Cross chickens (meat birds) then tucked them in the freezer today after icing them down in coolers for 24 hours. I'm so grateful that we have enough space to raise these delicious birds... affordable organic meat~ so yummy! So tomorrow I'll begin on some of our favorite chicken freezer meals. Perhaps I can post those recipes later this week... we'll see how things go. (read, "how much time I spend reading tri books rather than attending to my responsibilities here!")

I'm also beginning to plan for our next school year (yes, a little late due to my triathlon obsession), but it's ok... it'll get done. We're having a great time together in the meantime!


Enjoying summer here,

7 comments:

  1. I love your pictures of Windsor! I love cobblestone too!! The "oldness" of it all is so romantic!

    Is your hip doing better? Ouch :-/

    What fun times to have your oldest back, even for a bit. I can completely relate!

    Gavin (our Tri son)has a Triathlon book that you will love. It has everything in it. When he gets home I'll ask him the title and email you.

    Looking forward to your yummy recipes! I've already tried your ground beef recipes. YUM!!

    hugs my friend~ Cinnamon

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  2. I really enjoyed your photo's of the garden. Those are amazing shots and I have never seen those before. I have seen tons of photo's of the changing of the guards and the outside (also great and interesting) but never those other more I don't know personal photo's. I went and checked out your hamburger recipes. Wow. I might have to try a batch of one of those. Thanks :)

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  3. I am simply fascinated by the moat turned into a garden. So cool! I wonder whose brilliant idea that was?
    I've been enjoying your Europe posts. I can't wait for the next one. <><

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  4. Dear Susan ~ What a lovely post about the trip and life! :) The flower you took a picture of in England...it is growing in our back lane...soooo pretty!! Do you know the name of it?

    How wonderful that you had those precious days together with your Nate! I *love* rollercoasters too...fun times!

    Ohhhh...so sorry about your hip!! :(

    And...freezing extras is always a great idea!! (I cannot IMAGINE how much you have to make to get TWO meals out of one dish! ~ I know that it is INCREDIBLE how much our three boys and one girl put away!!)

    Have a lovely week!
    Blessings,
    Camille

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  5. Love your photo tours of England! I hope to one day get there and see for myself all the history, and mysteries it holds. :-) Our neighbors are from England and are just the best people ever! Hope your hip feels better, i'm layed up with an ankle injury from overexercising, now how in the world does that happen? LOL Have a great evening!

    Jill

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  6. ~Cinnamon,Hey there! You are so encouraging and helpful! No, my hip isn't better yet, but I am pursuing several different things and basically trusting in God's timing for healing it. Trying to use my "down time" for His glory. Actually, I'm pretty rotten at enforced rest time. : ( But I *am* trying!

    ~Amy... I agree, it's fun to find the "unusual" shots. Hope you like the ground beef recipes. I've been known to make mistakes in typing up recipes, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask, ok?

    ~Aemi, no joke! Who thought of the "moat turned garden idea?" I have *no* idea! Perhaps there is a "moat" on our property that I can turn into a garden someday!

    ~Camille, I wish I did know the names of the flowers that I photographed in Europe, but alas (!), I don't. Actually, the vast majority of plants that I admired there won't grow here at all~ it's *way* too hot and humid in the summer here. But I do have the photos to enjoy!

    ~Hi Jill! Thanks for taking time to comment! So sorry about your ankle injury! It can be so frustrating to be forced to slow down, yes? Hope you are back at it soon!

    ~susan

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  7. Hi Susan, I can't remember how I found your blog and I can't remember if I've commented before today (the joys of being a mid-40s mom of little kids...I have Swiss cheese for a brain). I just wanted to let you know how I've enjoyed the photos of your trip to Europe. Today, the thing that caught my eye is the same as another comment above...they turned the moat into a garden?! It's beautiful!!! Especially when one considers that the moat used to be the sewage system for a castle, a garden is a much better use of the space. ;) I loved the photos of the doors and windows, too. I look forward to photos from Paris!!! And for what it is worth, I'd have looked at all your 1100 pictures and been happy to do it! I love seeing people's trip photos!!!!

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