The Poshest Zoo We've Ever Been To. (Sorry Boise!)

So - yesterday Judah turned 4! And his birthday expedition was to the Cotswold Wildlife Park. We had never been there before - so we weren't sure what to expect. But wow! This is an old beautiful estate - complete with massive grounds, walled gardens, stone walls, etc. And they've turned the whole thing into a zoo! And a darned good zoo at that - there were all kinds of crazy animals! (Note the rhino above. Hilarious to see a rhino and a herd of zebra grazing out in front of that house!)

I loved the house. So first I'm going to post up some pictures of that.



This was the conservatory which had been turned into a restaurant. The outside . . .


. . . and then the inside.


Just outside the house, sort of off the terrace - were the giant tortoises.

And there were peacocks sort of roaming about loose.

There was a fabulous little train that took you all around the grounds - and we did that right at the beginning. It was terrific - you could see everything from the train, and then go back and look at the animals up close on foot later.

Judah adored the train. Here he is - the birthday boy himself - on the train.

And here is the only photographic evidence that I was actually along on this trip!

After the train we got out and walked all over the grounds. Inside the walled garden they had most of the birds. Here is Judah at the penguins.


This was some strange little bird that wandered loose around in the jungle room. There was supposedly a sloth in there somewhere too - but we couldn't ever find it. There were however, lots of crazy birds like this guy.

Next we hit the Madagascar exhibit. This was downright wild. They had lemurs running loose all over the place . . . and they would sprint around and jump all over the rails right in front of us. I kept trying to get a picture of the kids with the lemurs - but the things were so ridiculously fast I never managed to get a good shot. Here is a series of attempts.



There's one right behind Knox right here which of course you can't see. Then the goofy black and white one - and in the back if you look closely there are 2 ring tail lemurs up at the top.

These things were nuts. What are lemurs anyway? They seemed like some bizarre cross between a monkey and a cat.

But then there were these things. I have no idea what these are - I don't remember. Knox of course knew right what they were, where they were from, how they are spelled, and told us that they are the world's largest rodent. Then again, I might be wrong. The world's largest rodent might have been a different one. These might have been the wild pigs. I am clearly not the expert.

Perhaps this is the world's largest rodent?

Here were some wallabies. That was fun - there were bunches of them all curled up having a nap in the leaves.

Here's Judah in front of the wallabies - with some random duck. He is holding 2 handfuls of grass that he was saving to feed to the rhino. He held onto this grass for about an hour - seriously - and even wiped out on his face once and didn't let go of the grass.

Here were the wolves - terrible picture, but fun to see them in real life.

A flamingo pond . . .
Judah and the flamingos - still with the grass.

Bel and the zebras - which the English were all pronouncing with a short e sound!

Here was a mother zebra and her baby in their little shed, staying out of the rain.

They even had camels!

Here's Judah - still with his grass - being disappointed that the rhino is napping about a mile away and not really anxious to be fed grass.


Daddy helped him sort of throw the grass in the general direction of the rhino.



Then there was the reptile house.


The crocodiles were a huge hit. (Or croc-idols as Judah has always called them and now that's the standard Merkle pronunciation.) There was a classic moment at this exhibit. The had a whole display of items made with crocodile skin that had been seized by Her Majesty's Customs. Purses, boots, sandals, etc. Some of them were really weird little things - like purses that had an entire crocodile head as the flap . . . that kind of thing. There was a big sign up that said that if you buy crocodile skin items that you are contributing to their extinction. It was really quite crowded in this part of the reptile house - and Bel yelled excitedly across to us, "Mom! Dad! Look at all the projects you can make with crocodile skin!" Not exactly the moral everyone was hoping would be drawn from the display . . .

Last of all, Judah had to ride the Merry Go Round once - and of course drive the "Ferrarri!" He's been telling us lately that he's a Ferrarri boy . . .


The zoo was fabulous - and there were skads of things I didn't get pictures of . . . lions, leopards, monkeys, insects, bats . . . loads of fun, and a really great birthday expedition!

Hup Holland!

So we were never under any illusions that we are addicted to blogging. But a 5 month lapse is a little extreme, even for us!

Quick update: We're back in the States (three rousing cheers!) and having a whale of a time with American sized packages. Kids are in school, life is fun, and we have only 1 more month until we head back to Oxford. So practically time to be packing.

But BEFORE we came home to the States (back at the end of June) we had a completely fantastic trip to the Netherlands. When we got home from Holland we had only a week until we left for America, which is why getting the pictures of our trip up on the blog sort of fell by the wayside. Then we were back in Idaho, life was crazy, we were busy seeing everyone, going on roadtrips, and this is all to say . . . here are the pictures of Holland finally!

