Hi Everyone, hope you have had a nice week. We hear that sunshine is headed our way soon... Seeing is believing! Here are some fun reads I've picked up along the way this week.
Let's talk about England:
Have you wondered about where A.A. Milne lived? No? Well, I didn't think to wonder either, but I did really enjoy seeing his home, which was recently listed for sale. You can see where some of the illustrations in the books came from!
I always enjoy hearing about cultural blunders. It is so cathartic for me! Even more so to hear about these things from other expats living in England-- Vix shares about her queuing faux pas.
Are we Americans wistful about leaving England to start our own country long, long ago? Laura sets the record straight on America's relationship with the British Royal family.
Vicarous Travels:
I can't get enough of these posts about Iceland-- it is calling me! Enjoy the really wonderful pictures and descriptions of Reykjavik from Brittany-- she really captured the cute and quirky side of the city.
Liene has been sharing about her family's European road trip for the last few weeks. After reading about their short-but-sweet time in Dijon, France, it's definitely on my Go-To list!
Cross-Cultural Shennanigans
Melissa recently moved to Brazil, and I loved her crazy story about an unexpected intruder! What would you have done?
Something for the Kids:
This is a great round up of ideas for a mud-pie kitchen outdoors for the little ones this summer!
And I think you will love this UK bucket list of 50 things every kid should do before they're 12.
Food:
I am a little obsessed with what people eat. I am super curious about how people go about their food choices and meal planning, so I really enjoyed hearing about David Lebovitz's philosophy on eating.
That's it for now. I am planning on writing again this week on Culture Shock. I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments on my post about it last time-- if you haven't had the chance, you may want to check those out-- so many interesting perspectives!
Let's talk about England:
Have you wondered about where A.A. Milne lived? No? Well, I didn't think to wonder either, but I did really enjoy seeing his home, which was recently listed for sale. You can see where some of the illustrations in the books came from!
I always enjoy hearing about cultural blunders. It is so cathartic for me! Even more so to hear about these things from other expats living in England-- Vix shares about her queuing faux pas.
Are we Americans wistful about leaving England to start our own country long, long ago? Laura sets the record straight on America's relationship with the British Royal family.
Vicarous Travels:
I can't get enough of these posts about Iceland-- it is calling me! Enjoy the really wonderful pictures and descriptions of Reykjavik from Brittany-- she really captured the cute and quirky side of the city.
Liene has been sharing about her family's European road trip for the last few weeks. After reading about their short-but-sweet time in Dijon, France, it's definitely on my Go-To list!
Cross-Cultural Shennanigans
Melissa recently moved to Brazil, and I loved her crazy story about an unexpected intruder! What would you have done?
Something for the Kids:
This is a great round up of ideas for a mud-pie kitchen outdoors for the little ones this summer!
And I think you will love this UK bucket list of 50 things every kid should do before they're 12.
Food:
I am a little obsessed with what people eat. I am super curious about how people go about their food choices and meal planning, so I really enjoyed hearing about David Lebovitz's philosophy on eating.
That's it for now. I am planning on writing again this week on Culture Shock. I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments on my post about it last time-- if you haven't had the chance, you may want to check those out-- so many interesting perspectives!
This is such a great thing you've started! I really enjoy taking a look at some of your finds - how did you ever stumble on the Pooh house being for sale? Thanks for the interesting links, and as always, thanks for reading my blog!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed these! I honestly can't remember where I found the A.A. Milne home-- Apartment Therapy, maybe. It was definitely a little random!
DeleteWow, you have so many great posts here! Can't wait to look at all of them. Thank you for adding mine :)
ReplyDeleteFunny, I forgot to mention I had already had the post idea for the UK bucket list recently published in latest edition of National Trust. You'll see it on my blog next month :) I have clicked through all the great links - thank you!
DeleteSo glad you enjoyed them, Laura. And I loved that list!
DeleteI wish I could buy that A.A. Milne house!! :D What a charming delightful spot - and can you imagine living in the home of a literary icon? I was an English Literarure major so I guess this holds some extra appeal to me! You should take a look at this post I read this week too that is in a similar vein. http://bit.ly/Kulb3E It is about Charleston House in East Sussex which was a center of activity for the Bloomsbury Group (a group I've long been fascinated with and am now convinced would be a bunch of hipsters if they were alive today!) But it just looks so lovely and I particularly love the paintings featured in the post - especially the one titled "A Room With a View."
ReplyDeleteI'm loving all your links about Iceland too - like you I have a great desire to visit. I read a book some time back called "The Geography of Bliss" wherein the author set out to visit the happiest countries in the world. Iceland was one of them and I was very fascinated by that chapter in the book. It is a very small community where you can bump into the president on the street or in a coffee shop. Plus the landscape is so different and fascinating and I'm just dying to take a dip in their hot springs. Looks fabulous!
Also really enjoyed the David Lebovitz article - I tend to take a similar tack in my eating habits. In particular I do eat a lot of healthy fats - chocolate, butter, olive oil, avocado, nuts and nut butters. A little bit is so satisfying. I also enjoyed reading the links at the bottom of that article - in particular the 2 specifically about the French. Love him too just in general. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend his book "The Sweet Life in Paris." Seriously laugh-out-loud funny and a fascinating look at the social differences between the French (or more specifically Parisians) and Americans. Also - as you said I am also fascinated by what people eat . . . which is why I'd love to see more of what you are cooking up at home featured on your blog!! You seem like a really great cook and I'd love to hear more about it if that is something you are interested in sharing :) Love these weekly round-up posts of yours!
