Joby

Melody, Glad you both received negative results!

Stay well all.

Melody, prayers for Les and his recovery.

All of you EARTH ladies and FIRE lurkers (🤣 ), stay well.

Anita, I'm really enjoying the read and your photos are GREAT! The coverup is a fantastic EARTH find!

Yep, DD's photos were in front of an ivory shower curtain :) The lighting wasn't fantastic but, I think it was ok enough to do the job. I also think taking the photos in front of a neutral'ish background is helpful. Knowing your natural hair color is helpful as well as a close-up of your eye and no makeup on.

Anita and Laurie, I love your attitudes AND your suits! I wish I was easier on myself sometimes. Some days I look in the mirror and think--Oh, my Lord, what happened to that athletic toned body I used to have and other times I look in the mirror and think--for 62 it's not THAT bad, is it? It's funny, it's like I'm seeing 2 different bodies on different days😕

Thanks for sharing and reminding us that we should just be kinder to ourselves 💗

Melody,

Hoping you find a solution that your body will accept 😮

I 2nd the motion on the wine bar in the Dr.'s office 🍷

Happy 50th anniversary, Melody🎉

Margaret,  YIKES!

Sally, nice photo.

Anita, fantastic photo--that's a wall hanger 😁

Anita,

I've enjoyed reading about your kayak trip. I like how you post more words and explanations than photos. I on the other hand, do the opposite, I post more photos than words.  In person though, I can talk the leg off a wooden woman 😁 I can totally relate to being frozen by anxiety 😞

Melody, You're a tough cookie! Keep on the upward mend.

Melody,  I think the colors were the biggest surprise at Yellowstone. I had no idea they would be so beautiful!

Anxiously waiting for more Hawaii photos 😁

On 10/10/2019 at 10:30 AM, Anita Latte said:

IDK if they were feeding on something or what in the world they were doing but at one point there were so many of them head down and tail feathers up...I was more busy watching but I did manage to grab two with their tails in the air...totally reminded me of Kim's rear end photos in Africa...this one's for you Kim:

Love it, Anita! We call that pose  "bottoms up"😂

Welcome back, Melody. I agree with Anita, the dress is lovely on you. BTW, can I have 1 each of the drinks 🍹🍹

Aaahhh yes, the smell....the Old Faithful area was kind of other worldly with the smells, steam, eruptions and noise. We really loved this trip!!! Wyoming and Montana are such beautiful areas of our country. The area that just blew us away unexpectedly was the Big Horn Canyon area. We were alone there for most of the time and the wild Mustangs, abandoned farm, wide open landscape and beautiful colors were just breathtaking!

It's fun to see other people's photos of places you've been before, isn't it?

Finally finished our Yellowstone/Teton photos from our trip in August. It was so beautiful in Yellowstone. I was amazed by all of the color. I saw some really great FIRE colors 🙂

Hope you enjoy the photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RGxQutzakGgXj7Nb7

Congratulations on the new addition to your family, Laurie! A beautiful boy :)

Anita, I've enjoyed reading along with your London report. Funny how many things we have overlapped on! Seeing Phantom was one of the highlights of our trip. The theater is so lovely, isn't it?

Your DS has grown up so much, it seems like yesterday that we were talking about middle school things. What a huge step for him to go to school over the pond and for you guys as parents to allow him that. Hats off to all of you!

I always enjoy reading what's going on over here on the EARTH thread!

Hi Margaret,

Glad you liked the photos :) No real tips--on our big camera I have a film setting and I always choose "Velvia" ( it's the type of film old time nature photographers  always used). It's used for brighter colors that are usually seen in nature. I would love to have some tips on the inside Cathedral shots but, I've found that my phone takes better photos in subdued lighting than either of my cameras, so that's what I used. I also play with the lighting on my big camera much more than the settings. Our Photojournalist son is a whiz with all of the settings--me not so much!

When I (we) travel, we are always on the go, we don't rest much on trips. My thought is--what if I never get back here, what have I missed....we can sleep in when we get home and there's nothing to do 🤣

Your next trip sounds amazing! Can't wait to hear about it.

So nice to have some chatter over here!

Here is a link to my photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pXjtiq18ehMnULV26 

If you click on the 1st photo, it will enlarge all the photos and tell you what the photo is.

This was a quickly planned, shoe-string budget trip. We found a super cheap airfare at the beginning of May and jumped on it. We had a ball! Saw everything we wanted to, ate good food, shopped and had a lot of fun.

Anita, I know you were interested in how our lodging turned out. Our lodging worked out well (we stayed at the London School of Economics dorm--Carr-Saunders). It was perfectly located in an interesting neighborhood, close to a Tube station and a busy shopping street (Tottenham Court Rd). It provided a full buffet breakfast each morning which was good and we didn't eat again until dinner usually.  We shared a twin bedded room which was really small--enough room for both beds, a night stand, a wardrobe and a sink/mirror. There was no A/C in the dorm and it was quite warm for London. We had a small oscillating fan I got from reception and our window opened at the top only. It was OK to sleep. We were gone all day long and only back to the dorm to shower and sleep. We had to use a shared bathroom and separate shower. The whole week we were there I'll bet I only saw 3-4 other people in the bathrooms and never a single soul in the shower. The shower I always used was in its own private room with locking door. The cost was fantastic for central London! For the 2 of us (DD and I), it was fine--clean, well located, breakfast included and cheap!

