Pool Party: Summer's Last Hurrah!

You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death.

When their souls got to the entrance to heaven,

the guards asked two questions.

Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. 

‘Have you found joy in your life?’

'Has your life brought joy to others?’

-The Bucket List

To me, a "yes" answer to the second question yields, by definition, a "yes" answer to the first question.  ;)

I don't know if I'm going to the Egyptian's version of heaven or not, but I think these photos provide evidence that I can answer "yes" to both questions!  :)  

I hope your summer ended with a splash too!  :)

What I Did on my Summer Vacation: Part 5

Background: After having just about as much "excitement" as we could handle trying to drive a houseboat around Lake Powell in 2011 (details here), we decided to go low-tech in 2012 and did 2 short walking tours in the U.K.  First we spent 3 days walking in the Lake District, crossing mountain passes to get from one night's lodging to the next.  Then we spent 4 days walking along the Ceredigion Coast of Wales.  We averaged about 7 miles and 2 hours of rain each day.  ;)  

For the next week or so, I'll be posting pictures and stories from this trip.  

Today's Theme: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Okay, Really it's Just: Trains

"I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early."  

~ Yogi Berra

Our only real unplanned adventure on this trip came from the train ride that we took from the Lake District to Wales.  

I had made our reservations online months earlier and we actually had reserved seats.  However, upon boarding, we discovered that the baggage rack in our car was full.  

No problem - we just walked through to the next car and stored our luggage, before returning to our seats.  And then we settled down for a 3 hour ride...  

When our train pulled into our station around dinner time, we popped into the next car to collect our things...  Or, at least, we tried to do so.  But the door connecting the 2 cars was locked for some odd reason.  

And we soon found out why.  It was to prevent people from falling out onto the tracks - because the car that had started the journey connected to our car, was not there anymore!  :(

Yup, apparently at some point during our journey, our train had split into two trains - one carrying us to our desired destination and the other winging its way to some completely different part of Wales, with our luggage.  ;)

No problem - we talked to ticket agent and assorted calls and radio messages went buzzing around and we were assured that at some point someone would get our luggage transferred onto some other train that would eventually come to the right station - sometime...  

Seven and a half hours later, around midnight...  

...we were finally reunited with our luggage.  :)

Now that's not to say that our train experience was all bad.  We met the most adorable little two-year-old Welsh girl named Nell.  

Nell didn't speak a word of English, but she loved all things technology, and was soon taking pictures with my camera.  :)

A picture of her Mom:  

And one of me:  

I think Scott made the best subject:  

She even managed a self-portrait:  

So, you've seen the pictures of sheep, mountain valleys and passes, the coast, the flowers, the train and some of the people and animals that welcomed (or tolerated, as the case may be) us during this year's summer vacation...  

I'll leave you with one last shot - from the room of one of the B&B's where we stayed.  

What I Did on my Summer Vacation: Part 4

Background: After having just about as much "excitement" as we could handle trying to drive a houseboat around Lake Powell in 2011 (details here), we decided to go low-tech in 2012 and did 2 short walking tours in the U.K.  First we spent 3 days walking in the Lake District, crossing mountain passes to get from one night's lodging to the next.  Then we spent 4 days walking along the Ceredigion Coast of Wales.  We averaged about 7 miles and 2 hours of rain each day.  ;)  

For the next week or so, I'll be posting pictures and stories from this trip.  

Today's Theme: Other Animals

"Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way."  

~ John Muir

While the sheep were definitely the "headliners" of our trip, we did see some other animals...  

My least favorite was the slug.  Is this huge, or what?  Okay, maybe it's not quite B-rated horror movie huge, but it's definitely way larger than I like to meet in person!  ;)

In the Lake District, we also saw a rabbit

and a couple of pigs

In Wales, we saw more cows than sheep...

Do these guys have some prime real estate, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean (well, the Irish Sea), or what?

Here's something I don't think I've ever seen before - a baby donkey!

And there were the standard domestic animals - a cat that made us miss our own kitties...

