Those Bright + Happy Fields

Back in 2013 when we were planning our 9th anniversary trip I was searching Pinterest for things to see in Normandy.  I kept coming across these amazing pictures of bright yellow fields right in the middle of a patch of green.  I had never seen anything like them in Alabama and thought they were only a wonderful French phenomenon until my friend Laura told me they were a normal sight in North Yorkshire as well.  Who knew?

I've picked up a few more tidbits about these beautiful fields along the way.  Last year I learned these happy fields had the bad fortune of being called rapeseed and that they were used to make rapeseed oil.  I also learned that it is grown in the U.S., just not where I lived, and rapeseed oil = Canola oil.

I've also learned that they are indeed everywhere in North Yorkshire!  It makes driving in the month of May a pleasure.  I took a wrong exit at a roundabout a couple of weeks ago and ended up driving on a winding country road between two huge fields of yellow.  It almost made getting lost worth it. Or at least, I felt less grumpy about getting lost.

On a Sunday afternoon drive with an English friend last week we wondered aloud why we call it canola instead of rape in the States (besides the obvious reason that the name has horrible connotations).   A quick Google search gave us this from Wikipedia:

The name "canola" was chosen by the board of the Rapeseed Association 

of Canada in the 1970s. The "Can" part stands for Canada and "ola" refers to oil.

And there you have it.  You can learn anything with the help of Google and Wikipedia.

I was afraid I'd miss my chance to photograph the loveliness so James and I went out for a quick visit one afternoon for the above pictures.  Below are the fields I drive by every time I pick the kids up from school, and I was glad for a chance to stop with the family two weeks ago.  It happened to be another perfect afternoon.  Those colors!

I laughed when this butterfly happened to fly by as I was taking this shot.  North Yorkshire is such a frolicking happy place.

Perhaps you'll enjoy cooking with Canola oil a bit more now, and if you have any more interesting tidbits about rapeseed I'd love to hear!

"Ripon has great rocks." - James P.

We had an unexpected small adventure yesterday afternoon, and it all began with a trip to McDonalds. They were offering toys from the new Angry Birds movie, so we took our little Angry Birds' loving boy for a Happy Meal.  One meander through the library (one of my favorite past-times!) and three 99 pence foam swords later, KJ was teaching the kids how to skip rocks in the river and staging sword fights on the footbridge.  And I was photographing it on an unexpectedly beautiful day, so we were all in our happy places.

It was one of those happy afternoons that comes by pure grace when you aren't expecting it, when--in my case--you've been awakened unwillingly by the sun at 5:20 a.m. two days in a row, and you definitely didn't go to bed early enough for that to be okay, and you're wondering how you're going to interact with your family the rest of the day without being too irritable.  In those quiet moments of whispered prayers, grace always feels like such a surprise.

In the early hours of the morning I'd read an article about children and imagination that left me wanting my kids to have more play, more of the simple pleasures of childhood, and our walk by the river felt like a lot of that good stuff. 

I didn't immediately think of The Wind in the Willows when we walked by The Water Rat, but when I got up close to the sign it made me so happy.  There were Toad and Mole and Ratty.  There's something so wonderful about that book, even amongst its stranger passages.  I think it's what C.S. Lewis said about it:

"The happiness which it presents to us is in fact full

 of the simplest and most attainable things—food, sleep, 

exercise, friendship, the face of nature, even (in a sense) religion.”

I hope your week is full of all those good things.

Showers of April Photographs

If March was a month of sickness, April was a month full of activity to make up for the weeks spent lying in bed in March.  Grace Church put on an Easter Holiday Bible Club, I made a frenzied effort to paint the spare room, we drove lots of miles for extra ballet practices; there were birthday parties for the kids and late-night outings with friends for the grown-ups, and we started seeing more sunny days mixed with lots of rain and hail showers.  In short, it has been spring!

April 1 - I put a fresh coat of paint on the guest room walls.  I persist in calling it a guest room (I suppose that's the American way), but when I heard someone call it our spare room, I had Anne of Green Gables flashbacks and wondered why I wasn't calling it the spare room all along.

April 2 - We cleaned up James's bedroom in preparation for houseguests, and he was so proud of his newly organized "book area."

April 3 - I bought this milk bottle with some Christmas money when my mom was visiting.  I thought it was so cute.

April 4 - Still sewing...

April 5 - Freshly painted, hopefully soothing SPARE room

April 6 - I ate my first Jammy Dodger at Easter Holiday Bible Club, and as strange as jam and cream on a cookie is to American sensibilities, I found it astonishingly delicious.

April 7 - KJ took my camera on a walk with some church family.  There really aren't words to describe the glory of days like that.

April 8 - Beautiful Blossoms, You know you've taken at least one photo like this in the past month.

April 10 - Ella and I have enjoyed our Sunday night walks to Maypole practice.  There are lots of lovely doors along the way.

April 11 - Morning Jog, catch-your-breath break

April 12 - James was so excited about The Chronicles of Narnia after KJ read him the first two books.  He's embarked on reading them himself a page or two at a time, and it makes me so glad to see him learning to love reading.

April 14 - This little robin shows up in our back garden now and again and always makes me smile.

April 15 - The bright green paint makes me think of Hobbiton.  I had a nice cup of tea here while waiting for Ella to finish ballet one night.

April 16 - An Intense Game of Checkers

April 17 - Morning sun is always a welcome sight...except for the fact that it's waking me up around 5:30 these days.

April 18 - New Growth in the Garden

April 19 - Sunny Garden

April 21 - Southern Comfort Food night at The Grantham Arms - We couldn't miss that!

April 22 - We're starting to see lots of those golden fields as we drive through the country.

April 23 - We just appreciate sunshine so much more now.

April 24 - Little Red Riding Hood being chased by the Wolf

April 25 - Ella's performance flowers are spread throughout the house, and I'm diggin' it.

April 26 - One of about 7 hail showers this week - I had to stop and think about why I would remark on this, and it's because there are some things that don't happen as often in England weather-wise and some things that don't happen as often in Alabama, so we can't help but take notice of the differences. You rarely have thunder and lightning here (and I really miss it!), but we rarely have hail in Alabama.

April 27 - Ella and I made pizza for church Wednesday night, and we didn't hold back on the pepperoni.

April 28 - I did a little speed-walking to the ATM one morning but had to stop to admire the tulips.

April 29 - Ballet Flowers:  Ella's room edition

April 30 - One of the Queen's Royal Corgis...in biscuit form

2016 is really flying.  I can't believe it will be May tomorrow!