IT IS ONLY the second week in January, and yet it feels like a lot more time has passed since the holidays. The decorations are still up and we're still turning on the white Christmas lights in the evenings, glittery in their delicate glass globes and strung along the archway of the built-in bookcase in the corner, instantly making things feel festive. For the past two weeks, it's been busy, busy, which is the reason why it feels like so much time has passed.
WHEN I FIRST began putting together this instalment of Life Lately, had actually disabled the entire TIG Instgram account (as in, removed it from the internet) and deleted the app from my phone—hence the title. Also took time off from Twitter at same time and reclaimed all of the EXTRA hours left from those two alone to catch up on reading (currently reading this book). Recently, in our triweekly articles series, we had included two very interesting articles on this very topic: The Case for Deleting Everything and America Offline, both of which had confirmed my restless feelings and urge to be extremely and wildly social media-free.
I AM NOT sure why―when it happens every year―I am so unprepared for winter. The cold. The dampness. The continual overcast skies. And most of all, the darkness. Yes, the days have been, happily, incrimentally longer every day since winter solstice, but tonight, the sun still set 4:17pm. 4:17pm! On Sundays, everything moves a little more slowly ...
We are city people, P and I. Before Valencia and before Edinburgh, we lived in a huge metropolis filled with millions of people. We barely knew our neighbours in the tall building where we lived, and the ultimate luxury was having an elevator all to ourselves on the way up to our condo after a long day at work in an office complex in the west end ...
We live in a quintessential English countryside village, the kind that looks like it’s a movie set, a beautiful place with stone cottages that have names like Rosebank and Appletree Grange. It's the kind of place where there are cosy pubs and a greengrocer for fruits and vegetables ...
Recently, had told you about our trip from Spain to the south of France, Scotland and the English countryside in late May, early June. It was during this trip that we fell in love (again) with the countryside and thought it might be time to do something completely different than we've done before.
IN LATE MAY we went on holiday to the south of France for a few days, and then to Scotland for nearly a month. During that time, we ventured to England on day trips, and it was during this time that we fell absolutely in love with the English countryside and thought it might be fun to have a look at places that might be available in any one of the very quaint and utterly charming villages and towns we found along the way...