We flew "Basic Economy" on United Air--carry-on only and no choice of seats. On the trip TO London we had middle row of middle row seats on a full flight :( Not comfortable to sleep at all but, we knew that going in. On the trip home, we had a very nice gate agent and a 1/2 full flight, so he gave us back to back window seats with no one next to each of us. Perfect! So much nicer than our flight to London. But, again, it's just dealer's luck with Basic Economy.

We used only public transportation and walked between 7-10 miles PER DAY. My feet were sore at the end of the day :)

Our weather was great--no rain at all during the day and warm temps.

My favorite things we did--watching the Changing of the Horse Guards, seeing Phantom of the Opera, Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral and the Verger tour at Westminster Abbey. Also loved the Queen's Rose Garden, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London...loved it all.

As I mentioned and you will be able to see a little in the photos--I didn't feel it was really dressy in London or the surrounds. Maybe it was the heat, maybe just being around tourists, maybe I missed the fashionistas, maybe they just don't dress up as much anymore, IDK. Just my observations.

We're off to Yellowstone next week. I've never had 2 big trips so close together before. Sure has kept me hopping :0

Hope you enjoy the photos!

I miss our activity here :(  I thought about just posting this on the EARTH thread where everyone posts now but, decided to give the ol' FIRE thread a bump :)

Even though it's not too active on this thread I wanted to post and say my DD and I just got back from a week in London. We had a marvelous time! Wherever we travel, I always try and check out the fashion of the area. I'm not the fashion expert that many of you are here and on the EARTH thread but, I am aware of it and try to look around and notice.

I was surprised in London, I thought it might be dressier but, it wasn't necessarily so. In fact, we went to the theater one evening and saw "Phantom of the Opera" and I was a little disappointed in the dress there. We saw NO ONE really dressed up, some dressed as we were and MANY in shorts, jeans, tees, etc.

Overall, the people on the street were not what I would call fashionably dressed. I would also guess that many were tourists though. We tried to dress up just a bit--no shorts, tennis shoes, backpacks...It was fairly warm for England-temps in the 80"s most all days and in the 70"s at night. We had NO RAIN during the days at all. A couple of times it rained overnight but, not a drop during the days. We felt really blessed!

I'm almost done with my photos--still need to cull but, when I'm finished I'll post a link here for anyone who wants to look.

My DH and I are going to Yellowstone for 2 weeks in August. We're sooo excited. We've been planning it and have had reservations for 18 months! Hopefully, we'll have good weather, lots of wildlife sightings and beautiful views. It's been on my "list" to see to for ages.

I love keeping up with everyone and reading all the exploits on the EARTH thread!

Laurie,

I join in with all of the others here and pray for a speedy and uneventful recovery!

Margaret, I enjoyed your Africa journal. Africa is  such a special place!

Nice photos, Laurie :)

Melody, having fair skin is such a curse, isn't it? I haven't had near the problems you have had but, I've had my share of simple basal cell cancers and pre-cancerous spots. If we only knew now what we didn't know then 🌞

Anita,  great info on the self protection. Our London trip is a GO!!!

Debbie and I had a great time on our mid-week meet up, always talking, laughing and having a few vodka collins🍸

Margaret,

I've enjoyed your report and photos. Great job on the Wydah--they're hard to capture well. Hippos--I love them too! One of my photo regrets from our 2 trips was that I never got a really nice photo of a wide open hippo mouth. Silly I guess but, I don't have a good one😏

Laurie, so much going on in your life. I would be sooo stressed--entertaining is not on my skill list. Congrats on all of your new life events.

Hi to everyone--I always enjoy the conversation over here 😃

Happy and safe travels everyone!

Loving both Africa and London reports.

Debbie and I are meeting next week for a couple of days--looking forward to it 🍸🍷🤪

Safe travels, Anita! Hoping you get many of your questions answered and have some fun too :)

Enjoying reading along, Margaret. Your lodgings are lovely--so, "Out of Africa" like!

Great pictures, Melody 🙂

I'm glad you started your report, Margaret. Getting started is the hardest step 😁 I think you'll appreciate having it on paper for future reference. That's why I wrote my Africa book on trip #2. It was a nice way to exhibit my photos instead of just an album and a way to memorialize our trip in print that we could look at whenever we wanted. We've also loaned it out many many times to those who wanted to read about and "see" our trip. It was a lot of work and time  but so worth it in the end.

Looking forward to your next installment!!!

Beautiful photos, Margaret. Well done!!!!

I can't wait to hear the details of the trip.

Happy birthday, Melody 🎉

Margaret,

What sad news to end your trip on. I hope you find it positive to have learned of the death of your  Dad while being in the birth place of humankind. Prayers to you and your family🙏