Northern lights

On Wednesday mom and I are heading to Norway for my 21st in search of the Northern Lights, something I've spoken about since I was 15. We will be spending time on a cruise sailing up the coast of Norway, into the Arctic circle (cold!). We'll also be taking time out to go dog sledding, something else I've always wanted to do. Really looking forward to it! For my actual birthday we will be in a hotel where I will hopefully have Internet to do some blogging!

Ramblings of a wannabe SM

To be or not to be, that is the question. And a question to which I'm not really sure I know the answer.

The end is in sight

Second to last day of the shooting season. Not many in the bag as the remaining pheasants have become very gun wise!
Beautiful day ending with a beautiful sunset

Awakening a dreamer...

"Then comes affliction, to awaken the dreamer...."

Stories....

"Stories.

We all spend our lives telling them, about this, about that, about people.

But some,

Some stories are so good we wish they'd never end.

They're so gripping that we'll go without sleep just to see a little bit more.

Some stories bring us laughter and sometimes they bring us tears....

But isn't that what a story does?

Makes you feel?

Stories that are so powerful....

They really are with us forever"

~ Sky Atlantic advert

Smallville fanatic

Ok so I'm a Smallville fan, a big one, I'll admit. (For those who don't know, Smallville is about Clark Kent's early years. It's brilliant). I bought an external hard drive off a friend which had TV programs on it, one of which was seasons of Smallville. I made the mistake of going back to season 1, episode 1, and am totally hooked on Smallville. Again.

I'm not a fan of Lana Lang. I'm a fan of Chloe Sullivan. And I'm gutted that Clark and Chloe didn't work out (breathe Amy, it's only TV).

Anyway, there's this episode where Clark gets real sick, and Chloe reads him a letter. Call me mushy, but I just love the letter!

"I wanna let you in on a secret. I'm not who you think I am. In fact, my disguise is so thin, I'm surprised you haven't seen right through me. I'm the girl of your dreams, masquerading as your best friend. Sometimes I want to rip off this facade like I did at the Spring formal, but I can't. Because you'll get scared and you'll run away again. So I decided it's better to live with a lie than expose my true feelings.

My dad told me there are two types of girls - the ones you grow out of, and the ones you grow into. I really hope I'm the latter. I may not be the one you love today, but I'll let you go for now, hoping one day you'll fly back to me, because I think you're worth the wait."

I think that's pretty perfect.

Unconditional love.

Unconditional :: not subject to any conditions;

wholehearted, unqualified, unlimited, unquestioning, complete, total, absolute

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

It's possible that I've written this all before, but it's only because I am totally captured by unconditional love - what it is, how Jesus showed us this love, and how we need to show this love to others. The verses above are from 1 Corinthians 13, some of my favourite verses in the bible. I love the description of what love is (we have a plaque of this in our bathroom, and I make a point of reading it every time I am in there), and I love how it says that love is the greatest.

Just recently I was reading a book called "When God Writes Your Love Story", an incredible book, and through it God opened my eyes and challenged me. I have been single since the day I was born, and it is now something that I am very thankful for, as I have had no heartache and have had the chance to have a love story with my Father in Heaven. Through reading the book God challenged me to start loving unconditionally - family and friends, and most importantly, my future husband. I know some people think I am crazy, but I can honestly say that God has started giving me such a love for the man that I do not yet know; and I am now determined to stay single until I meet him. Why? Because I want to be faithful to him and I want to give him my all. I also want to spend these single years working on my character, letting God prepare me for an important relationship, and spend more time getting to know the heart of God. I read this great quote once (can't remember where, or who said it) and it went something like this "A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man should have to seek Him first in order to find her."

That's pretty awesome. And I want that! Sure it is hard, and God constantly has to help me, because like others, I do have a natural desire to be in a relationship, to have a family, to have that companionship; but I have come to the conclusion (which God always has to remind me of) that I would rather be single my entire life and devote every day and year to God rather than be in a string of relationships that don't work out.

That's my thoughts anyway.

Boxing day....

Is chilled.

I'm trying to watch a movie, but I can't hear the TV because dad is vacuuming. Annoying. Who vacuums the house on Boxing Day?!

Christmas 2010

Christmas is once again upon us.

Christmas eve was a flurry of wrapping presents, visiting neighbours, cooking pheasant, and christmas traditions of stories and Polar Express.

Christmas day was a day of presents, laughing at the dog helping us unwrap presents, eating, family, relaxing, eating, coffee, walking, snow, movies; and remembering that above all the reason we celebrate Christmas is because Jesus basically was born so that He could die. And die for us to have freedom. Pretty awesome reason to be celebrating if you ask me.

Merry christmas to all, to family and friends near and far - wish I could be with every one of you!

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

In Stratford with mom and Dylan before Christmas

Winter icicles

Christmas Eve walk with Dylan

Christmas Eve walk

Skye

Christmas Day tea

Opening presents

Christmas dinner - Turkey, Gammon, Duck, and all the other bits and pieces!

Christmas day walk

CaniX

This post is about a week late, I do realise this, but better late than never, right?

CaniX is my new hobby. It's basically cross country running with your dog. You wear a harness, and your dog wears a harness, and you're both connected with a bungee line. Then you run, and your dog pulls, a bit like sledding but without the sled.

It's a growing sport within the UK and certain European countries; and races in the UK are held in different forests around the country. They are beautiful locations, but often involve travelling great distances.

Our first race was at Cannock Chase, a wonderful Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty located in Stafford. Mom and I headed over there with the dog in a world of white, as snow continued to cover the UK.

Once there I was immediately bitten by the CaniX bug and look forward to the next race.

It snowed the whole time we were there, which was such fun I thought.

The race went a lot better than I thought. My dog was an absolute superstar and ran (and pulled) her heart out. I was so proud of her!