We were staying with a fabulous Dutch family whom we had met the previous year at Oxford. They very kindly put us up, fed us, and toured us all over their country and gave us the time of our lives! We got to eat traditional Dutch food, see real live people in wooden shoes, take a tour through a windmill, visit Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, and a spectacular little village called Giethoorn which is built on canals like a tiny little Dutch Venice. The kids got to see original Rembrandts and Vermeers, eat real Gouda, go to a little Dutch Reformed Church, shop at The Hema, visit the flower market in Amsterdam, see the Anne Frank House, ride the train (gasp!) and see crazy megalithic stone burial mounds called Dolmens. All in all it was a completely fabulous trip, and we enjoyed every minute of it! Thanks Deckers!

And here are the fabulous Deckers (Wilbert, Esther, Anna, and Charlotte) on the streets of The Hague, in front of the Queen's Palace.

The Hague was spectacular. They were having some sort of music festival while we were there, with an enormous stage (on the left) floating on the lake, as well as a floating grandstand for the audience (on the right) and the tuba soloist was charging about in a boat in the middle while he played. Super fun to watch as we ate our picnic lunch! The building across the lake on the right is their parliment . . . and the little turret in the middle there is the Prime Minister's office. The building on the left is the Mauritshuis museum where we got to see . . .

. . . and that was awfully fun!

Here we are by the lake. And then, as we walked through the streets, what should come trucking past, but . . .

Yes. A woman playing a grand piano, driving along behind a car. And then . . . reinforcing the idea that the Dutch are thinking outside the box . . . we ran across this little unit.

Are you drinking this in here? It's a beer bike. A full blown 8-seater bar . . . complete with keg, tap, and bartender in the middle . . . but each seat is equipped with a set of peddles. The bartender appears to also be responsible for the steering. And what the purpose is I'm not entirely sure . . . I guess you can have a beer, chat with friends, take in the city sights, and also burn some calories while you're at it. Multi-tasking at it's most creative!

Here was a fun contraption . . . a ginormous music box, towed by a horse. On the back side of it there was a man turning a crank . . .


Here's the gang out in front of the Queen's Palace . . .

And Knox and Jemima in front of the crown prince's front door! (Cool door, huh?)

And this was a terrific old medieval building in the center of The Hague - and the kids loved the fountain!

And here was the cathedral at Utrecht. Unbelievably beautiful - and had the most incredible cloisters.

Beautiful.

And then there was Amsterdam.

We got to see the Anne Frank House (of which I unaccountably have no pictures) and a fabulous cathedral (also no pictures for some reason.) But here is Ben, in the center of Amsterdam . . . the square which is actually called the Dam.

Then there was the flower market. (No, we didn't buy any tulip bulbs, because we didn't think they'd let us back into the country if we did.)



And here we have the Merkles doing Amsterdam! Mom looking exceptionally devious for some reason . . . and everyone else . . . well . . . we're not sure.

And how fun is this? The Deckers bought the kids bubbles, and we stopped in a beautiful, quiet, convent and blew bubbles for a while!

And check this out. The Dutch are not kidding around with their biking. They mean business! (This was only one row of bike parking!)

Here's the long walk down the lane to the little church where Wilbert is the pastor . . .

And here he is after the sermon. (This church was completed before Columbus discovered America . . . )

And then there was Guithoorn. Totally amazing little village with no roads - only canals. Apparently when someone here has to go to the hospital, they chuck them into a wheelbarrow and run them out on the path to where the ambulance is waiting on the nearest road . . .

Don't you love the little bridges over the canal to the houses? We're standing next to the footpath - it's not accesible by car.

We took a little boat through the canals, and then out into the lake next to the village. The kids had a total blast, and got ice cream cones to boot!

And of course, the windmill. It was amazing. Completely show-stopping. It was in the little neighboring village called Nijeveen (which isn't pronounced a thing like the way it looks!) and was utterly amazing. The Deckers got us a tour all through it . . . and not only that, they made us pancakes out of the flour ground in this mill, and milk and eggs from a neighboring farm. Truly incredible.


Ben and I got to go all the way up to the top - really cool, but incredibly freaky!

Here we are next to the man who runs the mill. Very cool guy - and totally amazing how he can operate this huge and incredibly old piece of machinery! (A piece of machinery that scared the dickens out of me I must admit!)

Here's a picture of me reading the kids the riot act about NOT RUNNING up there in the middle of grindstones and gears and ladders and large drops from great heights and enormous wooden beams that are hooked up to the wind!

And finally - the crazy megalithic stone burial thingies. Really amazing - sort of the Dutch version of Stonehenge. The kids had a blast climbing all over them.

