Wales, Castles and Fireside Fun

We've had some adventures the last few days.

Obviously, I am not sharing every single picture with you because that would just take too much time right now with my tiny little HP Notebook. We'll see what we can upload when we get home :)

So, here's some tidbits.

We stopped in a sweet town called Hereferd (hair-a-ferd) and I happened on my favorite store. They have one here too...


It's TK instead of TJ here, but it's still wonderful.

Then off to Wales. We visited a town called Hay On Wye (Hay on Why). It's half in England and half in Wales. The man who established the town emancipated himself from both countries and became his own kingdom for a time. This town is the largest used book location in the world, most all of the 40 stores are full of used/antique books including a cinema that has at least 100,000 books.

Here's some fun signs we found on our walk around town...





(doesn't she look pitiful..at any time)

Today we went to Ludlow to visit Ludlow Castle and the surrounding area. This was the view on the way in



Entrance into Ludlow Castle... It's the 50th anniversary of their Shakespeare Festival. It's staged outside within the castle walls.



It's a medieval castle, so no windows just stone structure...



On our way back to the manor, we ran into some car trouble. While we were riding along a buzzer started to sound on Nigel's (our driver's) dashboard. We smelled something like burning tires, we turned around in our seats to see a big cloud of smoke coming in the cab of the bus.

Nigel got us to the side of the road and we calmly got out of the coach (bus)...



And then we heard popping of tires and windows breaking and flames coming out like crazy.

Some how our coach was on fire.

All of us got out just fine, but not all our belongings. The most important things like our passports, money and cameras made it just fine.

A few members had teddy bears etc on and they didn't make it :(





The police and fire were quick and helpful. We felt really sorry for the fire crew as they do not have as many fire hydrants as we do, so they kept having to drive a distance and load up on water and then drive back. I'd hate to have a house on fire over here.

The coach (bus) system over here is extremely efficient and as soon as our friend Nigel came off the bus he made a call and we had another bus within the hour.

That's pretty great :)

All in all it's just fine, everyone is safe and healthy and everyone is in good spirits.

England Day 6 Post # 2

Hey Folks,

We've been super busy!!! There is a lot wi-fi areas here in England, but they can be a bit titchy.

So, we are taking this time to write you while we have a wide open connection and update you with some photos.

We stayed in London for a couple of days,



(Me in front of the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace)

(Goodbye Big Ben Tower, for now.)



and then off to the West Country. We are staying in a manor based in Gloucestershire.



(On the way to Gloucestershire. For those of you that are fans of The Vicar Of Dibley, you may find this image familiar. It's of the opening scene; though that is shot from a helicopter)


(Manor Born..to someone else)

While in the West Country we are with a collectors' tour. This will be my third time traveling with them. We have a small group of 14, very fun, people. They collect many different items such as: teddybears, dolls, antique jewelry etc...

We have traveled to Whitney - known for antique stores and The Teddy Bears Of Whitney. Look them up! While we were there we happened on a bear made by bear artist Jeannette Werner from BELLINGHAM, WA. Can you believe it?



Plus, we meant to mention that the first news we saw on the BBC was a story about water bottles made from cardboard instead of plastic. The inventor is a student from WWU in Bellingham!

The world is such a small place.

After Whitney, we traveled to Tetbury known for wool, cheese rolling (check it out on the web) and Highgrove Garden - Where Charles and Camilla have one of their homes. Charles (Charlie) owns most of the town, so it's stayed in great shape without building new homes and tearing town the ancient relics. You may know that Charles is into conservation both natural and historical architecture. He has a store in Tetbury called Highgrove Shop. Any purchases there support his charities. He sells only organic free trade products, and locally created products, books on how to save the world etc..

People may visit his gardens, but you'll need to put in a request two years ahead of time. It's not a waiting list, it takes two years for them to do a background check on you and anyone in your party planning on visiting. Then you are notified no earlier than 3 weeks prior to your requested date and they advise you when you can enter and when you must exist the premisis. Once visited you may not return to Highgrove. Crazy, huh.

From the pictures in the shop, it is gorgeous!! So it's probably worth it. We were not allowed to take photographs in the shop...

Please visit the websites:

http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/personalprofiles/residences/highgrove/thegarden/

www.highgroveshop.com




Outside of Tetbury we visited an abbey and i's garden. The gardens are on 5 acres and are very famous or infamous here. The gardens were purchased by billionares that happen to be naturalists (nudists to you and I). The gardens are gorgeous, you just need to know that they may be naked while you are visiting. No such luck (thank god), though a couple of ladies on the tour did try to encourage it.







