Woot woot! Happy 2017, friends! I hope you all had a lovely and restful holiday season filled with fun and love!
As you might have guessed, Mr. Bingley and have returned from Colombia and are now back into our work and home routines. 🙂 Thank you for all the lovely wishes and kind comments posted while we were gone! It was the best thing ever to come home and read my blog and come back to this wonderful community!
Before we left for Colombia, we celebrated Christmas with my family and like they usually do, they spoiled me with Jane Austen goodies!
Awesome Jane Austen glasses my mom found at BAM!
And quite by coincidence, my brother got me some Jane Austen coasters!
Some new reads.
I really love this series by Jessica Fellowes!
I heard of these two from Sophia Rose and put them on my wishlist. 🙂 They are modern-day Pride and Prejudice stories that I didn’t know of before!
And I received a very special gift from my Colombian family as well! Looks like they know what I like!
The super cool thing about this edition is it is bilingual!! With one page being in Spanish while the other page is the same thing in English! What a great way for me to improve my Spanish!!:)
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While in Colombia, we spent a lot of our time with Mr. Bingley’s family whom we love so much. They take such good care of us when we come, make themselves completely available to spend time with us, and feed us until we beg them to stop!! LOL!
Aside from family, one of things I love most about Colombia is THE FOOD!! And I had my fill of delicious fruit that just DOES NOT compare to the fruit we eat here in the US!
Instead of hotdogs and ice cream being sold on street corners, it is fruit! Ah! Such a wonderful way of life!
And while in Colombia we did enjoy some ‘deportes extremos’ extreme sports like we usually like to do too! One new one was going in caves! (Don’t have the pictures from this excursion yet.) Which was definitely not tame since most of the time the caverns were filled with water and you were walking and climbing on uneven rocks!
We also went on another ‘canotaje’ rafting excursion and that is always fun! But this time we went out around 4:00p.m. and the water was a little bit too cold!!
Our guide had a GoPRO on his helmet which was awesome!
Crossing my fingers this video works! It took an hour to figure out how to upload it! 😉
But now we are back Netherfield and enjoying the ‘hibernating’ season here! When the weather is this cold we stay in our pjs and make hot cocoa each weekend and snuggle!
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Want to know what Austenesque fun I’m getting into this month?
…here is what’s on this month’s
Austenesque Agenda:
~ TO REVIEW ~
~ TO READ AND REVIEW ~
~ FEATURED AUTHORS VISITING THIS MONTH ~
Amy D’Orazio – January 13th
Elizabeth Adams – January 18th
Anngela Schroeder – January 23rd
Is January promising to be as exciting for you as it is for me??? 😉
What are your plans this month?
Looks like you had a great time. Love the fruit! I see you got Love and Friendship DVD, please let me know if you enjoy it? What a lovely way to start the year, can’t wait to read your thoughts on these books and your interviews. Thanks Meredith
Hi Glynis! Yes, I did and it will be my first time watching it! 🙂 Hope your 2017 is off to a great start!
The rafting(video was great) looked like alot of fun and the fruit delicious! Isn’t it wonderful to go visit family in another country?! I really like your line up! I read Darcy’s Hope and loved it! Looking forward to your visitors this month too. I am looking forward to reading their books! I hope to read Darcy’s Hope at Donwell Abbey this month too. I just bought the e-book today along with some I that have been on my wishlist for a long time. I just read Cat Gardiner’s ‘Uncovered’ and it was amazing! Happy New Year and looking forward to your January posts!
Thank you, Carole! 🙂 It was fun and the fruit is soooo wonderful, I’m missing it sorely! I love going to other countries, especially Colombia! Colombia is very special to me and I feel a close kinship with the people there! That’s great that you loved Darcy’s Hope! I can’t wait to read it! I’m so glad Darcy’s Hope at Donwell Abbey is out this month! I’m reading that next month, can’t wait! Yay for treating yourself to some reads! What a great read to start the year with!
So happy you had an amazing time in Colombia, and I love your JA related Christmas gifts. I have those same drinking glasses from BAM but I haven’t actually used them yet.
You have a great line up for January! I’m re-reading Darcy’s Hope right now before I go on to book 2, Donwell Abbey. After that, who knows. There’s so many I want to re-read and so many new ones, too, and some that have been on my tbr list for literally 10 years. How to choose?! Lol. As always, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on your book selections.
Thanks, Monica! Lovely for you to visit! LOL! I love the drinking glasses, but Mr. Bingley was the first one to use them!
Great plan to start the year with! I can’t wait to join you, I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Darcy’s Hope!
I feel the same way. I’m going to try and get some of those TBR lifers off my list this year!
I hope you enjoy The Girl From Summer Hill as much as I did!
Awesome! It is a new author for me!
What are your plans this month? Trying to get you to look the other way, so that I can scarper off with those awesome socks!
Ahahaha! LOL! I better keep my socks on my feet! 😉
I loved your video.. great times. The fruit looks great! Did you need to steer clear of street vendors like we did in DR or could you eat anything without fear?
