Tackling the "Way Back"

We have two back yards. The "back" yard and the "way back" yard. The back yard is for everyday stuff: hanging clothes, playing with toys, growing grass to cut so it can grow so you can cut it again. Normal stuff.

At the back of the "back" yard there's a fence. Hastily constructed to allow us to move in, the fence separates us from the wilderness that exists beyond. We had peeked through knotholes, even looked over the top standing precariously on old paint cans. All we saw was green. Tall, spiky green.

Recently we decided to brave the "way back" and open it up. One could hear my heart sinking when the slats of a small section were removed only to reveal that the green we previously witnessed was in fact 4-foot tall stinging nettle plants. The whole thing was nettles; a nettle farm so to say.

The boys and I entered the forbidden domain of the "way back" with weed whackers (strimmers in the UK), saws and intent to do harm. We began at 9am and for the UK it was a hot day, graced by a breeze ever-changing in direction. As we peeled back the layers of nettles we discovered an amazing array of, well... crap. The remains of multiple burn piles, a 55-gallon drum, what could have been a toaster and a large amount of glass and aluminum containers. Please note in the following photo the height of the nettles as they're cleared by our industrial strength trimmer. The fencing section behind the patch is 8-foot if that helps.

By 4pm the entirety of my face was stinging and I had lost most of the feeling on the left side of my tongue. Coated with the juice and remains of many a nettle plant we had beaten the "way back" into submission. We discovered a section of concrete pavers that made the perfect base for a burn pile, as well as some ruined remnants of a Japanese-style garden that once inhabited this place.

Next time we get a decent day we'll work on digging up nettle roots.

Sigh...

Establishing Routines

Now that we're "settled" we're tring to establish some routines in our house. One of these is a walk in the evening. the girls and I walk about 1/4 of a mile to the roundabout and back, passing over the River Wissey and a couple of winter wheat fields. Red deer sightings are pretty regular as are the ever-present rabbits and hares of the Norfolk countryside. Last night we were treated to a fox bounding through the wheat field in pursuit of... well, supper I imagine.

There has been shift in priorities here so I no longer carry my camera with me every waking moment, but I assure you there are images on the way.

Finally... home.

After a very, very busy few weeks I can finally say that we're settled into our new homes. I say homes because while the children and I are enjoying the myriad of duties that come along with getting a new home (and it's oh-so-small yard) in order, Jill is now in Afghanistan getting settled into her (shared) room for the summer. To say this summer will be interesting for our family would be, well... an understatement.

Here, we're concerned with de-nettling the yard and I have the skin rash to prove it! Despite being much smaller that the farmhouse yard, this one has been in a state of neglect for some time. Almost everyday we pull out 2-3 bags of weeds from the beds as well as from the lawn itself. We even have a fenced-off section that was once a Japanese style garden but now is pretty much a refuse crop with a sprinkling of waist high nettles. We'll tackle that beast later in the summer I think.

New images are coming soon. There are just a few more little issues to resolve in the chapel (like telephone, television, fuel oil leaks, etc.) and then I can swing my full attention to working through the Scotland images as well as completing the Altered States series of books that have been promised ages ago.

Thanks for your support AND your patience. Should you have a message you want me to forward to Jill please pass it on to me at here.

Quick Post Between Events

Well, a week in Scotland at a cottage overlooking Loch Ness is something I must insist you ALL do at least once in your lives! To say our time there was relaxing and the "calm before the storm" would be an understatement. The weather forcast for the week included my favorite word (snow in case you don't know) and we weren't disappointed. Not enough to cover the roads but enough to make the hills looks spectacular and put enough of a chillin the air to wake you up.



One of the best days was Sunday where we did... nothing. No agenda, no plans, nothing. We did start a puzzle it took us the week to finish and my youngest daughter proved to us all she is an UNO shark in the making but other than that, we were lounging by the fire. Wonderful.



Our cottage DID afford us some spectacular views of Loch Ness and the town of Drumnadrochit. The photo below is just one of many I took suring a snow storm building across the Loch from us. We did eventually get out and visit Fort George, Urquhurt Castle (2 minutes from our cottage) and the Culloden Battlefield. I was also able to get a day away to focus on my photography by driving around Loch Ness. In case you're interested in finding out more about our cottage an others offered by our gracious hosts, please visit their website.




But, work calls. We arrived back home at Sparham Hall on Satudrday evening and have spent Sunday packing up preparing for our move into the Old Chapel starting on Monday. Hopefully the weather will co-operate and we can get settled quickly (so I can finally LOOK at my Scotland images).



