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All the tents in the backyard. "We've got a bunch of poles missing," said my husband *in a huff, as he got in his car to go to a meeting. He had been looking in the storage area above our garage for tents, and all that goes with them. We needed the tents because nine boys had come over for a Summer party, and the expectation was, that they would camp out in the back yard. The weather was perfect for camping out, plus the thought of having an extra nine, *rowdy boys in my house at night, didn't appeal to me at all. S ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | 4000,000 boxes of cherries. I learned a few things this past weekend about the fruit industry. My husband has been involved in national and international export of fruit for over twenty years, and right now, he is *up to his neck in this season's fruit: the cherry. Washington state is one of the major cherry producers, and July and August are the two months for harvesting and shipping. We happened to be in a town called Brewster which is about an hour and a half north of Wenatchee. As you head north, the landscape bec ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Tyler Farrar from Wenatchee. For those of you who are following the Tour de France, you will recognize the name Tyler Farrar. He is from the town where I live, Wenatchee. The fact that he is not only in the Tour, but also doing well, has really created a buzz of excitement here. The local newspaper, The Wenatchee World, has a daily spot about the race so we can all keep up to date with how Tyler is doing. What we are holding our breath for, is the sprint into Paris. He will be against Mark Cavendish, the English missil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Airsoft beebees. *It's no secret that boys of a certain age like guns, even if they are *make-believe. I remember that before my boys ever had any plastic weapons, they would use other toys, or even sticks, and pretend that they were guns. Perhaps they were influenced by something that they had seen on television, or maybe in a book. Who knows? Even at snack time, they would hold up their carrots at eachother and pretend to shoot. Well, now that my boys are older, we have found a happy medium between play a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Chirping Chicks. Oh, I haven't been getting much sleep recently. It seems as though* the whole world is noisy. It's summer, and every living thing is feeling fully alive, and therefore, making lots of noise. I often have to put our two dogs in the garage in the early hours of the morning because they have a barking fit* at who knows what*. There are racoon families in our neighborhood. At night they scurry* around, looking for food in the garbage cans. They need to feed their babies, so they are busy. And, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Preparation for a barbecue.  Preparations for a barbecue. One of the things I like most about Summer is barbecuing. As a person who cooks all the time, it's so nice to have a break from the kitchen, and to do some rapid, easy clean-up cooking on the barby. Over here, it's often the men who are in charge of barbecuing the meat; it's like a tradition. However, because of its convenience, I take over often, and get everything prepared before anyone else turns up. The other day, when I went grocery shopping, I stock ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Morning Routine. A routine is a habit, often one that gives us comfort, or some sort of benefit. We say in English that we are 'creatures of habit'. Humans like to have a routine, a familiar way of living. I've noticed that even my children have developed their own routines: how they dress and take care of themselves, what they like to eat and when, and even how they play. A routine that I have in the morning that makes a positive impact on my day, is my coffee routine. A few years ago, my husband and I dec ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Watermelon eating competition. Are you enjoying your Summer? It is in full swing now. The clothes shops are full of swimming suits, bikinis, and barbecue equipment. Flowers are out, and most families find a swimming pool to enjoy. There were end of year celebrations for schools, held in parks around the area. We went to the end of year barbecue for the alternative school that two of my sons have been going to for about six months. It took place in a well manicured park that is next to our nearest dam, Rocky Reach Da ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Summer Camps Are Here. This is the first week of Summer vacation. The first couple of days seemed a bit unreal; my two youngest kept on asking if they had school the next day. "Nope," I would reply,"it's the Summer, remember?" Thankfully, we are getting used to a slower pace. I don't have to drive as much, which is a relief. There are a few things that I have arranged for the children this Summer to keep them occupied and learning new things. My first and third sons have been attending a basketball Summer camp. I ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Project of Renovation. I have an excuse for not updating my podcast for a few days, honestly....I dove into a renovation project in my house. It's something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but something always seems to come up*, so the project gets put off. The powder room on the first floor of the house has had a face-lift. It was a sweet, little, room, but really quite out of date. Getting involved in this kind of project is tempting, but also dangerous. What you plan on taking a few days to do, can e ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Eloy Flying at Kiwanis. I bet if you have downloaded this podcast, you are wondering what on earth it is about. I know, the title is curious. Well, let me tell you. I'm in the city of Yakima at the moment, writing for you from a lounge chair, next to a pool, at the Oxford Inn hotel. It is situated right next to the river, in a lovely tree-lined area, quite close to the baseball park. And that is why we're here. Yes, you've heard about our involvement in this sport before. This summer, we have weekend tou ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stetson Hats. I know a few people who have Stetsons. Infact, when my brother was visiting a few months ago, he bought himself a couple. They are good quality, and last for a long time. Where he lives is very sunny, so they are a charming, and unusual way to get shade in New Zealand. Stetson is an icon of American society. It's typically American, like baseball, and Elvis Presley. Close to the end of the 19th century, the Stetson Hat Company was the biggest in the world, producing over three million ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The First Transpacific Flight. Clyde Edward Pangborn, a stunt pilot, and flight instructor during the First World War, arrived in Wenatchee on October 5th, 1931, after 41 hours and 15 minutes of flighing. He and his partner, Hugh Herndon Jr., had just made a historic flight from Shabishiro, Japan, the first time the pacific had been flown across. What's exciting about that historical trip, is that they completed it in Wenatchee. They had been scheduled to land in Seattle, but couldn't do so because of bad weather. I had ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Squirt Guns. I have noticed recently in the shops, a new season of toys on the shelves. When I say a season of toys, what I mean is a new set of toys for this warmer season. The Summer toys are here, and they have a very outdoorsy and watery theme. As you browse the aisles, you will find goggles and snorkeling gear, noodles which are made of styrofoam (also for swimming), buckets, spades, parasols, and slip 'n' slides. Let me explain what some of these are. A noodle is a piece of cheap styrofoam that lo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Yard of Bubblegum.  A Yard of Bubblegum. We had an interesting weekend this past Memorial Day weekend. We went to the town of Monroe which is on the outskirts of Seattle. My son had a baseball tournament. It would have lasted for three days if they had won on both Saturday and Sunday. However, they didn't do so well on Sunday, so we were free to leave. There is a saying in England, 'A change is as good as a rest,' which I think applied to our weekend. We don't often get out of Wenatchee, and although Sea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Thanks for the million downloads. This is a very special podcast because I have some thanking to do. Every now and then, I check on the statistics of my podcast, and yesterday I saw that I have had more than a million downloads all together. Thank you, to all of you who have listened to my short ramblings for the past two and a half years. I suppose one million downloads isn't really that much when it comes to the internet, but for me, it's a rare number, and one that I am very excited about. Now, I can tell my friends and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Security on wheels. You can really feel that Summer is on its way. Everyone is coming out of the woodwork. People are actually walking on the streets. You don't often see that; it's usually empty sidewalks and everyone in cars. But now, there is plenty of reason to walk. The air just feels soooo good, and the sun is not yet too hot. As I was driving home the other day, I saw two very sporty men on bicycles. Now, there happen to be a lot of cyclists in this area. It's a cycling paradise actually, because of the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Instrument Zoo. It's not very often that you get the opportunity to try out many kinds of instruments. Have you ever blown a bassoon? Have you ever strummed an electric guitar, or tried a set of drums? We had the chance to do that on Saturday. The Woodshouse Conservatory of Music was holding what they called an 'Instrument Zoo' for the public to come and enjoy. When we walked into the entryway, we were greeted by a face painter (for the kids) and we were given a map showing us which instruments w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Who invented the Garp? Like many good things, the Garp started out as an idea. A boy had been told by his Science teacher to make an instrument involving specific measurements and the number eight. Well, the idea moved around in the mind of the boy for a few days, changing its shape a little, becoming more real and more possible each day. A day before he had to produce the instrument, and show it to his teacher, the boy set to work. He sneaked into his father's workshop and looked around. Gosh, look at all those ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Food Drive? What does a food drive mean? It's nothing to do with driving a car, that's for sure. You could also have a clothes drive, or a drive of something else. It is a call for donations, to put it simply. I received a plastic bag in the mail, placed there by the local postman himself. He, and many others like him, do a yearly food drive to help hungry people in our community. Everybody gets their mail, so everybody will have received the same bag. All the information that you need is written right ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | No podcast today. Hello everyone, no podcast today, I'm afraid. For a few days I have a lot of appointments lined up. So, I will podcast again on Wednesday. I'll let you know what I've been up to then. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An up-to-date Morris Park. Morris Park is loved by many people in Wenatchee. It is a little league baseball park that has been around for more than forty years. Up until recently, it was in desperate need of repair and renovation. There were electrical problems, no heating or air conditioning, and the toilets were unspeakable...so I won't say anything about them. The parking lot was also a disaster; people would park badly, taking up too much space. Everything needed to be changed and updated. Well, over the past few ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Native American Sculptures. Art seems to be a very personal thing, as far as what a person does and doesn't like. You must have found that, at some point in time, you have been in a place where all of a sudden you come across a piece of art that you absolutely love. That happened to me on Saturday. When I was hanging around the ball park in Moses Lake, in between games, I noticed what looked like a statue outside one of the many non-descript buildings that were close by. I had nothing else to do, as the next baseball ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Hole in Facebook. You know, I'm getting better at learning about technology. I wouldn't say that I am totally ignorant about social media, but neither am I an expert. At least now I have a Twitter button on my blog page, in case anyone likes a blog and wants to send a Tweet about it. I also joined Facebook a while ago. For about a year I enjoyed my personal Facebook page; I reconnected with friends who I hadn't seen for a long time, and I quickly got up to date with what they had been up to over the years. T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Clouds Over Quincy.  Clouds Over Quincy. We drove home Saturday evening from a town called Moses Lake after watching baseball games all day. The boys were tired and we were quiet in the car, looking forward to being at home and out of the wind and cold. It had been a great day, with three wins all in a row. We stopped in a town called Quincy because we were starving, and didn't want to wait until we got home to eat. We ordered food in a sandwich shop, ate quickly, and then continued on our journey home. Q ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Living Museum. I received an email a couple of weeks ago from the part-time school that my oldest son attends. It was a reminder about a special evening presentation that they were going to have, 'a living museum'. At first, I actually ignored the email because I assumed that my son had nothing to do with it. It was a few days later that he asked me to help him get his costume ready for the event. Now, it just happens that we have been studying some ancient history at home: Roman, Greek, and Egyptian. At ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Doll's House. There's something in my daughter's bedroom that takes center stage when her friends come around to play. It's her doll's house. It's a typical girls' toy, but one of the best and most interesting. She got it as a birthday present a couple of years ago, and squealed with delight when she opened the box. I would have liked to have to got her a wooden one; they seem better designed, more traditional, and the type that you keep as an heirloom. However, the only decent one that was availabl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Championship Game. It was a perfect Sunday. We had two games, one at eleven and one at three. We didn't have to worry about the wind coming down from the mountains today because the weather was calm. Sunscreen would have benefitted a lot of people who, by the end of the day, must have been a bit red and sore. I had brought my broad brimmed black hat and sunglasses because I wanted to focus on the games, and not have to squint and shield my eyes. The first baseball team that we faced was Wenatchee. Our team is ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes: The Tool Shed. A Tour of Homes: The Tool Shed. For the first time in about six months, I creaked open the tool shed that is at the bottom of our garden. Yesterday happened to be a beautiful Spring day, so I couldn't avoid getting into the garden. Everything is green again, and the blossoms on the trees are just about to fully open. I had been at baseball games all morning, until about three in the afternoon, so there was still plenty of daylight left for gardening. When I opened the shed, it was like say ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Batting practice. Once a week, as part of his practice schedule, my son Cass has batting practice for baseball. It takes place in a sports complex called Sportsplex. The building actually used to be an ice skating rink, but has been converted into a place where you can play sports that don't involve ice. It is an old building that has a comfortable, used feeling about it. Cass usually has to go on Wednesday's for a an hour and a half. A small corner of the building has been reserved for any team that wishes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A rocket launch. It was a windy, sunny day. You certainly needed to have a jacket on, as the wind was blowing down from the snow-capped hills. The crowd had gathered in the park, as scheduled. Everyone was excited, and waiting for the teacher to appear. A few passersby looked over and wondered why this group of people was standing and waiting for something. Finally, a car pulled up, parked, and out stepped the teacher, with a big box in his arms. There were all sorts of smaller boxes and pointy things protr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A bleating baby. Those of you who follow my podcast probably remember that I live in a rural area. Our house is located towards the outskirts of a small community. Our neighbors tend to have lots of trees, vegetable gardens, and animals. Across the road from us is a horse. Around the corner are two mules (which are like donkeys), and right next door we have chickens and goats. So, you can imagine that in this neighborhood there are lots of interesting noises and smells. There is a new set of noise ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Borrowing and returning. Every now and then, I make a trip to the local library, sometimes by myself, and sometimes with my children. I love the quiet that you can experience there. It also reminds me of the fact that there is always something that you can learn; there is always something to read about. I've heard it said that it's good for children to become 'library rats'. That means that they should get used to going there; it should be familiar to them, as if they were rats who lived in its walls. Our local lib ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Questions tags. As you study English, you will become familiar with question tags. A tag is a little something that is added on, just like the tag on your shirt that tells you the size and type of material. We use question tags all the time in English to add a brief question to the end of a sentence. Some examples are:   It isn't raining, is it?       He works in real estate, doesn't he?   You're okay, aren't you? You might have noticed already, that there ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Cougar in Town! The local news the other day was just the kind of news that I don't want to hear. A cougar had wandered down from the nearby mountains and was found in a residential area of town. Now, I know that we live in an area that is close to wilderness. You don't have to travel far from here to encounter bears, cougars, coyotes, and now increasingly, wolves. I remember having a conversation with my brother about the wildernesses around here. He is in love with wild, out of the way places. I, on the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stereotypes. Have you ever wondered what a stereotype is, and why we have them? Do you, culturally, have certain stereotypes about certain people? Of course, all countries do. I'm sure that, in the past, I have judged people according to stereotypes I had learned, and been completely wrong about those individuals. One definition of a stereotype is an assumption about someone based on his looks, dress, job, age, and ethnicity. When I first came over to the U.S., everything was quite new to me. I had, up ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Oh, so you don't like phonics? Hands up any of you who don't like English phonics. I can't see your hands, but it certainly sounded like a lot of them went up. Do you think English phonics are a pain? Well, do you know what I think? I agree with you; they are a pain. Believe me, as an English person, learning my own language was not that easy. Of course, speaking it came easily because I'm a native, but the writing part was much more problematic. I'm reminded now of the struggle that it can be to come to understand and r ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A new career in the making. Confidence, it seems, can get you a long way in life. Confidence around other people can actually make those around you feel comfortable. I'm talking about the kind of confidence that lets you just be yourself; you don't have to prove anything or impress anyone. When I took my daughter with me to the hair dressers so I could get a hair cut, she charmed everyone there and made herself at home. As the hair stylist wet and combed my hair, I heard Domini chatting to a lady in a wheel chair ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Manicure Fanatic. My daughter is obsessed with fashion. She is only six, and it comes as a surprize to me that she is so fashion conscious. She is not so concerned with the seasons' colors or styles, but she does like to know the 'pop' fashion. I think it comes from her being very musical. When she hears a pop song, or sees artists sing on television, she really takes notice of what they are wearing, and their general style. Also, she is influenced by her girl friends at school. If so'n'so has a pretty, new ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Norman Conqueror at the bank. You see the strangest people in the most unlikely places sometimes. I was at the bank the other day, making a deposit, when I heard a, "Clomp, clomp, clomp" to my side. I turned to look at the person next to me, and standing there was a Norman soldier. Yes, I'm not kidding! He was completely dressed and ready for battle. I recognized him as Norman because of his helmet which was very round, with a long nose piece. From his neck to the floor was a cloak of chain mail. He had a sword, a helme ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Commercial for Crunch Pak. My sister-in-law called me the other day and asked me if two of my children would be interested in taking part in a commercial. "I think so," I replied. I thought that it would be an exciting, new experience for them. One girl and one boy were needed. They would be brother and sister to my nephew in the commercial. We arranged the date and time. When we turned up at her house, I didn't know what to expect. There was only one camera man, and that was it. He has done work in the past for the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Convenience food. Oh, what will I make for dinner? There's nothing for dessert; what could I quickly make? It's a real pain when the evening has already begun, and my plans for dinner have been delayed for whatever reason. When that happens, I look around in the fridge, hoping to stumble across something substantial that can quickly be cooked. Or, sometimes, mid-afternoon at the weekend, if we are at home, everybody fancies something sweet, like cookies. Yes, of course, I could make some, and sometimes I do. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Build those muscles. The other day, when I stopped to get some free firewood, I realized that I'm not as strong as I would like to be. The owner of the tree that was chopped down, had left huge chunks of wood to be taken away. But, when I say that they were huge, I mean really huge. I'm a fairly muscular female, but some of those pieces were far too heavy for me; I was glad that my brother was with me. He is huge, and very muscular, and not intimidated at all by heavy stuff. "Okay," I said, "we can lift some of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Oh the olives! On my recent trip to Nice, I was fortunate enough to go to an open market. Oh, the colors and smells were fantastic. I strolled around just taking everything in. It was February, but the weather was wonderful. It was very sunny, and you only needed to wear a light jacket. So walking around outside was very comfortable. Because my visit there was so short, my good friend Lorraine took me to as many places as possible near the coast. The market that we went to was a photographer's paradise. T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The cost of teeth is rising. We've had teeth all over the house recently. My children just happen to be at the ages where they are all losing teeth. For my oldest boys, it's no longer a novelty. They have gaps here and there where teeth are growing in. And the contrast between their new, big, adult teeth, and their baby teeth is quite amusing. My third son still gets excited about losing teeth because of the prospect of getting money. In his mind, each dollar he gets is a step closer to him obtaining a Star Wars Lego k ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Starbucks Revolution. "Hello, we have a special triple grande caramel mocha with whipped cream for only three ninety-nine. Can I take your order?" That's the kind of information-loaded question that you get asked when you pull up to a Starbucks drive-thru. Just as you are about to speak, the lady inside the building beats you to it. And there is always a special of the day, a huge, sugar-filled, creamy thing that costs fifty cents less than it normally does. And, because Starbucks opens early, the people who use ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | I'm on Facebook. Well, everyone, I've taken the plunge and joined Facebook. I signed up months ago, but didn't really start communicating properly with people until a couple of days ago. You can find me under, believe it or not, Acupof English. I had to put in Acupof as my first name, and English as my last. I couldn't figure out how else to do it. So, I've jumped on board with the millions of people who chat and network on this social media. At first, I was a bit baffled by how Facebook worked, and I ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A shell from Hawaii. I have something pretty that sits on my windowsill in my kitchen. It's a shell from Hawaii. I'm not sure what kind of shell it is, or what it is called, but it certainly is something that I love to look at. My mother brought it back from her recent trip there. She went during the Winter, which apparently is one of the best times to go, with it not being too hot. I would like to say that she went scuba diving and found the shell, but then again, you would never find a shell that looks like t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Guinness. Ah Guinness! We have lots of it in our house at the moment. My brother loves it. I'm not unfamiliar with it either. Back in London, I used to drink it mixed with 7Up. I found it too bitter to drink neat. If you've never tried it, you should. It is a black, thick, creamy alcoholic drink that is served by the pint. It has a rich, cream colored head of bubbles that is one of its main features. The head is produced by the use of nitrogen when the beer is poured. It's actually considered a dry s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Oh, you filthy princess!  