The Way We are Today: Last bits and bobs

August 9, 2011 (Happy anniversary Michael and Sarah!)

It's hard to get online here and I'm not sure I'll be that successful in the coming week. We head south to see Neil's Dad on Friday and then we're off to Italy on the 16th. Once I get set up with wifi there (fingers crossed), I'll update further.

In the meantime, it's packing time again. We'll be reunited with our boxes in Italy soon, too. A time capsule of decision making. I've copied this from my notebook: here is the official packing list for year in Italy and thereabouts.

Each person has the following:

1 winter coat, 1 fleece, 1 raincoat, 1 sweatshirt, 1 sweater, 1 sun hat, 1 winter hat, 1 set of gloves, 1 bathing suit, 1 pair of sneakers, 1 pair of sandles, 1 pair of boots, 2 pairs of sunglasses

3 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of jeans, 4 pairs of shorts, 5 long sleeve shirts, 5 short sleeved shirts, 10 pairs of underwear, 6 pairs of socks, 2 sets of pajamas

We have toothbrushes and other medicine bag items, computers, kindles, power cords, a book on Rome, 4 children’s books, colored pencils, lunchboxes, Eleni’s blankie, a camera, Alex and Eleni have ziplock bags with their toys for the year and that is about it.

*Exceptions: Eleni and I have two skirts each, I have a few scarves, and Neil has 6 shirts for school and 1 tie. Alex is the only one without a pair of boots because I didn’t have any hand-me-downs for him and they were out of season to buy and his shoe size seems to change every other month so what is the point. Sigh.

Some last photos from England then...

The view from Alex's bedroom around 10 PM.

Molehills in the garden!

A walk in the Lake District. Ullswater lake behind Alex (eating his cheese sandwich).

Alex and Eleni have dreams of making clothes with nettles and sachets with lavender. They harvested the nettles with full gear on...I love this one with cow looking on.