Thanks for hanging in there, will post more when I'm able.

Followed by Good News...

As always, God is gracious beyond anything I can ever fathom. We have found a new location to live only a week after finding out we needed to move. IT doesn't replace Sparham Hall Farmhouse by any means but it'll do. News when it happens.

And Now the Bad News...

In quite the surprise development through circumstances beyond our control we now find ourselves having to find a new place to live. To say we're crushed would be an understatement (especially with Jill having to go downrange in just a few weeks) but we know that there's a Master Plan and we serve the One who is running it.

Forgive any lapses of posts that may follow, I'll post as I'm able until we're settled in the new location. Wherever that may be...

Bit by the French Yet Again

Most of you know that, despite giving them every chance at disproving the stereotypes that abound about the French (in general of course) every time I visit something happens to reinforce said stereotypes.

Well, point proven again.

Jill and I were taking a one-day trip run by the base to visit the historic town of Bruges, Belgium. This meant of course that we would have to cross the Channel and traverse a small part of France to get there. Seems the French dock workers are having a strike, sorry... industrial action as they call it, and have parked their boats in the harbor at Calais preventing the timely movement of passengers, cargo and the like in and out of the port. The result? Three hour delay. COMING AND GOING! Like I said, every time I go...

Nonetheless we arrived in Bruges and has a great (albeit short) visit to this wonderfully preserved city. Renowned for the varying styles of architecture throughout the city center (and from building to building in some cases) it was a real treat to visit. Jill had a grand time shopping and although it was a bit on the chilly side with the sharp wind it was an enjoyable day out. Our bus driver from Fun and Sun, Gordon, provided the greatest running commentary during our trip and I even learned a few French jokes I didn't know.

This image was taken outside of the Belfort (belltower) with the stature celebrating two 14th century guildsmen who led a revolt against the French in the foreground. Perhaps they were also delayed by industrial action?

Where'd the airplane photos go?

It has come to my attention through discussions with both readers and other blogger colleagues that my blog American Yank in England is actually fulfilling two purposes: the original intent of documenting my interactions with the rural aspect of living in England and my love of aviation photography. The two sides, while not totally exclusive of each other, do deserve their own spot in the big game so to speak.

So, over the next couple of days I'll be migrating the aviation posts to the new aviation blog and let the two sites stand on their own.

An upgrade you might be excited about is that I'll be featuring larger photos. There will be a very subtle watermark across them because there are idiots in the world who feel anything on the Internet is fair game to take without asking (or in my case paying a licensing fee). As always, I appreciate your input and comments and hope to continue to hear from you in the future.

Cheers,
~James

Frosted Garden

Following on the footsteps of our foggy mornings I posted about earlier was one of my favorite weather phenomenae: ice fog. While living in Alaska I came to know it as hoar frost but as the linked Wikipedia article informed me there are loads of names by which it can be known by. Not matter what you call it, ice fog creates some of the very best conditions for garden photography especially if it happens when life is just starting to spring to life.

It didn't take long once outside my door to see how a thin deposit of ice crystals had transformed my plain old yard into something special. There was just a hint of wind (thus the very shallow depth-of-field in this series) but otherwise all was still. No birds flying about, even the farm animals were surprisingly quiet.

And my prize of the morning was a single rose that had been frosted, almost painted as if by Jack Frost personally that sat at the far end of the garden. One could almost see thousands of tiny jewels reflecting the scant light of the early morning. It was simply stunning.

A complete gallery of images from this morning are available for viewing at my ImageKind gallery and co-incidentally is the first gallery to utilize the newest ImageKind product line of greeting cards from within this gallery.

The Fog Days of Winter

England is reknowned for fog. Just about every war movie made concerning the European theater has the same scene where "the boys" are grounded for days on end because the fog has the field or the coast or the enemy target "socked in" by fog. Recently we experienced these events in the here-and-now with school starting late 3 days in a row (great for the kids, not so great for their Dad). It was unbelievable how you couldn't see anything past the hood (bonnet) of your car. Much like being in white-out conditions during a mid-western blizzard except there isn't going to be a snowman in your future when it's all over.

Flights at both military and civilian airfields were disrupted as you might imagine. At one point I was parked just outside a field that was an airfield during WWII and if you strained to listen, you could almost swear you heard a bunch of young cocky kids joking about their last flight over Bremmen or Munich or the like. It was just plain spooky a couple of times. As the day wore on the sun tried to burn off the fog and along one stretch of road it almost succeeded.

Almost.