Midsummer Fair

We've just gotten word via the association of neighbors around us that the cows will be back on Midsummer Common within the week. The cows are just a unique and beautifully hilarious part of Cambridge. When we first moved here we were astounded that a pack of cows just hangs out on the common between our street and the River Cam, hence a pack of cows grazes in downtown Cambridge and is allowed to do so because of ancient common grazing laws. We love this place. Anyway, these pictures are from the Midsummer Fair, which apparently attracts the British version of a redneck crowd. In these photos, we used eachother as props to capture what was going on in the background, so please ignore our faces and look beyond. When we first saw the scantily, yet extravagantly dressed teen girls in these photos, we wondered if there was some subtext to this event that we weren't privy to (ie. fleshmarket?). We unfortunately didn't even capture the best outfits or characters. But alas, we didn't want to draw too much attention to ourselves and our film quest. Oh, and they call Cotton Candy "Candyfloss".

Ollies abound

Hello again, this is the next edition of our blog. I know, I know. No Mary, No Jesus, Know Mary, Know Jesus. Our tribute to Jesus Green. This is the place that we love to read and relax on our nice summer days (which seem to be few and far between). We wanted to include this because this is the last time that we decided to go and thrash around on the skate park associated with the "green". The pictures are of Ash and I doing our thing at the skate park. You can see Ash and I both shredding it at the park. I am about to take a trip down the pipe as you can see. I actually landed a 720 aerial off the first jump and Ash did the bowl to full scale as she ascended the first trigression. You can see the progession of our moves through the pics. I hope you enjoy, we did. It was one great skate park adventure. We can't wait to show off again.

Honey, will you take out the trash?

We must take a moment to comment on the trash, as it has been one of the more eye opening facets of our adjustment (ie. we feel very very American- and proud of it- where trash is concerned). There is a green bin or green bags, a black bin and a smaller black bin (both authorised to hold specifically different items), white bags, a blue bin... what does all of this mean, pray tell? Well, we are still working on that, which is why we use the dump multiple times a week. We gather that the green bins (which we are not allowed to have, though we can have green bags after begging the Cambridge Council) are for tree and plant cuttings, as well as raw food (as long as you wrap your bones in newspaper), and cardboard. The big black bin is for general rubbish, as are the white bags. The blue bin, we think, is for plastic and...it must be smushed? The black other bin is for cans, bottles and paper. Okay, well, that is great in theory- to recycle etc. However, each bin or bag or bucket or whatever the medium is collected only once every two weeks (alternating weeks for a set group). So, we are far too American to allow our trash to sit in our tiny accomodations for more than a few days. Hence, we have the council remove only one weekend's worth of our rubbish per every two weeks when it collects (which is why for our first month here you could find us sneaking trash into government dumpsters on base, in spite of their signs warning against such behavior- until we discovered the Cambridge dumpsite). We're starting to get the hang of this, so now we're off to use the Cambridge Rubbish Disposal Site (my- Ashley's- first dump experience got to be in the UK! thanks Jordan and the military, for broadening my horizons).

Jesus Green and other things

Welcome to our latest blog....this promises to be the most interesting yet, or at the very least moderately interesting (in our opinion). You can see our "computer room/closet", this is where the magic happens (blog magic). It was sold to us as a second bedroom although the prospects of fitting even a twin size bed in here seem to be, to say the least, unfeasible. There is also a picture of punting (or a form of boating, by which you push yourself along with a pole), which takes place on the River Cam right out our back door and is a favorite nice weather activity. The others are of us in the city centre beside King's college and a few of us on Jesus Green. Cambridge is an absolutely beautiful city, and I can't think of one that compares at the moment. Nonetheless, we pay a fairly heavy price for the green of the grass (it is vibrantly green). That is to say that the abundant rain supply helps in the chlorophyll process that makes that grass so green, which is what we contend against daily....RAIN.
P.S. The rain also enables the growth of the roses, which, we must admit, are not ours. They really belong to our neighbors, one of whom is a French gardener, but she is kind enough to let them grow into our back patio. We are not green thumbs of yet, one of us is scared of spiders and the other has a day job. Until next time...

We have only made it to London once thus far, but it is only a 40ish minute train ride or an hour and something drive, so we expect to explore it much more. We were dumped on with rain and kept walking; we're learning that rain is really okay. The weather here was much speculated about before we actually got here. Everyone is aware that the UK has a rainy climate; it does, but most days its more of a lighter misting than a downpour like we were used to in GA and TN. I know we got here at probably the best possible time, so talk to me in the dead of winter when its dark by 4 pm and I may speak differently, but the weather isn't as bad as I feared. It does change on a dime, and rain quite often, but we have had our share of blessed and much needed periods of sunshine. In fact, the longest rain streak we've endured was only about 10 days. We've been loving the daylight- it begins sometime in the 4 am's and stretched into the 10 pm's. Its weird because you wake up at 4:30 and see the light and think you should get up, then by 7 you feel as though you've slept in like a lazy bum! We walked about 10 miles and saw all the sights, though by "saw" here I mean we looked at the outside unless it was free. It ain't cheap over here, so we wanted to to do all of our thorough research before paying any entrance fees. And now, as Jordan likes to say after the famous Clark Griswold and in honor of every roundabout we've encountered and conquered, "look kids, Big Ben."

pictures of the cottage

our cottage

Hello...welcome to our blog. We just arrived over a month ago in the UK and have moved into our new home for the next three years. It is a tucked-away little cottage that we fell in love with immediately. It has the cutest spiders (many of you know Ashley loves spiders), a nice bath (sans shower), no room to store anything, and best of all the air conditioner well, there isn't one. But, this isn't our first rodeo. It may sound like we hate it because Jordan was up front with the challenges (notice he didn't even mention that we have a pint sized washing machine, no dryer, and no dishwasher) we can call them, but we adore it. It is in a row of cottages that date to at least the early 19th century, and our house is 1 Auckland Cottages. Pictures are worth a thousand words, according to someone, so we'll include plenty. The adjustment has been one adventure after another but as Thomas Jafferson said "Adventure is to some as family is to others" or something like that. We will have to include stories sometime of trying to find the dump, walking for hours, driving on the wrong side of the road, not knowing how to work roughly 85% of all the things in our home, etc. But that should probably wait as I have to kill this spider that is crawling up my leg, maybe I will just drown it in the bathtub.