I just have to leave you one more link. The same woman that visited Charleston House in the link I posted above just put up another equally delightful one from her visit to Sissinghurst http://bit.ly/J7erHv Oh it is gorgeous! Looking at the little video she posted makes my heart ache a little bit.
DeleteOh, WOW Marisa, those are great tours! I love the idea of the first one, how they painted every surface they could find-- and I loved almost every single painting there. I really want to check out some properties like those. I have to say, the kitchen gardens are my very favorite things about these places. So much work went into them all year, and they are so well planned. I found some really great youtube videos a while back about Victorian kitchen gardens. Really cool.
DeleteI follow David Lebovitz's blog, but I haven't read that book. I know I would love it. I am with you 100% on the good fats-- we eat to satisfy around here! I do often think about posting more about food and what we're up to in our kitchen. All of our meals are made 100% from scratch, we don't even buy salad dressing or mayonnaise, so I cook all of the time. This weekend, Jeff started a batch of parsnip wine. We picked up a bunch of rhubarb to make another country wine with, as well. We have a tree full of lilacs, and I am trying to determine whether we can reach enough for a lilac wine. And of course, there are nettles absolutely everywhere. Those are supposed to make nice wine too, and I do have plans to make a nettles soup. I picked a bunch of cleavers (sticky weed) in my yard last week and added them to our dinner... I guess I should start taking pictures of these things! Thanks for the encouragement!
Also: Iceland-- I know! It looks like an incredibly beautiful and interesting country. Do you listen to Sigur Ros? I remember watching the documentary (Heima) of all the free concerts they performed in the most incredible natural spaces all over the country, and have been wanting to go ever since.
I know - I totally love those kitchen gardens too! Can you imagine what it would be like to have one? Just stroll out of an evening and see what the garden was offering. Of course we can all do our own small kitchen gardens - but it isn't quite the same! So glad you enjoyed the tours - you should keep up with her blog as she's travelling in England for like 2 months or so and will be posting many more great house tours.
DeleteI am impressed with your 100% from scratch policy - that is amazing! I am nowhere near there though I do make every effort to eat whole, real foods as much as possible. I'm very afraid of all the chemicals in our food products and especially in processed foods. It is absolutely frightening to look at some food labels. One of the biggest shockers to me is store bread. They have an ingredient list about a mile long including lots of corn syrup and who knows how many preservatives. And I mean it is just bread - when I make bread it usually only contains water, flour, yeast and salt - and maybe a pinch of sugar!! It is crazy and scary to look at those ingredient lists. I actually got very interested in this subject after my mom got sick with an incurable form of cancer. It was after that I started really researching and educating myself on what I was putting in my body - and hers. I'm convinced that her cancer(and most people's cancer)is a result of the myriad chemicals we are exposed to every day. Not only in our food supply but also in our environment - our clothes and mattresses, for example, are covered in flame retardant chemicals. When I think about it too much I get overwhelmed as it is impossible to shield yourself from everything.
But I would just love to read more about your food and eating habits - even more so now that I know you make it all from scratch. I'd love to see some more features and even recipes if you felt like sharing that :) I am a big reader of food blogs as I just love seeing what other people eat and taking inspiration from that. In fact the majority of my recipes today come from food blogs. Also, the woman I've been doing an internship with is big in the food blogging world so it is always top of my mind :) But I am really impressed with all your wine making! So lovely and so old-fashioned sounding. You are really taking me back to some of my favorite local color writers like Sarah Orne Jewett (if you haven't read her pick up Country of the Pointed Firs immediately!)with all your wines - rhubarb wine, parsnip wine . . . lilac wine! I love it! Lilac wine especially sounds so lovely and romantic.
And Sigur Ros? Yes please! Love! Iceland has another new band that is really making waves now too - you should check them out - Of Monsters and Men
I just read your post on culture shock and look forward to reading more! We have been there!! We're about to head back to the US from Vienna in August (heading to England in February) and am not looking forward to the reverse culture shock.
ReplyDeleteOur kids have been so resilient in all our moving (they have moved almost every year since they were born!), it will be interesting to see how they do with these 6 month in the US!
Thanks for sharing all the great links too!
Tina, we had a similar detour between countries-- but in reverse a little bit. We left Germany in February 2011 and hung out for 5 months in the States before we moved here on August 1st. I am sure you will love the trips to Target and all the ease of feeling at home for a little while, although I'm sure there will be the reverse culture shock as well. It's a little easier when you know you're just passing through, though. I'm glad you enjoyed this week's links!
DeleteThanks for including me in the round up! I need to add that my queuing faux pas is only the latest in a long long line of cultural disasters. LOL! Who knew that living in another English-speaking country could be so culturally convincing for this Kiwi chick! Cheers m'dear Vix x
ReplyDeleteI would just like to say how much I love your roundup posts & blog in general! I'm just a boring cubicle worker in the US who reads blogs and dreams of a non-cubicle centered life, and somehow (happily!) stumbled across your lovely blog a few months ago. I hesitate to say that I read it every morning since I don't know you whatsoever, but I do! Sorry if that's weird! Hi!
ReplyDelete- Amanda
Thanks for telling me, Amanda, it's super encouraging! Not weird at all that you like to read about our lives here-- just awesome!! I like you already!
DeleteThanks for sharing these Ariana!
ReplyDeleteI think you all must be somewhat clarivoyant, because I was *just* telling Jeff I wasn't sure that doing my round-up was worth while. I am so glad you have enjoyed it, and I will carry on! Thanks for letting me know you are enjoying the reads!!
ReplyDelete