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Butlers Abroad

Category Archives: Life

Georgia On My Mind

27 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Life, Seasons, Travel, Weather

≈ 3 Comments

Home again, home again, jigety-jig!

Yes, we’ve been gallivanting around again, those of you who have been with me a while might remember that we like to head South at this time of year in search of some sun.  Our destination is usually the Isle of Palms in South Carolina, but this time around we decided to add a couple of days in Savannah, Georgia at the start of the holiday, and then finish up with a week on the IOP.

Savannah is billed as America’s Most Beautiful City because of it’s old buildings, cobbled streets, green spaces and it’s beautiful city squares, everyone we talked to said how wonderful it is.  So after a terrible 16 hour drive in topical pouring rain for over two thirds of it, we finally arrived at our hotel in Mid-town Savannah.

Typically at this time of year Savannah enjoys temps in the 80’sF (high 20’s to early 30’sC), but that rain we drove through (for well over 600 miles) ushered in a cold front more reminiscent of December than April!  We topped out at 53F (11C) on our one day looking round the old city, and we just weren’t prepared for that at all!  Still, we made the most of it and had a long, but interesting, day.

Don’t be fooled by the “I’m happy to be here” grin, it was Michigan temps and I was wearing a thin long sleeved tshirt and capri’s.  I had nothing else.  Andrew was wearing shorts!

The city is up-river from the ocean but was still a major and bustling port back in the day.  Now the river is more a source of tourist entertainment than trade.

The city is incredibly green, but it was also very dull and overcast making photos difficult, but I liked the old cobbled streets and the iron walkways spanning them.  The buildings to the left are the back of the old warehouses that front the river.

Needing a warm up we soon sniffed out the best coffee shop around.  Savannah Coffee Roasters started out as a coffee importer and roaster many moons ago in 1909.  They used to be just a supplier of fresh coffee to other establishments until a couple of years ago when the company was bought out by an Australian lady who renovated a fantastic old building and opened it up as a cafe.   Now, they still roast their own coffee but they also bake fabulous cakes (Limoncello Cake for me and Tiramisu for Andrew), and have a great lunch menu too.  Their executive chef was the last to train under the formidable doyen of  American cookery, Julia Childs.

Founded in 1733 by General James Edward Oglethorpe representing King George II, Savannah was originally settled to stem the Catholic flow of the Spanish and French Northwards from Florida and Louisiana.  The original city plan and layout was even mapped out before Oglethorpe set sail from England.  This included the 24 city squares that the city is perhaps most famous for.

Like many cities old cities though Savannah has seen its fortunes rise and fall over the years and two of the original squares were lost to redevelopment in the 1950’s before the formation of the Historic Savannah Foundation preserved them and the historic buildings around them.

Oglethope’s original design had trust lots on the East and West sides of the Squares for churches and public buildings and tithing lots on the North and South sides for colonists homes.

Some of the Squares are wonderful, peaceful oasis’s from the bustle of a big city, others now find themselves on the main routes in and out of the city and take a lot of vehicular traffic.  None of the roads go though the squares, so even the big buses and lorries have to negotiate the large evergreen oaks, narrow streets, parked cars and tourists as they make their way gingerly around them!

But I’ll be honest… perhaps it was the cold weather that did it, or the very touristy section by the waterfront, or all the traffic in the city or maybe all the walking we did, but I was seriously beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about.  I know with warmer temps and some sun the place would look amazingly different but I was already beginning to turn my thoughts towards Charleston, the Isle of Palms and South Carolina….

Stuck In Spring-ter!

27 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Home, Life, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Weather, Winter

≈ 4 Comments

The calendar tells me it’s the first week of Spring but it’s actually been colder here than the first week of Winter was back in December!  We’re feeling a bit trapped between that no-mans land between Winter and Spring, hence the “Spring-ter” in the post title if you haven’t figured it out yet.

Whilst the weather makes up its mind which way to go I thought I’d show you a few photos of the last days of Winter, a bit late as they’re from the first two weekends in March, but I’ve had strep throat and my step-father is in hospital in England after suffering a nasty fall.  No broken bones, amazingly, but he’s pretty banged up and needed stitches on his face, he’s being kept in for a few days for observation and to make sure that he’s able to get about under his own steam again.

