Whitstable is full of crime and murder... and a little bit of art!

A long time ago, when we were looking for a place to live near Canterbury, a wonderful drunken man said that "Whitstable is full of crime and murder..." (then he threw his alcoholic beverage to the floor, smashing it. Then he walked away from us. But, when he passed an art gallery he turned back to us and yelled "... and a little bit of art." Now I don't know if Whistable is full of those things, but I do know that it is full of tourists, and sun, and beaches, and good food. We had a bit of an adventure with the Potters yesterday, and I decided to blog about it.



We did quite a bit in one afternoon. We visited the beach, and the beach promenade (top left photo) and I fell in love with the beach huts (top right) too bad I don't have 17,000 pounds handy for that purchase. We also saw the Tea Gardens (bottom left photo) and the Whitstable Castle and grounds. (bottom right photo) I have to say, Whitstable is gorgeous.



Upon entering the promenade we were met with this warning sign. (Top left photo.) Good to know they were worried about our safety. But then there were signs every 50 feet or so... seemed a bit overkill. Then we had to scout out for the best location. (Top right) Jackpot! We found a clear section that we almost had to ourselves. (Bottom left) And the moment our stuff was down we lost Annie to the sea. (Bottom right) I wonder if she is part fish.



Later on we were on the other side of the harbor soaking in the sun. I caught a picture of my fellow pilgrims looking like they are straight out of a sunglasses ad. (picture on the left.) And we were all in love with being so close to the sea. It was beautiful, and not too cold!



To the left of the harbor was the not so pretty side of the beach, it was full of remains of fish, crabs, and oysters. Jesse turned into the claw (left picture) while Esther tried to relocate the recycled oyster shell pile, (middle picture) while Kathleen played the spine and rib bones of a fish like an accordion. (right picture) Still the view was great and the weather was perfect. Such a nice day.



One of our final stops was "Squeeze Gut Alley." (left picture) Apparently it was used by smugglers back in the day. And Naomi told a story that two smugglers were able to escape getting detailed by a police officer because they ran down Squeeze Gut Alley and got away because the officer (who was quite large) couldn't fit through. Now I don't know how true that story is... but I like it. The start of the alley is fine, and I think anyone would be quite comfortable. (second picture) But by the end it gets really squishy. I caught Jesse, Kathleen, and Annie as they were coming to the end. (third picture.) I also caught a larger man trying to squeeze his gut to get through. (last picture) It really was just perfect timing. His wife, who may or may not have had too much to drink, told me I should get documentation of this attempt. So I did. Does that make me a bad person?



We had a wonderful day, and are so grateful for the Potters showing us around their lovely town. It was an incredible day. And thank you to Esther (pictured on the left) and Heather (pictured on the right) for being awesome troopers during our long adventure. Next time we'll bring our swimsuits!

It's a girl! And another girl! And a boy!

Tilly's puppies were born a few days ago, and they're getting pretty darn cute.

This is Jesse's favorite. She's the smaller of the two girls and just wanted to nestle into his shirt.

This is the little boy. He was born with a Sarah foot (aka a clubfoot) and it has to be taped in place every few days so it grows straight. They're kindred spirits.

And this one's my favorite. She the fattest, blackest puppy. Doesn't she just look like a little panther or something? I'd name her Bagira. Or Blackie. Or Lottie.

Tilly's such a good mama.

Annie doesn't have a favorite because, you know, she doesn't like dogs.

Springtime on the Farm

The last two weeks have felt like something from an E.B. White book. The weather's been fantastic, and everything is having babies. I've yet to get good pictures of the lambs down the road or Tilly's puppies (3 days old!), but here are a few snips of what it looks like around here lately.

Jesse stole the little girl puppy for about three minutes. We're excited for Saturday when we're puppy sitting all day and we can spend more time with them.

Jesse and Sarah were craving chocolate chip cookies the other night, and I kinda might have told him we had everything for them. Jesse started making the cookies, only to discover we didn't have butter. So he used shortening. Then we realized we didn't have brown sugar, so in went granulated sugar and treacle. THEN we didn't have vanilla. A teaspoon of Marsala--that's about the same, right? No chocolate chips, so he found half a chocolate bar and threw it in. This, by the way, is the man who measures with precision when cooking. He wasn't happy. However, the cookies turned out to be lovely!