These pictures just give you a tiny, tiny, taste of what we saw that day.


While we've been walking our sweet buns off, we have been eating well. Before I began traveling to England, I had heard that English Food was horrible. I have never found that to be the case. It's been outstanding if anything.

Even Mr. Hungry thinks so...



Typically when you book a hotel room in England your room rate includes the "English Breakfast Plan". This means you get a full breakfast of whatever is being served. Usually it's an assortment of items like eggs, bacon, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, cereals, yogurts, fruits etc...

Here are some pics of our meal choices. You can see that you can make great choices while traveling abroad. Most moderate restaurants and pubs here will let you "split" meals. Also, as a Weight Watcher you can figure in the more points heavy items and off set them with the 300 miles of walking each day!!



(This is a meal we shared at Harrods. Bruschetta with salad and two old fashioned lemonades)


(Typical Full English. Consists of poached eggs, potatoes, baked beans, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, sometimes Black Pudding etc...)

Healthy choices always offered. Includes very tasty grapefruit slices.


The English even have low-fat, non-fat dairy choices




Heather and Paula in the Harrods Food Halls





Hope you are all well.

We'll update soon.

Paula and Heather

England Day 2

Heather and I decided to take Hyde Park by storm. We walked the circumfrence of The Serpentine ( it's a small lake within the park). It's approximately 3 miles around. This was all before breakfast.

We penciled in Kensington Palace and Harrods for the day.

On our way there we passed the memorial for Prince Albert. Here's a great photo a portion of it.



We arrived at the garden entrance of Kensington Palace. Where they are renovating the sunken garden. Soon there will be a covered walk way around the garden made of grape vines and fruit trees trained to arch over the walkway.



The Sunken Garden.



Kensington Palace has been the home of many of the royals, most recently Princess Diana. They displayed many of her dresses, but it was very dimly lit to protect the fabrics and therefore it was difficult to get any kind of photo. I'm sure they want you to purchase a book in the gift shop :)

This is one of the many painted ceilings in the palace. Unfortunately, the artist's name has escaped me, but he did most of all of the artwork and framing in the palace per King George I's instruction.



Yes, everything is gilded. It's amazing.

Out George's bed chamber is this rose garden. You can also see The Round Pond within Hyde Park.

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King George I liked RED. As you can see from this room. The paintings on the wall are only a few of what he had up during his reign. The walls used to be covered by many small paintings; from floor to ceiling.



After Kensington Palace, Heather and I made our way to Harrod's Department Store. Unfortunately, the pictures of that store are on Heather's camera and they will not upload to my computer. Don't you just love it.

If you get a chance to Google the store, do. It's amazing. Macy's boasts that they are the largest store, but possibly only by a cubic foot, because Harrod's covers a London block and is about 8 floors and we are talking two under ground floors. If Harrods doesn't have it, no one does.

There is an Egyptian stair case (escolators) with pharoh heads hung along the sides. You may notice that the likeness is that of the owner of Harrods. He also placed two sphinx at the bottom of the escolators in honor of the architect and contractor.

There is also a memorial for Diana and Dodi, which includes the wine glasses they used at The Ritz and the engagement ring for Diana (it was huge). Very sad, but people can drop coins into the fountain and it goes to a wonderful charity.

After lunch at Harrods, we decided we could navigate the Victoria and Albert Museum.

There we met - Mr. Hungry.



Doesn't he look great? In the UK you can get away with this kind of nudity. You should see their meeting materials...whoo hoo. Our US headquarters decided to go another direction - Jim Henson anyone?

Both David (sorry to confuse you) and the partial pillar below are "casts" of the originals in Italy. They did these castings for educational purposes. They are immense. I do not know if you can really tell that by these photos.



I thought I'd throw in this picture of Meleager from the sculptures area of V & A. You may notice a familiar site from previous posts....umm can you say greyhound?





That's all for today. We walked 12 miles today. Enough to get some fish and chips and a pint of bitter for dinner!!!

Cheer-e-o

Paula

It's All Good - UK Day 1

Mom and I would like to thank you for all the kind words and thoughts for my Grandfather.

He's doing really well.

He did have internally bleeding and it happened to be a polyp (sp) in his colon. Non-cancerous - thank god!!! This is another good reason to always follow through with your colonoscopy screening appointments!

