we're off

I cannot tell you how I have been LONGING for a break with my beloved. We have not been away together (Christmas at home in Connecticut does not count) since October, and we're desperate. We'll have with us, of course, our child and her best friend, leaving on Monday to Lincolnshire, a place none of us has ever been, to spend a blissful (we hope) four days exploring, reading, enjoying each other's uninterrupted company not accompanied by iCal, iPhone, iPhoto, iTunes, or any other i-insurgent. Just the four of us (and, I'm hoping quite often just the two of us while two little girls find other things to do) on our own in the English countryside. I think it will be lambing season, or close to it. We're hoping for a close exposure to some new sheeply mothers.

As for food? I am packing away homemade pesto, a bag full of candles and matches to light our dinners, a side of salmon, an armful of sausages from the Giggly Pig from my beloved local market ("3 for a tenner, love, even in this rain!" the lovely girl shouted yesterday, I succumbed), a dish of macaroni and cheese as is our tradition on arriving at Landmark Trust houses. We'll arrive, I'll leave my nearest and dearest to unload the car while I take in the macaroni and cheese and sausages, light the oven and the candles, make the kitchen our home for the duration. They will settle in (maximum laughter now that we'll have two girls instead of one), my husband will light the open fire promised in the sitting room... within 45 minutes the bubbling, browning aroma of mac and cheese will permeate the house and we'll be... HOME. I'll see you next week, unless something earth-shattering happens in between. Of course, tomorrow night's airing of "Robin Hood" nearly counts... Have a lovely week.