These first few are from our skiing trip to Petoskey.  We forgot the camera on the first day, which is a shame as it was beautiful and sunny and just so pretty.  These are from the Sunday when it was grey and show showery all day, it wasn’t very cold though, not much below freezing and the snow conditions were perfect.  And as Andrew always says, it doesn’t matter how dull the day, or how many people are on the slopes, he can spot me a mile off!

 

And as you can see, on Sunday we practically had the place to ourselves.  Anyone who had come up for the weekend was leaving by Sunday lunchtime for the drive home, but as we weren’t leaving until the Monday it worked out perfectly.

And on the Monday, before leaving, we walked along the harbour in Petoskey as it was a stunning day.  Actually, let me rephrase that, we walked ON the harbour in Petoskey!  Little Traverse Bay was completely frozen over, there were tire tracks on it from trucks heading out to do some ice fishing, and snow-mobile tracks too plus lots of footprints!

Back at home a weekend later and the weather couldn’t have been more different, highs of 21C soon put paid to all of our remaining snow.

Since then we’ve been back down to -8C, mostly after the official start of Spring, but at least that’s given us plenty of indoor time to continue ripping out the bathroom, which is now a big empty space, warts and all.  And we have a lot of work ahead of us!  But more on that another time.

Randomly On My Camera

06 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Family, Knitting, Life, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Travel, Weather, Winter

≈ 3 Comments

I take quite a lot of photos over the course of a week or two, most never make it on to this blog, but I thought perhaps I might show you a few once in a while.  Right now there’s a lot of photos of Winter and snow and I could fill up post after post with them but that would get old very quickly!

Trails at our local State Park.

Some Sock Love.

Fingerless Mitts – they match a cowl I made 18 months ago.

Christmas Cactus – Flowering for the second time

Back To The Park For Cross Country Skiing

Andrew had a birthday at the end of February.  Naturally there were Giraffe themed birthday cards and Giraffe themed socks!

And rather randomly taking up space in my dining room right now…

Yes, we’re getting ready for a bathroom remodel!  Looking forward to it but not looking forward to it if you know what I mean!

We’re heading up north again this weekend for more downhill skiing and our camping friends are coming with us for a break although they don’t ski.  We have a little condo booked right beside the State Park in Petoskey that we all love to go to in the Summer months and we’ve all taken Monday off too so we’re making a longer weekend of it.  I’m hoping for lots of knitting time in between bouts of vigorous exercise!

Just Chillin’

16 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Life, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Weather, Winter

≈ 4 Comments

Cross country skiing in Mayberry Park on Saturday, waiting for Andrew who decided to add an extra loop, whereas I knew how I’d be feeling the next day if I added even one extra foot to my normal circuit!

Perching my derriere on a picnic bench in the sunshine.

The temperature we woke up to on Sunday morning…

Ice on the inside of the bathroom windows on Sunday morning.  We had ice on practically all of the windows, it was a bit of an overwhelming kind of cold…

The forecast for Sunday and also for Monday…

But my feet are toasty warm in my new furry slipper booties….

The only problem is, Andrew now wants a pair too!

This Week I’m…

05 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Knitting, Life, Michigan, Seasons, Weather, Winter

≈ 2 Comments

…Digging out from Winter Storm Linus which brought us 16.7″ of snow to start the week with.  I stayed at home and worked on Monday, before digging out the driveway and paths and then digging out my neighbour’s son and his car after he got himself completely stuck at the entrance to our street.

…Staying indoors and working on my new socks, Alluvial Deposits:

And casting on yet more socks, like you do.  These are another of the Harry Potter themed socks that I told myself last Summer I would knit more of, 7 months later here are “Socks For The Deputy Headmistress”.  Or as I called my project on Ravelry “Socks For Sheer Dumb Luck” taken from one of Minnerva McGonagill’s quotes from the first HP book and film, which I can still hear ringing around my head.

