A Cup Of English

"I love to cook," said Sue as she passed me my plate. It was early evening, and the Scottish farmhouse kitchen was filled with delicious smells of fresh seafood with a hint(1) of spice. We were warm, tired, but content after a day spent walking on a hidden beach with the colors of Autumn looking over us from the adjacent forest. I was ready for this meal, and I knew that it would be good. What I h...

Have you ever wondered around Youtube, looking for inspiration? I did a few years ago, and I stumbled upon(1) an activity called Zentangle. It is an art form that really suits everybody. Let me explain. A 'tangle' is a pattern that doesn't have to look like anything in particular(2); it is a simple pattern, repeated over the paper. It's similar to 'doodling' which is when a person draws any random...

The Riverfront Park is a great asset(1)that we enjoy in our community. It opened about the same year that I came to live here. It's focus, as you can tell by the name, is the Columbia river. This wide and deep body of water starts in Canada, at the base of the Rocky Mountains. It travels about 1,200 miles, through to Washington State and Oregon and then it flows into the Pacific Ocean. So, Wenatch...

As I work in the schools in Wenatchee, I notice lots of things about the school culture. Each school here has its own mascot. Foothills Middle School, for example, has the Falcons. Any child who represents the school in any way, whether in sports, mathematics, art or anything else, is called a Falcon. Other mascots in the area are: The Wenatchee High School Panthers, the Eastmont Wild Cats, and th...

Oh yoga, yoga, yoga! It's such a passion of mine. And I started doing yoga only recently. I have found it to be so beneficial in so many ways: it gets rid of my stress, it loosens my joints, and it strengthens me, but gently. Why didn't I start it years ago? I sometimes turn on Youtube and do yoga in my lounge. However, my favorite place to do yoga, so far, is the WRAC, which stands for Wenatchee...

The end of summer is one of the best times to have a party, especially if it's in the evening. The hot summer days give way to slightly cooler but long summer nights. You can linger(1) outside, barbecue, or even dance. And if you want to do what a friend of mine did, you can have a big country party. Kim and her boyfriend Casey both turned(2) 50 this year, so they decided to have a big 'bash'. The...

Washington State University veterinary hospital is a place that is renowned throughout the state for being the best place to treat animals who have diseases. It is located in a small town called Pullman, in rolling, tree covered hills. All around it, however, are miles and miles of dry wheat fields, and so the town forms a kind of oasis. We went to Pullman two weeks ago because our rottweiler need...

The tour of Boeing started with us being bussed to the building where the seven hundred series of planes are made, particularly the 747s. It is the largest building in the world, measuring 13,385,378 cubic meters. It has several entrances, several floors, and, of course, huge double doors through which the new planes can be rolled out. Our guide told us so many facts that I actually stopped listen...

I found myself in Seattle for the third or fourth time this summer on Monday. It was time to take my cousin to the airport for his flight back to Mallorca. He had asked to go to the Boeing plant to see the planes being made. "Sounds like a good idea," I replied, remembering that, years ago, I had visited the second, smaller Boeing plant in the south of Seattle. We arrived at 4pm, early enough to l...

Did you know that the First Lady of the U.S, Michelle Obama, has been trying for years to get people exercising? Over a third of people in the U.S, including children, are obese. This is an epidemic, and a huge national problem which leads to all sorts of medical complications and expense. However, something has taken the nation by storm(1) which is getting people of all shapes and sizes outside w...

I look through my emails each day to see if anyone who listens to my podcasts has written to me. I was doing that last week when I came across an email that took me by surprise(1). It was an invitation to be a guest speaker on an educational podcast called Scalar Learning. I immediately looked up the website, and found a very professional, mathematics focused site that offers both tutoring and reg...

The number of people in my house has grown from six to seven recently. A young man from Spain has come to spend six weeks with us. He is no ordinary young man; he's actually my second cousin, and is here to spend time with this side of the family, and of course, to learn English. Thankfully, he is the same age as my youngest son, and is very fun-loving. I'm sure that he will pick up(1) a lot of En...

