Today's Scenes from New York...

Its my birthday today!  And these are today's scenes from New York!

It was a rainy, cold and horrible day so I didn't leave the hotel till mid-day; then went with Mum to have some red velvet cake which was lovely, lovely and finally we visited 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' which passed an hour or so before we returned to the hotel to hibernate --- snow is forecast for the end of the week - I'll be home by then though!

To be honest, most of these pics were taken during the past week - you'd be too depressed by the weather if I showed you photos of today.

Today In New York...

Stuff I saw today in New York..

Empire State Building....very, very tall...

Financial District - very very grey....

More very, very tall buildings...

Cake, cake and more cake...and the last one was all mine...

Blue Man Group, New York

Just come back from seeing the Blue Man Group at the Astor Place Theatre - laughed until I nearly died.  

I chose this rather than something more serious because frankly, sometimes you just need a damn good laugh - and although I began by thinking 'well, this aint this funny' in the end I just was rolling around laughing - I wasn't expecting to see the amount of audience particicipation that there was, and those who (involuntarily) were involved were really good sports about it -- the show was an orchestrated series of chaotic events - paint spraying everywhere, rolls of toilet paper all over the theatre, I cannot tell you --- it was just one of the maddest evenings I've had in ages - it was like being seven again, and all this hysterically childish stuff happened but in the end, you just could not help being totally engaged with it - if you do get the chance, go and see the show, it can't help but make you happy.

New York

A few photos from sunny New York!!  More soon....

One of the lions outside the New York Library...

The FlatIron Building, take a look at that gorgeous sky!

Just Landing...

This was our view of New York as we flew over the sea and city - what a beautiful day!!

Hidden Meadow Ranch, Arizona

Hidden Meadow Ranch

I was lucky enough found Hidden Meadow Ranch by chance via TripAdvisor, and had looked forward to it for weeks before travelling there up into the White Mountains (itself an adventure through the snow). In every way our expectations have been exceeded by the lovely place, the lovely people, the lovely cabins and the WONDERFUL food (thanks Kurt!!!) - even my being a vegetarian was no trouble at all to these lovely people and I have had the best food I have ever had at this place.

It snowed and snowed whilst we were there and Mark went ski-ing in a blizzard at the ski-ing resort next door, taken by bus provided by Hidden Meadow, whilst I attempted to go riding, also in a blizzard, with a very patient chap who was endlessly sweet and kind to me despite it obviously being the kind of weather where no sane person would ever want to get on a horse. I lasted about 3 minutes swallowing tons of snow but I got to sit on a western saddle and I went away happy.

We did a leatherworking class with Logan (I don't think Harry the kitten will never grow into that tiger size collar) and mostly we stayed by the fire and snoozed in the ultra luxe cabins. I nearly died and went to heaven when I saw the bath but in the end, it was so big I just never could fill it with water and in fact, had I done so I probaby would have drowned. Beds were so comfortable it was bliss and have I mentioned the food??? OK, we were actually the only customers there at the time but I daresay everyone feels that way regardless of whether there are other guests there at the time. It was wonderful, and nothing was ever too much trouble for anyone. We were truly astonished to find our car had been cleared from the snow every morning before we went to breakfast (though we didn't move it until the day we had to prise ourselves out of the gate).

We left HMR feeling refreshed and like we'd had a proper holiday. There was no TV in the cabin which initially we thought 'uh-oh' but instead of spending hours in front of meaningless rubbish, instead we read, slept and listened to audio books - and did a lot of staring into the lovely real fire in the cabin.
I highly recommend this lovely place; we felt we made friends there and would not hesitate to return; I hope it won't be 5 years before we get to visit Arizona again, but however long it is, HMR will always be on our 'to do' list - hopefully next time in the Spring or Summer. 
 
(Review written for TripAdvisor.)

That's It, I'm Off.........

Following the spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to get to Venice last month, being grounded by ash, I'm going off on what I'd call a little 'holiday-ette' to Radgale Hall for a few days.   I'm leaving this to be auto-published by Blogger, because as you read this I'll probably be up to my ears in carrot juice and water aerobics (AKA 'Carrot Aerobics', a new craze sweeping stableyards up and down the country).   No, actually to be fair, I've never known carrot juice to be served at Radgale.  

I've been having a bit of a time of things with high blood pressure due to my Rheumatoid Arthritis meds and some stuff going on at my stableyard so I thought a couple of days having breakfast in bed and pampering treatments would be just the thing (its always important to have a good excuse). 

I'm taking Mum, my best friend, who as I write this knows nothing of where we are headed - I've thrown her a couple of red herrings like telling her to pack her passport and walking shoes -- which now makes me think that probably she's thinking we're back off to New York, in which case the Leicestershire countryside is going to be a grave disappointment.

I've visited Ragdale several times but not last year as I had a week's horse training at a British Horse Society place up in Lancashire with Merlin instead, and then shortly afterwards he had his bad accident and I had to nurse him through that.  
If you ever need a real break away from it all, this is the place to go.   If you're wondering about the bottle of Bailey's in the second picture, er - umm...yes, that was when I last visited, but honestly, I didn't drink any, I just took it back home, honestly.

The place gets an extra star from me because they have a resident cat (well, OK, we have two of those at home, but I do approve of that touch); everyone hangs around in bathrobes (yes, even in the dining hall), and there is a Quiet Retreat room where any more noise than the turn of a page of a book is frowned upon - the primary activity is sleeping, and Ragdale's food is - well, amazing.

Mum has had a rough time health-wise in the past several months, and of course, I'd hate to be without my best friend.

I may be back on Saturday, if I can prise Mum off the front door, and I will be mailing out any orders on Monday, promise. 

The trip that never was....

Here's a sad story of someone who'd booked to go to Venice tomorrow in an aeroplane, only to be thwarted by a big bad volcano in Iceland.  I'm sure everyone's heard the joke that we asked Iceland to return our cash, not send us ash, but there you go.  
There's nothing I can do about it (though in a mad moment I seriously contemplated driving there until reality bit me) and I feel for all the people all over the world who are stranded, missing the white cliffs of Dover and tea and jam and scones and watching Eastenders on the telly.   At least I've got all that, all they've got is extra sunshine and duty free.  

I know its being claimed that we can't actually SEE the ash - but how come my black car is covered in something that looks suspiciously like talcum powder mixed with grit?  How come the skies are cement coloured?  How come?

My naughty horse has refused to come in to his stable tonight, preferring to spend a romantic night in the moonlight with his 38 year old 'girlfriend' called Fergie.  (And 38 is going some for a horse...); it seems when you've got it, you've got it, even when you're a scruffy old strawberry roan with arthritic legs (no, I'm not talking about myself)...

Now, where's that map?

Where does time go?

Phew, where on earth does time go? Answers on a postcard, please....

I have lots of new work to go on the site but it will have to wait a week or so because I am taking my Mummy to New York - she's not been well and its a treat - she has never been to the States before so she is probably dizzy with excitement - I will get a chance hopefully to look around the New York jewellery scene and take inspiration from that. We set off tomorrow morning, so early it should be illegal. I guess that makes me chaperone to my Mum - I am hoping she will behave herself! We will visit Ellis Island, maybe go to the theatre (I am hoping to get tickets to see 'Wicked'), go and look round the interesting neighbourhoods, shop, shop, and shop, go to some Museums, and take a look at the Statue of Liberty. I am looking forward to this as I haven't been on holiday this year, and this has been made possible by my improvement in health.