…Trying to keep warm.  I need more socks because we’re back in the deep freeze, so I’m also not spending a great deal of time outside at the moment.  All my hand knits are coming in useful right now though, especially at 6:30am when I leave my house for the drive to work.  This was the temperature earlier today, after it had warmed up a few degrees.

…Looking forward to the weekend after a seriously stressy week at work that involved a lot of forward budget planning that had to be re-done all over again after I noticed that Accounting had given us starting figures that were a year out of date; and two license servers that decided to have hard disk failures a day apart from each other that left me scrambling to get them back on line and minimize the impact to the users.  But there’s always someone who complains…. and then emails GM level managers to bitch and complain some more.

Still, there’s always next week…

Top Of The List Of Things I NEVER Want To Witness Ever Again

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Life

≈ 6 Comments

This has to be pretty close to the top, maybe No1.  This was 500ft off my back deck last night (Saturday 24th Jan).  These first three photos were taken standing on the deck.

We live just off a busy road, it’s the main drag for the Police, Fire and Ambulance departments, and there is a freeway entrance/exit just 2 miles East of us too so we’re used to hearing the sirens screaming down the road.  Last night from about 8:30pm we heard the sirens and it sounded close, then we heard more sirens and then more still.  There was a lot of noise behind us, people yelling and what sounded like a large generator running so we looked outside to see what the heck was going on, only to see one of the buildings of the apartment complex directly behind us was completely engulfed in flames.  I think it’s the most shocking thing I’ve seen in my life and I felt sick to my stomach for a few minutes.  This was quite literally in my own back yard.

We stood in our garden with our neighbours and some people from down the street, and were then joined by complete strangers who drove into our sub to see what was happening as the main road outside was completely blocked off by the emergency depts, and they were at a standstill.  We went down through the trees to get these photos but didn’t stay long, it was too distressing.

There are 16 apartments in that building, 12 of them were occupied.  Luckily there were no injuries, but there are some pets that are not accounted for and have most likely perished, although our neighbours told us that they saw the firefighters coming out of the building before it was completely engulfed with pets and a couple of small animals in a cage.

This morning it looks like this.

The entire back of our house overlooks this devastation, our family room, breakfast area, kitchen and dining room are all at the back on the ground floor, and as there are no leaves currently on the trees we can’t help but see it.  Upstairs, our bathroom and the bedroom I use as my craft room also overlook it, so it doesn’t matter what we do, where we go, it’s right in our face.

Andrew and I got no sleep at all last night, the last of the big fire trucks left at 3:16am, but then a large generator turned up, with a lot of workmen and the chain link fence went up around the building.  The noise and the lights made it impossible to sleep.  However, please don’t think I’ complaining, I’m acutely aware that the only thing I lost last night was a few hours of sleep.

Above you can see our house on the lower left with the black arrow, and above that to the right, is the apartment building in question.  We’re still waiting to hear what happened.

Local news report here: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/fire-destroys-novi-apartment-building/30904956

Good News / Bad News

18 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by A Woolly Life in Life, Michigan, Seasons, Weather, Winter

≈ 1 Comment

It’s a kind of a good news/bad news situation here.

.

.

The good news, most definitely, is that we’re finally done raking the leaves for this year…

.

.

The bad news is that we’re done raking the leaves for this year because Winter has arrived!

.

.

 

Possibly the worse news is that we’ve skipped December and January and seemed to have landed in the middle of February as it was -12C outside this morning with a wicked wind making it feel more like -22C.  In fact we haven’t actually been above freezing during the daytime for six days, although it was only just on the cusp or just below, and not much colder than that at night either until yesterday.  It makes me wonder what February has in store for us!

Chin, chin.  I’m off to get a warm cuppa and sit by the fire.

 

Ready For The Beach

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by A Woolly Life in Life, Travel

≈ 5 Comments

Time to slow the pace down a little….

 

 

 

Make mine a Mai Tai.  Back in a few!

