Spring is calling you home

Spring in England is unbelievable. I always tell everyone who asks me about England that it is the best time to go. There is something in the air that says the long winter days are over and that warmer days are coming. You walk past grave yards and for once they do not seem so creepy, with flowers bursting up everywhere it is as if even the dead have summoned up spring. I loved walking down streets in the villages and through the meadows and seeing not neat little flowers all in a row but flowers popping up that were planted long, long ago. There is a sense that as you walk down the roads in the villages that you are connecting with history. The clothes are pegged on washing lines and the breeze is sweet, the windows in homes begin to be open and the paths finally start to dry. So if you have the chance to go home in Spring to my England hurry go and enjoy in my opinion the best place to be in Spring.Oh don't forget to eat those Cadbury cream eggs and have a lovely cup of tea. There is always room for one more.

Snowed in..... Maybe not so much fun.

I have followed the snow in England like a hawk flying over a mountain. To begin with I was quite jealous, but last night as I watched on the BBC many people stranded in their cars.. the fun so to speak went away and reality hit. Imagine having to walk in that snow for miles to get home? Imagine having to shovel snow and you are seventy three years old, or you are running out of food because you know no one to go and buy it?Guess the fun goes out the window then. I loved walking in the snow as a child, loved playing in it although i hated ruining the pretty snow by my foot prints. I am sure even the children in England must be getting a little fed

up with the cold weather. As I type I wonder how countries like Switzerland and Iceland deal with it, perhaps you grow accustomed to it...you stop complaining and just live. I was encouraged by friends who made Princes snowmen and took wonderful pictures in the snow and then the scenes of the beaches were pure wonder. So even though I am sure the fun of the snow is wearing of, take the time to capture the beauty of it whether in a poem, painting or with a camera, because in time the cold memories might just melt away and you will have a memory to last a lifetime.

Snow in England brings people to care for each other

Well as the snow has braced My England for this last week. Many of us who are not there are longing for them to share the snow. I guess one forgets,those moments of feeling so cold that your fingers are so numb you want to cry and your checks feel like they have been frozen to your face. I guess the grass always looks greener on the other side the reality is that the grass is greener in England. But as I talked to many in England this week, many just tried to be positive. Making sure that their pets were looked after and friends checking in on each other. A simple call to someone elderly or getting a newspaper. Such trivial

things but when the weather is cold it means so much to many. Perhaps people in England find this an easier thing to do, as in the war they had to all pull together. Something I do believe they never forgot, especially many from that time period. So if you are in England pull out the sledges, batten down the hatches and keep warm. Sending you warm wishes.

England my home.

The other week someone asked me about England and added "surely you don't miss the rain". I added "It's the people that make you call a place home". It's friends having a cup of tea, walking into town and sharing Christmas meals. It's the market places and the banter of hearing the stall holders cry out. The panto's and the smell of fish and chips and the pouring of vinegar and salt over them and then eating them in the freezing cold. It's the squeals of the wheels and bustling in the airport and the realization that the place you just landed is your home and that there is just none like it. It's the laughing with friends that remember you at school, or a sister remembering you keeping her up at night. There's the nicknames that only your family know and there is that kettle in the kitchen which calls your name and says Your home. So England may have rain, it maybe damp,

but to me it is oh so much more than that to me. It's My home. Hope you all are enjoying the snow.

2013 Here we are.

Well I stayed up to see the New Year in,on the East coast of USA. Many New Years Day's in Aylmerton would be, us all waking up to snow and going for a walk in the woods. My Dad which I probably quote every New Years Day would say that the snow wiped the world clean. It has stuck with me ever since he said it.

Dad in his own way said something true. That bringing in the New year gives us all a chance to make dreams come true. It is a shame that a snow falling can't wipe a world clean as beautiful as it is, I sure wish that was true. It rained today where I live and in a small way I thought of the rain as the many tears I have cried and that today was a new day of hope. So let's hope I get to come home to England this year. To all of you Start a new page and a new chapter and Dream ever so big Happy New year to you all It's going to be a good one..

My home for Christmas 2012

So the gifts are wrapped and if you are in England you are checking out what will be on the telly tonight and over Chrismas. So if you are in England don't forget to walk down the streets and drive through the villages and see the Christmas lights. Sing with all your heart Christmas carols down the streets. Go to a Carol service or a small church. I loved the services in Stanton so many good memories, thanks Aspinalls. See the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. Ride on a double-decker bus and listen to the merry tunes of buskers singing in the streets of London. Don't forget to have some Christmas cake and Christmas pudding and oh some yummy custard. Open up a cracker and pull the wish bone with a friend. Enjoy a meal at a pub. Listen to the Queens speech. And stuff,stuff your face with loads of yummy Cadbury's chocolates. In other words this is my home and I am so jealous that you are there. So from my family to yours have a wonderful Christmas in England and may one day soon we will be home for Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

Which book will clean your very soul this Christmas?

I find this time of year magical and my most favorite movie at Christmas is The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. It takes me back to England and walking in the snow near Renwick Park in West Runton to walking in the snow on New Years Day, with my dad saying that God had wiped the world clean. I find the simplicity of the story magical. I find it so totally what England is all about. I remember my brother wearing one of those dressing gowns with the cord tied around his waist. Us all eagerly looking out of the windows to see the snow. The story transports me back in time and to my England. Then another amazing author Nick Butterworth in all the Percy Park stories, takes us to the wonderful parks in England where indeed we often see the park keeper. Oh to read One Snowy Night and to be taken to that park with all those wonderful animals. But perhaps simplicity is not on your reading list this Christmas, then go with me to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens perhaps you will just read the words, or perhaps you will allow your mind to see how you can change and make the future brighter. See Charles Dickens might of written it about a man called Scrooge but let's be real there is that man in all of us and all of us need to be changed. So here are my favorites, what books from Good Olde England will you read and which ones will change your life forever? As my dad use to say on

New Years Day when it snowed that God wiped the world clean, I ask you which book will clean your very soul to make your Christmas Merry and Bright There's always room for one more.