Had a good chat with a lady and her daughter, and their little brown Cocker Spaniel after the race as we cooled down and had a coffee. Something that Skye did that made us laugh was that she was sitting in the car with her jumper on drying off and keeping warm, and she refused to get out of the car. She just sat there watching us have coffee in the snow lol.

Looking forward to the next race!

Snow dusting.

Whilst the rest of the UK has been having a fairly decent amount of snow (decent by our standards. My Americans, don't laugh!), here in the West Midlands we have had hardly anything!! I'm really not happy. All we've had are the abnormally freezing cold temperatures and a cold house. Yay.

This morning we did wake up to a light dusting of snow (still not too happy with that). I took the pup for a walk at the canal. It was really beautiful, with the water frozen over, and the canal boats seemingly trapped in the ice.

Here are some pics.

Ducks on the frozen water

Skye

Locks

Frozen water

Photography.

Was fooling around with a photography site builder thingy.

This is what I came up with:

www.wix.com/amytrollope/simplicityphotography

German Market, coffee and cold

Spent the evening walking around the German Market and other shops with mon and brother. Had some good food and a hot drink. Very enjoyable indeed! Everywhere is starting to feel christmasy.

Maybe...

...I should become a snowboard instructor. Just a thought.

Trees, chainsaws, and firemen....

Last night we looked out of the window to see a police car and a fire engine in the road right outside our house. The police and firemen are walking all over the place.

A policewoman starts walking up our drive, so we ask is everything ok?

Turns out a pretty big tree has fallen across the road (oh, did I mention that there are gale force winds racing around?).

My puppy and I sat for ages watching the activity through the window (disappointed to say that we couldn't see much!). She was so funny, woofing and 'talking' in protest of the firemen walking around, the fire engine, and the blue flashing lights.

Just before midnight, we lost power. Great.

Went to bed and woke up at 3am to the sound of the fire engine driving away.

Woke up again at 4am, and noticed that there were still flashing blue lights. The firemen were still outside trying to defeat the mighty tree! Went to bed to the sweet sound of chainsaws, and then woke again to hear the firemen driving off just after 4.

In the morning (still no power!), mom and I went and looked at the (remainder of) tree. It was BIG. And there were branches everywhere. And red and white Fire and Rescue tape fluttering from trees where it had been tied to section off the road. Then the 'wood people' came along and shredded all the unwanted branches.

I must say, the firemen stayed until after 4am to clear our road, but you don't see the electricity people around trying to get our power back (then found out later from the guys who came to fix our power at the end of the day, that they had been working since 5am because the winds had caused so much destruction!)

Very interesting night and day! Most excitement that we've seen around this village in a long time! I did enjoy it all though. It was very cool.

This whole thing has really made me appreciate firemen a whole lot more! Most of the time we associate firemen with putting out fires or cutting people out of cars, not jobs like this. Jobs that last until 4am in the morning, in blustery conditions, whilst trying to remove a fallen tree.

While we all slept, they worked to make our road safe. In the morning there were many people who didn't know what had gone on.

I really appreciate what they did while I was in my warm bed. So thank you!!

Starbucks and Apple....

....go hand in hand. Oh, and with some good music on the side. Sitting in Starbucks with a mocha waiting to start work. Feeling cosy and christmasy.

First pheasant day, as told by Skye

Today was the first pheasant day.

I was very excited because mom took with me with her again! It was fun to spend the day with her. She was very proud of me because I wasn't that scared of the other dogs, and I didn't run away from them.

It was very exciting going new places, and sniffing all the new smells. I didn't really like being on the lead, and loved it when she let me off so I could run.

On one of the drives we went through game cover, which was really just a tangle of beans (which mom got in her wellies! I thought it was funny), and it was really hard to get through. So because mom was already walking through it in front of me, I just decided to follow in her footsteps and follow the path she was making.

She told me that she didn't think that's what a gun dog was meant to do, but that she thought I was very smart anyway. I think she was secretly impressed with my cleverness (and to be honest, I think she thought it was cute!)

I'm starting to get the hang of this now, the whole thing about flushing the birds out. It's all so very exciting! And I love watching the birds flying!

On one of the drives, a lot of birds got up right in front of me, but mom wouldn't let me chase them :-( I was a good girl though and listened to the whistle and didn't go running after them. Tony (who has the pointers) told me that if it hadn't been for me, a lot of those birds wouldn't have got up and flown! Everyone kept telling me what a good girl I was and how well behaved I was (even the keeper said I was very good!) I think mom was very proud!

One of the drives went through the woods. I wasn't too keen on the briars in the beginning, but I was a brave girl and tackled the briars just like a good little Spaniel should. I did try and follow mom on this one as well, it made it easier! It was fun though going through the woods with mom.

It was a very exciting day, yet also tiring, and I curled up on the backseat of the car and went to sleep on the way home. I heard mom say something about the final number being 148 birds, which apparently is good. One of the last things I remember is Tony telling me that by the end of the season I was going to be a good little beating dog :-)

So there's this place....

....called Mexico. And I miss it so much. So many people who touched my life, and I just wanna see them again!!

2 down

Been turned down by 2 unis. Don't know why, wish I did. 2 more choices left. God, I'm glad you know what you're doing, because I sure don't!!

Abraham :: obedient and faithful

Read Genesis 22 this morning - the story of when God tells Abraham to take his only son (and note how God says 'the son you love') and sacrifice him. The thing that struck me was that Abraham was so obedient and had so much faith in God that he just did it. God only had to give this command once!! How many of us, had we been told to do that, would've gone 'are you sure God? I mean, is this really necessary?!' I know u would've done that! But Abraham gets told once, and he does it. Now that is a challenge!!