Look how ridiculously big this thing is.


Be sure to note Judah's "Hup Holland" hat! He got very attached to it and it's still one of his favorite pieces of headgear.

All in all a completely stupendous trip! Thanks for everything Deckers!

Afternoon in Cirencester

Well, I am trying to get all of my pictures caught up onto the blog . . . and I'm doing it in order. So naturally everything is several weeks outdated. But better late than never I suppose! A couple weeks ago we had a fabulous little Sunday afternoon excursion to Cirencester . . . which is the old Roman city of Corinium. It was apparently the 2nd largest Roman city in Britain, with London being the largest . . . and it was built throughout the first century. There is a fabulous museum there, featuring all of the things that they have found in the city . . . enormous mosaic floors, jewelry, column capitals, weapons . . . all in all it was loads of fun. There was even a section for the kids to try on Roman armour. (Although, is it just me, or does it seem a little funny to have the Romans wearing chain mail? I kind of thought they did the big breastplate and shin-guard jobbies.)

Here is Knox putting on his best fierce Roman soldier face.

Jemima testing out how she'd like to be a warrior princess.

Belphoebe . . . dressed like her namesake from the
Faerie Queen! (Although missing the
leather breeches.)

Hero looking very ferocious indeed.

. . . . and Judah, feeling exceptionally pleased with himself.

And finally, Daddy is incredibly authentic, don't you think?

Then we stopped and looked at the Abbey. It had just closed, so we couldn't get in . . . but we enjoyed the outside quite a bit. It almost looks like it has a flying buttress that has been worked in as a wall to another portion of the church . . . weird. We haven't seen any others like that.

Here are the kids, huddled in the corner and freezing to death . . . .

And here's what the picture looks like zoomed out.

There is also an old Roman amphitheater in the town, so of course we had to stop to see that. If you really squint there are small colored dots in the background that are actually our children, terry-hooting around on the far wall.

This is what the amphiteatre looks like as you approach it. And then when you crest that big hill you look down into the amphitheater itself.

All in all, it was a spectacular Sunday afternoon! And Knox is reading The Eagle of the Ninth right now, so he's hoping to catch a reference to Corinium.

Boat Race!

These two pictures are simply to prove that Ben was there at the race. You have to squint to find the boats in the background, but they're actually there if you look hard enough.

And here I am. The boats are much easier to spot in my pictures!

No we didn't take this picture. But it's the Oxford team nonetheless.

Well here's a wild one. Ben and I got to go watch the Oxford / Cambridge boat race, and not only that - we got to watch it from the London Rowing Club balcony which is right near the start line at Putney Bridge! Ben got an invitation because he's on the Christ Church team, and given a code word to say at the entrance to get us in. How Wodehouse is that?! I felt the evening really wouldn't be complete unless we tried to steal a policeman's helmet . . . but we ended up not doing that part of the traditional Wodehouse Boat Race Night. (Actually the rest of the traditional Wodehouse Boat Race Night would be to fail in the attempted theft of the helmet through forgetting to do the sharp thrust forward to disengage the chin strap and having the policeman come with it. The next step is getting arrested, spending the night in the jug, and showing up in court the next morning, giving a false name, and then getting fined five pounds. We skipped all that bit and just watched the race.)

We were on the balcony for the start of the race and watched them row past, and then when they went around the bend in the river the whole mob of us (and there was a mob) went running back into the clubhouse to try and watch the rest of the race on the large TV. Unfortunately however, the gang was so big that people were standing on chairs and things and I absolutely couldn't see squat. I had my face pretty much smooshed into the ribcage of an eight foot tall German wearing a Cambridge blazer so I got a good look at the tailoring of the coat and that was pretty much it. Mom called during the race - they were watching it on TV, and so of course they got a much better view of the whole thing than I did! Ben could see a bit . . . and kept me informed of who was winning. And the good news (in case you hadn't heard) is that Oxford won! And the other part of the good news is that Ben and I got a fantastically fun evening out and now I can say I've been to the Boat Race!

Bath Birthday

The newly 5 Miss Hero taking the waters

Outside the Pump Room, looking at the Bath Abbey.

The famous Bath Water in the Pump Room.

The Pump Room itself.

Overlooking one of the Roman baths.