It’s Definitely That Time of Year Again

04 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by A Woolly Life in Foody Stuff, Gardening, Home, Life, Michigan, Seasons

≈ 5 Comments

When the weather can’t make up it’s mind.  It’s Autumn one day, cool and frosty overnight with brilliant cobalt blue skies and changing leaves during the day.  The next day it’s back to summer, hot and humid, usually ending in a thunderstorm, the day after that will be positively miserable with rain and cold temperatures.  When I come in from work one day I put on shorts and a tshirt and sit on the deck enjoying the warm weather.  Then the next day I come home from work, put on sweatpants and a long sleeved top and sit indoors with my knitting and a hot cup of tea.

It’s the time of year when the front garden is starting to look like Autumn..

Yet the back garden is still resolutely Summer, not a single splash of colour to be seen anywhere, apart from green that is.

It’s the time of year where last Saturday I wore shorts and a strappy top and got my back sunburnt…. and last Sunday I was all wrapped up against the cold and cooking comfort food in the shape of a roast chicken dinner and a warming blackberry and apple crumble for afters.

It’s also the time of year when I have two pairs of pajamas neatly folded at the end of the bed.  One thick, warm pair and one thin cotton pair and I switch them around practically every night depending on whether the day was hot or cold.

Earlier in the week it was the warm pj’s with the covers pulled up tight.  The last couple of nights have been back to the short sleeved cotton ones again, last night was the cotton ones and sleeping on top of the sheets.

Yes.  It’s Fall.  It’s Michigan.  It’s very beautiful.  And I love it.

Sunny Sunday

18 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by A Woolly Life in Events, Foody Stuff, Knitting, Life, Michigan, The Weekend

≈ 4 Comments

We had a great weekend, nothing in the way of papercrafting, but a lot of fun all the same.

On Saturday we met up with our friends, Paul and Leah, and they took us out to lunch.  Our Christmas present really, but I had that impacted wisdom tooth removed over Christmas, and they have two kids, so between them, school, family stuff and work we’ve only just been able to get together again.

They took us to a place Andrew and I didn’t know about called Tyme Well Spent, which is a traditional tea room in an old Victorian house in Hartland, Michigan.  This is the only place I’ve ever been to where they give you a tea menu instead of a wine menu, that was four and a half pages long!! We spent longer deciding on our pots of tea than we did on our lunch!  We had their lunch menu with hot tea, followed by cakes and more tea, and in between courses we got up and went upstairs where the bedrooms all contain a plethora of Vintage items to buy, including jewellery, clothes, tea cups and plates, home decor items, books and hats!  Oh the hats!  Leah and I had a very mad 10 minutes trying on as many crazy hats as we could find!  At one point Andrew joined in with us too!  And guess who put the camera ready and then walked out of the house without it!!  Not one of us  had a camera of any kind on them, which is probably just as well!

Afterwards we stopped in Milford, a really quaint town with a lot of vibrant shops and cafes, we needed a stroll around after all that delicious home made food!  I found a knitting shop but unfortunately it had just closed for the day, I heard Andrew breathe a sigh of relief at that though!

Sunday was a cold but sunny day, we never actually got above freezing again and we’d had a light dusting of about an inch of snow on Friday night, so after breakfast we went out for a walk through one of the many parks along Hines Drive.  And I didn’t forget the camera this time.

[This is one of our favourite trees in the area and we always snap a picture of it when we do this walk.  It was struck by lightning many years ago and lost its top. so it now grows out sideways instead of upwards!  We love the shadows that it creates, it’s interesting in any season.]

I spent my Sunday afternoon knitting!  I finished a sock for me, still have to knit the other one of the pair though; and I’m now on the decreases on Andrew’s hat.  I want to get that finished before I cast on for the second sock, as I know I’ll get distracted by it if I do.  With a bit of luck he might be able to wear it this Winter after all!  And finally,  late in the day I worked on a card, so I should have something of the paper crafting variety to show you tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!  Can’t believe I now know someone so famous that she’s gone and got her name on Wikipedia!!  Brilliant or what!

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My projects are on this blog as inspiration only. Please don't copy my designs or use them for submitting to competitions or for any form of publications. All designs are my own ideas unless otherwise stated.
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