We've been out in the yard a lot the past few nights playing catch. It's been absolutely perfect weather for it. That and our hamburgers and watermelon tonight almost gave us enough of an America fix.

It's rhubarb time!!! England is much more pro-rhubarb than the states. It's a flavor of everything here--candy, yogurt--you name it. I'm cool with that.

I think these sheep are happy to be home. And I'm glad they aren't the mutton stew we thought they might have been.

Baby cow friend.

We said goodbye to our dear Sister Richie a few weeks ago. This was our last dinner together. This isn't us actually having dinner...this is before...

More puppy pictures to come!

Paris

Ooookay. So we don't just sit around and eat sushi. We do other stuff too! Jesse's sister Tara came to visit, and we had a supercool time. We took her around Canterbury, then on a little trip to Paris. Paris is an interesting, beautiful, dirty, cool place.

On arriving, we were completely lost and very obviously tourists with our backpacks and dazed expressions. We wandered through a sort of dodgy part of town in what we hoped was the direction of the Seine. Thank goodness, Tara spotted some missionaries (one of whom was from Spokane!) who were nice enough to show us around the Metro and point us in the right direction. In the next half hour we saw 10 missionaries (about a third of the missionaries in Paris), and then we didn't see another one the rest of the trip.

We saw all the important stuff--the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, L'Arc De Triomphe, etc. We climbed the stairs up the Eiffel tower at night, which was pretty cool, and Tara only whined a little. She actually was very pleasant and good company the whole trip. We found some great chocolate creations and a food market. I think my favorite part of the trip was the night we took the train out of Paris to this little bistro on an island in the river. There was an accordion band playing and lots of dancing. It was really casual with dads dancing with their daughters and dogs under the outside tables. We sat outside under the lights and wisteria and ate chocolate mousse. It was lovely, and I wish wish wish we had an equivalent to that type of place in the states. If all my dreams came true, I'd open a pie house and serve pie and hire bands to play and have the whole neighborhood in for dancing. Sigh. Maybe I'll transform Rexburg someday...

All in all, it was a good trip. We shopped (we did, after all, have a 16-year-old in tow), we ate, we danced, we looked at priceless works of art, we got lost, we walked until our feet died. We visited the Ina-recommended Poilane Bakery and Dehillerin cooking supply store. Disappointingly, the nice man in Dehillerin didn't know what I meant as I tried to ask if they had a pastry blender. And he spoke perfect English. And OH YEAH! We went to EuroDisney! I had reservations about spending one of our Paris days in Disneyland, but I'm so glad we went. There were some great rides, and the people had to be nice to us.

Adventures with the Littlewoods

Esther, James, and Elanor came to visit us yesterday, and we had a lot of fun in the sun. We walked, talked, jumped on the trampoline, fed Bugsy the horse, laughed, watched some Black Adder, and ate some brilliant food made by Annie. All in all it was a fantastic day.



Elanor still calls me "Lady Sarah" and to be honest I think that name should stick. I think it has a lovely ring to it. (Anyone reading this can feel free to call me that at any time!)



John and Esther... feel free to come and adventure with us in Chilham anytime! Thank you for the lovely day.

Family Sushi Time

This post is a little late, but last Tuesday we decided to have a sushi night again, since Kathleen and Jesse weren't present for our first one. It was a smashing success. Annie demonstrated how to roll them, and then we were off.

While I can roll em like Annie can I made my share of creations, as did the rest of the table. We also had our share of laughs because we watched the whole first season of "Outnumbered." Annie and I were re watching it, because we had already seen them... the weekend before.



I think Annie missed her calling, and should be a sushi chef.

A Perfect Saturday

While the cats away the mice will play... or make sushi... and watch TV shows.

Jesse, Kathleen, and Tara are busy adventuring in Paris, so Annie and I decided to have an adventure ourselves.

To make sushi! Sister Kinjo taught us the fundamentals this Wednesday, and we wanted to experiment. We also wanted to experiment with British reality TV. So we watched a few episodes of Britain's "So You Think You Can Dance."







The food: a success!

The TV show: a horrific failure! (We really have been spoiled with the American version. I think there is just a greater amount of talent. Then again this is only the second season, maybe it will be better in a few years.)