We’ve now commenced a new birthday scheme. We’ve decided (for varied and sundry reasons) that we’d like to give each of the kids a special birthday expedition each year while we’re here in England . . . and it will be their particular place that we always go on their birthday. We started this last year for Knox. We took him to Warwick Castle for his birthday because we needed to give him a special treat. He needed a bit of bucking up as the prospect of having to have a birthday in England wasn’t looking like much fun to him – no family around, no classmates, no cupcakes in class, no birthday cake at Papa and Nana’s house. So we tried to think of something that would be so spectacularly fun, and so spectacularly “England” that it would compensate! Thus the Warwick Castle expedition. And we had such a complete blast that day that we decided we should really do that for all of the kids. We would really love them to look back with fondness on this English experience, and not with that feeling of having been ripped off of everything fun. We would love it if, when our kids are back at home and having a birthday, they could remember that, “When we lived in England I always used to get to go to (fill in the blank) on my birthday.” We thought that might also help with cementing some of these memories. We’ve found that visiting a place repeatedly helps the kids to really have a very concrete memory of a place. You can say, “We’re going to go to the Vale of the White Horse” for instance, and they’ll all shout, “Hooray!” instead of, “What’s that?” and then you have to start up the tedious explanations about, “Remember that day when it rained really hard and we all got wet and then we stopped for tea in that stable? That was the Vale of the White Horse.” At that point you realize that they have no idea what the White Horse is, but they remember the tea in the stable. (Which of course is fun too, but you know what I mean.) So this is all to say that we are now officially on the Birthday Expedition Scheme. Like I said, Knox’s birthday destination point is Warwick Castle. Jemima has requested hers to be Cheddar – so we’ll be heading that way in about a week when she turns 8. Bel has her birthday in Moscow, so she’ll get an “un-birthday” expedition that has yet to be determined, Judah’s is also still to be decided, and Hero’s has just taken place.

Miss Hero Sidney Merkle is a bit of a diva. She loves a good dress up dress, and could tea party the rest of us under the table. So after a bit of thought, Ben and I decided that the most fitting place to take Hero was to Bath for tea in the Pump Room. For those of you who aren’t devotees of Jane Austen or Regency Period novels, the Pump Room was THE destination point for the fashionable elite in the 18^th century when they sojourned in Bath to “take the waters.” The water in Bath was supposed to be restorative and many sick, ailing, or hypochondriac people would go to Bath to be cured of their illnesses and generally pampered. If you’ve seen “Amazing Grace” the Pump Room is the setting when Wilberforce first meets his future wife. Anyhow, we thought that a good High Tea in the Pump Room would really fill the bill for little Miss Hero.

Thanks to a donation from Grandpa Gary, we completely splurged it up on this little trip and felt not even a pang of remorse about it! We took the whole lot of us into the incredibly posh Pump Room and ordered each of the kids a dish of ice cream along with a ginger bread man and a hot chocolate . . . and the adults (Ben, Brooke, and I) got an out and out High Tea. This involved a crazy array of sandwiches, scones, cream puffs, and knick-knacks of varying descriptions, and a pot of tea. When we had finished, we of course all had to sample the famous Bath water which is spouting out of a really fantastic fountain called the King's Spring. As it turned out, it tastes exactly like Moscow water if you were to drink it hot, straight out of the tap. There’s obviously an entire industry just waiting to happen with Moscow water. Anyhow, the kids were very struck by the water’s restorative powers. Mysterious ailments were clearing up right and left all around the table. Several of the children swore that their stomach had been hurting prior to drinking the water, but now was fit as a fiddle. This led us to conclude that 18^th century fashionable England must have had the mentality of an 8 year old.

After we had finished with our very posh tea, we went to have a look at the Roman Baths. The very brief overview of the city of Bath is that it was held to be a sacred place by the Celts because of the hot spring, and when the Romans showed up, they too thought that this was a sacred place with healing powers. They built a temple on the spot with a large bath complex, and dedicated it to Sulis-Minerva. Sulis was the Celtic goddess, and Minerva was the Roman . . . so they made a very synchronistic temple to Sulis-Minerva. The ruins of the temple were really incredible, and the baths were amazing. For some reason I usually think of the Romans in Britain as having built a garrison or two and maybe the odd villa . . . but seeing an out and out temple with enormous carvings of Gorgons’ heads was truly weird . . . like a wild mixing of metaphors somehow. Especially with Jane Austen’s house, the Assembly Rooms, and the Royal Crescent just up the block.

All in all we had a splendid and terrific day. Hero was very importantly polite at tea and absolutely reveled in her little expedition. And we’re all very pleased that now we have a reason to go back next year – when Hero turns 6!

Torpids!

