'You've Gotta Dance Like Nobody's Watching' - My World Tuesday

"Dancers" by Columbian artist Fernando Botero, wearing nothing but a bronze patina on a street corner in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey

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Nine Things I Love About Londoners

Part of the reason I love my trips to England so much is the people I meet there. Here are some of the reasons I love Londoners.  

1. Londoners read.  Standing on the train, in the coffee shop, in the park, newspaper, paperback, Kindle, Smart phone--everyone is reading.

2. People actually seem pleased to help you find your destination and take time to make sure you've got it and are on your way.

3. Londoners don't complain incessantly about the weather.  They whip out the brolly and get on with life.

4. Shop keepers converse with you personally.  It's like Starbucks everywhere!

5.  Young people notice mums and older people standing and graciously offer their seats.

6. Londoners share a table in a crowded restaurant or coffee shop and make it seem like you are welcome to the party, not an imposition.

7. Shop keepers do not dump your change on the counter, bills and coins jumbled, and rush on to the customer behind you.

8.  People call you "luv", no matter what your age, they greet you with, "You all right?" as a conversation starter, and send you off with a bright "Cheerio!" 

9.  Young and old, unasked, help complete strangers with their luggage or baby stroller up the steps at the Tube station.

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Journey

 One journey ends, another begins.

   I just returned from a couple weeks in London, a city I can never spend enough time in.  I wrote several blogs before I left, intending to post them as I traveled, but Blogger didn't cooperate with my iPad. 
   The trip was the result of the retirement gifts of friends and family, and I couldn't have asked for a better time, or a better way to begin my retirement.  Well, unless it was this . . . .

 

guy, Mason, my newest grandchild.  I met him yesterday when he was 4 days old.  He came a little early.  My daughter, always efficient, made it to the birthing center with 20 minutes to spare before he was born. A doctor passing by in the hallway stopped in to deliver him, and here he is!  He joins three big brothers so I hope he is made of strong stuff!

  

  



Lives of the Rich and Famous -- My World Tuesday

      One day when I was moseying around the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, I came upon a huge pair of gas torchieres, beautiful ladies decorated in gold holding them aloft.

 

 

   The description said that they were a little housewarming gift, purchased in France by railroad tycoon James J. Hill for his son's new home in St. Paul, where they stood in the foyer outside the ballroom from 1905 to 1974.  They are quite tall and ornate and I got to wondering about the ballroom and the house they had occupied.  

 

   Last weekend I was in St. Paul so I decided to look for the house.  I was kind of surprised when I saw it.  It was one of the smaller and less impressive mansions in the neighborhood.

 

   If I could afford to live here, I would not have yellow plastic Adirondack chairs on my front porch, and I would hire someone to pick up the blue newspaper packages when I was away.  But hey, that's just me!

 

   The mansion next door is much more to my liking.

 

Joining Our World Tuesday

 

http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/

 

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First Week of Retirement

   We have been having unbearably hot and dry weather for September.  Yards and cornfields are dry as a bone with temps in the 90s and tropical humidity.  When we put up with 25 below zero temps (F) in the winter, it does not seem fair that we have to roast in the summer, too!

   Anyway, I haven't had any trouble keeping busy my first week of being retired.  First of all, it was my daughter's birthday.  Her 4-year old twins surprised her with an apple pie and keepsake boxes they painted themselves.  What treasures!

Happy birthday, Mama!

  



With a new baby on the way, their townhome was bursting at the seams.  So just in time, they bought a big new house and we helped them move on some of the hottest days of the summer.

First, one last breakfast in the old house ...

...then on to a big bedroom in the new house!  The new "big boy" beds hadn't arrived yet.

Meanwhile, back at my house, it's potato harvesting time.  I dug over 20 lbs. from my small patch.  They will last me most of the winter.

 

 

Last night, after a sweltering day, the sunset was glorious.  Today the temperatures are more reasonable but tomorrow the high will be 97.  I am so ready for fall weather!

 

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Little Free Library -- My World Today

   Everyone's seen them, I'm sure, those cute little boxes on a post where you can take a book and leave a book that you have finished in return for someone else to enjoy. 

Supposedly a man whose mother, a lifelong teacher and book lover in Wisconsin, had recently died.  The man had the idea to honor her memory with a little red school house version in his yard, and the idea spread from there.  This one is in Minneapolis in a beautiful old neighborhood where I was looking at historic homes.

This one was in a neighborhood where I probably should not have been walking alone.  I love that someone used what they had, including the prop raising a front leg.  Not all the books were in English in this one.

These both happen to be in a city, but I have come across them in hiking in parks along the Mississippi River, in small towns, and by farmhouse mailboxes.  There are now 5-6,000 boxes worldwide and in every state in America.  These two are pretty plain, but some of them are real works of art.

 

I have taken to carrying a couple books I'm done with in the car to have something to leave, because quite often I find a book I want to read. I think I might start a collection of photos of Little Free Libraries, or Noox, or Pop-Up Libraries, as they are also called. 

There are lots of great stories and photos on Our World Tuesday.  http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/

 

 

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