Singing, er...Dancing, in the Rain

I was sitting in my basement bedroom (country song anyone? brownie points if you get it right!) working on some job applications, when I heard something outside in the backyard.

I listened quietly for a little bit, until I figured out the sounds were rain!
And, like the child I really am, I immediately jumped up and ran outside to play in the rain.

Splashing in the puddles, lifting my hands to the sky, laughing and giggling. I'd love to hear what my neighbors thought of my little dance in the driveway.

It was so refreshing though, both because the rain was much needed and because I'd been sitting too long filling out job applications and working on some internship projects. 

There are a million other reasons why I love rain. Granted, I don't appreciate a lot of gloomy, dreary days in a row, but the occasional cloudy and rainy days are appreciated. I love the way rain smells, before, during and after it actually rains. I love the way the world quiets while it's raining, and in the few precious moments after, when the last remaining raindrops fall from tree leaves and are the only discernible noises. I love the way plants shoot up in the next few hours and days after a good rainfall, how even humans seem to emerge a little taller and more refreshed just by stepping into a rain dampened world. I love being able to hunker down inside with a tall cup of coffee and a book or movie when the rain comes down a little harder than I like.

Why isn't it raining now? I think I need to go play in it some more! 

What do you like about rain?

A Monday Visitor

Besides being super productive this afternoon with internship items, I had a visitor arrive in Ames this evening!
 
My good friend Amy is on her way to northwestern Iowa to pick up some calves, and decided to start her trip a little early. I'm thrilled to be her stopping point! It's always great to see friends from home, especially since Amy and I were roommates for two years during our time at ISU.

She even brought along Callie, her beautiful (and incredibly calm/well behaved) border collie pup.

Amy and I enjoyed some delicious Mexican food at Carlos O'Kelly's and got a chance to catch up on life (At least, I caught up on her life, since she follows the blog and seems to know most everything I tried bringing up - ha!). It was great to sit and talk and really relax after my productive afternoon at Panera.

Delicious Chicken Picado!

After supper, we took Callie for a walk on campus after supper, enjoying the perfect evening air and quite a few ISU memories.

Thankfully, not too much has changed in the year since Amy graduated. The campanile still stands!

Even though Amy and Callie are heading out early tomorrow morning, I've still loved having them here. Guess it's a good thing I'll be getting a huge dose of home this weekend!

Remnants

These are the remains of the swim bag I packed this morning - 

extra towels, other suit, and Berger's air pump. 

This is all that is left of my delicious peach Snapple tea.

These are the remains of slightly dirt flip flops that floated

down the Skunk River for about four hours today. 

This is the remaining smile of a slightly sunburnt, but definitely content, Erin, 

who throughly enjoyed floating down a river with 

good friends,

good music, 

good laughs, 

good times. 

Yes, "Hooray!" for summer.

Gardens, Museums, and Boats Oh My!

After class on Thursday, everyone was free to go out on their own and do their own things for the weekend. I decided that I was interesting to going to Kensington Gardens to have a look around. Jen and Alex decided to accompany me, and we set off on Friday morning to find the park and gardens. The day was cool, with patches of sunshine in the morning, which sadly disappeared later in the afternoon. However, the gardens were beautiful, even without some sunshine. I loved the opportunity to get away from Camden Town and out where there was more open space.

Not all the pictures have a story or meaning behind them, since most pictures were taken to capture the atmosphere of the park. So, this post is more of a slide show, although I'll add little comments here and there. Please, enjoy the trip through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. 

This amazing tree is a child's (and some adults) favorite in the park, since the branches create an amazing little cave.

Many people carve their names into the trunk of the tree, and the signatures stretch towards that top fo the tree.

Hundreds of flower gardens decorate the park

Circular rose garden  - the scent was awesome!

Me in front of the Serpentine

Babies!

Alex feeding a squirrel, only to be freaked out after he touched the squirrel.

Peter Pan sculpture. The author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barre, lived near Kensington Gardens and it was in these Gardens that he met the Llewelyn Davies family, who inspired him to write about Peter Pan.

I loved the chance to regress to childhood a little! Jen and I decided that once we got back to the apartment, we would watch Finding Neverland, a movie based on the creation of Peter Pan. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it. It's not groundbreaking by any means, but the imagination and youthfulness that permeates the entire film is quite fun. (Same as the movie Miss Potter, about the author Beatrice Potter, but that's a tangent)

The Italian Gardens, far end of Kensington Gardens

 

Overall, the park was beautiful! I'm hoping to visit next weekend as well, with hopes that it's sunnier and a bit warmer. There are lawn chairs throughout Hyde Park that visitors can use for a small fee, and I think it would be perfectly lovely to sit and read a book along the Serpentine. 

After visiting the park and gardens, we walked a short way over to the Science Museum and had a look around. My favorite floor was one featuring flight. The picture is dark, but the entire room is hung with old aircrafts. It was incredibly interesting!

There was also a display of clocks spanning over 600 years. This was one of my favorites. The seconds are counted by a ball rolling down the incline.

After a quick look through the museum (we might go back this weekend), Jen, Alex, and I headed down to the Thames to meet up with some more of the group for supper. Here's my supper. Whatever sauce was on the chicken was delicious, and as always, the bread was amazing!

