Elaine Massung – Page 2

Elaine Massung November 14, 2023

Past Present

Do you ever find yourself thinking about the seeming randomness of life? For example, maybe the first person you meet at school becomes one of your best friends. Would things have played out differently if you or they had arrived at a different time that day, or would you have bumped into each other at some point anyway and your… View Post

Elaine Massung June 28, 2023

Lions and Tigers and Dragons, Oh My!

Despite living in the UK for nearly 20 years, there are still large swathes of the country I haven’t seen. I’ve been up to the Orkney Islands at the tip of Scotland but have never properly visited Cornwall. I attended a wedding in Norwich once, but much of the east coast—Essex, Kent, Sussex—remains an absolute mystery. Trips to London must… View Post

Elaine Massung June 21, 2023

In Review

The past few weeks have seen me revisit some of my favourite stomping grounds, so this blog post is less about exploring new sites and more about the enjoyment of reconnecting with places you know well. Magical. Enchanting. Quirky. These words were used by a friend to describe her first visit to the Cotswold Sculpture Park, and she is spot… View Post

Elaine Massung June 13, 2023

The Not-So-Hidden Treasure of the National Trust

Throughout the past month, MrElaineous and I have watched the BBC television series Hidden Treasures of the National Trust. This documentary takes viewers into National Trust properties ranging from the huge and historic, such as Belton House and Hardwick Hall, to houses that are more on the human scale, like the Liverpool dwelling of photographer E.C. Hardman or the childhood… View Post

Elaine Massung June 4, 2023

Save the Date

https://youtu.be/CnlIls5hzEI April 2024. This is the month that Bowood’s Woodland Gardens will again open to the public, and I encourage everyone reading this to pay a visit. MrElaineous and I have lived in Chippenham for over ten years now, and although we were aware of the Woodland Gardens, we had never managed to visit during its relatively brief opening season… View Post

Elaine Massung May 31, 2023

Sacre Bleu!

This French expression of surprise or dismay seemed fitting when I realised it has been well over a year since I last shared a new blog post. It’s not due to a lack of travelling or a lack of desire: I have half-written articles and random paragraphs stashed all over my hard drive, as well as a mega-outline for last… View Post

Elaine Massung April 14, 2022

Life Lessons from The Repair Shop

In what I think is a first for the MissElaineous blog, MrElaineous and I have actually managed to produce joint content. Keep scrolling to read my ode to The Repair Shop or hit play to hear an original Jon Paget composition. https://youtu.be/TeOj_RhiGvc Just a warning, this is a long blog post and best paired with a cup of tea* or… View Post

Elaine Massung March 22, 2022

The Off-Season

The words “Westonbirt” and “autumn” are practically synonymous, at least to me. After all, this is the time of year when thousands of people from across the UK descend on this small patch of Gloucestershire for just one thing: the fantastic display of colours from the national arboretum’s collection of acers (Japanese maples). This is a seasonal spectacular that I’ve… View Post

Elaine Massung December 23, 2021

Christmas Calling

Along with black cabs, bowler hats, and cups of tea*, the traditional red British telephone box has become a symbol of the UK as well as a design icon. Its history begins nearly one hundred years ago, when a competition was held to choose the design of a telephone kiosk for London. It was won by architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott;… View Post

Elaine Massung November 25, 2021

A Thanksgiving Birthdaversary

If you’re reading this in the UK or elsewhere on the planet, you’re probably considering your plans for the weekend or thinking something along the lines of “I can’t believe it’s only one month until Christmas!” For those in the US, however, it’s Thanksgiving, a day of family, food, and (American) football. In the MissElaineous household, today also marks a… View Post

Elaine Massung August 28, 2021

Rainmaker

It sort of goes without saying that one of the goals of the MissElaineous blog is to share the natural beauty, fascinating history, and incredible nature of the UK from an American perspective. After all, it’s mentioned up there in the tagline! My friend Joanne Prince, however, approaches things from a different direction: for the past thirty years, Jo has… View Post

Elaine Massung May 8, 2021

Out and About in Chippenham

I think I speak for everyone when I say that it feels like our world has shrunk this past year. Lockdown has kept some of us literally within our four walls or, at the very least, limited our usual travel opportunities. In the UK, restrictions that went into effect in January only started to ease on 12 April; it’s not… View Post

Elaine Massung February 17, 2021

How to Travel Safely in a Pandemic

I’m not going to lie to you—I miss travelling. Whether it’s a day spent exploring a National Trust property or a city break in London or a long weekend getting away from it all in the beautiful countryside, I miss experiencing new sights and sounds. Everything else that’s mentioned in my tagline? I’ve managed to find ways of catering to… View Post

Elaine Massung January 20, 2021

About the time hackers activated two-factor authentication on my Facebook account …

UPDATE: If you are experiencing this issue—and it seems that a lot of people are—I’m afraid I have no quick or easy fix to recover your Facebook account. Click here for the update that shares what worked for me and others. Do you have a solution that’s not listed here? Let me know and I’ll add it to the post. … View Post

Elaine Massung January 4, 2021

New Year, New Project?

My friend Cathy introduced me to two things that helped brighten 2020: Caron Cooper‘s delightful Fosse Farmhouse and the works of Mary Crawford Fraser. The first is a charming B&B near the quaint village of Castle Combe that serves as a shrine to the anime programme Kin-iro Mosaic and is the perfect place to have a cream tea on a… View Post

Elaine Massung December 30, 2020

Looking Back at 2020

I think it goes without saying that 2020 was a challenging year … and each of us had our own unique set of challenges to contend with. Some got a crash course in home-schooling. Others had to discover how to pivot their business to something more pandemic proof or figure out how to balance work and life when the dining… View Post

Elaine Massung October 21, 2020

Autumn and Art

While my internal calendar is inching towards the end of June or perhaps the beginning of July, the world outside has clearly moved into autumn. Shorter days, colder temperatures, and brightly coloured leaves are making their presence known, encouraging MrElaineous and me to embark on one of our favourite annual traditions: a trip to Westonbirt Arboretum. I can’t really say… View Post

Elaine Massung October 11, 2020 Cotswold Sculpture Park

MissElaineous and the Very Proper Adventure

The M4 is a British motorway that snakes its way across the south of the country, starting in London and passing near a number of major towns and cities before petering out just past Swansea. Chippenham is one of those towns in the middle, located just a few miles south of this main artery that ferries people east and west… View Post

Elaine Massung October 5, 2020 Swindon, Wiltshire

Touch Wood: An Interview with Simon Webb

George Bernard Shaw is said to have written that England and America are two countries separated by a common language, and there is perhaps more than a kernel of truth in this statement. Some are obvious: in August I wrote about how American buttermilk biscuits are nothing like British biscuits. The latter tend to be more hard cookies, perfect for… View Post