Made it back into the U.S. early on Saturday morning. By early I mean it was 4:30 a.m. when we finally made it back to Floyd and into bed. We had a wonderful time on our 3 week vacation over too England and Norway, with lots of fun contra dancing, seeing new places, meeting new people and eating new and interesting food.
   It has been a bit slow since then getting back into the groove here in Virginia. It rained the first couple of days here and it was somewhat depressing after all the good weather we had in Europe. But I am now pretty much unpacked and I have gotten my laundry done and have even managed to down load my pictures. So there is plenty of things to talk about and I will get around to posting a lot of pictures over the next couple of weeks. But it is going to take some time for me to go through them all and get them  fixed up and ready to post. That being said; here is the very first picture I took in Ely England.

Vacation in Ely England and Norway

Ely England Contra Dance - April 2015

Rima and I had a good trip over to England the first day. After getting up way to early to get to the airport in Roanoke, we connected in Dulles and took the 6-7 hour flight across the Atlantic, landing at Heathrow at what was about 7:30 a.m. local time. From there we found our way to the 'Underground' train and headed into the city where we transferred to the high speed train too Ely at Kings Cross Station. Lucky for us the British believe in putting up lots of signs and other than having minor problems buying tickets because our credit cards didn't work in the machines, we made it onto the correct train without too many problems.
   Another hour and half brought us into the station at Ely and we got off the train and made our way out. Our leader, Gwyn, had given us directions and a map to his mom's place where we were to meet, so we just decided to walk as it was only a half mile or so from the station. We got about halfway there when we ran across this little park at the top of a hill. Time for a break and a few pictures. Little did we realize that this little park is nearly in the middle of the school campus that we would be staying at for the next week. In the distance is the Ely Cathedral which overshadows the whole town of Ely. We would get to know it, and the rest of the town pretty well in the next week. But for this moment I just found it charming that the Brits still manage to have real public phones around the community and that they actually still have their iconic phone booth.

brk*

   Seems like I am always apologizing for not writing as often as I should, or as much as I would want too. But the truth is that it has been a busy couple of weeks here in the Floyd area, what with Rima gone for a week in Hawaii and me staying here to work on a few projects and just hang out. So of course it has been fun.. at least most of the time anyway.
    So Rima had a great time in Hawaii of course, even if it sounds as though the actual dancing wasn't all that great. There are just so many wonderful things to see and do there that there wasn't much time to not be off doing something really cool. I think, from her stories, that sailing out in the bay on this guy's catamaran was one of the real highlights of all of the things that she did. She liked being able to hear the Hump Back Whales singing as they sailed by.
   I worked here at 'The Farm' while she was gone. At least on those days when it wasn't snowing or so cold that I didn't want to be outside. So I got a lot of the new framing of the shop room done and even got a good start at putting the exterior sheathing on. I would say that about 2/3's of it is done and the rest should only take another day or so. I also got the new window installed as well as the majority of the new electrical boxes. So it is moving along, even though it seems so slow at times.
   I also worked on a few other projects around the place such as stacking the rest of the cut firewood that had still been laying out in the pasture. I had hoped to have cut a dozen or so more trees down and have them cut up by this time, but a couple days of high winds and cold temperatures kept me indoors instead.
   I did get a couple more trees planted along the way, one more Elberta Peach and a Juneglo Nectarine, as well as transplanting a couple 4' tall cherry trees that Rima had growing in one of her planter boxes. With each tree there had to be a new, much taller, circular fence around it to not only protect it from all the deer who like to munch on them, but also the horses who seem to find them all pretty tasty too.
    Today was busy with finishing up some last minute things around the place such as repairing a couple of birdhouses and putting my tools away in the shed. We also had a couple of her kids over for dinner this evening. A fun evening all in all with some good conversation and some pretty decent food. It turns out that I can make a pretty decent meatloaf if given half the chance.
   Tomorrow we will be on our way to England and a week long dance week in the town of Ely. It is going to be so much fun and I can hardly wait. But it gets even better because after a week of sightseeing and drinking good beer in the local pubs, as well as dancing every evening, Rima and I are catching a flight over to Stavanger (sp) Norway where we will spend nearly two more weeks exploring some of the area where her ancestors are from.
   So there is going to be an even bigger gap in this Blog's record this time, but the hope is to have some great pictures to share once we get back. See ya!


brk*