The Royal Wedding

I've always wanted to elope. I want a small wedding, without the hassle and anxiety of waiting and preparing and all the questions and noisy neighbors. But I do want the magical "it" dress. Probably kind of hard to elope AND have the perfect dress. And I've never wanted a traditional reception. My ideal reception would be a parade float. Yes, you read that correctly. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a "Just Married" float where you toss out favors to people lined up on the street? Maybe this is the Louisiana blood in me, or the fact that I grew up in marching bands, but I LOVE parades and think it would be just crazy fun to have a "Just Married" float. Yeah, it'll truly be a special man who is willing to do this for me...

Last Friday was the Royal Wedding. They were broadcasting it at the Imperial Gardens during the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. I'll admit, I teared up just a bit whenever the crown cheered and raised their flags. (I also cry during parades, road races, and any other large scale crowd gathering event.) There were little kids wearing crowns, tiara's and wedding veils. People wearing paper faces of the Queen, William, Harry and Kate. And yes, there were more than a handful of women dressed in wedding attire. There were picnics and champagne and general well wishing. And a mumble through the crowd as everyone said to the person standing next to them "For richer or richer" instead of "for richer or poorer".


As I mentioned, this is also the weekend of the Jazz Festival. Jamie Cullum was the hot ticket that I would have given up eating for a week to watch, but his concert was sold out before the tickets were actually released on line. There was also Cleo Lane, whom I saw in concert a long time ago and wasn't really my favorite so not in a huge rush to see her again. Mostly I've walked around, enjoyed the sunshine, listened to the free bands in the open stage (lots of high school jazz bands etc) and perused the shopping stalls.

Nothing says "jazz" like garlic...

And could I interest you in some sausages and potatoes? All of the food vendors had these giant round skillets. I don't recall seeing anything like this in the states. HUGE!



I also wanted to share with you my run venue this past week. I love that a five miler can take me from town center to country side. On Tuesday a herd of cattle were grazing through this field. Of course by the time I could run the route again on Friday the cows had gone off to graze elsewhere. Nevertheless, I love the tree, yellow flowers and wooden fence.




I'm always a little afraid of running on the little country roads because I have a tendency to forget which side to run on. This little side tour took me through a pasture where I saw Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and the other rabbits of Watership Down hopping through the tall grass. There were sheep pastures to the left and right, and a few peacocks perched on a fence that I could barely see through the thicket of branches. And I wondered if the person who erected these gates thought they resembled the pearly gates of Heaven.