Living with the Queen for 3 Years

When I was pregnant with my 6th child, my husband was given an opportunity to take a 3 year position with his company in England. Although, we were hesitant, mostly because we had a large family and weren't quite finished yet..........we did it! And, it was the best thing we ever did. We lived in the heart of England - Royal Leamington Spa and enjoyed 3 of the most wonderful years of our lives.

I miss England dearly - and hope to go back to visit one day. Here are some of my favorite memories......................

sheep everywhere, grazing in fields along roads........sometimes stopping traffic so they could get across the road.

british pubs.......in every corner of every village - the true identity of the british culture. a place where villagers gather and converse over a pint or two of ale.

London - truely a spectacular city.......and to me, even more memorable in the rain.

although, i truely loved London - I equally loved the Cotswolds.......to some, this is only a beautiful picture, to me it is a place in which I could escape to in less than 30 minutes and spend hours going from one village to the next. Sometimes, I could travel down a road (more like a path) wide enough for only one car and find gems of unspoiled land for miles.

Tea........i fell in love with it, especially with a splash of milk added. Everyone drinks tea. We had a group of men working on our house - they were covered in paint and dust, but they would take a regular tea break everyday.....and NO these men were not drinking out of a white stryofoam cup..........they were drinking from a china cup, the kind that my grandma drank from!!

oh........we call them "cupcakes" they call them "fairy cakes".........love that!

A very typical English Kitchen........very small and including an AGA cooker! Unfortunately, I didn't have an aga in the house that we lived in, but mostly everyone I knew had one. An AGA Cooker is a cast-iron, gas-fueled, enamel-glazed cooking stove that uses non-drying radiant heat to gently cook food, often in less time than a traditional stove.

I had a crush on Hugh for mostly 3 years while living in England. I became friends with a nice british women named Rachel, who just happened to be the first cousin to Hugh........I so badly wanted her to set up a meeting between us........that never happened :( Her and her family were always going into to London to one of his big movie premiers..........I didn't get invited to one of those either :(

These are just a few of many many wonderful memories of wonderful, beautiful England!!! If you ever get the chance to travel to Europe make England your number 1 stop!!!