Oh, you filthy princess. I'm afraid that I'm going to talk about one of my dogs. The reason for my apologetic tone is that some dog lovers go on and on about their animals, and often the people listening have no interest in their little beasties. Well, I'm actually not a dog lover, but I do love my dogs. There is a difference. You could say that I love my dogs because I know them so well, we have a history together, and they form part of our family. One of my responsibilities as a mum ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A blasting experiment. It's always fun when my brother comes to visit from New Zealand. Because he is a math and science teacher, he often thinks of interesting things to do that fascinate the children. When he heard that one of my sons does experiments in the kitchen for his science homework, he had the idea of making a list of fun experiments. "The next time you go to the supermarket, could you get three large bottles of diet Pepsi, and some Mentos mints?" he asked. I had a sneaking suspicion that the experimen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Crocuses: a first sign of Spring! The official first day of Spring came and went on 20th of the month. We've had a few very spring-like days, but usually the next day, it has returned to wintry weather. That's okay, though. There are signs that Spring is on its way. The birds are beginning to get noisy in the mornings. And, little patches of colors are appearing here and there; the Spring flowers are coming out. The ones that I have noticed in my garden are the crocuses. They are one of my favorites; they are purple with ye ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Firewood for free. I was driving down the road the other day, to go to Walmart, when I saw something that really caught my eye. On the left hand side of the road, infront of a house, a huge tree had been cut down. It was so big that it took up all of the house owner's front garden. I was really surprised at first, because this tree, that I drive past every day, had not appeared to have any problems at all. It hadn't looked diseased or weak, infact, quite the opposite. It had been one of the biggest and o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | I'm back, with details of a yucky cold. I'm sorry that I missed a couple of podcasts last week; I was really sick. When I spoke to you last, I was beginning to lose my voice and feel achy with a sore throat. I assumed, however, that with some good food, and a good night's rest, that I would be fine the next day. Wrong! I went downhill from there. I had originally caught the cold from my son, and then my daughter and I both got really ill. So, it's been a miserable week, with no energy, coughs, fevers, chills, and not a lot o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Mythology looking at me. Mythology seems to be all the rage these days. There have been films released recently, like 'Percy Jackson and the lightening thief', and 'Clash of the Titans', that have had a lot of people talking about mythology and what it means to us today. Other books and their subsequent films, like the Harry Potter series, have also used mythological figures. Children, teenagers, and adults have, therefore, had mythology as a subject to be discussed, or at least commented on. Video games seem to ha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Cross Sport Training.  Cross Sport Training. You know, being a mother is an interesting job. I sit back sometimes and consider the influence that I have over my children; it's quite a responsibility. My likes and dislikes are obviously reflected in how I run the home, in what I do, in places we go, and even in the things that we eat. Because I am homeschooling two of my sons at the moment, I have decided to exert my influence over them for their physical good. Cross training! I first heard about it through ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hot pasties.  Hot Pasties. If you've never had a pasty, you've never lived. That means that eating one is an experience you must have because they are so good. I actually haven't had a pasty for years and years, though I did eat them up until I was a late teenager. So, do you have any idea of what a pasty is? It's a bit like a pie; it's usually meat and vegetables in a pastry shell that is the shape of the letter D. It has a thick crust that is twisted which you hold the pasty by. It originated in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stars on ice.  Stars on ice. I have never really been much of an ice skater. When I was a teenager, I would go indoor skating with friends, mainly to have a good laugh. When people are wobbling and falling down on a regular basis, it can be amusing! My friends and I never practiced enough to get really good. And that, I'm sure, makes all the difference. When you see someone who really skates well, it is like looking at good art. I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to see world class skating. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Alps from the plane.  The Alps from the plane.  Many of you have seen some part of the Alps, I suppose. They're spectacular, aren't they? I saw a small part of them recently from a plane. I was traveling from the south of France up to Germany. Luckily, I was sitting next to a window, so I could look at every detail as we flew over. Now, typically, when you take a photo from a plane, it won't come out very well at all. The plane windows aren't the clearest, for sure. An ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The York Minster.  The York Minster. I couldn't visit York Minster without telling you about it. What is a minster? It's the name of a major cathedral that used to be associated with a monastery, and considered the most important building representing the church in a large area. So, okay, it's a cathedral. But, you know what, it's a treat to visit. The city of York is what I call 'the complete package', which means that it has everything that you could want. If you check ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Vienna by chance.  Vienna by chance. Have you ever been to Vienna? I was lucky enough to get there by chance during my trip to Europe. How can anyone go to Vienna by chance? Any person with a brain would go there deliberately, right? Well, because I didn't have a lot of time, I had to fly to a different place each day. After visiting a friend in Frankfurt, I flew the next morning to Nice to visit my friend Lorraine. Now, when I had organized my flights back at home, I ha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Breakfast in Nice. A double treat for me during my week's vacation, was to visit my dear friend, Lorraine, in Nice. I hadn't seen her for eleven years, which, of course is far too long. But, as you probably know, when you get together with a great friend, even if you haven't seen her for a long time, it is as if you haven't been apart for very long. We stayed up until late, catching up on eachothers' news. Since I had seen her, she had had a little girl, started her own business, and moved se ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Free hugs in London. Hello everyone. I'm so pleased to be back, podcasting to you again after my week of fun in Europe.I have lots to tell, as you can imagine. I saw some amazing places on my trip, and had a very meaningful and inspirational time. So, where should I start? I'm a fairly emotional person, deep down,so I'll startthis podcast by telling you about something that I love to do, and found myself doing right in the middleof London. It was on Saturday, a lovely sunny but chilly 12th of F ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | I'm off to Europe, so no podcasts this week. Hello everyone, just a quick note to let you know that there will not be any podcasts this week, as I am going to visit friends and family in Germany, France, and England. I will have lots to tell when I get back.                  Take care, Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Sixth Grade Experiment. Before I start today's podcast, I would like to mention a little something about the title of yesterday's podcast. One of my listeners, called Bahareh, asked me to explain the expression Super Duper Slither Scooter. First of all, the scooter is just the thing that you ride. Slither is the brand name of it; you could call it 'The Slither'. Super Duper is a silly phrase that we use to say that something is wonderful. We also use it sarcastically. Most often, super duper indic ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Super Duper Slither Scooter. It's time to rock and roll. Glide, wobble, balance, and slither. Let's try something new to get ourselves moving. Did you know that the part of the brain that deals with balance, also deals with focus? Isn't that interesting. An educational specialist told me that the other day. One of my sons is going to see her each week to increase his reading abilities. I am really intrigued to see what she will do, and what the effects will be. I would like to pick her brains. One ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Entertainment at half time. Entertainment at half-time is a big deal over here. Whenever you go to a college level or professional level sporting event, there is entertainment half way through the game. I saw some interesting half-time performances the other day in Spokane. My family and I had gone with my in-laws to see Whitworth's men's basketball against Lewis and Clark. Three of my husband's second cousins actually play on the Whitworth team, so there was an added incentive to go. & ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Reptile Man. On Wednesday, the Reptile Man came to visit my kids' elementary school. It is a very worthwhile show to watch. The owner of the Reptile Man business, and the Washington Serpentarium is Scott Peterson. You could say that he is an advocate for reptiles of all kinds. He is based in Monroe, in the Seattle area. His business is open 365 days a year, and speaking at schools is part of his commitment to spreading the word about how necessary and wonderful reptiles are. He is very ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Progress at Walmart. I'm so used to going to Walmart, that I could probably get there with my eyes closed. It's two blocks away from our house, so it's the perfect place for a quick shop stop. There have been renovations going on there for several months now. It started out with heavy machinery digging up a large section of the parking lot, then scaffolding on the outside, and lots of building noises. I happened to pop in the other day to buy some basic essentials, like milk and bread, when I r ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A nocturnal visit by deer. Wow! What a shot! I have been hoping to get a photo or a video of deer to show all of you. This time of year is crazy with the deer coming down from the nearby mountains. They are all over the place, and obviously very comfortable in town. I think the fact that there are orchards here and there in town help. They sleep in the orchards, and have plenty to eat there. Then at night they walk around the neighborhoods, looking for more tasty treats. It just so happens that ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Shooting skeet. Have you heard of skeet shooting, or perhaps clay pigeon shooting? Well, we are beginning to do it. Having  been inspired by his grandfather in Scotland, my son Cass caught the bug. Doing it once when we went to stay with my father last summer just wasn't enough for him. When we returned to Wenatchee, he brought with him two of 'Grandad's' shooting magazines. I, at first, tried not to think about guns; I don't know much about them, and quite frankly, they scare me. How ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stuck in traffic. I hope that this never happens to you. You're driving along, minding your own business, when suddenly your car stops. It could be because of engine trouble, or because of something in the road that is preventing the car from moving. I spotted this poor man the other day as I was pulling onto the main road. He was digging the snow out from around his tires. The trouble was, he wasn't parked on the side of the road. He was right in the middle of the main road, with two lanes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Black and white snow. It's a strange sight. You get so used to seeing the lovely clean snow falling, and getting piled up on the side of the road. But then, all of a sudden, it seems, that beautiful stuff has turned ugly. I was driving to the shops the other day, when I drove past a huge pile of snow that had recently been dumped there by a snow plow. There seemed to be no mix of the colors at all. The black snow was, obviously, the snow that had been right on the road. It had all kinds of grit, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | After school. One part of my daily routine during the week is to pick up the kids from school. I'm sure that a lot of you listening now probably do the same thing. Thankfully, I live very close to the school where three of my children go. It's literally a three minute drive from my house. My kids used to catch the bus home, but, interestingly enough, it would take them an hour to get home. We decided that it was a bit of a waste of time sitting on a bus for an hour, when they could be at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Wok with me. Do you ever fancy eating something really fresh? Something savory, healthy, and tasty? I'm so thankful that there is a place in town where we can get food that is just like that. It's a restaurant called the Wok-About-Grill. It is a play on words. You might already know that a wok is a special kind of frying pan used in Asian cooking. And, because 'to walk about' is an English phrase, the owners of the restaurant decided to change 'walk' to 'wok'. Anyway, it's a cool place. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A new camcorder. Well, it was about time that I got myself a camcorder, a decent one. I have been meaning to for a long time. The app that I have has bonus content which can either be an extra audio file, or a video. Until now, I have not really offered this bonus material because my little camera that takes pictures and videos, does not make quality videos at all. So, I took the plunge. What was I looking for then? Firstly, I wanted something that was easy to use. I also really didn't want ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | How much for postage? Today, I  found in my bag forty stamps that I had bought around Christmas time, and not used. I had bought them for mailing Christmas cards, but this year, for some odd reason, I didn't mail out any cards at all. I usually do. I must have just completely forgotten. Anyway, I'm keeping them with my stationary and office supplies for sending off bills. One thing that I have noticed about stamps is how they increase in price every year. Mailing, or posting letters as we s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | How do they do that? Have you ever come across anything that someone has done that has made you wonder how on earth they had managed to do it? I've often wondered about how on earth window washers manage to clean the windows of high rise buildings, or how traffic controllers in airports manage to organize flights into and out of the airports so that all of the planes land and take off safely. There are jobs out there that we sometimes don't even realize exist, and the tasks involved in that job ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hold on while you sled! Have you ever been sledding? In places where it is snowy, I think it is a great thing to do. In a way it is as good as, or even better than skiing; I'll tell you why. First of all, you don't need any skill at all to sled. Secondly, if it is speed that you love, you can easily find a way to meet your need for speed. Thirdly, there is no expense involved, and hardly any equipment at all. The best kind of sledding I have ever done was on an inner tube. An inner tube is a circu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Choose a treat. It's great to be back podcasting to you again. I had a lovely Christmas break with my family, and now have plenty to podcast about. I actually have had a problem of no internet connection for about four days which has been very frustrating. When that happens, it makes me feel as if I live in the middle of nowhere, or 'in the boondocks' as they say over here. Well, I'm up and running again. My husband took Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the following week off, so we have ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Look at the details! About nine years ago, I had some incredible luck in a local charity shop. It was coming up to Christmas, and I had gone to Goodwill to look around at all the second hand decorations, ornaments, and housewares. As I wandered up and down the aisle, taking my time to look at the hundreds of items that were for sale, I came across a house. It was a ceramic, Christmas-style house. I picked it up and examined it. It looked like an old English pub with several people here and ther ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Back and forth. I have missed a couple of podcasts this week, oops! So here is the first of the two, a little late. My reason for writing this podcast late is that I've been spending time researching my options, as far as the education of my two youngest. They are in a normal elementary school which I like very much, and where they receive quite a lof of Spanish instructions. I'm thrilled that they have that extra benefit, as most elementary schools around here only teach English. But rece ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Local rivals. We spent a noisy night on Saturday at the local arena. We had tickets to go and see a basketball match between the two big local rivals, Wenatchee and Eastmont. We were lucky enough to have box seats, so we were up high with a good view. We took all of the kids, and met up with my husband's brother's family, and another set of friends. We snacked and chatted while the match played. To tell you the truth, I didn't pay much attention to the game; I was more interested in catc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Gingerbread houses. Aren't holiday traditions great! I'm always fascinated by the many ways that people of different cultures celebrate special times. We use symbols, songs, colors, food, actions, religious rituals, and get togethers to express our humanity. And we all do it. When you think of just how different all of the countries on this planet are, how our histories have shaped us, and how we have developed our own traditions, looking at how we celebrate special occasions is similar to loo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Baked apples. A recipe I have been making recently that happens to be very easy is baked apples. What could be nicer than hot, cinnamony apples, oozing with deliciousness, and making the whole house smell great? I have recently discovered an apple that has become one of my favorites. It is the honey crisp. It is unusually large, and has little bumps or dimples. It is very juicy, and has a similar flesh to the pacific rose of New Zealand, one that is light and breaks up easily in the mout ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Very early practice. When you have a hobby, and you want to improve your skills, you have to practice. There is no substitute for practice. Those of you who come from disciplined nations will know all about this. In the Western world, I think, dedicating ourselves to long-term practice is sometimes a challenge. It isn't in the fabric of our society. We are innovative, but not necessarily disciplined. Speaking from personal experience, and looking at myself, the practice of a hobby, whether it i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Get the setting right. It was only this evening, after a busy day, that I realised that my phone had not rung all day. That is unusual. I checked my messages, and there were twelve! How come I hadn't heard the phone ring? I checked the setting, and it said 'silent'.  "Oh, great!" I said to myself as I scrolled through the numbers that had called me. There was one particular one that had tried calling me eight times. Thankfully, it wasn't an emergency. It was the automated telephone system fo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | It's here early! If you have the blog or the app of A Cup Of English handy, you will see from the photo or the video clip just what the 'it' is. Yes, the snow. Last year, we hardly had any at Christmas, and not even a hint of it at Thanksgiving. This year is very different. People have been saying that it is going to be a long, cold Winter  because of La Nina. So far, they are right. The snow started several days before Thanksgiving, and now, today, it is snowing consistently. One ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Do I make you nervous? I have recently been conducting interviews with people in town who have businesses. Why? Because I am beginning to build a website of interviews and dialogues. I hope to launch it before Christmas;....let's see if I can get it ready in time. It sounds like a simple procedure, doesn't it? Interview a person, add grammar notes and pronunciation practice, edit it until it is clean and professional, and then upload it to my website. Well, it's actually all new for me, including ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | No podcast until Tuesday. Hello everyone. I'm afraid there won't be a podcast today as I am really busy with preparations for Thanksgiving. There's a lot to do, as I am hosting the holiday meal at my house for a lot of people. So, catch up with me next time! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bingo. This past Friday night, I was settling in for the evening, when my youngest son said, "Mum, can we go to the family bingo night at school?" I groaned inside, not wanting to go anywhere. I had received an automated voice message from the school a few days previously about the fundraising night. Bingo was on the agenda, and the winners would win large baskets, or hampers, filled with all kinds of goodies. These hampers had been donated from various businesses in town to help ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Little dragons. My energetic daughter has been begging me to take her to karate classes. She had already enrolled in gymnastics, and our rule is to do only one after-school activity each season, so I decided to only look into it, and not agree or commit myself to taking her. The other day, however, we were in the neighborhood, so we popped into the karate school, just to have a look. It is situated in one of the older brick buildings, near the railroad tracks. It has been nicely converted, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bilingual night. One of the things that I had on the calendar this month was the bilingual night at my children's school. It is held a few times a year, to inform parents about progress being made with the school's dual language program. Tonight was the first meeting of the year, and there had been lots of preparation for it. My daughter, who is in kindergarten, had been practicing three songs. I had heard her singing around the house, but it took me a few days to ask her if there was somet ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An eye for light. As we move into the middle of November, the countryside seems to be changing every day. The colorful leaves that decorate the whole valley are beginning to fall, and preparations are being made for the long, cold winter. I am trying to go for walks as often as I can because the days are so beautiful. As long as you wear warm enough clothes, you can be refreshed by a lovely walk. There is no reason to stay inside, really. On my walks, I take my camera, to capture anythi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A stack for winter. We used to have a large pine tree in our front garden. It was a very tall, old one. It was planted about thirty years ago, but last year, we decided to cut it down. I wouldn't normally agree to chop down a tree, but this one was yucky. Half of one side of it had no branches, and it looked weak. My husband and I are really into trees, and really into planting them, so we had a plan of filling in the area with new pine trees. I found it hard to imagine what the fron ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Oksana, Daniel, and Russel. My good friend Nataliya called me a few days ago, and invited me to a concert at a local church. "There is a very good Russian pianist, Oksana Ezhokina, you might have heard of her." I vaguely remembered the name. She has performed a few times in Wenatchee. At the moment, she lives in Leavenworth, and is the artistic co-director of the Icicle Creek Music Center, and a member of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio. Accompanying her were Daniel Schlosberg, an accomplished pianist, an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Expanding Walmart. For a while now, there has been a lot of construction going on at our local Walmart. I am a frequent shopper there, as it is only a couple of blocks from my house. Walmart is expanding. After a few years of doing tremendous business here, the owners have decided to turn it into a superstore. That means that it will soon sell fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat. It will become the 'one stop shop' for a lot of people, including myself. Instead of shopping at Walmart, and then n ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Quite a social calendar. Do you use calendars very much? I do. Without them, I'm sure I would forget a lot of appointments. I have a calendar conveniently placed in my kitchen, just above where I do my podcasts. I have a collection of other important things on this 'mini-desk' of mine, so it keeps me organized while I do my little projects, check my E-mails, or pay the bills. My husband has one on his iPad that is much more sophisticated than mine. He relies on his to keep his business affairs stra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Screen savers. The other day I went for a walk in the park with a friend of mine. We don't see eachother very much because she is busy taking a nursing degree, so it was a treat to spend some time together. The day couldn't have been any nicer. It was