The restaurant is completely wonderful. It's an old boat that permanently docked. So, while you never float off, the boat does rock a little bit, especially after a boat has passed by. The atmosphere is fun and laid back, with seating both on the open, upper deck, and below decks. Music plays in the background, a more upbeat/hip-hop sound, and many people seem to come from work to meet their friends for a drink. The prices are reasonable, which is also a plus

Needless to say, we had a good time!

To top off an already long day, some of the group went for a little walk along the Thames, and looked at Cleopatra's needle. Notice the marks beneath the sculpture.

All the marks were caused by bombs dropped in the war.

I was amazed by the size of some of these marks. The strength of the bombs astounds me, and adds a bit more meaning to this site of London.

Gilchrist was quite jolly after supper, and decided to baptize himself in the Thames. We all enjoyed laughing at his antics.

After our walk, we caught the tube and headed home to our flat. I really appreciate the tube system in London. It's not too difficult to use, and it's very convenient.

Tomorrow, we're planning on going to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. Look forward to some more pictures!

Learning to Swim

This is Ginny

Cute, huh?

She came to live with my family a little over a month ago, and has steadily wormed her way into our hearts.

On Tuesday, when we broke a heat record of 93 degrees, I decided that temperatures like that were unacceptable. So, I loaded Ginny and our 12 year old lab Lena into the little truck and headed down to the creek.

Ginny loves car rides, and prefers to sit on my lap as I drive. Surprisingly, with all the excitement that a car brings, she's very calm, not even attmpting to bite me or Lena. Lena likes them too, but she's used to them by now.

We get down to the creek, and Lena takes off. The field/creek is one of her FAVORITE places. Ever. She always has 100x more energy when we take walks in the field. She explored ahead, while I attempted to keep Ginny close using some twine I found in the truck (Loveable as she is, I don't trust her completely to not run off in a new surrounding).

We made our way down the creek bed, Lena rushing down to get into the water, Ginny preferring to army crawl her way down. Lena wasted no time in wading out in the middle of the creek and sinking until the water covered her back. Ginny, on the other hand, went with a little more trepidation, and took her time getting into the water. The first two paws went in fine, but when she moved one paw to walk in deeper, it sunk lower than her back legs. Her face headed toward the water, paw off in no mans land, she panicked, throwing herself back onto the shore as if her life depended on it. Which, I'm sure to her, it did.

No matter how much coaxing, demonstrating with Lena or myself, or even stern words could get her further in the water. Every step past those initial two paws, and she was halfway up the creek bank, army crawl no longer necessary.

So, rather than further tramatize the puppy, Lena and I both got out of the cool water, and headed back to the truck with Ginny, who immediately perked up and bit my fingers as we walked out up the creek bank. And, since she insists on riding on my lap, we both got plenty muddy and wet from her paws and wet belly.

Next time, I'm just throwing her in.

Summer

I suppose it's a good thing no one has the link to my blog at this point, since it has been dormant for over 2 months. I blame school. Or maybe a lack of drive to use my blog. However, now that it's summer (and I find myself with more time on my hands than I've had in months, I thought it would be a good time to start posting again. That, and the fact that I'm jetting of next week to LONDON (gasp) are both good reasons. Hopefully, I can post pictures and daylogs from my days touring (and studying) London.

I must admit, I'm terrified. Excited, yes, but mostly terrified. This is the first time I've been abroad. Ever. It's a lot of money, a lot of NEW all at once, and a long time away from home and family. Not that that's a big factor anymore, but it's still there. Maybe it's just now that I'm home, playing with the puppy everyday, sleeping in my bed, watching movies with Emily, visiting with Mom and Dad, I'm just not quite ready to leave. But with the excitement that comes from every person I talk to, I'm pretty sure the trip will be awesome. I just need to get there first.

I guess I'm most excited about the plane rides I get to take. I LOVE flying. It's just great. And I have 3 flights to get to Europe. THREE! I'm totally pumped. Especially since I'm not flying through Chicago in any way, shape, or form. Too much drama there. Example: my mother and her sister just drove to Chicago to catch a flight to Florida for a sister's weekend. Their flight was delayed from 8:00 to just before midnight. 4 hours, managable. Come to find out this morning, they're still there. Even after they were already ON THE PLANE, their flight was cancelled; their pilot had too many flights hours. Blah. So now they're in route, through Ohio to Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, instead of their wonderful direct flight. All because of weather. In Chicago. Honestly.....

Today's quiet in Iowa. It's mostly sunny with occasional clouds, and a few, very short rain spouts. I'm filling in for Mom at Paul Meyer Chemicals, answering the phone, running for lunch, etc. I'm not too busy but the guys in the shop and warehouse are still running around like crazy. So many farmers are trying to get their crops in while the weather is nice, and PMC has been running all week (even on Mother's Day in the afternoon). Whew. I hope the guys get a break soon - they've sure been working hard!


What I love about the Midwest: Prepositions.
Even though as an English major ending a sentences with a preposition is AWFUL, I still love hearing it in conversation, since it's such a Midwestern trait.