Two dogs romping on the beach with their owners

See, Welsh dogs are just like U.S. dogs - all they want to do is play a nice game of fetch!  ;)

What I Did on my Summer Vacation: Part 3

Background: After having just about as much "excitement" as we could handle trying to drive a houseboat around Lake Powell in 2011 (details here), we decided to go low-tech in 2012 and did 2 short walking tours in the U.K.  First we spent 3 days walking in the Lake District, crossing mountain passes to get from one night's lodging to the next.  Then we spent 4 days walking along the Ceredigion Coast of Wales.  We averaged about 7 miles and 2 hours of rain each day.  ;)  

For the next week or so, I'll be posting pictures and stories from this trip.  

Today's Theme: Buildings and Flowers

Earth laughs in flowers.  

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Okay, I have to confess that we may have skipped one day of the planned hiking in order to sight-see around Aberystwyth, Wales.  ;)

We didn't think we were being too bad, because it was only a 5.5 mile hike.  

But later people told us that it was s 5.5 mile hike that feels like a 10 mile hike, and they looked at us like, "Yeah, right, you didn't deliberately skip the most difficult section of the coast path..."  (wink, wink)

But, honestly, we didn't know!

Anyways, we saw an old fort, several old churches and tons of flower boxes everywhere we looked!  

Oh, and of course there was a fabric shop!  ;)

It is called "Aberdashery" and it has a Facebook page here.  

I found this adorable child's raincoat fabric:

which I plan to pair with this Oliver + S raincoat pattern:

to make raincoats for the sons of two friends at work - a 2-year-old and an almost-1-year-old.  

When I can get back to my sewing machine, that is...  It's been too long...  

What I Did on my Summer Vacation: Part 2

Background: After having just about as much "excitement" as we could handle trying to drive a houseboat around Lake Powell in 2011 (details here), we decided to go low-tech in 2012 and did 2 short walking tours in the U.K.  First we spent 3 days walking in the Lake District, crossing mountain passes to get from one night's lodging to the next.  Then we spent 4 days walking along the Ceredigion Coast of Wales.  We averaged about 7 miles and 2 hours of rain each day.  ;)  

For the next week or so, I'll be posting pictures and stories from this trip.  

Today's Theme: Hiking the Mountains and the Coast

Now shall I walk

or shall I ride?

"Ride," Pleasure said:

"Walk," Joy replied.  

~ W.H. Davies

Hiking in the Lake District usually began by leaving our B&B and walking through a beautiful valley until we came to the mountain pass...  

Even though we didn't summit, just crossing the passes put us up in the clouds...

...and provided a great place to eat our packed lunches...  

...before starting down into the neighboring valley.  

Using my incredible navigation skills, I was able to find this cairn!  ;)

The scenery usually turned more bucolic as we neared our next B&B.  

On our first day along the coast, it was a  bit of a hustle, but we manged to stay a couple of miles ahead of the sun all day long.  ;)

Check out Scott's pants.  

Getting from our B&Bs to the coastal path each day sometimes required walking through farmers' fields.  Look at her ears - this cow wasn't sure what to make of me.  Maybe it was my brightly colored shirt?  

The path was marked with "stiles" to help us get over the fences.  

Here I am looking back to where we started that morning.  

And Scott looking ahead to the destination for that day.  

The scenery along the Welsh coast was completely different from the Lake District - and yet the hiking experience was quite similar.  At no other time in my life am I living so completely "in the moment" as when we are together, but otherwise alone, surrounded by the most beautiful, natural scenery.  :)

What I Did on my Summer Vacation: Part 1

Background: After having had just about as much "excitement" as we could handle trying to drive a houseboat around Lake Powell in 2011 (details here), we decided to go low-tech in 2012 and did 2 short walking tours in the U.K.  First we spent 3 days walking in the Lake District, crossing mountain passes to get from one night's lodging to the next.  Then we spent 4 days walking along the Ceredigion Coast of Wales.  We averaged about 7 miles and 2 hours of rain each day.  ;)  

For the next week or so, I'll be posting pictures and stories from this trip.  

Today's Theme: Sheep

"If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists."  

~ From "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Today's Story: We saw lots of sheep!

Note: The last picture is of Welsh sheep which are, as explained to us by a completely objective and unbiased Welsh sheep farmer on the train, far superior to English sheep.  ;)