dripping with passion

…is going to be way bigger and better than any world travel. this july, we are becoming parents! i’m excited to blog more about our experiences with pregnancy, but for today, here’s a few tidbits: -ian’s reaction, when he opened an envelope i gave him with a positive pregnancy test in it, was the absolute best. we both felt and expressed outrageous amounts of pure joy. -i am totally relishing learning about the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth. i don’t think i’ve ever enjoyed learning about something this much, and i’m completely in awe of the female body. -it all doesn’t seem quite real, especially because i don’t look pregnant yet. this weekend though, i felt the baby move inside me for the first time! -we are finding out the gender next month. we plan on inviting our new london friends to a little “reveal party,” and there’s going to be a pinata involved. -i haven’t been sick (aside from some occasional nausea - and i’m so grateful!). but the past sixteen weeks i really haven’...

on monday before getting ready for bed, the boy and i walked up our street and around the corner to a gelato shoppe for a little treat. after we chose our flavours, we were presented with pretty gelato flowers on our cones! on a bit of a dreary day last week, i noticed how perfectly beautiful and wonderfully whimsical the descending red tulips on our little kitchen table were, a pop of gorgeous colour admist some drab. there are so many small and simple joys around. i want to continually notice and relish them. life is beautiful! { arkwork by katie daisy }

this past sunday evening, the boy and i went to the sky garden – the public space on top of the “walkie talkie” building in east london. we watched the city light up for the night and felt endeared even more to our current hometown. here are some random things i love about london: it’s just really, really pretty the fact that every new skyscraper gets some lookalike-object nickname that really sticks – the cheesegrater, the gherkin (british for pickle), the walkie talkie, and of course, the shard: the high prevalence of jaywalking by londoners (general rule: look both ways and then go ahead and cross wherever you want) church bells (i can’t get over that i hear them from our flat every single morning .. and often around town, too!) constantly hearing people speaking in tons of different languages pound coins (i just think they’re the best coin of any currency i’ve ever used – i love how thick they are!) (that one is super random, i know!) the fascinating fusion of old and ...

  the last stop on our english-heritage-themed roadtrip last weekend was the charming town of canterbury – a place so stuffed with history - it’s really quite staggering. supposedly this spot of earth has been occupied by humans since the paleolithic times – tens of thousands of years! in 597 ad, pope gregory sent saint augustine to convert the anglo-saxon king of canterbury, then a roman town, to christianity, and thus for the last 1400 years this place has been a very significant spiritual destination. canterbury is considered the headquarters of the anglican church and its epic cathedral has been a major focus of pilgrimage for nearly a thousand years (remember chaucer’s canterbury tales ??). we had less than twenty four hours in canterbury, but very much enjoyed our stay at the most lovely bed & breakfast , our time at church (which happened to be across the street from our b&b – a three minute walk!), and our explorations around the incredible cathedral and the encha...

a little break in posting about our weekend english heritage roadtrip to say … i love living in london. i seriously love it so, so, so much. there are times when i am walking around the city and i just really cannot believe that this is my life. we just hit six months – a whole half year! – in london, and we are so glad we are here. last week before we headed down to the southeast, we took a glorious stroll around our neighborhood to see lumiere london with our friends dave and loira. lumiere london was a series of light-based art installations put up around the city for just a few days. roads were blocked off to traffic and filled with pedestrians looking around and up to enjoy colourful and creative spots in the dark sky. given our severe lack of daylight hours up here in jolly old england, and the let down after christmas decorations were destrung, the timing of lumiere was perfect! and this kind of thing is totally up my alley – i love, love, loved it! we met dave and loira in ...