With the fire season approaching, we have been preparing our back garden. My husband trimmed off some old, dead branches from our pine trees. These trees are notorious for(1) burning easily because they are both dry and oily. Most of the horrendous fires that make international news are those of pine or fir forests which are both conifers. We have seen this kind of devastation in Canada recently,...

I'm a little nervous today. It is a very important day for the UK, as it is the Brexit referendum. Most informed people will know that UK citizens will vote today to either leave the European Union or to remain in it. This isn't a small issue(1). The country is divided on the subject. I have been reading about it and watching videos, some that are for leaving and others that are against it. To be...

Peter: Hi Liz. What are you looking at? Liz: Oh, hi Peter. I'm looking through some information about cars. It's about time I bought one, but I'm quite fussy. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but there are certain things that I definitely want. Peter: What kind are you after? Liz: Well, I'd like a hybrid. Eventually when I'm working, I don't want to spend a fortune on gas. Other than that, I'...

The most popular sport in the world is seen everywhere these days in Wenatchee. As you drive around the town, most days of the week, you can see colorful teams of players running around the parks practicing and competing. The goals are dragged into position, bright orange cones are set up in lines for the players to zig-zag(1) through with the ball. Parents, like myself, either drop the kids off a...

I had always heard about cowboys before I came to the U.S, but I had never met any. I suppose I had seen many in typical Western films, so I had some idea of what they looked like. I wasn't sure, however, that the style of cowboys I had seen still existed. I thought that perhaps in our modern day, there would be less need for them, or perhaps there was a more modernized version of a cowboy. Well,...

May in Wenatchee is the month when Apple Blossom is held. It's an annual festival that starts with a parade. There is also a food fair, a classic car show, and a medieval fair. A spin-off (1)of all these activities, is a 3 on 3 basketball competition at the local college. Students of all ages compete in teams of only three people, so the games are intense and exhausting. You're never really sure w...

I have been working in a middle school for the past couple of weeks in the place of a teacher who is taking paternity leave. His wife has just had their second child, and so he is taking 5 weeks off of(1) work to be at home. So, I am teaching 13 to 14 year olds each day about essay writing and poetry. I usually only work a couple of days a week in the school district, so adjusting to(2) working ev...

The world of usernames and passwords is quite simple for some people. Choose both, and stick to them(1); don't change them unless you have to, and your life will be easy peasy. Most people I know, however, have a love-hate relationship(2) with the two words. First of all, it's easy to forget a password, especially if you haven't written it down somewhere, or if you've forgotten where you wrote it!...

My daughter wants to join everything. She loves football, gymnastics, basketball, swimming, acting, dancing, and almost anything else. I don't know where she gets her energy from. Of course, I'm glad that she's energetic; its a sign of being healthy. Her friend, Lilly, has been involved with the Wenatchee Youth Circus for four years, and is a rope performer. She twists and turns (1) on two ropes t...

My house is almost surrounded by orchards of pears and cherries. On the west side, beyond my neighbor's house is the pear orchard, and to the north is the cherry orchard. It makes us feel as though we live deep(1)in the country. This time of year, the orchards are full of life. Of course, they are in bloom, but also there is a lot of human activity going on(2) inside the orchards. Tractors rumble...

A shopping center called 'Whaler's village' was very close to where we stayed in Maui. At its entrance was a very elegant, metal statue of a mother humpback whale and her baby. You might know(1) that the water right next to Maui is the one place where humpbacks breed. The ocean here is called the Au'au channel; it is, remarkably, only 300ft deep at the most. Its name in Hawaiian means 'to take a b...

I'm back in Wenatchee, and already missing Maui. We had such a wonderful vacation, and there were so many highlights(1). Some of you will know that I am into plants and trees, so it won't surprise you that a highlight for me was meeting the Banyan tree in the little town of Lahaina. I say "meeting" because it felt as special as meeting a person. It is about 150 years old, and was imported from Ind...

The fresh, warm morning air blew gently against my face as I looked out towards the nearest island. The sand between my toes was clean and soft, not irritating at all. As I let it fall through my fingers, it occurred to me that I was looking at the Pacific ocean. Now, that is something that I don't always do. It was still early; there were only a few people here and there, some jogging, some like...