Gardens of Babylon

I have been trying my hand at house plants since we moved to London mostly to liven up the flat on gloomy London days and add some green to our lives. The first experiment we cacti which I bought from Ikea and were a total success they are thriving and I get to enjoy then when washing the dishes (being right next to the sink is also a helpful reminder to water them haha)

The bigger one even flowered..a true sign that it loves me :)

So now with the success of the cacti we have moved on to hanging baskets on our balcony. I purchased the baskets online and went and picked out flowers and planted them all myself so no short cuts.... we will see if they last :) they look good at the moment thought

...maybe orchids next :)

ASCOT Round 2!!!

This year was the 300th anniversary of Ascot in England...it was a bit wetter than last year but just as amazing :) Above is a group shot in the car park where we picnicked prior to going into the racetrack, this is half the fun everyone brings wine, sandwiches, and music and has a fancy tailgate. A group near us had dancing and conga line going for a bit haha awesomeness :)

Picture of the boys braving the pre race drizzle in style

John and I looking ever so posh :)

This was one of my favorite hats I saw in hot pink and black

We ran into the Queen again at this event. She knew I was going to be wearing yellow and went with a very flattering light blue. I give this woman so much credit for attending all the events she does as an 85 year old woman and participating as much as she does, i guess it keeps her young at heart since she LOVES horses :)

John and Kate reveling in the fun which is Ascot :) We were so glad she came in from Germany for the weekend, which was also filled with Byron burgers, American breakfasts, and of course the huge Harrod's sale!!! I had a Pimm's Cupcake yummmmm

Hello Slovenia!!!

Hello to all my readers from South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Slovenia never thought my blog would have such range :) keep checking back as the London Social Calendar is just getting going and I have an awesome outfit for Ascot this year...only two weeks away :)

Where's NESSIE

We were invited to another one of the Queen's houses this time up in Scotland at Holyrod. Here is a shot from the driveway..plenty of room to park our carriage.

Edinburgh Castle the old royal residence..a little too drafty for the Queen's taste now

They had a 3-d Loch Ness Discovery Centre...i don't think at the end of the movie you got to see Nessie though :)

But I was on the lookout for the rest of the trip...maybe it is an amphibian and was taking a turn outside the lake :)

We hiked up to the dormant volcano head called Arthur's Seat..and I found a huskie

John decided to pose as Moses :)

A few Fun Morocco Stories...so many to pick from

everyday as we walked from the hotel to the old city we got to see a very helpful public service announcement. The KFC sign had a huge bucket of chicken and the word Gout written above it :) We laughed every time we walked past it

"Be our Guest..Be our Guest put our service to the test..." We went to eat at a restaurant which had belly dancing and entertainment while we ate, this was one of the women who balanced a plate with lots of candles ontop. the entire gang came down a large central stairway and all i could think about was beauty and the beast :)

I thought the forbidden fruit was apple...but in morocco it is an orange

I tried to get a picture while pretending to pick an orange (i wasn't even reaching for it yet) in the gardens outside the large central mosque and was yelled at and whistled at...we quickly left the grounds :/

John was VERY nervous walking through the main market with all the snake charmers around. The snakes seemed pretty feisty and would lunge towards the charmers...we didn't get too close

One of my favourite memories was John interacting with the local wildlife and holding a monkey in the main square :) What a natural outdoors men...now we can go on a safari

Morocco...culinary adventures

Don't reload the browser...yes these are goats in a tree not funny looking monkeys :) While i stole this image off the web it is only because i couldn't get our camera out quick enough when driving by this site in Morocco. The goats are climbing argan trees(kinda like olives but only grow in this region) and eating the fruit. John didn't believe me that he would see goats in a tree...lesson...Shannon is ALWAYS right (a lesson he should have learned by now haha)

The fruit is harvested and after an extremely long process of peeling, roasting, crushing an essential oil is gotten. You can eat the oil or use it in beauty treatments and lotions....we did both and liked both, just dont eat the lotion.

Me enjoying a classic coke Arabic style :) If you look close it spells Jesus

Might be worth while grabbing a few cokes to enjoy while you wait to cook the freshly cut lambs head you may have picked up from the vendor in the market that morning.... don't worry if his cart is also his bicycle and the head are tied onto the handle bars with string (this is called efficiency haha) Most surprising thing is the amount of people who look seriously interested in buying these heads ????

If you are looking for spices to flavour the roast lamb head you dont need to venture far to find store which sell every spice and then some out of glass jars.... in the back room they also had a healing room with all these potions and home remedies. May be better than the NHS never know, wait was certainly shorter :)

PUCKER UP

On the way to the Palace after the procession, hoping to get a glimpse of the couple when they went onto the balcony...fingers crossed
Will and Kate came onto the balcony and we went WILD!!! i love this picture since the flags of them frame the balcony (team effort)

The entire family comes out onto the balcony for the fly over and thousands of fans as far as you could see. John gets credit for this picture of the bomber and royal standard(flag)

Where's Waldo.....

There they are....from left to right John, Sarah, Shannon

We were SOOOO lucky in how close we got to the palace:)