a cool but very bright Autumn morning, there was color all around, and still a little mist over the river. I had a feeling that it would be a good occasion to take my camera, just in case. There is all sorts of new development planned for th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Divide and conquer candies. Well, Halloween came and went as it does every year, leaving a house full of sweets! We had a lot of fun yesterday. I told my children that I wasn't going to buy them costumes this year. They had to find bits and pieces around the house and make do. It worked out really well, actually. One of my sons used a simple sheet to be a non-scary ghost. He ended up getting too hot under it, and not wearing it at all. My daughter dressed as a gypsy, and my other sons dressed as a Swa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Friendly or scary? As I drive around town, I find myself saying the occasional "oooo!", "ahhh!", or "oh?!" Do you know why? There are Halloween decorations all over the place, and they make a real impression. There seem to be two approaches to decorating for Halloween: friendly or scary. Personally, I prefer friendly. The time of year leads me to decorate with themes of pumpkins, Autumn leaves, and the harvest. Okay, I throw in the odd friendly ghost here and there, a black cat, or some fake ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Sharp is good. It's funny how ordinary items or actions can show your knowledge of a language. Sometimes when I do something, or say something, I ask myself the question, "Could I say that in Spanish or French?" Your question would probably be, "Could I say that in English?" With that in mind, I was looking for a pen, the other day, to write down some notes. I couldn't find one anywhere which is really annoying. We seem to have little elves that come at night and steal useful items of all ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Make a difference day, October 23. I received a flyer in the mail the other day. It rang a bell; I had seen something like it in previous years. It was the annual Make a Difference Day information sheet. From the title, you can tell that it is about getting involved in the community and making a positive difference. This event has grown since 1990, and is held the fourth Saturday of October. It started through USA Weekend and the 800 newspapers it serves. It is a day dedicated to serving neighbors and the co ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Time's running out for turkeys. Are turkeys a part of your culture? They are over here in the U.S. You have probably heard about the Thanksgiving turkey. Did you know that the tradition of celebrating by eating a turkey started with the Native American Indians? It was the Wampanoag tribe, specifically, that in 1621 shared food that was naturally available locally, with the European Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. They celebrated having survived a cruel winter, and having made important f ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Smallwood's tradition. Every year, either in the summer, or around October, we make a trip to Smallwood's Farm. It is a family-run farm with a petting zoo. All of the produce grown on the farm is sold directly to the public. Through the years, it has grown from a small attraction, to one that does an awful lot of business for most of the year. Each year I have seen more attractions and events added, to draw in a bigger crowd of spenders. The journey from our home is only about twenty minutes. As ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bras on the bridge. The photo on today's blog is one of the most unusual I have taken since I started A Cup Of English. Bras on a bridge.....um.....it makes you think. It's symbolic, of course. There are so many of them, each being unique. They represent the women who have suffered or are suffering with breast cancer. Many people use that particular bridge in Wenatchee, and so, have had the opportunity to think about the subject. The organizer of this display asked for one thousand bras to be ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ten, ten, ten. I realized today, that yesterday's date was special: 10/10/10. It was October 10th, 2010. I had been too busy over the weekend to stop and realize the curious and interesting date. While I was chatting to my sister-in-law today, she mentioned that she had measured the height of her three boys, as a way of commemorating the day. It could be what we call an 'auspicious' date, a day of significance and importance. My children told me that a popular kids' program called 'B ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | No podcasts for a few days. Sorry everyone, there are no podcasts for a few days as I will be busy in one of the local schools. But, don't worry, I will resume normal podcasting after this week. So, keep up with the English, and have a great weekend. Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A kindergarten tree walk. Kindergarten is proving to be quite a fun place for my daughter. They went on their first field trip the other day; it was a 'tree walk'. They have been studying trees: how they grow, and how they change with the seasons, so a tree walk was the perfect ending for their studies. I volunteered that day, and arrived at the school a few minutes before the bus left. There were several mothers there, and we all helped the teacher line the children up and get them ready for their ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A patriot. Yesterday, there was a knock at the door. "Mum, there's some guy at the door," said my son, letting me know that he didn't feel like opening the door. I had just woken up from a nap. So, still feeling drowsy, I unlocked and opened the front door. I expected to find, perhaps, a neighbor, or someone selling something. To my surprise, there was a large man who I didn't know, who was dressed in an eighteenth century military costume. He beamed a smile at me, and handed me a pla ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Red sky at night. As I walked outside yesterday to throw the garbage in the dumpster, the evening sky caught my eye. There was a spread of small clouds that were lit up by the sun, beautiful and pink. An English saying came to mind: Red sky at night, shepherd's delight; Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning. I remember hearing that saying when I was a child. At that time, I lived in a rural area where there was a lot of farm land. It was important to know ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An eye exam. At this time of year, the schools have tests of all kinds for the children. Reading and writing tests, math skills tests, and tomorrow, there will be hearing and vision tests for the whole school. If you think about it, the two last mentioned tests are fundamental; if a child cannot hear or see properly, he will have a very hard time in school. Ironically, my youngest son had a vision test today with an eye specialist. He had had a reading test the other day that raised a f ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The colors of Galloway. One of the places we stayed this summer was Whithorn, Scotland, where my father lives. It is one of many picturesque towns in Galloway. Whithorn happens to be very famous; it is considered possibly Scotland's first town. It is the starting point of Christianity in the U.K, with St. Ninian establishing the building called the Candida Casa, or Glimmering White House, after the stone it was made from. This building became a cathedral and a monastery. Whithorn was a center for ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Creetown gem rock museum. During the summer vacation, I took my children to visit the Creetown gem rock museum, in Scotland. It is highly recommended, as it is the leading independent gem rock museum in the whole of the UK. We travelled about fourty five minutes to get there, and, believe me, it was worth it. Though the entrance is small, the first room you come to opens up into a world of colorful gems and rocks of all kinds. There are many tall display cases, showing huge crystals, with their name ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Substitute teaching. Teaching has been a profession that I have been involved with for quite a few years. And now that my youngest child has started Kindergarten, I have been looking for teaching jobs. At the moment, where we live, there aren't any positions available; however, substitute teaching is always an option. It's not everybody's cup of tea because it is quite random. Most days, you are in a different school. It is difficult to establish relationships with students because you might be ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | In search of swords. Have you ever been roped into a project that you didn't plan, or necessarily want? To be roped into something, is to be caught up, or carried along by someone else's idea. It's like being involved because you are forced to, or you feel obliged. Well, I have been roped into a project recently. My son Cass is having his birthday party soon, and wants to have a medieval battle with his friends on our back lawn......hmmm, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I have been giv ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Decorate and beautify. The other day, when I went to lunch with my mum, I noticed that the restaurant was decorated in an autumn theme. It was beautifully done. The owner, or someone who works in that restaurant, must have gone to the local arts and crafts store to get the supplies. I love that place! There you will find all the bits and pieces you need to create beautiful projects for your house. The items are all expertly made, and imported mainly from China and Taiwan. There are artificial flo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A stowaway praying mantis. Those of you who listen to my podcast on a regular basis, know that one of my hobbies is gardening. Whenever I have a free moment, I'm out there planting, weeding, or sowing seeds. It is September now, and the season for growing is just about over. There are still some Autumn flowers that are appearing here and there, but, judging by what you find in the shops, the time for gardening is coming to an end. You probably also know that the end of a season is, in shopping terms, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Lunch at the Wild Huckleberry. I called my mother the other day and arranged for us to meet up for lunch. She had been in Spain for two weeks, and had just returned. We had a lot to talk about, and I was really looking forward to seeing her. But, where would we meet up? There are quite a few restaurants in town, but we are fussy individuals. If we are going to pay for food, we don't want to eat just rubbish. Fast food was 'out', meaning that it wasn't an option. We didn't feel like having sandwiches ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A growing garden. One thing that I do in the morning, is to drive my children to school. It doesn't take very long, perhaps five minutes. Parents can pull up into a parking area that is near the school playing field to drop their kids off. Something caught my eye, the first day of school, which I hadn't seen before. A school garden has appeared, and is full to the brim with all kinds of plants. I had completely forgotten that it existed. Because I was out of town for most of the Summer, I hadn't seen the pro ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | How small do they get? Over the weekend, one of my sons had a couple of baseball games in a local park. It's that season again! It was actually a perfect day for the sport as well; it was sunny but cool. There were lots of people sitting and watching the event. In fact, there were more people than usual because there was a huge Mexican fair taking place in the same park. There was live music from various mariachi bands, lots of food stands selling authentic dishes, toys and ceramics to buy, and even bouncy castle ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Woosh and splash. One of the things that we enjoyed most about our vacation this Summer was the beach. I've always been an inland person; I love forests and mountains. However, this Summer we were in very beachy places. It was the first time that I had been on the Costa Brava in Spain. It is renown for its interesting, rocky beaches, fishing villages, and small, sandy coves. Because we stayed in Girona, in the north of Spain, we were about half an hour from a whole list of beaches. It happened to be an extra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Unpack those bags! Hello everyone, and welcome back to A Cup Of English. I'm very excited to start this season of podcasts; I have a lot to tell. I have been away, with my family, travelling around Europe, visiting family, for about 6 weeks. We had a great time, but now it is time to get back to work, and to 'hook up' with my listeners again. I hope your Summer was a very good one, and that now, you are ready to learn some more English. For the first week back from vacation, I dragged my feet a little. That m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rikki-tikki-tavi part 3. Rikki-tikki-tavi part 3.   "Oh no," exclaimed Darzee so the snake could hear, "my wing is broken and I can't fly." The bird just needed to get the snake away from her eggs. The bird fluttered down the garden path and Nagaina followed closely. Rikki-tikki ran to the melon patch and carried off the eggs. he was carrying the last egg, when Darzee flew over him. "Oh Rikki-tikki, Nagaina has trapped Teddy and his parents on the porch of the house." Rikki-tikki ran as fast as he could. He ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rikki-tikki-tavi part 2. Rikki-tikki-tavi part 2.   "Who is Nag? I am Nag. My family has ruled this garden for thousands of years. Look at me and be afraid." Rikki-tikki was scared for only a minute. He knew that as a mongoose, he was supposed to fight snakes. Nag knew it too. "Look out!" yelled Darzee's wife. At just that moment, another snake struck at Rikki-tikki from behind. The snake, Nag's wife Nagaina, had tried to bite Rikki-tikki. She just missed him. Then, the two snakes quickly slithered off into ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. This tale is of a brave mongoose, named Rikki-tikki-tavi, and his great fight to help a family that saved him. It all took place in the far-off land of India. It began on the first sunny day after many days of darkenss and rain. A young English boy, Teddy, went outside to explore. There he found a mongoose in the road. A mongoose is a small animal, a bit like a cat and a bit like a weasel. This mongoose, Rikki-tikki, had thick hair and a bushy tail that made him look like a cat. His skinny ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Saint George and the Dragon part 3. Saint George and the Dragon (part 3). 　 The smell as they approached the dragon's den was horrible. George and the princess put George's shield near the sleeping dragon's head to protect themselves from the dragon's fiery snores. They watched the grains of sand fall every second. Suddenly the dragon woke up. Now, Sabra thought, surely the dragon would find them before the sand finished running through the hourglass. The dragon stood up and rubbed his eyes. As soon as the last grain of s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Saint George and the Dragon part 2. Saint George and the Dragon (part 2). 　   "I am Princess Sabra," she said. "Come with me." They tiptoed through what was once a deep, green forest. Sabra explained why the kingdom lived in such fear. A fearful dragon had lived in the kigdom for many years, she told him. The horrible beast had ravaged the land. May men had tried to kill the dragon, but its sharp claws, huge wings, and fiery breath made it impossible to reach, let alone kill. The people had moved inside the castle f ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | George and the Dragon. Saint George and the Dragon (part 1).   This is the tale of Saint George and the dragon.Iit has been told for over 15 centuries. It takes place during a time called the Dark Ages, when kings ruled the land, wizzards cast spells, and monsters roamed free. The queen of fairies had taken young George in as a baby. The fairies raised the child to grow up brave, strong, calm, courteous, quick, and clever. They taught him to be a noble knight. At last the time came when George was old e ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Thumbelina part 3. Thumbelina (part 3).   Thumbelina told the field mouse of the horrible frog who took her away from her home. She told her how much she couldn't wait to get back to her mother and her garden. The field mouse invited Thumbelina to stay with her for the Winter. Together they gathered nuts, grains, and berries for the cold months ahead. Thumbelina sang songs and told stories, while the field ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Thumbelina part 2. Thumbelina (part 2). 　   The frog watched and waited until Thumbelina's mother went inside the cottage to get a cup of lemonade for her. Then, the frog jumped out from behind the reeds where he had been hiding and captured Thumbelina. He carried her away to the river where he lived and placed her on a lily pad. "Rest here while I go and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Thumbelina. Thumbelina. 　 There was once a woman who lived in a tiny cottage which had a beautiful garden. She was very happy tending her garden, but over time she became sad. She had no children who could share her garden with her. She decided to ask the old witch in her village for her help. When the woman explained that she wanted a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ali Baba 3. Ali Baba part 3.   In the yard, the Captain whispered to his men, "Wait until you hear my signal. Then leave your barrels and storm the house." Morgiana helped Ali Baba's family feed their guest. She thought it strange that a man would arrive so early for market, but the oil merchant seemed very polite. After everyone had gone to bed, Morgiana finished cleaning up. Her lamp ran out of oi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ali Baba part 2. Ali Baba part 2.   By now, Ali Baba had opened the shop which he had always dreamed about. He was a fair and generous shop owner. He was happy, his family had plenty, and every neighbor was his friend. Ali Baba hired a helper named Morgiana. She was a very clever and beautiful young lady. She enjoyed her work at the shop. And Morgiana cared for Ali Baba and his family very much. One day, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ali Baba Ali Baba.  In a town in Persia there lived a man called Ali Baba. He was a poor woodcutter, and he struggled each day to feed his wife and children. All he ever wanted was to own a shop in the town, sell goods to his neighbors, and have plenty for his family. One day Ali Baba was cutting wood in the forest. He saw a troop of men on horseback approaching. Ali Baba thought these men were robbers, so he climbed a tree to h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Golden Goose part 3. The Golden Goose (part 3).   The minister saw the odd procession and cried out at the three sisters, "Have you no shame, girls? Why are you running after the boy? It's just not right!" He tried to pull the youngest girl away. Suddenly, he felt that he was stuck in the crowd and had to follow the goose, like everybody else. The minister's wife saw her husband running along with the three ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Golden Goose part 2.   The Golden Goose (part 2).   　 When Samuel reached for their snack, he found a magnificent sweet cake and a large bottle of cider for them to share. "My, look at this," said Samuel. "I am glad I have much more than stale bread to share with you." When they finished their tasty meal, the old man told Samuel, "You shared your ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | No podcasts this week! Hello everyone, just to let you know, there will be no podcasts this week, but I will continue our readings the following week. Keep up with your English!                                            Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Golden Goose. The Golden Goose (part 1). 　 There once was a gentle boy called Samuel. He lived at the edge of the forest with his parents and two older brothers. His family often treated him poorly. They didn't know that he was capable of much greater things, until the day that he met a strange old man in the woods. That day began as Samuel's oldest brother went to cut wood. Their mother packed a sweet cake and a bottle of cider for her ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The City Mouse and the Country Mouse part 3. The City Mouse and the Country Mouse (part 3).   　 Alistair led Oliver through the dining room. They hid behind potted plants and raced under tablecloths. They waited until the chef went to check something in the dining room, then they scampered across the kitchen and into the dark pantry where Oliver stumbled over something. "Do be careful," said Alistair. Oliver saw w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The City Mouse and the Country Mouse part 2. The City Mouse and the Country Mouse (part 2).   Oliver gathered acorns and stacked them near his hole. Then he collected seeds from the grass and carried them into the hole. Then he went to the cornfield to find fallen corn. While Oliver was hard at work, Alistair yawned and leaned against the root of the oak tree. Then he wiped the dust from his shoes with his silk handkerchief. When O ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The City Mouse and the Country Mouse. The City Mouse and the Country Mouse (part 1).   Once upon a time, a country mouse named Oliver lived in a hole under the root of a big, old oak tree. Oliver loved the sound of squirrels chattering during the day and crickets chirping at night. He loved the smell of rich dirt and sweet grass all around him. One day Oliver invited his city cousin, Alistair, for a visit. Before Alistair ar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A check-up at the dentist. A check-up at the dentist.   Summer time is check-up time for the kids. When school is out, it's convenient to take them to their various appointments with doctors or dentists. Now, believe it or not, dental check-ups are quite exciting for my kids. I know, it sounds crazy. The reason for the excitement is that we have an agreement. If they have no new cavities, then they get a cash priz ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What a slacker! What a slacker!   Hello there podlisteners. I hope your Summer is going really well so far. I realise that I have 'slacked off' this week when it comes to podcasting. The Summer bug has bitten me, and I have been having too much fun to sit down at work at a computer. To slack off means to become lazy, or to not do your job properly. And, we talk about being 'bitten' by a certain bug, whe ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Karate Kid. The Karate Kid. Have you see the latest Karate Kid movie? I did yesterday, and the day before. Why twice? Well, the first time, all of my kids were busy with friends or sports, apart from my oldest son. He was bored, so I suggested that he choose a movie to see. It was a toss up between The Prince of Persia, or Karate Kid. It was actually a difficult choice because we both like action and adventure, and martial arts. His choice turned out to be just right. B ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Summer schedule for A Cup Of English. Hi everyone, just to let you know that the schedule for A Cup Of English is changing for the Summer. Life gets a little crazy around our house during this season, with the four kids being at home, and all of them being involved in different activities. So, in order for me to not become a 'basket case', I will be broadcasting on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's. I will also be including some readings from popular and traditional children's books. So, keep listening and learning, but have ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Where, oh where can they be? Where, oh where can they be? Have you ever lost something, and looked and looked for it? I've been doing that lately. My oldest son had a PSP and an iPod touch. I say had, because he doesn't have them anymore. They have disappeared, vanished, evaporated. I have looked everywhere. We have all wracked our brains. That means to think and think hard to try and reach a conclusion. Sometimes the grey matter just doesn't work well. The grey matter is, of course, th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A month before we fly. A month before we fly. Today, I went to the awards ceremony at my children's school. It was for the fourth and fifth graders who have made great improvements during the year. It was also to give the fifth graders a good send-off, because they will be moving up to Middle school in September. The principal was the speaker; he handed out certificates and talked about all the activities that the students had taken part in during the year. It was ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Real age. I was on Facebook today, updating comments to friends and family, when I came across a health test that I chose to take. It is called the 'Real age' test that many people have seen on Oprah. Well, I haven't seen Oprah in years, but I did want to find out about this age test. The main question to be answered by taking it is, "What is your biological age?" You might be forty, but physically you could be older or younger. I have heard of the potential differen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Perfume in the air. Something has been happening recently that pleases me a lot. My newly planted roses have been flowering. For some reason I didn't expect them to make such a show this year, with them being new. My entryway project has continued, and I ended up planting two scented roses right next to a row of lavender. My idea was to get a mixture of sweet smells and color altogether. I wasn't a rose fanatic when I was younger, but I am quickly becoming one. It's the smelly ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | My bad? My bad. You've have heard that languages are always changing. New phrases and expressions come out every year in most languages, a lot of them come from popular movies, television program(mes), or hit songs. I hear about some of these through my kids, who pick up the expressions from school. So, I learn the 'up-to-date' sayings from my own children. A few days ago, my daughter was on the computer, doing a Spanish learning program. It is very ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A