Thanks, Suzan! I’m glad I figured out how to upload the thing! 😉 No, it wasn’t like that where we were, Mr. Bingley’s family isn’t in a touristy area. Locals trust the vendors. I wish we had fruit vendors in our streets! It would be such a healthy way of life!
I got the Love and Friendship DVD also! And my brother in law, who is a TV writer, gave me a copy of the screenplay! I love the glasses you got….wish my local BAM had those!
Oh that is so awesome, Susan!! What a special gift!! I didn’t know these glasses existed, it was a complete surprise for me! I see they are available online for purchase – http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Jane-Austen-Piece-Pint-Glass/BAM-Exclusive/F9781492450948?gclid=CKKCsLyfq9ECFQwTgQod5oAKYg
Oh yes, you received some lovely goodies. Hey, glad you’re going to try Ophelia and Jude’s books.
You have my mouth watering showing off that fruit. Tropical fruit is a weakness of mine. 🙂
Glad you guys had a fun trip and made it home safe.
Nice line-up of books and guests this month.
Thank you, yes, I’m spoiled rotten! 😉 I’m looking forward to those two, I like trying new authors!
It is my weakness too! I usually rave about the bread in Colombia which is always freshly made and purchased from bread shops, but in this trip I was all about some tropical fruit!!!
Hope you are having a great month so far!
Hi Meredith, Happy New Year to you and Mr. Bingley. Photos were great and Colombia looks an amazing place to visit. Looking forward to the books you have to review and your guests.
What a fantastic line up of books!
Have heard great things about A Lie Universally Hidden,which I’ll probably get around to reading it at some stage!
The Best Part of Love,which I read ages ago was so compelling! A great read!!
Loved your gifts,especially the socks and glasses!
Yes,your video worked! Looks like ye had an amazing time on hols!
Happy reading. Looking forward to some great reviews of those books.
Hi Meredith!
I love your Christmas gifts!
-The glasses are so charming and elegant and I would like to have those coasters when I have guests!
-Your Downton Abbey pack is splendid, I couldn´t wait to put my hands on it LOL
-And, of course, your bilingual edition of “Pride and Prejudice”! . You´ll improve your spanish in a delightful way. I think we are driving the same “road” but in different “ways” because I´m spanish and I read “Pride and Prejudice” in english to improve my level and now, you´re are from the States and have an spanish edition, “Orgullo y Prejuicio” to improve your spanish! 🙂 I hope it´ll help you a lot and, I can tell you the beginning of “Orgullo y Prejuicio”: “Es una verdad universalmente reconocida que todo hombre soltero en posesión de una fortuna…” or something similar LOL!
Thanks for posting de video, it was fun to see you navigate through the river, well, sometimes the flow went rather fast didn´t it?. I suppose it was an entertaining experience although you had to concentrate in the orders (it was so comfortable for me to hear the audio in spanish LOL)
Your agenda is full of events, January starts with strenght!. I´m curious about “Georgiana Darcy matchmaker” and Elizabeth Adams´s book.
By the way, Santa Claus brought me a new edition of “Emma” and although I read it some years ago I think I´ll reread it again and I´ll find new interesting sources of enjoyment 🙂
Have a happy January to you, Mr Bingley and all the readers!
I would love to have those coasters. I see some research in my future! I got the Jane Austen Prayers book for Christmas too. Along with a lovely JA box made to hold some of my essential oils. Always love your Columbia pics. The video makes me nervous. LOL I cannot swim…LOL Enjoy hibernating with Mr. Bingley!
Aren’t they cute? I think my brother found them on etsy! A Jane Austen box sounds lovely and I love essential oils!!
I think you can see in the end of the video that I was getting a little nervous too. I was afraid of falling out into the cold water! LOL!
Happy New Year! Thanks for sharing another trip! Those pineapples look especially delicious. 🙂 Glad you had a good holiday (amazing JA gifts!) and are home hibernating. Happy reading!
Happy New Year to you, Reina! 🙂 The pineapples were my absolute favorite! I feel like I should have eaten more of them when I had the chance! Hope 2017 treats you well! Thank you for the lovely visit!
Some exciting looking books coming up there, Meredith. Ginger Monette’s book is pretty special – I’d never read a WWI variation before, and the sequel is even better! I love that your family know and embrace your love of Austenesque items. Mine say they refuse to feed my addiction! The nearest I’ve got from them is DVD box sets of Downton Abbey and Poldark.
All those fresh fruits and veggies look amazing. Reminds me of the two years we spent in West Africa way back in the late 70s. Living as far north as I do, we just don’t get that at all.
Hi Anji! You are so right, I finished it yesterday! Can’t wait to read book 2! 🙂
Those are equally good gifts, but its a shame they don’t want to get you anything JA related! There is so much out there – I didn’t even know about the glasses or coasters!
I’m missing those fruits and veggies so much right now! Tropical fruits get imported here, but they just don’t taste the same.