Today we got to go and all watch Daddy row in Torpids, which is the big boat race in Hilary term, and the first race we've seen so far. (The Regatta in Michaelmas term had to be cancelled because the river was too high.) Be sure to note in the above picture that their boat is named King Henry VIII - I feel like that's pretty funny actually. Are there many college boat races out there with boats named King Henry VIII? Possibly, but my experience in college boat races is limited, and so I find it funny. Today was the fourth and final day of the race, and his crew has been racing every day, but we hadn't yet braved the epic walk and freezing winds to go and watch. This was a bumps race, which means they all line up on the river according to the order in which they qualified. They're all stationed a certain distance apart and then when the canon goes they try to catch and bump the boat ahead of them. If you bump someone then you're done with the race, but if you get bumped then you have to keep rowing and trying to bump someone else. Then the next day you are lined up according to the new order from the previous day and do the same thing again. Ben's boat did really terrible the first day - the guy who was rowing stroke (the guy in the back of the boat) had his seat come off right at the beginning of the race and they got all out of whack and got bumped fairly quickly. Apparently the cox is supposed to concede to the other boat, which he did, but they either didn't notice or didn't care and continued to bump and then ran over someone's oar or something and the boat went completely sideways and they couldn't get it straightened out . . . all in all it was total chaos! However the absolute icing on the cake was the most hilarious part of the day - apparently a bunch of the guys on Ben's boat had ordered "kit" which is the uniform they wear for the race. Ben hadn't ordered any, and there was only one other guy who hadn't. The box of kit didn't arrive until about half an hour before the race, so the captain of the team came sprinting over right before the race distributing the kit to everyone. It was some sort of spandex sleeveless garment that went to the knees - basically a unitard. So everyone was in the unitard except for Ben and this other guy. Then they had the bomb of a race. And so they all came morosely back to the boathouse and found the captain waiting sheepishly for them there. He broke them the news that he had, in the heat of the moment, accidentally given them the wrong kit. And as it turned out, it was the girls' kit that he had given them! I believe that Ben had a good deal of merriment at their expense. As he walked back after the race with one of the guys he told him that he may have been on a losing team, he may have gotten bumped, but at least he hadn't raced in spandex. And more than that, at least he hadn't raced in girls' spandex. However, he may just have to eat his words on that . . . we'll wait and see what he wears in "Eights Week" next term. Apparently in today's race the gym shorts that he was wearing kept getting tangled in the seat and messing up the sliding mechanism and jamming everything up. So whatever his feelings about spandex, there's no denying that there's a certain benefit to having a snugly fitting garment in certain contexts. (In the above picture, by the way, they're wearing men's gear. Ben stands out as the guy who doesn't match.)

Ben's Secret Sorrow

Well here comes another of my bi-annual blog updates! I felt that I should repeat for everyone’s edification something that Ben was fussing about last night.

To set the context, he has to ride his bike into town for classes and libraries and things fairly often . . . and when he does so he is in the company of thousands of other people who are, like him, sick of trying to find a parking place. It’s quite the little pedaling swarm of scholars, some of them sporting reflector vests and reflector Velcro strips that clench their pant legs tightly to their ankles in an attempt to keep them from tangling up in the chain and hurtling into the path of the ever-present oncoming bus . . . but the rest of them chuck caution to the wind and pedal around in their scholar’s robe, holding three bags of groceries, and with a cello strapped to their back. Ben falls more in to the first category than the second. He always wears his helmet in a very safety conscious manner, and truth be told, he even owns a set of the ankle thingies. (You wouldn’t catch him in a reflector vest though.)

But be that as it may, reflector vest or no, Ben makes the trek in to town frequently on his bike. He’s also a very reasonably fit man in the prime of life who rows for Christ Church College in his spare time. What is there to fuss about you’re asking yourself? Well it is this. He claims (fussily) that while on his bike he is perpetually having stout old women on bicycles blow right past him, leaving him completely in the dust. According to him, it’s happening all the time. He’s pedaling along, head down, man with a mission, got to get to the library and translate some random German theological article, when suddenly a chunky little old lady in a dress and sensible shoes will come wheeling past him on a rackety old bicycle from the forties. The bike is always tricked out with a whicker basket on the front that usually contains the complete OED, her skirt is flapping in the breeze, no sign of a helmet, and she’s sitting bolt upright and singing at the top of her voice a snatch from “La Traviata” and signaling left by holding both her arm and her umbrella straight out to the side. (A very risky thing to do in this land where you fold in your rear view mirrors when you park your car.) He’s quite put out about the whole thing. He feels, rightly or wrongly, that chubby little old ladies on bikes ought to take longer than he does to get up the Headington Hill. But then again, I bet that they could translate the German theological article faster than he could too!

So Ben would like to ask for prayer that he would get one of the following:

a.) Get into biking shape

b.) Get the grace to not throw elbows when he’s passed by elderly opera aficionados

c.) Get a bus pass