ENGLAND: Countryside

THE TRUMAN SHOW GONE ENGLISH??

We arrived in England better then on time, one hour early & were greeted immediately by our friend, Leon, at the Gatwick Airport. He drove us back (on their CRAZY COUNTRY NARROW left-sided driving roads) to where they reside, on this ever so CHARMING English countryside farm. It was truly unreal. 400 acres with a landscape that included: beautiful English gardens with box shaped boxwood bushes & perfectly blooming tall lavender bordering the front entry walkway of the main house & the ever so English looking brick silo bedroom which overlooked the tiniest cutest mini mini pond in the quaint backyard which is home to the coolest grass...almost like astro turf but real of course. i could have sworn this was just The Truman Show: England Version ("jen & justin have arrived, CUE the cows out in the pasture, get all the tiny tiny cars out on the road, come on now, hurry, roll out that vibrant green tough super duper short grass, and fill up that cute little pond next to their castle tower-like bedroom!). it really did look like a movie set – it truly was LOVELY (as the brits say). So prior to our arrival we did not sleep a friggin wink on the plane, so by dinner time our first night we were going on 32 hrs. But that didn’t stop us from having a great time and enjoying everything the countryside of England had to offer and throw our way. We had a delicious dinner yummy yummy it was - really good gourmet food in a super old English pub with ceilings so low i had to scrunch my average to short 5'4" frame down a bit to get into the dining area. No joke. And if we only would have known the food we were going to eat during our 5 nights in England was going to be better then Italy (OMG is that a sin to say!!!! Don’t send me to hell please) then we would have scarfed down an extra meal before we left. Stay tuned for more details on that subject under the Italy posting below. Other things we did while visiting with Lindsay & Leon: visited Rye, one of the very oldest town in all of England, I think. Oh shit, everything over there is old who are we kidding. It was during this part of the trip when I truly came to appreciate the phrase “America is just a baby” - when we would walk the old cobble stone roads and walk into pubs that had signs on it posting something crazy like “Since 1547”. The four of us visited the coast, just about 30 minutes away from their farm. We took a nice hike on the farm grounds, through the fields, over a creek and into the woods. And…… I walked a cow. Yep, you read those words correctly. Lindsay introduced me to her baby, well more like teenager cow, Buddy. He was adorable. And being that I have been wanting a cow, just one cow, all black please, for the last 3 or so years….i was loving Buddy! Although, when you have a ton of cows, like this farm did, the desire to have a cow started to fade a way a bit (they sure do smell like, well how do I put this........SHIT.). BUT, I will continue to hold onto my dream of owning just ONE cow, in hopes and assumption that just one cow wouldn’t set off the Stink-O-Meter like an entire herd of them clearly does ☺ And I know in the pic above it looks as if we are treating Buddy poorly by forcing him to go on a walk, but what it comes down to is this one thing – cows are not that smart. We were doing him a very nice thing by "urging" him to come out of his pen and go on a little walk because due to some good reasons Lindsay explained to me Buddy cannot mingle right now out in the pasture with the other larger cows so he needs to be penned up. Eventually he figured it out and walked out.

JoAnne & Peter…..you guys need one black cow for your land in Vermont. Pleeeeeeeeeease. Come on! We can name him” Hank Jr.” ok!

On our second night Leon, who has been intensely studying Reiki over the last few years (or maybe it’s months), invited justin upstairs while lindsday and I were down in the family room to teach him the basics of Reiki. He specifically told all of us “Uh, yeah, this is not for Justin as much as it is FOR JEN”. Meaning I am the one in this 2-person relationship who probably needs to RELAX! Ha! He couldn’t have hit the nail harder on it’s head. In fact, he crushed the nail with that allusion. So as the two of them make their way upstairs for Justin’s lesson in Reiki – I glance over at Lindsay and say “He’s not going to ask him to take his clothes off is he?” hehehehe, I was ONLY kidding! Leon gave justin a Reiki instructional booklet and I intend to have Justin share his recently learned skills on me soon. Cuz if anything is right here, it’s the fact that I could stand to be de-stressed at times!

Lindsay & Leon, Thank You SO MUCH for your awesome hospitality & the delicious meals. Our stay with you was short but VERY SWEET and truly WONDERFUL. And you can bet on it that we will be visiting again, but for a longer stay of course!!! Not to invite ourselves or anything, but we will ☺ hee hee

Please click on the orange link below to view our PHOTO SLIDESHOW of additional pics from our ENGLAND, COUNTRYSIDE visit

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=cce4pp5d.cc8o3v2d&Uy=-9hurno&Ux=0&UV=852198271404_370880677605