badly broken arm. A badly broken arm.It was championship night on Monday. My son Cass and his team were through to the baseball finals. They had worked hard all season, and were about to face an equally good team. It was going to be the Blacks against the Greens. The game started at five thirty. My husband had already taken Cass to the team's warm-up session before the game, so I arranged to meet them at the baseball field at the start of the game. As I entered the ball park ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | DSI to cook. It is very fashionable here for kids to have portable computer devices. My boys have Psps and Dsis. Their peers all have them, and, therefore, they expect at some stage to get them. The advertising on television doesn't help, as far as being a parent is concerned. The exciting new games that they see advertised make kids want to have the latest thing to play. There is quite a difference between the two devices, so I am told. The Psp has longer games with better graphics. The Dsi, on the oth ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stocking up for the Winter. Stocking up for Winter. The bell rang today while I was tidying up after dinner. I wondered who it could be at eight o'clock at night. As I approached the door, the bell started ringing very fast, which made me guess that it was one of my children. When I opened the door, I found three boxes on the doorstep. One was a box lid full of dry cut grass, one was a similar box full of tree bark, and the third was the baseball box emptied out and fi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The value of water. The value of water. I don't know if any of you are into photography or not, but it is becoming a passion of mine. I have a cheapo digital camera, but it serves me well. I find myself feeling lost without it. I try to take it with me wherever I go, because you never know when a fabulous photo opportunity will present itself. One such opportunity did the other day, after a heavy rain shower. Most people I know had been complaining about the un ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A weekend ride. What do you do at the weekends? Do you do anything special to let off steam or to get inspired? I suppose it depends where you live and what is available. After a hard week's work, it is nice sometimes to not do anything. If you look around, though, sometimes you can find entertainment that is designed to attract the public at the weekend. I went shopping on Sunday, and as I pulled into the parking lot in front of the mall, I saw a large, fenced off area wh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Time for track. “The track meet will be postponed until tomorrow,” said a recorded message on the phone, for the second time. The end of the school year is the time for track and field events for all elementary schools. Recently, however, the weather has not been cooperating. Though my flowers have loved the heavy showers, the organizers of this sport have not. Parents of all the contestants have been looking at the sky from about lunchtime onwards, to see if the cloud ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Climb to the sky. Every two weeks, on Wednesdays I meet up with a friend of mine, and go for a walk in the park. Today was that day, and though it was really rainy, we had a nice time walking and chatting. I took my camera just in case a photo opportunity presented itself. One did. Coming over a small hill, I saw in the distance about twenty, huge poles sticking up out of the ground, equally spaced, and filling the view. "What on earth are they?" I asked my friend Jody. She ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Sock soup. Muddy, brown water. A couple of wiffle balls. An old, dirty snowman toy. A plastic Dora the Explora figure that has been buried in the earth for over a year. Add to these things a stinky sock and a few sticks, and you have the perfect recipe for 'sock soup'. And of course you have to mix it all together in a wheel barrow. That is what took place today in my vegetable garden. I was peacefully planting some seeds, and making sure that everything was just righ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Back health. A few weeks ago, while my oldest son was having a check-up with the pediatrician, I collected several pamphlets from the clinic's reading area. I thought perhaps I could learn something while I waited. One of the pamphlets was about back health, something that I don't really think about very often. A couple of years ago, however, I had no choice but to think about it, because I suddenly developed back pain. It was nothing serious. I had been carrying my bab ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ant invasion. Have you ever walked into your kitchen first thing in the morning and found that little, tiny strangers have moved in? And not only have strangers moved in, but there are hundreds of them, and they are eating your food. Ants. Ants. Where do they come from? And how do they sense where the food is? For the past few days I have been paranoid about people dropping crumbs in the kitchen, because it seems that ten minutes later, some clever ants have gathered aro ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | AZ's cafe. AZ's cafe. I was running errands today, when I spotted a new business in town. At the bottom of a three story building, in the basement area, a cafe has opened this week. I noticed it because there are some colorful flags flying in the outside eating area. "Oooo," I thought as I waited in the traffic, I must go in there for a quick bite to eat, and to 'check out' the atmosphere. Well, I'm very pleased that I did go in. Not only does the insi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Beautiful anemones. Beautiful anemones. The entryway of our house is finally beginning to look pretty. I have recently transplanted plants from other areas of our garden to the walkway that leads up to our house. After choosing a tree to shade the area, I thought that I had finished. About a two weeks ago (a fortnight in British), I saw lots of green shoots coming up right next to the path. I could immediately tell that these new plants were not weeds; they wer ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes, the office. A Tour of Homes: the office. It's time to revisit our Tour of Homes to get to know some of the everyday details in the home office. Whether you work from home, or just have a little computer with, perhaps, a drawer for files, the office is a very important place. It is where we keep our records, important documents, family photos, where we pay our bills, where we learn, and where we make all sorts of financial plans. There are 'umpteen' reas ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Germ busters. In the kitchen yesterday, I was considering all of the language that we are exposed to around the house. Containers of food and cleaning fluids can all teach us a lot of a new language. Even some small appliances often have instructions of some kind on them. When I'm at the kitchen sink, which is very often, I use all sorts of liquids for all of the cleaning that I do. My dish soap is anti-bacterial. Then I have a hand sanitizer that you can use without wat ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Woof, woof no more. I have great neighbors. They are friendly, I trust them, and they are helpful. What more could I ask for in a neighborhood? As a friendly neighbor myself, I do what I can to keep my relationship with the people next door to me a positive one. The neighbor to my left recently got married to a lady who loves animals, infact, she used to have a farm. When she moved in she had goats, a pony, chickens, and she bred dogs. Gradually, to please her husband, she has ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Do it yourself and win $5000. Do-it-yourself is more than a hobby in this town. It is more like a craze. When a job needs to be done around the house, a lot of people will do it themselves, instead of hiring someone else. You don't always need to be an expert to fix a pipe, to paint a wall, to hang a door, or to replace a window. You just need to know how to do it, and you also need the right tools. There are a couple of stores where I live that supply those two things. They have employ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | New passports. As I was going to the recycling center today, I passed the postman (or, the mail man in U.S). He was sitting in his cute little mail van, next to the mail boxes where he was inserting all of the letters, cards, and junk mail. I pulled over and asked him for our mail which he very kindly gave me. Back in the car, I had a quick look through the collection of things that he had given me, and I found two official looking envelopes from the U.S Department of Sta ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What's for breakfast? What do you feel like eating in the morning? Are you a breakfast eater, or do you just have a coffee or tea? There are so many things to choose from when it comes to the first meal of the day. Traditionally, in England, we have what is called the 'great British breakfast'. It is a substantial meal; if you happen to miss lunch, it doesn't matter because you will still be full with breakfast. Normally it includes: bacon (meaty not fatty), eggs, toast, stewed, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Fatty, fatty. I heard today that eating nuts helps to lower bad cholesterol. That's good news because I love nuts of all kinds. I always have a stash of almonds and walnuts in the fridge. Apparently, in order to have the full benefits of these nuts, they should be plain: not salted, not sugared, and obviously not roasted. There are some naturally occuring chemicals in nuts that counteract the LDL (or low-density lipoprotein which is the actual name of the bad cholesterol ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Tag. The weekend and warm weather make a great combination. They lead to all sorts of fun activities. We had sunny, windy days this weekend that actually got up into the 80's. I was inspired to do some gardening, so I got out some tools and had a good look at our vegetable patch. Hmm, first things first, I need to do the weeding. Everything had been abandoned since late Autumn of last year. Nature had taken over and the fast growing weeds had covered most of my ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Spelling mistakes. I was checking the comments on my blog today, hoping to get some feedback from my lovely podlisteners, when I came across one that was a bit worrying. Huy Mai very kindly complimented my podcast and informed me that I had made a couple of spelling mistakes on my blog of 'A Haitian art surprise'. I quickly looked up the blog, and realised that I certainly had made a couple of spelling mistakes. "Oh, Anna! How could you?" I said to myself, as I erased and cor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Daily homework. "Did your teacher give you your homework packet?" is a question I ask my children often. Every week they get a set of papers that are stapled together, each paper being either a math sheet or a reading and writing sheet. For the longest time, I couldn't get my youngest son to do his daily sheet. The teachers expect the students to do one sheet each afternoon at home. If they concentrate, it hardly takes any time, but, obviously, the longer you wait to do it ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A feather nest. It's time that I bought a new camera. I need a digital that has a decent zoom. I realized that the other day when I was outside, trying to get a good shot of two birds who were nesting. I had been busy throwing the ball to our dogs, when I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to see what it was, I saw a bird, obviously the male, sitting on top of the bird house, with a beak full of white feathers. There were so many of them, that ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rwanda. Today, I'm going to continue with my series of 'Getting to know our planet' with the country of Rwanda. What do you know about this central african nation? What springs to mind when you hear the name Rwanda? Before I began this study, I didn't know much at all about this country, apart from the conflicts between the Hutus and the Tutsis, and the genocide of 1994. However,in 2009 a report by CNN called Rwanda the greatest success story of Africa. It is stabl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Mother's Day Surprise. Sunday, May 9th, it's Mother's day! I don't usually give it much thought, apart from choosing what I should buy for my mother and mother-in-law. I always forget that I will receive presents as well. Mind you, I shouldn't forget. There are plenty of reminders all around. The television has countless commercials for shops that have special offers for mums, and the local newspapers also advertise the deals on flowers, chocolates, clothes, and other things. We ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Learning how to bike. 'Prevention is better than cure' is a saying that I fully believe in. Similarly, using the correct tools for a job, or wearing the correct protection, is just as smart. I've been thinking about this recently because my little girl has been learning how to ride her bicycle without the training wheels. If it were up to me, I wouldn't teach her yet. However, my husband is confident that she is ready to take this big step. Each afternoon for about a week, they ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Haitian art surprise. Leavenworth is fast becoming my favorite local place to have lunch. I took my mother up there today for a yummy trip to Pav's restaurant as an early Mother's Day gift. It was a perfect day, sunny and cool. Actually, they had had a heavy snowfall a few days previously which everyone thought was a bit crazy, but considering that it is a mountainous region, it's not that surprising. We wandered around the main streets a little and window shopped, until we got ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What's happened to the weather? The weather is one thing, where I live, that is consistent. It is one of the attractions about living here. The tourist information about Wenatchee talks at once about the 300 days of sun each year, and the regular, consistent four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Rarely does the weather 'step out of line' or not follow the typical patterns of this climate. Yesterday, however, was a different story. The first thing that made me realize that some ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A volcanic project. "Mum, I want to make a volcano," said my son Cass on Sunday morning. "You know, the kind that we can make out of paper," he added. That is an unusual request for a Sunday morning. Papier mache is what he was talking about. I remember making heads and masks out of papier mache in school. We would blow up balloons, and then cover them with a mixture of torn up newspapers, flour, and water, and then leave them to dry for a couple of days. Then, the balloons wo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Colors at the carnival. These past two weeks have been Apple Blossom here in Wenatchee. It is a springtime celebration that brings in a lot of business to the area, and is great fun. Just around the time that the apple blossoms appear, the setting up of this week begins. We see large trucks coming into town with the equipment for the food fair, the carnival, the parade, and all the related games and stalls. This annual event has taken place for 90 years, and has grown from a one d ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The best bargains at Ross. Do you like to shop? I actually do not like to at all. I always find that I am in a hurry, I don't enjoy looking through aisles and aisles of clothes for just one piece that I like, and I get impatient when I have to wait in line. But, one thing makes a very big difference. If I can find a good bargain, then I am a happy camper. That means that I am quite content to do the shopping 'thing', just like everybody else. There is a place just over the river from ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Fire up the barby! Fire up the barby! The good weather is here, minced meat is on sale in the supermarket, and the nights are longer. It's time to clean the outside furniture, put a tablecloth on the table, buy propane for the barbecue, and decide what's for dinner. Our barbecue has spent the winter under a heavy duty, plastic cover. Now we can get it out, clean it up, put in a new tank of fuel, and get out the recipe book. The longer days are so much more cheery than the sho ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Spectating at sporting events. Grab your baseball hat or something else that will keep the sun out of your eyes, your sunglasses, a blanket, and a chair that isn't too hard. It's time to be a spectator. It's the season. You'll see these people, parking in the parking lot of a baseball or soccer field, opening up the back of their cars, and getting all kinds of equipment, blankets, coolers full of food and drinks, hats, gloves, newspapers. They've thought of everything. Spectating is a se ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Starting to read. Helen the hippo is my friend at the moment. My little girl is learning how to read, and Helen is the type of character that is helping her to do so. It has been wonderful and fascinating to see the transition from knowing the alphabet to putting words together. Today, in the car, while we were waiting outside of the music school for my oldest son, Domini picked up some books that we keep in the back. To my amazement she slowly started to spell out the words ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Fresh day in the sun. "Mummy, can I pet the horses?" said my daughter as we crossed the road to the center of the town of Leavenworth. We had decided to spend a few hours in a nearby town, for a change of scenery. The horses in the road were attached to carts that were well decorated, intended for tourists. There were leather straps on the cart with bells and flowers, and the drivers were dressed in traditional German costume. "One day, darling, we'll go on one of those rides," ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Perfect Combination. I did a really unpleasant thing the day before yesterday. It was totally necessary; in fact, it was a service to my family. There is the most delicious yet simple meal that is very traditional around this area, but to make it requires getting your hands dirty. That special meal is barbecue chicken. Now, that doesn't mean that we actually put chicken on a barbecue outside. This type of barbecue chicken is cooked in the oven, the longer the better. For this d ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Oh my gosh, the crazy pruning. Just opposite where we live is a cherry orchard. It must be about four or five acres. In the late winter or early spring, the trees get pruned. Excess branches are cut off in order to make the trees more productive. That system works, and is understood by everyone around here. It is part of being effective when growing fruit. The trouble is, that habit of seriously pruning fruit trees has crept into the rest of Wenatchee. Although Wenatchee is a dry valley, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Furry Salesmen. A strange type of creature has been appearing in Wenatchee recently. Apparently, it comes out when the weather gets nice. It is very tall, furry, and generally has a smile on its face. Unlike most other animals, it likes to be close to people and traffic, rather than near trees and bushes. It is also very friendly to humans, just like dogs, but instead of wagging its tail, it waves its hand. Have you guessed what these creatures are? They are the happy masc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Netflix and cable madness. The financial crisis has hit Wenatchee quite hard in the past year or so. Businesses have closed, some people have lost their homes or jobs, or both. Everyone seems to be more careful about spending, and it has become normal to be frugal, or very careful or thoughtful about money. My husband and I have been trying to find ways to cut costs. One expense that was easy to lower was our television bill. The cable and satelite companies here in the U.S sell pack ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Fire and sugar. Ah, Spring is here, and we are back to the normal good weather activities. This weekend, we had a couple of the kids' friends over for a 'sleep-over'. You can probably tell by the name what a sleep-over is: the kids come and play in the evening and end up spending the night. It is the latest thing that seems to be extremely important to my children. If only one of them can have a friend over, then it's just not fair, so we have to have at least two to keep ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Oil change at Oil Can Henry's. I got a phone call from my husband the other day, " Hey babe, can you take the car to get the oil changed please? It's overdue." As he works forty-five minutes from town, he rarely has time to run those errands back in Wenatchee, so he gets his secretary, me, to do them. No problem. As you probably know, a car's oil has to be changed regularly. How often depends on your car and your driving habits. If you drive a lot, you might have to change the oil every ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Strength and flexibility. I was just listening to a Swiss podcast about health. The presenters were talking about free radicals and how to fight them. They first of all listed all the situations in life that cause free radicals to be produced in our bodies: emotional and physical stress, pollution, medicines, a poor diet, alcohol, smoking and more. Jokingly, one of the presenters asked, "What doesn't produce free radicals?" because it seems that everything does. A discussion develop ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Memories on the wall. Do you have photos around your house? Perhaps photos of family and friends? I have been in some people's houses where there are photos in every room. The fridge, in the kitchen, is a place where a lot of people place photos of loved ones or fond memories. I have had our family photos in a huge box for quite a few years. The project of sorting through them, putting some in chronological albums, and others in frames, has been a project that I have avoided for ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bleeding Hearts. I have been making excuses recently, to avoid doing some gardening. I have had pots of plants ready to plant for at least a week. I even put them right on the spots where I intended to plant them, but they sat there for a long time. Every time I happened to go outside, for whatever reason, I would catch a glimpse of them and feel guilty. I made sure that I kept them watered, because I would have felt terrible if they had died in their pots, waiting for me t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Baseball hot dogs. Baseball season is here, and even though it is chilly, we gather our troops and head off for the baseball field. Everyone who has a child involved in the sport knows that this time of year is very changeable when it comes to the weather. You have to be prepared for all sorts of weather: cold, icy wind, rain, hot sun, or perhaps even hail. Today was no exception. Unusually for Wenatchee, we had rain during the first game of the season. Mind you, it wasn't torr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Golf Club. The Wenatchee golf club is a place that was introduced to me by my in-laws. For quite a few years now, they have played golf several times a week, and also enjoyed the club's other facilities. I don't golf, or at least not yet, but I have become familiar with the goings on there. It was established in 1923 in East Wenatchee. To get there from here, you have to cross over the Columbia river and head up to near the top of the valley. There are spectacular vie ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A house for the birds. Before I start this podcast, I'd like to let you know that I have corrected a mistake I made on yesterday's podcast about cherry blossoms in Japan. The photo I included was actually of dog wood blossoms. I didn't realise at the time, but I have corrected the photo and uploaded one of cherry blossoms. Today's podcast is about a very special bird house that was presented to me the other day by my husband and son. The day that we came back from our recent trip to Seattle, I was busy unpac ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The blossom season. This podcast was inspired by Kimiyo from Japan who recently E-mailed me a photograph of the cherry blossoms on the street where she lives. She told me that, at the moment, the wave of blossoms is moving through Japan, and so she decided to capture it on film and send it to me. Thanks Kimiyo! Blossoms are dear to my heart because they are a central subject of the area where I live. Without blossoms orchards cannot produce fruit, of course. I decided to investigate blossoms in Japan, and I en ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Strawberries and cream. Easter Sunday, a day of family, celebration, and fun. Today, after church, my family and I got together with my in-laws in the East Wenatchee Country Club for lunch. The club is actually for golf, but even if you don't golf, you can go to the restaurant which is really very good. For special occasions, their kitchen puts on quite a spread. Today they had lamb, ham, and chicken with mushrooms. Often they will serve prime rib beef which just melts in your mouth. And for those of you who are v ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Hotel of Choice. Because it is Spring break, we have arranged a quick get-a-way to Seattle for a couple of days. My husband has been extremely busy at work, and hasn't even had a weekend break for a while, so I decided that it is time for us to 'get out of dodge'. He has taken this Friday off, and we are heading West. I got online yesterday and booked the hotel. What do you look for in a hotel? Location? A good rating? An available restaurant or swimming pool? These are all things to take into consideration ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Passport application. I've been getting some things ready for our Summer vacation. The most important thing, for now, is the passports of my two youngest children. My daughter has never had one, but my son has an old one that has already expired. I want to make sure that these important documents are up to date, or, as we say, valid. I popped into the court house to get the passport application forms, and then I read through the