Our Lovely New Life

We are finally feeling settled in enough that I have found a bit of time to update my blog for anyone who cares. I still plan on making it private but have not figure it all out yet. Anyway, we are LOVING our new life here and are so glad to be back in England. The above picture is of a car we saw in the grocery store parking lot. The girls loved the headlight-eyelashes and wanted a pair for our car - somehow I don't think Charles would be real keen on driving such a girlie car.  P.S. the following pictures are a bit out of order because I am too lazy to figure out how to rearrange them. Sorry!

This is the greenhouse in our backyard. The girls play in it and pretend it is a store. They also keep their "collection of stuff" (i.e. various items found around the yard that they deem to be beautiful or somehow important enough to keep) in there.

Our house came with a trampoline. As you can see, we don't need a fence we have hedges to do the job. They surround our entire yard and are much nicer to look at than a fence.

Alex's favorite spot to take a rest is on the ledge of the conservatory.

Abby and Sammy in their school uniforms. I believe children everywhere should wear uniforms. No more wasted time in the mornings trying to figure out what to wear and no more spending gobbs of money on clothes. The children all look the same at school and no one is judged on their clothing. I love it! The girls got accepted to a Church of England school. It has very high ratings. There are only 200 students total in the school of 4-11 year olds. Abby is in Year 3 and Sammy is in Year 1. They both feel special because they feel like they skipped a grade (Abby would have been in 2nd grade in the US and Sammy would have been in kindergarten.)

This is the view from my bedroom window. We have nothing behind us but a pasture and beautiful English countryside. I liked living in the city of London previously but I LOVE living in the country far more. I can't get over the beauty of everything every time I go out for a drive or even just look out my window. These horses graze on the grass behind our hedge all day long. We throw the apples from our trees over to them to eat as well. Abby is now determined to take horseback riding lessons. I think that is a good possibility.  

This is another shot of the backyard. Gorgeous! This is the little patio as you come out of the conservatory. Our BBQ is on the right.

Beyond this gate where Charles is mowing the lawn is a little garden plot and compost area - it is all part of our yard. Don't get me started about composting. I am a believer and may even do a separate post all together on it.

The house has these lovely vines in the back growing all over it. I came out one day and realized the leaves on the vines had all turned red. It was so beautiful. This picture doesn't do it justice.

My lovely rosemary bush. Herbs make me so happy. I also discovered we have a large sage bush as well. I am also growing basil and parsley in the kitchen window.

This is the shed. We need to take down the old satellite dish in the middle. But isn't it gorgeous just covered with greenery?

This is looking back toward the greenhouse from the garden (where Charles was pictured mowing). The trees are apple trees. We also have a pear tree and cherry tree. The girls loved picking apples off the trees right in our own backyard and then taking them into the house and....

...juicing them to make apple juice! It was delicious too! Notice my lovely stove (or cooker as they call it here) in the background. Double oven - It rocks!

Posing for a picture with the sunflowers in the garden.

Sammy wanted another posed picture.

This is our bowl of apples freshly picked from OUR trees. Can I just say, that I was excited to move to England when we first found out but since moving here it has been better than I ever expect. I am so happy to be back in this country. It sounds odd but I feel like it is a magical place. I want to go looking for fairies and read Harry Potter for the first time in my life. I love driving fast down narrow country roads with high walls of greenery that hang over making tunnels, only to slam on my brakes upon spotting an oncoming car and then barely inching our way past each other as slow as possible so as not to scrape each other's car.  Other interesting facts about our new place: apparently the red-headed guy from Harry Potter (Ron Weasley - I just looked up his name) lives in the area and drives an orange hummer or range rover. Also, Victoria Beckham's sister lives here so David and Victoria have been spotted here on occasion. Perhaps I am still in the honeymoon phase of the move but I am loving it. I feel like I am back in my element. I especially look forward to winter because I know it doesn't get anywhere close to being as cold as Chicago and that makes me happy!