His blood levels are great and he got the all clear on Thursday afternoon.

So, Friday morning Mom and I were finally excited for the trip.

Please check back for future posts. We'll include photos and fun details.

Mom and I arrived in London in the afternoon and could have sworn we saw Mr. Hungry. We've heard he's been sighted here, but we don't know when he's going to pop up next.

We're staying at a lovely boutique hotel right across the street from Hyde Park. Mom and Dad have visited several times, but this is my first time and I was blown away by the Albert Monument. The park alone was wonderful, it had a flower trail and even parrots just hanging out.

More soon

Heather and Paula

No Blog This Week

Dear Member Readers,

This is Heather, Paula's Daughter.

Mom and I have been spending most of our time at the hospital this weekend with my Grandfather, Bill.

He's not been feeling well for about a week. (Come to find out he hasn't been feeling well for about a month and a half......men, men, men)

My mom got on the case, you know how she is, so the doctors are getting the bottom of it.

We got a call from the doctors on Friday evening telling us to take him to the emergency room right away. His red bloods cell count was extremely low.

He's in hospital now being given blood, but he's bleeding somewhere internally. We don't know where or why.

The upside is - he's not bleeding from any major vital organs. They've narrowed their search and we are having, what we think is the final test today.

His vitals are wonderful, but he is bleeding somewhere and we want to find and solve the issue ASAP!!! Obviously.

We do not currently foresee any issue with Mom keeping this week's meeting schedule or.....our trip to the UK...

Please keep my Mom and Gpa in your thoughts,

Best wishes to you...

Heather

Food Find - Skinny Cow French Vanilla Truffle Bars

These are two points per bar and oh so delicious on a warm Summer day. A great treat for cooling down. Jessica also suggested on a previous post a fruit bar option. Check it out!

Week 22 Preview - 10 Ways To Cut Costs While Cutting Calories

We are living in a tough economic time. People are looking how they can spend every penny these days. Money spent on healthy food, is an investment on a healthier, longer life.

We will discuss tips on how to achieve the best healthy choices for your money. Eating healthy does not need to cost a fortune.

It's the end of the Spring Fever Challenge!!! Thank you to all who participated. Please provide me with your sheets this Monday and Tuesday. The prize drawings will be the following Monday and Tuesday!!!

See you this week!

Week 21 Roundup- Motivating Strategy

Remember to fill out the Motivating Strategy Activity Sheet and choose something from the "I want to" list.

Use the Motivating Strategy to imagine that you have already achieved this goal.

Visualize what you want and do this several times a week to help solidify your motivation.

It really does work!

Fitness Links

Dear Members,

Please check out the links to the right side of the blog.

I've added 1 new one link - The Yoga Workshop. Holley Bennett, instructor. She is new to Bellingham, but not new to yoga. She will be opening a location soon, but in the meantime check out her website for class locations.

I'm currently taking Yoga 1A with her. It's an 6 week course and it takes you from the basic postures and meditation - focusing on stretching and care for your body. The following sessions will increase with more movement, postures and knowledge about yoga.

We have a new option for exercise in Bellingham - Fitness Fanatics. I ran into them while walking Boulevard Park a couple weekends ago, but didn't know it was open to the public. They are a group of -fitness fanatics - and it's FREE to join. They meet in the outdoors and "...focus is always on proper form and fundamental techniques behind proven exercise philosophy". They do not currently have a website so for more info you may contact the manager Tess Whitten - Marsh at tesswm@woodstone.net and Jesse Johns at spartancampfitness@hotmail.com


I found a little article on them in the Bellingham Herald - check out www.thebellinghamherald.com look up Fitness Fanatics

Food Finds - Costco - Chicken Burgers and Chicken Sausages

Amylu Pork Free Chicken Sausages

These are an awesome sausage for barbecue

1 link is 100 calories, 4 grams of fat, 1 gram of fiber, 11 grams of protein. We grilled ours with lots of vegetables. This is a great Filling Foods Meal for the holiday weekend. 2 points per sausage!!!

Recipes on the back of the package suggest appetizers, taco salads, Mexican stir fry, or a grilled shrimp and sausage kabob.

Janet and Greta's Gourmet Chicken Burgers with Fire Roasted Vegetables

They are 200 calories, 4 grams of fat, and 0 fiber. They are a fantastic, quick, dinner idea. You can put them in the oven, on the grill or in the microwave. They come pre-cooked. Serve them in your favorite bun. We used multi-grain English muffins and lot's of vegetables.