instructions. When I send in the forms, I need to also send in a fee and a birt ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes, The Dining Room. It has been some time since we had an episode of The Tour Of Homes, so today we will take a close look at the dining room. It, like the kitchen and lounge, is a focal point of family life. A lot of good things happen here, and it is a place where we celebrate special occasions. This room centers around a table and chairs. Here in Western society, there are often more than four chairs around a table. When there is a special occasion, often friends and family come to celebrate, so more chairs ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Earth Hour 2010 Did you witness any of the events of Earth Hour this year? There was a lot more participation this year from around the globe, than last year. 125 countries signed up to turn out some major (majour) lights, and out of those countries, 56 national capitals were to turn off lights on buildings that have great significance. I saw some of the 'turning off' on my laptop the next day, and I was impressed at the scale of this organized event. It is a statement that people want action, and that we ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Allergy Season. About two weeks ago, I found that my eyes were feeling quite itchy. The feeling lasted all day, and has continued ever since. About one week ago, my nose started running, as if a little water tap had been turned on all of a sudden. No, I'm not sick. It's just allergy season. Most people I know suffer from some allergy or other. I'm not sure exactly what I am allergic to, but I can guess that it is something to do with plants. It is Spring, the weather is warming up, plants and trees are bud ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The U.S. Census. "We can't move forward until you mail it back" is the saying on the recent campaign to get everyone to fill in their census form. As required by the constitution, a census has to be conducted every ten years. We have all received the forms in the mail, and now it is up to us to fill them in and send them back. The data collected by the census will help determine which towns need roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. Schools, hospitals and senior citizens' homes will also be funded as pa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Health Care in the USA. Today, President Barack Obama signed into law his medical reform bill. Some people are very excited about this new development, and other people are not. The question of whether the U.S. needs universal health care has been debated for months. The government has been split about the idea. Democrats, in general, are in favor of it, but Republicans have not wanted it. The main problem is cost. The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country. There are lots of federal programs that ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Designing a special photo for the app. I love to use my laptop, to play around with different programs, to surf the web, and to edit photos. Today I have been doing that for hours. Now that my app has come out in iTunes, I have been trying to design a really good photo for it. The existing photo of a red cup with flags on it is fine, but I wanted something a little more elegant. So, I have been playing around with a little tea set that I inherited from my grandmother on my father's side. It is a 'tea for two' set which is extra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Wenatchee professional football. Something very exciting has happened in Wenatchee. A professional american football team has been developed which is called The Wenatchee Venom. The team has a mixture of men from all over the country, and has just had its first game. I was lucky enough to go to this big event on Saturday night. It was held at the new stadium in town. We got there about half an hour before the game started, but still, the parking lot was full, and there was a long line of people waiting to get into the buil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An app for A Cup of English. Today, I have an announcement to make. I am very excited to tell all of you that A Cup Of English is available in app (or application)  for the iPhone, the iPod touch, the iPad or similar devices. It is already available in iTunes. For those of you who have such a device, you can have instant access to all of my podcasts with the text, grammar notes, and photos that automatically come with the blog. Pretty cool, isn't it? No more need to turn on a computer and download; it's all there ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Road works. This Spring, we have experienced an unusual amount of rain, so much so that it has caused problems in many areas. I was driving to a local bakery the other day, when I came to some road works. I had to stop my car and wait for the heavy machinery to get out of the way, so I took a few minutes to look around at what had happened. The road followed a hillside that was cut away to look a bit like a cliff, but the mixture of rock and soil looked crumbly. The consistent rain over the course of a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | P90X. Well, podlisteners, I thought that it was about time that you saw my husband and I, so check out the photo on the blog page......Okay, I'm only kidding. We look nothing like the two people in the photo. They are fitness trainers from the P90X program that my husband and I have just started to use. We saw an advertisement a few weeks ago on the television, you know the kind: it shows what people used to look like when they were overweight and soft, and then, it shows them after using the P90 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Crunchy crickets. In our house, at night, when everyone is asleep, the sounds of nature fill the air. Actually, the noises don't come from outside, but inside the house, and I'm not talking about my husband snoring. Chirp, chirp, chirp, is what we hear. It is the familiar sound of crickets. Normally, we would get cricket noises in our garden in the Summer. But it's only March, and these crickets are in a glass cage, living happily for a few days, until they get fed to our lizards. We have a leopard gekk ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit to Blueberry Hills. You remember, don't you, that last week I was busy in the front garden. I was enjoying the weather and changing the look of our entryway. Well, I had had enough of digging, weeding, and raking, so I decided to go on a hunt for the perfect tree. The closest nursery garden to our house is just down the road, literally about one minute by car. It is actually a home appliance business which opens up a nursery area for the Spring and Summer only. Bark is poured out over a large area and the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Ghosts in the orchard.                     I was pulling out of the parking lot of a country bakery today, when the orchard opposite caught my eye. All the bare trees were a bright white color, from the bottom of the trunks to the tips of the top branches. It was quite a sight, and contrasted beautifully with the dark hills in the background. The reason that the trees were so ghostly white is that they had bee ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | It's that time again. I make no appologies today for talking about one of my passions: gardening. It's that time again, whoopee! The weather has been perfect recently. Though there is snow on the tops of the nearby mountains, and the breeze is cold, the bright sun makes up for it. There is always something to do when you have a garden. This time of year means clearing the place up and getting ready for the Spring. Our entryway had five large bushes in a row. For years, I wanted to move them, and finally, we ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Italy. Last week we learned a little about Germany. Today, we will learn about a country that is close by, Italy. You probably know already that this country of sixty million people has been a major(our) influence on Western civilization. So, what is Italy famous for? The Roman Empire, the Renaissance, music, food, cars, and motorbikes. Mainland Italy consists of a peninsula that lies in the Mediterranean Sea, with the Adriatic Sea to the east. It shares its northern boarder wi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Japanese Koi. On our way to the basketball game at the weekend, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. The consensus was that we wanted asian food. So, as we drove along, half of us in the car looked out in one direction, and the rest of us looked in the other, until someone spotted a chinese restaurant. We turned into the parking lot and looked at the building. It was pink, it had colorful (ourful) accent colors (ours), and its style was very chinese. "I have a bad feeling about this place," said my hus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Pirates' basketball. Here in the United States, basketball is really popular. Children start at a young age going to practice and joining teams. Both college and professional basketball games are televised, and most adults have a favorite(urite) team. I was lucky enough to see a college basketball game this weekend, in the city of Spokane which is about a three hour drive. We all piled into the car; we took blankets, pillows, snacks, drinks, video games, and colors(ours) and paper to keep the kids busy. Th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Anna has a cold. Sorry everyone, my cold has got the better of me, so there is no podcast today. I will be back, on Monday with your next podcast. Have a great weekend! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Magic Chair. Do you ever have aches and pains? Do your muscles ever get sore? Do you get headaches? My husband used to until a couple of years ago. He would come home from work with tight shoulders, or a headache, or a knot in his back, near his shoulder blades. Tension was the problem, caused by stress from work, and sitting too long in front of the computer. I tried to help by massaging his back, but it wasn't very effective. Then he went to a chiropractor for an adjustment. You know the routine: you ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Musical Refuge. For a small town, Wenatchee is actually quite musical, I'm pleased to say. There are lots of choirs, trios, quartets, jazz groups, singers, and locations for them to perform. It is a growing trend, as well. Music isn't very well funded in public schools, but the availability of music centers(res), teachers, and musical groups, seems to make up for it. The Woodshouse Conservatory of Music is a historical building that has been converted into such a place. It was actually donated by the Woods ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Labels of the past. You have probably learned from my podcasts, that the region where I live is agricultural. It is rural, the communities are small, and its post native american indian roots lie in the apple tree. I realised the other day how I take the apple tree for granted. Not only is it everywhere in this and the surrounding towns, but there are so many businesses built around the fruit. There is a large juicing factory called Tree Top which, of course, uses apples. There is also a special candy, unique ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Coffee Trend. Drive throughs are part of daily life here in the U.S. It all started with fast food, but now, there are drive throughs for all kinds of products, even medicine. Some pharmacies have the available option of a drive through medicine pick up for those who are in a hurry. It is convenient, especially if you have little children in the car. It is so much easier than getting everyone out of the car, keeping them quiet inside the store, and then getting back in the car. But, in the past few years ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | American Idol. My family has adopted a new, night time routine on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It's one that is an obsession in this country. We watch American Idol. You have probably heard about it. It is a reality television show which is based around a competition to find the next, big singing star. It was created by Simon Cowell, a British music executive producer, who started a similar reality series in England called Pop Idol. The American version has now become one of the most viewed series ever in thi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Pronouncing the 'th'. Today's podcast will be dedicated to the 'th'. English, being quite irregular at times, has two ways of pronouncing the combination of the t and the h. That may seem simple, but getting it right is a key  to sounding like a native. I have met many people from all over the world who speak English quite well, but who have a weakness when they use a word beginning with th. Some people will pronounce 'the' and similar words as 'de', as if the 'th' was a 'd'. Other people pronounce it as a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Springhill Suites Hotel. There has been a lot of activity just down the road from us, for the past year. A hotel has been built, and we have witnessed the process from start to finish. About a year ago, the construction crew 'broke ground' and started digging and moving earth. Then came the foundation. The big cement mixers came in to pour and pour until the amount of cement was just right. Each afternoon, driving my children home from school, I would deliberately take a slightly longer route which leads right ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Market Madness. So, I have a penguin in my car. It is small, plastic, and makes a very irritating, repetitive noise. Thankfully, it has an on-off switch. But, where on earth did it come from? McDonalds is the answer. I hardly ever go there, but, the other day, my two youngest children begged me to take them there. My son was taking a day off from school because he felt a under the weather, and my daughter didn't have pre-school that day. We needed to get out of the house, but I wanted to take them somewher ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Court House, where it all happens. It's time for me to start preparing our Summer holiday. This year, my family and I will take a trip to Spain for a month. We will visit my father and sister in Scotland and England first, and then family and friends in Spain. I can't wait. Our preparations actually started last Summer, when I discovered that we had accumulated quite a lot of air miles over the past few years. I wondered how many return tickets from Seattle to London could be bought with those air miles. To my surprize(se), ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Queens and Princesses. For 90 years, Wenatchee has celebrated the Apple Blossom Festival. It is a huge event that takes place, as the title suggests, in Spring. At that time of year, the valley becomes full of the color(our) and smell of pink apple blossoms. The festival celebrates not only the beauty of Spring, but the community that has been built around the apple tree, and the lives that the orchards support. A queen and two princesses are chosen from many High School age girls wh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Fortune Cookies. They are crunchy, small, folded, and light brown in color (colour). They usually come in individual, plastic packets. They don't fill you up, but they are an important part of certain meals. They hold a different promise for each person at the table. And, finally, they have an Asian touch about them. So, what are they? They are fortune cookies, of course. No Asian style meal would be complete without them, at least, from a Westerner's perspective. I'm sure there are a lot of Asian meal ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | English or American? Do you ever go blank when you're trying to spell a word? It happens to me occasionally. When it comes to spelling, I have a problem. I have had to learn the Standard American English whilst living in the U.S. for the past 18 years, but, I'm English. That means that when I went to school I learned Standard English which has quite a few differences from that of the U.S. Some of the obvious ones are: color in American English and colour in British English, analyze in American ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Valentines at school. Yesterday, I looked over my shopping list, and saw something that my chidren had written down. "Valentines for school", were the instructions that I read. What they meant by that were little cards that are designed especially for school children. Here, in the U.S., it is tradition for the children to give a miniature card to each of their classroom buddies. Sometimes the teacher will allow a treat or tiny toy to be attached or taped to the card, something like an eraser, a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A treat from England. My husband recently returned from a business trip to Germany and England. It is an annual visit that he makes to attend a large, international fruit convention. He spends most of his time in Berlin, and then finishes his trip in London. He loves that city. When he is there, he always calls me and tells me that he is enjoying his wife's 'old stomping ground'. That means a place either that you grew up in, or that was very significant for you. When he comes home, he alwa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Smart shopping. Junk mail can be a real pain sometimes. You know the kind: offers from credit card companies, catalogues that you will never use, and all sorts of letters and advertisements that try to get you to spend money in some way or other. I receive a lot of coupons in the mail, mainly from local supermarkets where I shop. Now these are actually useful. Most people I know use coupons at least part of the time; it's a smart way to shop. My sister-in-law is an expert at using coupons. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A growing obsession. If you're looking for a bargain in this town, there is a store that offers some very good deals. It is called the Grocery Outlet. I was in there the other day, searching for the latest 'best buys' when I saw a large shelf of flowers on display. In amongst the different kinds of flowers were orchids. I was pleased and surprised at the same time. You can never really be sure what you will find in this shop; their specials change from one day to the next. To find orc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Tatoo. It is supposed to be a good thing to reward your kids every now and then for going to school, or doing their chores. Domini, my daughter is no exception. When she changed preschools, she went through a time of adjustment, and had to be encouraged to stay at her new school. She only goes four mornings a week, but, even so, a change is a change. I found that I could persuade her to go along with the new plan by giving her a surprise randomly after preschool. Sometimes it was ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes, the stairs. This podcast seems like a very simple one; what  could I possibly have to teach about the stairs? Well, there are many kinds of stairs in a home. You have the steps leading up to the front door, or between one room and another. Sometimes a room can be 'split level' meaning that there is a step all across the width of the room, creating the effect of two different rooms. And then you have the stairs that take you from one floor to another. The stairs between floors can ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The big gift. My son, Cass, has been playing the piano for over a year. He loves it! He practices at home, and attends his weekly class religiously. He really has the discipline thing 'down' as we say, meaning that he understands why and how to be disciplined. I am really impressed at his progress. When he first started lessons, I bought him an electronic keyboard that I found on Craig's List for seventy five dollars. It was a bargain. The previous owner was obviously serious about music ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Goodbye to old toys. As I was walking back to my house from the mail box the other day, I looked at our entryway and realised that it looked like a junk yard. There were about four, old, plastic vehicles that our children don't use anymore, just sitting on the driveway looking yucky. I have been meaning to throw the things away, but my youngest children always beg me to keep them for a few more months. The thing is, they are too big for the vehicles, and these old favorites (favourites) of thei ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Space Needle. This past weekend, I took my children to Seattle to have a break from our home town, and to take in a few of the famous sights. "A change is as good as a rest," is a saying in England which I agree with. Sometimes if you are worn down a little, instead of resting, it is actually good to go and see something new; it is good to be refreshed. So, I booked a hotel that is fairly close to the downtown area of the city. We set off Saturday morning. Travelling over the Cascad ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Home show. Every year in Wenatchee, there is a home show. It takes place in a large convention center that is called the Town Toyota Center. This place hosts concerts, sporting events, and any kind of large function that involves lots of people. It is a great, new facility for our area. The home show includes many exhibits of products that are used to either build, furnish, or decorate the home. So, you can imagine, there are ton(nes) of items being displayed. It's all about networkin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Processed or unprocessed? As most parents, I am concerned about what my children eat. Do they eat healthy food, and if they do, do they eat it consistently? And what about me? Am I careful about what I put in my body? It will, in time, influence my health and those around me. I find it is easy to quickly grab food when I am 'on the go', and not necessarily feed my body everything that it needs. School kids, especially, need a balanced diet. When my children come out of school, they are always ready ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Throw the computer out of the window, please! It's no secret that computers are a large part of our lives, a huge part. The other day, I noticed as we sat in the lounge, that my husband and I were both busy on our laptops. The television was actually on as well. A couple of years ago that would have seemed like an odd scene, but now it is the norm. My oldest son keeps on begging me for a laptop. "Mum, I will need one in middle school," he insists. Hmmm, why on earth would he need one in school? When I went to school, w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | New Year's Resolution. I can't believe that it is almost the end of January already. Where has the time gone? We have had an unusual Winter so far, weather wise. It has gone from being overcast and dull, to sunny and mild, back to freezing and snowy. You don't know what to expect from one day to another. One thing that helps me through the cold season is remembering my New Year's resolutions. Everybody I know seems to make them. They might not tell anybody else about them, but they make them none ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Roasting marshmallows. On a cold, dull, Winter day, I sometimes light a fire after picking the children up from school. We gather around and feel cozy. The lounge where we have the fireplace also has a computer and a Wii console, so there is plenty to do for everyone. Though I like to give the kids a healthy snack after school, I make an exception every now and then. Marshmallows are the perfect treat when you have an open fire. Put them on a stick, hold them over the flames, and in no time you w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | British Birds. The other day I was cleaning inside a free-standing storage cabinet that we have in the dining room, when I came across a tray that I bought a few years ago in Scotland. It is medium sized, made of a light metal, and has a beautiful picture of British birds. Since I bought the tray I have barely used it. It's perfect for tea for two, or a full meal for one. The picture reminded me of the place I bought it. It was in the gift shop of an owl sanctuary near the Mull of Kintyre ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Star Wars Death Star. One of the obsessions you will find in our family is Star Wars. My second son, Cass, has been saving his pocket money, birthday, and Christmas money to buy one of the biggest Star Wars Lego toys: The Death Star. For those of you who are fans, or, at least, for those of you who have seen the movies, you might remember the huge space station owned and operated by the 'baddies'. It was a sphere, and from a distance looked like a moon. It housed Darth Vader, the evil emperor, L ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes part 11, The Mud Room. Well podlisteners, it is time to continue with important vocabulary about the homes that we live in. There is one room which helps me keep the house both clean and organized. It's the mudroom. It's name suggests that it gets very dirty, muddy even. That only happens sometimes. The mudroom is the first room that you enter when you walk into the house from the garage. It is the place where you hang up your coats and jackets, store your shoes and boots, and even put your extra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Haiti. Beginners. Haiti, as you all know, has suffered a terrible catastrophe recently. The 12th of January, an earthquake hit the nation. It registered 7.0, and there were many after shocks, about 33. Many countries have given assistance and money to help the Haitian people. The greatest need is to find people in the rubble, and then to give medical assistance and basic food and water to those who are alive. One of the many problems faced by the international help ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Mango languages. Beginners. Mango languages is an internet language learning program(me) that we get for free through our local library. I want my children to learn Spanish very well, so the program will be a useful tool to use at home on our computer. My three boys are in a bilingual program at school. They have about three hours of classes in Spanish. Their knowledge of the language has really grown. At home, I try to speak to them in Spanish at least 50% of the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Tom yung goong. Beginners. One of our favorite soups to eat is Tom Yung Goong. It is Thai soup that we first discovered in the local Thai restaurant. Someone recommended it to us. As with the rest of their food, the restaurant gives you the choice of the food being mild, medium, or spicy. We usually order the soup medium; I can't handle spicy. It's far too hot. This soup is a traditional recipe that is used to help people get over colds and flus in Thailand. It's ingredient ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bomb threat on Christmas Day. Beginners. When we travel, it is great to feel safe. If you travel by car, train, boat, or plane you want to feel secure. You don't want anything dangerous to happen, do you? One of the safest ways of traveling is by plane. It is true. Just think about it. There is not much that you can crash into. Other planes are easy to avoid, and birds don't cause a problem for a big, metal airplane. It seems a little scary to be flying around, thousands of feet up in th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Crystaline. Beginners. The other day, my friend Nataliya invited me to go cross country skiing with her. We don't see eachother very much, so I was happy to go. "Julia can babysit your two youngest, if you like, and we can leave at about ten o'clock." Julia is her eighteen year old daughter who often babysits my children. "It's okay, Nataliya," I said, "I think I'll take the kids with me." There was a pause on the phone, "Oka ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Anna has a cold. Sorry everyone, no podcast today. I finally caught the cold that my husband had had for five weeks. I thought I would avoid it, but I suppose we are all equal in the eyes of a virus. I hope you are all well. I'll podcast later on in the week. Take care, Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Another computer accessory. Beginners.  