My Monday Morning Thoughts

Lincolnshire Plum Bread , with Cote Hill Blue Cheese Damson Cheese (Photo credit: Girl Interrupted Eating)

After having been on vacation for two week, searching for ancestors in Lincolnshire (and finding them) I am glad to be home. Not that I wouldn't turn around and start packing for another vacation... in say about a month or so. I had so much fun. Doing family research isn't just about collecting names and dates, it's about walking the fields where they once worked, eating at the pubs that they might have visited and of course sampling the foods that are famous in the region. For me, it was tasting authentic Lincolnshire Plum Bread. It's kind of like Christmas pudding but in slices. I didn't mean to eat more than one slice, but I did and then went on to polish off the wedge of cheese (not blue cheese) that came with it. Now I want to make it myself so that I can see what it tastes like toasted. I can almost imagine but want to give it a go. ;) Hmmm, it didn't come with preserves... that might be awfully good too.

One bad thing about ancestor hunting... you tend to eat alot and then have to come home and exercise all of those delicious calories off. Is it worth it?? You bet it is.  Zumba this afternoon!!

Quotes About Travel and Losing Oneself!

Just a few hours ago, we arrived home from St. Louis. Had a great time, ate in some amazing restaurants and played tourist. I went looking for a few quotes that would fit our trip... :) Can't wait to start out again on another adventure!!

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.  Lao Tzu

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
 Saint Augustine



Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.  Anatole France

Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.  Ray Bradbury

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.  Lin Yutang

I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.  Mark Twain

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.  Seneca

 The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”
 G. K. Chesterton

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience.  The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him.  He goes "sight-seeing."  Daniel J. Boorstin

I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.
Lillian Smith

To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives - is the only way we can leave the future open.
Lillian Smith

It is not down in any map; true places never are.  Herman Melville

What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds.  When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then.  People don't have your past to hold against you.  No yesterdays on the road.  William Least Heat Moon,

Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage.  Regina Nadelson

Learning Something New

I am a big collector of Page a Day Calendars and this year I spotted one or two that I don’t already have. One was for learning French and the other was for Spanish. Can you imagine just how much vocabulary you would pick up that way! Talk about little steps! 

Okay, I know that grammar for French is incredibly difficult... at least for me it is, so building up a vocabulary will at least will help to make yourself understood. It certainly helped when I tagged along on a business trip to Martinique with my husband a few years ago. And once I have enough vocabulary under my belt, I will start putting together three word sentences. ;)

Saving Pennies

Image via Wikipedia

I read an account a few years ago about a woman who had dropped her change into a jar whenever she had a few pennies and over the years, it just added up and up. I never thought much about it until I began to think about it. A friend asked this morning about what is on my "bucket list" and after a few minutes I came up with a good one... I want to sit in a sidewalk cafe along the Seine and people watch. It would be a rather costly holiday, but if I simply dropped change into a jar... it would add up! This seems to be a really easy way to save up for a holiday that you would otherwise probably have to forgo! So, grab yourself a large bottle. We are all going to save for one awesome vacation!