It's that time of year again. I find myself rushing around with lists of things to do. I need to get the Christmas cards written and sent out to my list of friends and family. This year, we decided to send a family photo, which is what a lot of people do in this area. The photo is sometimes a Winter scene of the family next to some trees covered with snow. Or, you might get a family holiday picture that was taken in the Summer. These types o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Goodwill snowmen. Beginners. This morning, I went into the kitchen and checked the outside thermometer; it was two degrees. Two degrees! Now that is cold! I made my coffee and looked out of the window. It was still dark, dark and freezing. It's a good job I have my coffee; otherwise I would stay in bed. But there are bright and pretty parts to Winter, even on a dark morning. As I walked around our quiet house, I saw our Christmas lights outside that twinkled all different col ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Like Home For Hungry Travelers. Beginners.  I took a trip to Seattle last week for an appointment, and to do some shopping. I had arranged for my mother to pick up my kids from school, and stay with them until my husband got home from work. So, I was free for the day. Luckily, we have no snow yet, so the towns and highways are still clear and dry. Driving from here to Seattle takes about three hours, so, there and back, you are on the road for six hours. It sounds crazy to drive ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Black Friday. Beginners. Black Friday is the name of the day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of the month of November, and Black Friday is the following day. It is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Stores open at 5am, and some even open at midnight. Typically, the shops are packed with people. It is a stressful event, and often, in the newspaper the next day there are stories of conflicts and fights. Too many people in a limited space, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hot tub heaven. Beginners. Cold fingers, cold toes, chilly shoulders, and a cold nose. When the weather gets chilly, sometimes you feel as if the inside of your body is as cold as your extremities. Some how, putting on lots of clothes isn't enough. You long to get into a deep, hot bath. That is our plan this Winter. We bought ourselves a very early Christmas present that, I'm sure, we will enjoy for years and years. It's a hot tub. I wasn't familiar with hot tubs until I ca ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Mousetrap. Beginners. We have a mouse in our garage. There might be more than one. The one I have seen is small, grey, and causes a lot of mess. As much as I love animals, I'm afraid we have to put down a mousetrap. My husband bought a box of traps a long time ago, some of which we have used. So, he prepared the trap, put some cheese in it, and put it on the floor of the garage. My youngest son, Robert, wanted to make his own trap. He went into the garage and bashed ab ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A bedroom facelift. Beginners. I drove around town today, looking for 'Hello Kitty' posters. I couldn't find any. I was so frustrated. I have a project going on at home that I really want to finish. Last week I painted my children's rooms, and now I am looking for accessories like pictures, lamps, and rugs to make the bedrooms comfortable. I don't actually like shopping because most of the time I'm in a hurry. But, I'm making a special effort to get things just right. Robert is ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An army for clean-up. Beginners. It's my favorite time of year, Autumn. I love this season so much that I could burst into song about all the colors, the smells, the angle of the sun, the pumpkins etc etc, but I don't want to bore you, plus, I don't sing very well. I will tell you about two great things that you can do with leaves. You can rake together a big pile of leaves and jump into them, with or without friends. Or you can do something a bit more artistic. I did this a few ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Going out of business. Beginners. There are signs of the financial crisis in different parts of the town where I live. We hear on the news about people losing their jobs and their houses. Certain shops have closed, and so the buidings are empty. But, in another way, there is growth in the town. There is a lot of new buildings that are almost finished. Just down the road from my house, a new hotel is almost ready. I drive past it most days when I bring my children home from school, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hello Kitty invasion. Beginners. There is an invasion going on in our house. It started out as an unnoticed thing, but it has grown to huge proportions. Every room of my house is affected. Every corner shows a sign of this invasion. Even my friends and neighbors have mentioned it. And the scary thing is, is that it is unstoppable. It is Hello Kitty. Every time I open a cupboard, some Hello Kitty thing falls out. When I go to the shoe closet to get my sneakers, I have to shake the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | I'm innocent! It's someone else's fault! Beginners. When my computer doesn't work, or when I cannot get a good internet connection, I miss podcasting. I'm sorry that I missed last week, but it was one thing after another with computers. Do you ever have problems with them? They are so useful sometimes, and then, at other times, they can be a real pain. Well, I suppose the reason for me missing a couple of podcasts has given me a story for this podcast. A week ago, I showed A Cup of English to a fri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | H1N1. Beginners. Have you had the flu this year? Do you know anyone who has had it? It can be a nasty illness. Usually you have a temperature, you feel weak, and sometimes you might have a cough also. There is a lot of talk about flus at the moment. You have probably heard about the new H1N1 flu. It seems to be scaring a lot of people. When I say that it is a new flu, what that means is that, though it is from the family of flus, it is slightly different than any ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Digging trees on Sugar Loaf Mountain. Beginners. It's that time of year again. The days are rapidly getting colder. There is frost in the morning on the grass, the sun is mild, and the colors of the trees and plants are quickly changing. Around this time every year, my husband plans a trip up to a nearby mountain, called Sugar Loaf. What a pretty name! He goes there every year to dig up some trees, then he brings them home and plants them in the garden. You need a permit to do that. So he drives ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An escaped Gecko in the house! Beginners. A couple of years ago, we bought a Leopard Gecko for our oldest son, Hudson. He didn't want any toys, just an animal. He is fascinated with reptiles and has read many books about them. So, we went to the pet shop and immediately found what we were looking for. A young, spotty, pretty Leopard Gecko, cool and dry to the touch, and easy to look after. It is surprising what you learn through your own children. I researched the Geckos a little, to make ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Robert's harvest. Beginners. I walked into the kitchen this afternoon, and I found my son, Robert, climbing through the kitchen window. "What on earth are you doing?" I asked him. "I wanted to open the window so I can pass you all my pumpkins." "Okay," I replied, still a bit confused about why he needed to climb through the window instead of just opening it. Anyway, he passed me all of his pumpkins, about eleven of them. He put them in the sink, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Afghanistan. Beginners. We are continuing with our study of countries of the world with Afghanistan. As you know, it is in the news all the time, and has been for quite a few years. Let's try to understand why, and to learn a little more about the country. Afghanistan is located in the central part of South Asia. To the West is Iran, to the Southeast is Pakistan, and towards the North are Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, with China to the East. It is what we cal ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Vaccines for Foxy. Beginners. Today, Foxy had an appointment with the vet for vaccinations and a general check-up. She is about eight months old, so she needed her second set of vaccinations. The vet also needed to see if her growth was normal and healthy. I put her in her cage, in the back of the car, and drove about ten minutes to the Animal Hospital of Wenatchee. It is a lovely building, brand new infact, that is right in the center of town. The owner had had a pe ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes part 10, the kitchen drawer. Beginners. We are continuing with our series 'The Tour of Homes', highlighting all the everyday details of life at home. You are probably thinking, "When is she going to be finished with the kitchen?" I think this is the last kitchen episode, at least for now. You also are probably thinking, "We have already heard about drawers in the kitchen." Yes, you are right. However, the phrase 'The kitchen drawer', is actually quite famous. It has ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A quick stop for fruit. Beginners. Do you like to eat fruit? What are your favorite kinds? I like all kinds of fruit, local and tropical. I am fussy about one thing, though, when it comes to fruit: it has to be fresh. There is nothing worse than biting into an old apple that is soft, or an old orange that is starting to lose its flavor. Because we live close to all kinds of orchards, we have the benefit of shopping at local fruit stands. Every year there seem to be more a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A beautiful advertisement. Beginners. If you drive around this town, you will see lots of new buildings, and some that are almost finished. The town is growing. There is heavy machinery of all kinds in many places: cranes, backhoes, dump trucks, and bulldozers. As you walk or drive past these busy places, you can hear all the noises of the machines, the workmen, and the automatic tools. It is interesting to see how quickly a neighborhood can be changed by a building. Now, also, t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Rain, rain, go away. Beginners. Baseball season has started. 'Fall Ball' is the title of the season's activities, and the town is busy and buzzing with the sport. Usually, when a child is signed up for baseball, he will have two practices per week, and then two games at the weekend. It is a big commitment because the games last for two hours each. Preparation has to be made: the rest of the family comes along to the game bringing chairs, hats, blankets in case it is cold, cold d ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Going back to teaching. Beginners. This year I have some free time. My youngest child goes to preschool four mornings a week, so during that time, I can do many things. I decided recently to put my application in for being a substitute teacher. That is a teacher who takes the place of a regular, full-time teacher who is ill, or who cannot make it to school for some other reason. Sometimes a teacher has a training day to attend, so someone else needs to take his  ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes part 9, the Kitchen Pantry. Beginners. Well, it looks like we're back in the kitchen. I told you, didn't I, that the kitchen is an important place, and that is why we need to spend more time using the every day kitchen vocabulary. The main idea of today's podcast is the pantry. It is an odd word, really. It means the storage area for all of the food. Pantries vary quite a lot. In our kitchen, we have three different areas for food items: one for cereals, one for baking items and canned ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An animal icon show. Beginners. On our recent trip to the zoo and aquarium at Defiance Point, my family and I saw a special show of wild animals. We sat in a packed open-air theater at about three in the afternoon and waited for the show to begin. Music played. It was the theme from Mission Impossible. I thought, "Why are they playing that music? What has it got to do with an animal show?" Well, it was a good idea for the show. The two female presenters found a box wit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Oceans of beauty. Beginners. During the summer, my family and I took a trip to a beautiful and fascinating place. It was a zoo and an aquarium at a place called Point Defiance, near Seattle. A friend of mine had been there, and told me that it was worth a trip. We were staying close by, on the coast, in a friend's house. It took about an hour and a half to get there by car which was fine. When we got there, it was quite a shock. The huge parking area was completely full. Infa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Back to School. Beginners. It's great to be back podcasting for you, my listeners. And what an exciting time of year it is! Back to school. For some of us, it is back to work. It seems that for most of July and August, here in the States, there are advertisements everywhere for the children's clothes and supplies for school. Unlike in England, here each child has a long list of supplies that their parents must buy for them for the start of school in September. The list incl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Croatia. Beginners.  We are continuing our study of different countries, with Croatia. It is a realtively small country in Central and Southeastern Europe, that is sandwiched between Slovenia and Hungary to the North, Serbia to the Northeast, Bosnia and Hertzegovina to the East, and Montenegro to the Southeast. Just opposite, to the West, across the Adriatic Sea, is Italy. It is shaped like a crescent moon. The geography of this country is quite varied. It ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes 8, cleaning the kitchen. Beginners. The unfortunate thing about cooking is the cleaning up that you need to do afterwards. Oh drudgery! The endless pile of cups, plates, cutlery, and pots and pans can spoil an otherwise fun evening. I am used to cleaning the kitchen. I do it every day, sometimes without even realising. My goal is to get the dishes done as soon as possible. Even my mother has commented on the speed with which I unload and load the dishwasher, clean the counterto ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Summer fatigue. There's no podcast today. Sorry! I'm suffering from summer fatigue. Is it an illness? No. It's called needing a good vacation. I'll catch up with you on Wednesday. See you then. Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Dominos. Beginners. The other day, I took the children to the local library. It is only a ten minute drive from our house. We had a lot of books that were overdue and needed to be returned. It's one of those great places to go when it is too hot to do anything else. Another benefit of going there is that it forces the children to be quiet. Ha-ha, that was my plan! We actually stayed there for over two hours. The library here in Wenatchee is divided into three section ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Indian Corn. Beginners. A few days ago, we had a yard sale. I actually held it over two mornings, out of my garage. Yard sales are very common in this area, and very popular too. Do you know what they are? I suppose the name explains the meaning; a sale of household items which takes place outside on your driveway, or inside your garage. With it being so hot, I arranged everything inside my garage so prospective buyers wouldn't leave quickly because of the blast of the s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hot, hot, hot. Beginners. You will probably get tired of me writing about how hot it is. Yes, yes, Wenatchee is always hot in the summer. However, this year, it has been exceptionally hot, like an oven. The past few weeks have each had several days of temperatures up to 106 degrees. You don't really see anyone around in the streets during the day, unless they are crazy....The early morning is wonderful, and late evening is very pleasant for a barbecue, a get together, or t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Morning Glories. Beginners. This time of year the summer flowers are fully in bloom. In most gardens you can see different kinds of lillies, daisies, roses, and bulb plants. It's great! I am quite choosy about the kind of flowers I have in my garden. One which I have grown for many years is the Morning Glory. It is a climbing summer flower. It needs plenty of sun and growing space. It is perfect if you want to cover a fence, trellis, or an ugly wall. I grow them every year. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Museum face. Beginners. This summer, my brother has come to visit from New Zealand. We are having such a fantastic time together. He is wonderful person, and also a complete goofball! That is an american expression for a person who jokes and fools about. He has a very dry sense of humor, but he can also make children laugh very easily. When we went to Lake Roosevelt recently, he travelled in the car with us. We chatted away, observed the countryside, talked about old tim ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Alberto Contador. Beginners.  The color yellow is very 'in' at the moment, mainly because of the Tour de France. It is a spectacular event that my husband and I follow every year. Infact, now that it is over, we are in mourning. "What are we going to do now, Babe?" I asked my husband this morning as we turned on the taped version (we are about eight hours behind France where we live). "I really don't know..." he answered, sadly. Happily for us, though ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Where is my bucket? Beginners. What sort of things do you like to do during the Summer. Are there any activities that you are particularly fond of? What about when you were a child? If I could sit down and chat with all of you, I would probably be able to write a long list of things that people like to do in the Summer months. Here, our time is mainly spent around water. It's really too hot to do anything else. It's too hot even to go for a walk. Yesterday I took my kids and my ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Story time part 5, a Black history. It was dark by the time Thomas Black got home that night. He had lingered in the workshop, putting final details on cabinetry and tables. He had needed the time to be alone, and to digest Theo's words. He was disturbed by her account of the Whitcome tragedy, and by what he had learned about that family's misfortunes, resentment, and growing hatred over the generations from the time of Peter Whitcome. A curse was something that Thomas refused to believe in; it was fantasy, i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes 7, in the refrigerator. Beginners. Now that it is hot, I think a lot about the fridge. What is in there that will cool me down? Actually there are things lurking in the back of the fridge that have been there for a while. It's time for a cleaning. We seem to go through gallons of juice and milk in these hot, thirsty days of Summer. But what about cold food?As I look in the fridge I can see what you probably see in your own fridge: a vegetable drawer at the bottom, a fruit drawer ne ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Homestead Cafe and art. Beginners. Today I will start at the end of a story to tell you a story. It was at the very end of our stay at Lake Roosevelt, that we stopped at an oasis. I say oasis because The Homestead Cafe is one of very few great restaurants in a remote area. There are not many shops or restaurants in the Lake Roosevelt area, so you have to bring most of the food you eat with you. It is also quite far away from any major towns. Though we had plenty to eat in the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Fishing and surgery. Beginners. Fishing seems to be a sport that you either love, or have nothing to do with. My father is a fisherman, and has been for most of his life. My husband also enjoys fishing during salmon season. It would be nice, though, if he caught a fish at some point.... Well, my kids love messing about in rivers and streams, as I'm sure most kids do. They have buckets and nets and kids' fishing rods. They also have the real thing. Infact, my youngest son, Robert ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Murder on the beach. Beginners. As you can see, I'm back from my trip to Lake Roosevelt. We were there from Wednesday until Friday, and the time flew. It took a lot of preparation to get there; typically I overpacked some things and underpacked other things. For example: I took enough food to feed an army, but I forgot to pack toys or coloring pens for the kids, which are essentials for the evening when we have all returned from the beach. When we arrived, I opened the trun ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | No podcast today folks. I'm sorry but I am away today, Friday. I have taken my children and my brother, who flew in from New Zealand recently, to a rental house on Lake Roosevelt. I have never been there before, but I will let you know all about it when I get back. Have a great weekend! Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Angels in flight. Beginners. On the sixth of this month, I took my children to Seattle to go to the Pacific Science Center. We do not go to Seattle very often, so I thought that, now that it is summer, I should make the effort and make the three hour drive over the mountains to spend some time in that fantastic city. My children were so excited. Part of the journey was to pop in and visit my sister-in-law and her five children. Yes five! Phew! She's a smart lady; she has a na ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Independence Day. Beginners. Oh my goodness, we're all tired today. Thankfully it's Sunday, and there are not a lot of pressing things to do. Yesterday was the 4th of July, Independence day, here in the U.S. As you can imagine, it is an important and fun national holiday, and a great excuse to make a lot of noise. We started the celebrations, by going to a local golf club for lunch. My in-laws were there and three of our nephews. It was close to 100 degrees, so we were a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A new harvest. Beginners. One of the things I really enjoy is gardening. I have a patch of vegetable garden in one of the corners of our back yard. It has four raised beds. Two of these are wide wooden boxes which my husband put together. In these I put a mixture of manure, compost, and soil, a perfect combination to grow healthy vegetables. The other two raised areas are just piles of earth, but still, they are packed with tomatoes, peppers, and raspberries. My two favori ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A refreshing park. Beginners. Grab your swimming trunks or your swimming suit and head to the nearest park to cool off this summer. Just up the road from here, a new park, paid for by Rotary, has been set up for the locals. It is in a residential area where there are lots of young families, so it is a perfect spot for kids to run around, play, and get rid of excess energy. The place is actually supposed to be a frisbee park. There is a large, oval, open area, similar to a vall ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Father's Day. Beginners. Father's Day is celebrated here in the United States on the twenty first of June. It is a day when special attention is given to fathers. Shops are filled with cards of all sorts, thanking the fathers and grandfathers for being great people. Young children especially celebrate this day. Just as with Mother's Day, in school, the children will read about families, make cards, pictures, paintings, and small gifts for their parent. Sometimes songs wil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Windy Ellensburg. Beginners. Ellensburg is a town that is about an hour and a half's drive from Wenatchee. If you take the main road towards Seattle, you will find it on the way. The town is situated in a very wide valley that is pretty and green, especially at the moment because of spring rains and snow melt. We spent this last weekend there because my second son,Cass, took place in the All Stars Championship tournament. It was all very exciting. There were quite a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Tour of Homes part 6, Herbs and spices in the kitchen. Beginners. Welcome back to The Tour of Homes. We are still in the kitchen, but today, instead of going over vocabulary related to furniture and appliances, lets get on with some cooking. Now, what is cooking without herbs and spices? They make our food so interesting! I have a variety in my kitchen cabinet, all in one place. Often people will have a spice drawer. It's a way to organize all of the spices so you can find what you are looking for immediately. S ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Scotland Beginners. Scotland forms part of the United Kingdom. It is the northern most country of the group, and takes up about a third of the overall territory. Its southern border is with England. On the east side, it borders with the North Sea, on the north and west sides with the Atlantic, and southeast with the Irish Sea. Scotland also has seven hundred and ninety islands. It is famous for the Highlands, a very mountainous area where you can find the highest mou ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Travelling Sculptures. Beginners. For a few years, the city of Wenatchee has been introducing sculptures to the towns people. Every now and then, as I am walking along, I will see a new one. Some of them have been bought by the local council, but others are on loan; they will be in our town for a few months, and then go to another town for a while. It is a great idea. It is also something that is quite unexpected. As you are driving along, or walking through a park, you can random ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Splash Day. Beginners. The heat is definitely up, here in the eastern side of the North West. Even in the schools, cool activities are organised to keep the kids comfortable. Because this week is the last of the school year, Splash Day is one of the fun days available to the children. It is a day of putting on your swimming trunks and a spare t-shirt, and taking part in about 10 different water activities. Even though there is no swimming pool at the school, the playing ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Pizza Man. Beginners. The other day, I was driving along when I saw a man dancing on the side of the road. It wasn't something that I hadn't seen before. This man stands on the side of the main road and dances around waving a sign. This sign advertises pizza. The shop that he works for makes fresh pizzas by the dozen, and sells them for only five dollars each. Mind you, those pizzas are just plain old pepperoni. If you want anything special, like vegetables or chicken, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Story time part 4, Theo. After Thomas Black discovered the Whitcome grave, the church bell incident loomed large in his mind. He had been ready to dismiss the event entirely, but now he felt as though there was an intruder in the village, a prankster perhaps. Whoever it was, he was not welcome. The uncovering of the grave was deliberate, he was sure, and it had happened just when the village was settling back into its normal routine. When Thomas walked into his workshop that same af ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes Part 5, The Kitchen. What an important place the kitchen is. Two weeks ago we covered some of the basic areas of the kitchen; do you remember them? Where do we store the cups and plates? The cabinets of course. And, what would we use if we wanted to make a milkshake? A blender. Good; I'm glad you remembered. Well, how about where all the action takes place? All the washing of vegetables, hands, and dishes, takes place in the kitchen sink. There is an interesting expression in English about this ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Music party. Beginners. On Mondays, Domini has her music class after her normal preschool curriculum. It is an extra class that has been added on to the end of the morning, so children can learn a few things about the world of music. She has enjoyed it immensely this year. There are only a few children in the class, but they are all buddies, and they have certainly learned a lot. The teacher, Miss Laura, told us that the last day of class would be party day. Parents were ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Russia. Beginners. Two weeks ago we learned about Andorra, one of the smallest countries on the planet. Today, we will get to know a little about the biggest country in the world, mighty Russia. It measures over six and a half million square miles, and takes up an eighth of the Earth's land mass. Because it is so huge, its coastline boarders on fifteen seas, two of which are the Pacific and the Arctic oceans. It shares some of its boarders with t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Foxy Chick. Beginners. Well, it's time for a new dog. For the past year, we have been a one dog family. But, you know, our dog, Rosie, is a wildly social lady. She goes crazy any time she meets another dog, a cat, a mouse, or a bird, let alone a human. But, the trouble is, she's a pack animal like all dogs. They like to have company. During the day, when my husband is at work, the kids are at school, and I am out and about running errands, she is alone. She gets plenty ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Memorial Day. Beginners. Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May. It is to remember all the soldiers that have died in the various wars around the world, even the Civil War which started in 1861 and ended in 1865. The tradition started in this country because of the Civil War, and was expanded after the First World War. Normally, people visit cemeteries and put flowers on the graves of loved ones, even those who were ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Story time, part 3. Letters on the grave. Since the stranger's visit at Cranshawe's cafe, rumors were buzzing around the village. Was what he had said actually true? Who was he? How did he know so much about this old, sad story? And what had happened to Peter Whitcome's family? "You know, it's really about time we put this whole incident behind us," said Reverend Holtworth in his church office. Thomas Black had come by to tell him the latest rumors. He ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes, Part 4, The Kitchen. Where do we start with the kitchen? There is so much to talk about. Many people say that it is the center of family life. The kitchens that I will describe are those that I have seen and been in in England and the U.S. To start with, a kitchen will often have a water resistant floor: tile, wood, or vinyl. If you drop food or liquids, it's no problem. Just wipe it all up and wash with soapy water. Cabinets are a big thing here in the U.S. They are the cupboards and draw ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | No podcast today I'm afraid. Sorry everyone, there will be no podcast today as I haven't been feeling well. Tomorrow, however, I will be back with the fourth in the series of the Tour of Homes. Thanks! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Andorra. Beginners. Andorra is one of the smallest countries in Europe. It is high up in the Pyrenees. If you look at the map of Europe, you can see that it lies exactly between France and Spain. It is a very mountainous area that has spectacular views. Though it is snow-covered for six months of the year, summers are warm and dry. Its capital is Andorra la Vella. Its area is about 174 square miles, and its population is close to 80 thousand. Though Catalan is the of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Run for reading. I'm interviewing Cass today. He's my second son, and he's nine years old. He's going to do something very interesting on Friday. "What is it Cass that you're going to do on Friday?" - "Uh, we're going to do something called Run for Reading, and that's how we sponsor money for our school." - "Oh, so you're raising money." - "Yeh, we're raising money." - "And, so it's like a running competition?" - "Uh, no. It's not ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Dialogue with Doreen. Beginners. Doreen is a neighbor of mine. She also happens to be a good friend. She lives just three houses away. We joke that my children have adopted her as another grandma. My two youngest children go and visit her all the time, and she makes sure that they come home with a treat of some kind. "Now make sure that you use "please" and "thankyou", and don't be asking for treats all the time," I tell my kids. But Doreen spoils th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Spring gardening dialogue. Spring makes Wenatchee come alive. Because there are so many flowering trees, like Dogwoods and Magnolias, the town becomes full of pink and white. There are also lots of orchards still; apple, pear, apricot, and cherry trees are grown in this area, so during the Spring, they too blossom. As we get more sun during the day, and the occasional rain, you see flowers popping out of the ground all over the place. During the weekends, as you drive through neighborhoods, the noise ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes 3, the lounge/ family room. A Tour of Homes 3, the lounge/ family room. Join me again as we walk through a typical house, and observe all the every day objects that native speakers can name so easily. Before we get started, do you remember any of the vocabulary from the entry way and the powder room? Do you remember another name for an electrical socket? It's an outlet, isn't it. And what about the most important verb for using the toilet? To flush. I'm sure, if you make a list of the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Story time part 2. History is uncovered. It was a few days after the incident that Betsy Brompton came home from the hospital. The village was buzzing with rumors that she had lost her mind, or that she had made up the whole story. Anyone who knew Betsy didn't believe either. Nevertheless, homes, shops, and businesses were full of conversation about the church bell mystery. Reverend Holtworth and a regional Bishop paid Betsy a friendly visit shortly after her return. Again, th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A family tradition. Beginners. Today I thought about tomatoes. You know when you have one of those days when you simply have to eat something in particular. I went out to my vegetable patch this morning to see if there had been any progress with my tomato plants. Not much. They were still alive, green, and standing up. That's okay; it could be worse. Spring in Wenatchee is quite windy, so if you put out your store-bought plants too early, often they get blown over. But mine wer ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Spain. Beginners. We continue our study of different countries of the world with Spain. This fascinating country makes up most of the Iberian Peninsula that forms the southwestern tip of Europe. Portugal is on its west, and France is on its northeastern border. Though Spain is famous for its beaches along its three coasts, the rest of the land is very varied. More than half of the land is hot and dry, in the central region called the Meseta. It is surrounded by sev ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bubbles and outdoor dialogue. Dialogue. "Okay, we're interviewing Robert today about his bubble wand, and the other things that he likes to do outside. Okay Robert, what did you find when you came home from school today, that I had bought you?"          "I found a bubble sword."                       ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | No podcast today. Sorry folks, no podcast today. Please join me next week on Tuesday for more of English learning. Thanks and have a great weekend. Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes 2, The Powder Room A Tour of Homes. Welcome back to our tour where we discover each and every room and object in the home. Remember, if you can learn and remember this vocabulary, you will have the advantage of being able to use words and phrases that make you sound natural and in-touch. The second room that you might come to after the entryway is the powder room or spare bathroom. Some homes don't have these, of course, but here in the United States, it ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Storytime part 1. Once upon a time, in a land far, far way....no, hang on a minute, that's no good. All stories start like that. How about we have something different for this story. Mmm, I know: Very, very recently, in a place that is close to where I live, something strange and fascinating happened. It is a tale of mystery, that has changed our village forever. It all started on a warm Spring Sunday. It was a glorious, lazy afternoon. Church was over, and people were relaxing on their porc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Tour of Homes 1. A Tour of Homes. What is the name of the first room that you come to when you walk into a house? It's the entry way. This room varies from house to house. Some are big; others are small. Either way, it is a space in the house which is used as an introduction to the rest of the house. In Western homes, the entry way is not usually an enclosed room. There could be several openings that lead to other rooms. We walk through the front door. There are many types o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Plans for the podcasts. Beginners. I love doing this podcast every week. What I enjoy most of all, is getting feedback from my listeners. Recently, some of my listeners have sent me E-mails asking how they can improve their English. It's a very good question. I think about how I can improve my language skills when I study French or when I practice Spanish. Being half spanish, I speak the language well, but I do realise that there are holes in my knowledge. How much do I really know ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Rocker in a previous life. Beginners. "Oh, no!" you say, "she's going to talk about New Zealand again." Well, in a way I am. This part of today's podcast is about a perfect day in Christchurch. A day when I experienced many of the things I like most: good company, historic buildings, great music, quiche, gardens, and tea! Ah, what a dreamy day. It was one of my last days in New Zealand, my brother didn't have to work, so we decided to hang out in the center of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A wild life sanctuary in Christchurch. Beginners. I know that you podlisteners have heard about my trip to New Zealand, but, I'm afraid, you will have to hear more. There is much more to tell. One of the things that it is interesting to learn about when you go to another country, is the wild life. My brother, Richard, as well as being a teacher, is a photographer, and, as such, is a wild life fanatic. Every chance he gets, he will take a picture of a bird or another creature. In fact, it is not u ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Anyone for chess? Beginners. Chess is a board game that my whole family likes to play. Even my youngest child likes to move the pieces around the board. She doesn't understand the rules at all, but copying us is fun. My mother bought us a beautiful chess set a few years ago. The board is actually a box, in which you find all of the pieces for both chess and drafts. They are made out of some kind of stone, a beautifully smooth stone that is cool to the touch, - probably soap s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Pruning time. Beginners. The weather has finally changed from dull and freezing to warm and sunny. Everybody I meet when I go about my daily activities seems happy. Winter feels very, very long by the time we reach March. So, hurray for April! One of the greatest things to see at the moment is new growth. All over the garden there are signs of plants and flowers beginning to grow. Most of them are mainly underground, and just a little green is poking through the earth. Da ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Sunnies, tramping, and water down the plughole. Beginners.  It's very interesting going to another country and experiencing the culture, even if the people from that country speak the same language. Among English speaking nations, there are well known differences. Our accents are different, of course, and even expressions that we use are quite different from one country to the next. I picked up a few expressions when I was in New Zealand. 'Sunnies' is the name they give to sunglasses, which I think i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | How ridiculous! Beginners. Have you ever been told something by a person of authority that made no sense at all? Or, have you ever been in a situation that made you wonder if someone was playing a joke on you? A few occasions spring to mind when I think of that question. The other day, my mother had her U.S citizenship interview. There were many questions to answer, and thankfully, the lady interviewing her was friendly. She tested her English, her knowledge of U.S. history ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Magnificent New Zealand. Beginners. I'm back from a wonderful trip. Do you want to hear about it? Do you know anything about New Zealand? I'll give you some of the most important details. It is situated in Oceania which is in the Pacific Ocean in the Southern Hemisphere. It's population is about four million, so, it is not very populated. It is about one hundred and four square miles in size, spread out over two main islands, North and South, and a few smaller islands. English is th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Wild old ladies. Beginners. On my recent trip to New Zealand, I met lots of different people. In Los Angeles, where I waited to catch the plane to Aukland, I met three older ladies who were going on the same trip. We sat in the airport and chatted. They were very interesting. Each was retired, a widow, and interested in traveling. They told me that each year they take a trip somewhere new and go on a cruise. The cruises that they go on are organized especially for old people ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | I'm off! Beginners. Traveling is a passion of mine. I can't imagine staying in one place for many years without going off to explore another country. Well, I've done it! My brother has lived in New Zealand for eleven years. He has flown out to the U.S many times to visit me, but for all those years, I have never been to visit him. I have been busy. Having four children is a lot of work. However, now my children are old enough for me to have a break for a few days. I ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Off to New Zealand! No podcasts today, or for the next few days I'm afraid. I'm off to New Zealand to visit my brother and to see that wonderful country. When I get back, I'll have lots to tell you, so don't go away!                               Take care,           &nb ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What a criminal! Beginners. On the highways here in the United States you will find some signs that say, "Buckle up! We love you." The message is to remind people to fasten their seat belts to stay safe. It's a good idea. Another thing that is available on the highways is free coffee. In certain areas on the long roads, there are places where you can stop to get a  free cup of coffee. This helps to keep people awake when they drive at night. It saves lives, an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Leave your mother alone! Beginners. My mother told me that when she was a young mother, my older brother would never leave her alone. He always wanted to be held. She would hold him even when she vacuumed. Clingy is the word. I was different. I always wanted to do my own thing and be independent. It is funny how different two children from the same family can be. I am preparing to go on a trip soon to New Zealand, so when I am gone, my parents-in-law will look after my kids and take ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Car crash (of a different kind). Beginners. The other day, I was looking in the kitchen for a cookie. It was mid-afternoon and I was having a 'snack attack'. I opened the cupboard hoping to find a few oatmeal cookies (my favorites), or perhaps chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately there were none, just a few crumbs where the last packet had been. I had nothing to dip in my cup of tea. I thought, "Why don't I quickly make some?" Immediately, I realized that I didn't have any chocol ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | An English confusion. Beginners. Some people say that it must be easy for me to live here, because of the language; it is the same as in England. Yes, that's right. But, there are some interesting differences. There are many sayings and spellings that are different. If you don't know the differences, you can get into trouble sometimes. When I first came here, I took my driving test. First, I took the written test. A man asked me afterwards if I had 'missed' any of the questions. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Own the night. Beginners. I have a very special friend who lives in the *neighborhood. She is seventy-five years old, and actually comes from England, just like me. She was a war bride during World War two. She is originally from Liverpool (where the Beatles came from), and still has a little bit of an accent, even though she has lived here for nearly sixty years. We chat on the phone every few days, talk about politics and families, and occasionally get together. She call ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A robbery in town! Beginners. Life in a small town is very quiet, some would say boring. However, one good thing about living here is that there is not a lot of crime. It is something that you get used to. On a few occasions, I have left my handbag in the shopping cart when I am buying groceries. It is not until I get home that I realize what I have done. Thankfully, the times that this has happened, I have been able to drive back to the supermarket and find the bag, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Tour of California Beginners. There are some special times in our lives when we come into contact with greatness, with people who have done great things. My husband experienced one of those special moments about a week ago. He had flown down to California with a couple of friends to watch the Tour of California. He was fortunate enough to have a friendly, business connection with Rabobank which is a major cycling sponsor. Because of this connection, he and his friends were abl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Brain rescue. Beginners. Learning a foreign language can be a difficult thing. Any language has a huge amount of information. On top of that, there is also the pronunciation and fluency that need to be practiced. English can be a pain to learn. Even the word "this" is difficult to pronounce for a lot of people. So, what is the solution? The answer is accurate practice, and lots of it. I have been learning the violin for just over a year, and I can tell you that ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Do not enter! Beginners. The other day I was walking by my children's bedrooms, when I saw a sign on one of the doors. It said, "Domini and Robert, DO NOT ENTER!" One of my two oldest boys had become impatient with sibling intrusions. Sometimes they walk into their bedrooms and find a terrible mess. Colouring* pens often will have their tops missing, so they will be dry. Lego creations are in pieces on the floor, and, some things are just missing. Hudson and Cas ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Ring of Power. Beginners. To be a film 'buff' is to be a film enthusiast; a person who loves to watch films and who follows film production quite closely. I am a film buff, but a choosy one. There are certain films that I love, and others that I cannot stand. A film series that I have followed closely is The Lord of the Rings. When the first of the three films came out, it was immediately popular. The films are based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkein who was British, but born ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Choose a hat. Beginners. Do you love to shop? Some people are addicted to shopping; they love to go out and buy things. Others enjoy window shopping, which is safer  for your wallet. I am not a big shopper; I have to love something before I am willing to buy it. However, window shopping is a great past time. You don't even have to take any money with you. It can be fun to see what shops have to offer from the outside. Nobody inside the shop can put pressure on you to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | You must love the verb 'to be'. Beginners. When you learn English, the verb 'to be' can be a bit of a problem sometimes. It is irregular, so it doesn't follow a regular pattern. But, that is okay. Lots of verbs in English are irregular. I am, you are, he is etc should be familiar if you are serious about learning the language. And, what about the past tense, was and were; do they drive you crazy? Don't worry, any language learner will sympathize. Let's try a few sentences. It's a good idea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A trip to Leavenworth. Beginners. About half an hour away from where we live is the town of Leavenworth. It is a fairly small place, near very tall mountains and lots of forests. Nearby is a river called 'The Icicle' which is popular with tourists, kayakers, and campers. It is the perfect spot for a day trip. We chatted on the way, so the journey seemed short. When we got there, it was cold and dull, but the color of the shops and people walking about gave a cheerful appearance. W ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bionicles. Beginners. Black, red, green, light blue, silver, orange, swords, lazers, helmets, shields, flying machines, underwater vehicles. The list could go on. What do these words refer to? Bionicles. They are a type of lego. You can buy them in boxes to put together and admire. The idea is based on an advanced civilization in which are found good and bad creatures. There are a couple of films about them, and, of course books. There is even an encyclopedia of the bi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Which medicine do I take? Beginners. How are you feeling? Are you well? I hope you stay well for the rest of the year, but that is not likely, is it? We all get ill sometimes. Here in the United States, people use the word 'sick' to mean ill. That word in the UK means vomit, so it is important to know which word to use. It is wonderful to be healthy, to feel strong, to have energy to do lots of activities and to think clearly. However, when we are ill, which is common, it is certainl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Anna is ill. Sorry everyone, I've been ill for a few days, so there will be no podcast or blog today. Hopefully tomorrow I will be much better and available to you. Take care! Anna. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What's new Scooby-Do? Beginners. My children love Scooby-Do. I love Scooby-Do. In fact, I have not met a person who does not like it. The happy gang of friends consists of: Shaggy, Scooby, Wilma, Daphney, and Freddy. They travel around in the 'Mystery Machine' and get into scary escapades. During their adventures, they meet monsters, ghosts, and other creepy creatures who they must try and escape from. It's not too scary, most of the time. The villains always turn out to be peopl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hmm, what do you think? Beginners. Art is all around us. There are many forms of art, such as paintings, sketches, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, stained glass windows, and even wood burning. Art is a personal thing, also. If somebody loves to grow flowers, their work in the garden could be considered art. Life without art would be very dull and quite strange. Think about never seeing pictures or photos in buildings. No statues, no water fountains, no interesting details. And w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | D'Anjou bakery. Beginners. The D'Anjou bakery is a special place to visit that is located quite close to Wenatchee. A quick drive on the highway, past the town of Cashmere, will take you to this place of delights. If you are not careful, you will miss the turn-off, so you need to keep your eyes peeled. I drove there the other day to meet a lady who works in the bakery. She is from France. I wanted to introduce myself, and practice a bit of french. We had a very pleasant con ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Music practice. Beginners. Are you musical? Which instrument do you play? There are so many to choose from: piano, flute, vioin, guitar, trumpet, drums and percussion instruments. I could go on and on. It can be fun to play an instrument, especially if you practice enough to become good at it. I started to play the violin last year. There are many pieces of music that I love which have main violin parts. Two of my favorites are Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Howard Shore's Lord ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Stoke up the fire! Beginners. Announcement: "The cold weather is back." Why would I say that in the middle of Winter? Surely, it has been cold since the beginning of the season? Well, not exactly. We had a break for about two weeks, when it stopped snowing and warmed up. How wonderful! I love the snow, but I do love to see the green grass again, and feel the warm sun on my skin. Yesterday, however, the real Winter weather returned. The air is moving down again from t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Claustrophobia. Beginners. Are you scared of anything? Spiders, perhaps? Monster masks? Being high up on a cliff's edge? Most people are scared of something. I'm sure that if you think long enough, you will be able to name something that spooks you or gives you the 'creeps'. I know some people who do not like to be in small spaces or places where there are too many people. That is called claustrophobia. I thought of this word today because some workmen came to my house to w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Bye, bye beauties. Beginners. Well, I can't believe that it is that time of year again. How sad. It is time to take down all of the Christmas decorations and to put them away in boxes. Usually, people do that a few days after Christmas, around the first week in January. But, I love decorations. Some of my friends laugh at me because we have five Christmas trees. Nearly everywhere you go in our house, you can find a tree. But now, even I realize* that it is time to put away the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Obama. Beginners. Today was a very special day here in the U.S. Do you know what the special occasion was? It was the inauguration of the 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama. It is a time of excitement. Everybody wants to see changes. We all wonder what Obama will do. Will he change the politics in Washington? Will the economy improve? Who knows? Time will tell. The inaugural ceremony is an important tradition. It is a huge celebration; a time to welcome the new P ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A Creeping Fog. Beginners. Some people say that the weather is changing all over the world. Do you believe that? What do you think? I'm not sure if it is true, but sometimes the local weather does something unusual. Here in Wenatchee, the weather is normally very regular: very hot Summers, very cold, snowy Winters, and short warm Springs and Autumns. No shocks, no surprises. Well, this year has been a little different. A couple of weeks ago, a warm wind blew up from Hawaii. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Sorry, Internet problems! So sorry, my faithful listeners. I have had some Internet problems and have, therefore, been a little late in my podcasts. The problem is now resolved, and I look forward to being regularly available to you. Thankyou for your patience! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Biscuit the mechanical dog. Beginners. The U.S. is definitely a shopping culture. There are so many things to buy, and so many advertisements on television that it is hard to not buy. Unfortunately, my children see the advertisements on television, and think that they need all of the toys. "You have plenty of toys," I say to them all the time. They have toys in their bedrooms, in the lounge, and even in the kitchen. But still they think that they need more toys.&nbs ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Daytime visitation. Beginners. Snow keeps us busy. It needs to be moved and removed. If it is not moved, life becomes difficult. Cars, trucks and buses have difficulty driving along the streets and up the hills if there is too much snow. Around our house the snow builds up higher and higher. A few nights ago it snowed all night. It was silent, beautiful, and non-stop. When we woke up in the morning, we were quite surprised at the height of the white stuff. We felt surrounded. A ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Destruction, construction. Beginners. We keep busy in the Winter. We play in the snow and do sports, but there are other things to do inside the house. Because we live in an older home, there are projects to do. These are small changes that need to be made to the house. Why do we do these things? Well, for improvement, of course; to improve the house and how everything works. My husband's project this Winter is to move the laundry room from downstairs to the upstairs. It sounds simple ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hibernation for a few minutes. Beginners. In this part of the world, we need to heat our house for three quarters of the year: Winter, Spring, and Fall. Of course, now is the time of year when the freezing temperatures outside make us turn up the heat inside. It is so nice to get cozy, and there are so many different ways. Sometimes we light a fire, sometimes we put on woolly clothes, and other times we snuggle up together. The other day I walked into the kitchen where our puppy spends a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Let's sell some junk. Beginners. This is a busy time in the US for many people, especially for those who celebrate Christmas. It is a time for buying, buying, and buying. After we have bought or received presents, we realize that our homes will have more stuff in them. Do we need all of this stuff? Will the children play with their new toys for more than a week? How about selling somethings? There is a buy and sell website called Craig's list where you can sell all kinds of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Snow time. Beginners. White, white, white, that is mostly what I see these days. But, it is a beautiful white. It is a white that covers everything outside: houses, cars, streets, trees, even the thinnest sign posts. It is a white that brings quiet with it. Snow is, of course, like a blanket; it covers and it quietens. Now, in the morning, instead of hearing the busy 'swush' of cars and buses going to work and school, we hear nothing. Even the snow plough is quite quie ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Late for school! Beginners. This morning was an ordinary morning. I woke the kids up. "Wakey, wakey," I said gently to them, as usual. I brought the two youngest their breakfast drink that they like to drink in bed. They are spoilt, I know. The oldest two get themselves up and ready. They make their lunches, get their backpacks, play a little with the dog, and then it's time to get in the car. Today was a bit different, though. The car didn't start. Uh-oh! What had ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Seed cones for the birds. Beginners. In our area, some birds will stay for the Winter. They make their nests cozy , fluff up their feathers, and search for food every day. But, they have a problem. Because everything is covered with snow, it is hard to find food. It is too cold for insects to be out and about, and most seeds on the ground have been covered up by Winter's blanket. Berry bushes make great meals for the birds, but something that we, and many other people, do every year, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | When you've gotta play, you've gotta play. Beginners. Well, the snow is finally here. It came two days ago. From now on, it will be snow, snow, snow for about three months. My two little ones wanted to go sledding. I took them to a local park. There were a few people already there. All the children had plastic sleds. There were happy faces everywhere. Parents, holding cups of hot coffee, stood around chatting. It was great. My two youngest slid down the hill a few times. The trouble is, the wind got ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A green duty. Beginners. Recycling is something that I do willingly. My children know all about it. At school the teachers tell them about how to not be wasteful, and how they can become involved in recycling. About every two weeks, my daughter and I load up the car with our large recycling boxes. One has glass jars, another metal cans, another has cardboard, and the last has plastics. It has become a real habit. If we don't do it, our garage will be full of garbage. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The Nutcracker. Beginners. One of my boys collects nutcrackers. Do you know what they are? They are very colorful, soldier dolls. They have become popular in the United States around Christmas time. You can find them in all sizes. Cass, my son, has a few small ones, and one big one. In the stores I have seen a variety of huge ones also, in different colors, and different uniforms. Sometimes they have a theme, like music, or nationality. One store has a packet of several nut ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Poinsettia glow. Beginners. Do you know what a Pointsettia is? It is something that grows in the ground and is sold here in the United States at Christmas time. It originates  from Mexico and Central America. Often when you go into a supermarket, they are the first things that you see, along with the fruit. The plants look like they have huge flowers, but actually, the colors come from leaves, not petals. You can find Pointsettias that are pink, red, white, and mottled. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Crazy sales. Beginners. Do you enjoy shopping? Do you do it very often? Are there many shops where you live? Here in Wenatchee, a small town, we have a few shopping areas. Some stores are well known; others are privately owned, small businesses. I like shopping when I have plenty of time. Sometimes, though, it is stressful. One of the most stressful days to shop is the day after Thanksgiving. Most stores have big sales. The word is BARGAIN. On every shop door you can see ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Thanksgiving. Beginners. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. It is a tradition that is very important for most Americans. It is a yearly celebration that reflects on history. Americans celebrate this special day in remembrance of the first settlers from Europe, the Pilgrims. They suffered during the first years of living here. The Winter was very cold; there was very little food. Many of them died or got sick. Those who survived were helped by the Native Indians. They we ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Dark nights, twinlking lights. Dark nights, twinkling lights. Beginners. It gets dark here in Wenatchee at about four thirty in the afternoon now. My children often ask me what the time is, or whether they need to get ready for bed, when it is still early. It can be a little confusing. One thing that I like to do quite soon in the Winter, is to put Christmas lights up on the trees outside the house. They are so pretty. Also, the children play outside longer when there are ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Entertainment at the mall. Beginners. Having four children is wonderful, but it can be a lot of hard work. Sometimes, I find myself in the car driving all over town taking the kids to different activities. Two have swimming, so the younger two have to come along. Sometimes, my daughter, the youngest, will fall asleep in the car on the way to the swimming pool. That is actually a good thing. But then, what do I do with my third boy who is wide awake and wanting to do something interest ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Keep fit, even when it's cold. Keep fit, even when it's cold. Beginners. Winter is just about here in Wenatchee. The air is cold; we have heavy frost most mornings. Thankfully, the days are still quite sunny, even though they are short. What do children do in the afternoons, after school, to keep fit? Even after a long day at school, they still need to exercize. Swimming is a great sport. When it is too cold outside, children can swim comfortably in a warm swimming pool. T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A gargantuan doll. A gargantuan doll. Beginners. The other day, my mother came to visit with a special present. It was something that she had bought at an auction. She often buys presents for my children; she's their grandmother, so she spoils them. It was a special gift for my daughter. I had no idea what it could be. When she showed it to me, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the biggest doll that I have ever seen. It is bigger than my daughter. It's hair is ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | A choice of puppies. A choice of puppies. Beginners. We have a dog. It is a female. Her name is Rosie. We all love her very much. However, I think my children would like another dog. Actually, it would be nice for Rosie to have a playmate. The children spend quite a few hours in school and only play with Rosie later in the day and at the weekend. One good place to find a dog is the Humane Society. This is an amazing place. Animals that have been abandoned or who ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The mouse hole on the stairs. The mouse hole on the stairs. Beginners. Our house has one flight of stairs that goes up to the bedrooms. There is a small landing half way up. This area is in the middle of being decorated. I have taken down some wall paper, and soon the walls will be painted. As I was looking at the torn wall paper, I found a hole in the wall. And, do you know what was next to the hole? Two pieces of cheese. I didn't put them there. So who did? I think I ha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Do you have gas? Do you have gas? Beginners. What kind of a question is that? Are you talking about my body or my car? Well, actually, I am talking about your car. Gas, or petrol, as it is called in England, is a big subject at the moment. Driving a car has become really expensive. Oil prices all over the world are high. Many people have stopped using their cars and are going to work or school by bus or by bicycle. Many cars in the United States are big and u ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Goodbye Spooks. Goodbye Spooks. Beginners. Halloween was 31st of October. It is a huge holiday here in the States. It is celebrated in many other countries, and sometimes has a different name. It has become more popular through the years. Shops sell lots of Halloween costumes, candies, and decorations. Jack-o-lanterns are, of course, a main image of Halloween. A large selection of them of all shapes and sizes, made out of different materials, are availa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Guy Fawkes Day. Guy Fawkes Day. Beginners. November 5th is an important day in England. It is called Guy Fawkes Day. We have fireworks and big bonfires every year to celebrate parliament in our country. Guy Fawkes was a criminal. He tried to blow up the government and the king. He didn't do it. The police caught him and arrested him. This happened in 1605. The children make a figure out of material, they put it in a public place, and they ask for money. They ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Elections are over. Elections are over. Beginners. Tuesday was the fourth of November, election day. Many people went to vote. They chose the person they wanted for President. There were two choices: John McCain and Barack Obama. The two men have been campaigning for more than a year. They have been traveling all over the United States, telling people about why they want to be President, and what they can do for the country. They must be tired now. They mus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | And the rain came down! And the rain came down. Beginners. Yesterday it rained most of the day. Last night it rained all night. And now, this morning, it is still raining. It doesn't often rain in this valley. Wenatchee is called a desert, and I suppose it is. However, about this time, in November, the rain comes. Sometimes it stays for a few days. It prepares us, and the ground, for the snow. At the end of November the snow comes. It stays for about four month ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hey Mom, technology is amazing! Hey Mom, technology is amazing! Advanced. The other day when I picked my children up from school, my oldest boys handed me their school pictures. Once a year, as in most schools, the children have their photographs taken. It adds some importance to the day, as most children want to look their best. They will choose their clothes the night before, as they wish to look especially smart. Well, their photos were a success, but something that Cass ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Hey Mom, technology is amazing! Hey Mom, technology is amazing! Advanced. The other day when I picked my children up from school, my oldest boys handed me their school pictures. Once a year, as in most schools, the children have their photographs taken. It adds some importance to the day, as most children want to look their best. They will choose their clothes the night before, as they wish to look especially smart. Well, their photos were a success, but something that Cass ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The upcoming elections. The upcoming elections. Advanced. With the upcoming elections just around the corner, the United States is abuzz with discussions, arguments, accusations, and predictions. I think that it is actually a good thing. Whenever people get together and air their opinions in a civilized manner, a lot can be accomplished. Many people, I have found, particularly in rural areas, do not talk regularly about politics, or critique political agendas. Perha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | The upcoming elections. The upcoming elections. Advanced. With the upcoming elections just around the corner, the United States is abuzz with discussions, arguments, accusations, and predictions. I think that it is actually a good thing. Whenever people get together and air their opinions in a civilized manner, a lot can be accomplished. Many people, I have found, particularly in rural areas, do not talk regularly about politics, or critique political agendas. Perha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Spiderman tonight. One of the ways in which my family and I relax during the evening is watching movies. It is more an occasional treat than a daily activity. Life in a big family is very busy, and often there is very little time to sit down, let alone to watch a film. But when we do, we love to snuggle up together after a good meal and watch something exciting or inspiring. Spiderman is one of our favorites. Of course it's fantasy, but why not? My second oldest boy used to be a fanatic. He h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Spiderman tonight. One of the ways in which my family and I relax during the evening is watching movies. It is more an occasional treat than a daily activity. Life in a big family is very busy, and often there is very little time to sit down, let alone to watch a film. But when we do, we love to snuggle up together after a good meal and watch something exciting or inspiring. Spiderman is one of our favorites. Of course it's fantasy, but why not? My second oldest boy used to be a fanatic. He h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Don't step on my shadow. Don't step on my shadow. Advanced. Have you ever noticed just how bright the sun can be in Autumn. The angle of the sun, or perhaps its proximity to the earth, seems to make the sunlight intense, in a way that is different from Summer. As we were walking home today from the mailbox, my son, Robert, said, "Don't step on my shadow, mum!" I looked at the shadow that he and his bicycle cast on the ground, and I realised that, at least for a few w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Don't step on my shadow. Don't step on my shadow. Advanced. Have you ever noticed just how bright the sun can be in Autumn. The angle of the sun, or perhaps its proximity to the earth, seems to make the sunlight intense, in a way that is different from Summer. As we were walking home today from the mailbox, my son, Robert, said, "Don't step on my shadow, mum!" I looked at the shadow that he and his bicycle cast on the ground, and I realised that, at least ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Billions of berries. Billions of berries. Advanced. Close to my house, there is a sight to be seen. If you walk around the corner and up the hill, you will come across an enormous berry bush. It is so huge, that it covers the entryway of the owner's property. Every time I pass by, I have to look in awe, and simply enjoy it's great size and color. The berries are bright orange, and the plant itself is a tough, small-leaved variety. The birds in the area must think ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What a scruffy puppy! What a scruffy puppy! Advanced. Rosie is the name of a member of our family. She is a female who does not quite reflect the beauty of her name. She is scruffy, hyper-active, and demanding. Yes, you've guessed; she is our dog. A boarder terrier is the name of her breed. They are highly intelligent dogs used for 'ratting', which means seeking out and destroying rats. As such, their coats are wiry, their teeth are big, they are small e ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | What a scruffy puppy! What a scruffy puppy! Advanced. Rosie is the name of a member of our family. She is a female who does not quite reflect the beauty of her name. She is scruffy, hyper-active, and demanding. Yes, you've guessed; she is our dog. A boarder terrier is the name of her breed. They are highly intelligent dogs used for 'ratting', which means seeking out and destroying rats. As such, their coats are wiry, their teeth are big, they are small e ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Seeds for next year. Advanced. One of my favorite hobbies is gardening. I suppose I must have inherited the gardening gene, because, apparently, on my father's side, my grandmother had tremendously green fingers. That is what we say in England for someone who is adept and experienced at growing flowers and vegetables. In the United States, the expression is to have 'green thumbs'. Now that the seasons have changed and Winter is approaching, gardening mainly entails tidying up ar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Seeds for next year. Advanced. One of my favorite hobbies is gardening. I suppose I must have inherited the gardening gene, because, apparently, on my father's side, my grandmother had tremendously green fingers. That is what we say in England for someone who is adept and experienced at growing flowers and vegetables. In the United States, the expression is to have 'green thumbs'. Now that the seasons have changed and Winter is approaching, gardening mainly entails tidying up ar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Chicken soup Advanced. As the seasons change from Summer to Autumn, a certain recipe that I use starts to appear more often. Chicken soup. Ah, what a concept! It has been used for centuries by people who are ill; runny noses, coughs, and aches and pains disappear as this special liquid is digested. It's simple, hot deliciousness warms up our bones and makes us feel comforted, like babies being wrapped in warm blankets. In fact, comfort is exactly what it is, a comfo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Chicken soup Advanced. As the seasons change from Summer to Autumn, a certain recipe that I use starts to appear more often. Chicken soup. Ah, what a concept! It has been used for centuries by people who are ill; runny noses, coughs, and aches and pains disappear as this special liquid is digested. It's simple, hot deliciousness warms up our bones and makes us feel comforted, like babies being wrapped in warm blankets. In fact, comfort is exactly what it is, a comfo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Celebrate pumpkin time. Beginners. Pumpkins, pumpkins, big, fat, and round. Children love them, and adults too. They grow all Summer; turn color from green to orange. Some stay small, but others get bigger and bigger. I have some in my garden. One, two, three, four. One for each of my children. They will be Jack-o-lanterns with eyes, noses, and mouths. Do you like our Mr. Pumpkin in the photo? What do you think? Is he friendly or scary? Grammar notes. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Celebrate pumpkin time. Beginners. Pumpkins, pumpkins, big, fat, and round. Children love them, and adults too. They grow all Summer; turn color from green to orange. Some stay small, but others get bigger and bigger. I have some in my garden. One, two, three, four. One for each of my children. They will be Jack-o-lanterns with eyes, noses, and mouths. Do you like our Mr. Pumpkin in the photo? What do you think? Is he friendly or scary? Grammar notes. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |