US in the UK

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

2008-10-26T21:58:00.041Z

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!

2008-09-04T17:11:00.043+01:00

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

2008-04-11T14:50:00.017+01:00

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!

2008-04-09T13:58:00.007+01:00

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

2008-03-25T23:22:00.016Z

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!

2008-02-23T22:32:00.011Z

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

2008-02-01T23:35:00.000Z

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

Robin Hood!

2008-01-17T13:58:00.000Z

Right then. My esteemed aunt Heather tells me that everyone is done looking at the mixer and it's time for an update. And I suppose that since it's been a straight up month since I last put anything up on this blog we can't accuse aunt Heather of over-reacting.

So, since the mixer arrival day we have managed to stagger through the Christmas madness and have a whale of a time doing it, Ben finished his break (always a relief - break times can be almost more work than term time,) then we all got the flu . . . that was exciting. Skipping lightly over the flu portion of the last month, I will pass to happier things and tell you of our trip to Nottingham. It was absolutely and completely fabulous! Well, actually no. Let me rephrase that. It turned out to be absolutely and completely fabulous. It started out as a bit of a dud actually.
We started off the day at Nottingham Castle . . . which is 17th century but built on the site of the original Medieval castle of Prince John fame and all that. There was a Robin Hood exhibit in the castle that we were anxious to see . . . but wow. Not fun. Hilarious actually. The whole upper floor of the castle was devoted to the BBC tv mini-series, Robin Hood. Larger than life banners with pictures of the actors . . . telling us that in the tv show, the Sheriff of Nottingham's catchphrase is, "La-de-dah!" Then a mannequin dressed like Maid Marian would light up and she would tell us that "Robin Hood never understands the importance of my work for the resistance!" or something silly like that . . . it was completely pitiful and extremely un-techy to boot. One thing that I noticed while there was that, for good or ill, Americans can package ANYTHING. I'm pretty sure that in Idaho at least, if someone found as much as an arrow head we would have a sneeze guard constructed over the site of the discovery, and a darned good and extremely slick presentation about it . . . even if there was absolutely nothing to be said about it. But here we had NOTTINGHAM CASTLE for Pete's sake! And the best they could muster was a badly dressed set of mannequins that lit up in a freakish and eerie way and are supposed to look like BBC actors . . . it was a bit ridiculous and we were really hoping we hadn't driven an hour and a half to look at that.

So we walked down to St. Mary's church . . . where Robin Hood had once had a show down with the Sheriff's men in the sanctuary. It's also the spot where, according to legend, he married Maid Marian. But apparently the earliest accounts of Robin Hood don't actually mention Maid Marian at all and so historians aren't sure that she actually existed. However, since historians are notoriously spoil sports, we'll pay no mind to the fact that early accounts don't mention her. But Maid Marian or no, when we got to the church it was all locked up. (Picture #2 - kids standing outside the locked gate.) At this point in the day we were feeling a bit gypped. It was utterly frigid and we were freezing to death on the not-so-charming streets of Nottingham with nothing to look at. It was really a toss up whether we would go back to the castle for a tour of something called, "Mortimer's Hole" or go to Starbucks and call it a day. We decided to go back for the tour and oh boy. We were SO glad we hadn't opted for Starbucks!

Back at the castle they told us that the entirety of Castle Rock was riddled with caves . . . in fact, all of Nottingham is riddled with caves. They took us down a tunnel from the castle that led down and down and down . . . through all sorts of twisty passages and crazy caves . . . Judah's comment was, "There are caves under castles! I LOVE this place!" We stopped in a cave (blurry picture #3) that had been used as a dungeon . . . Robin Hood had spent time in there, and King David of Scotland had been there for 12 years. Prince John had even imprisoned and held hostage 28 young boys - sons of the barons - and kept them in the dungeon to insure the barons' good behaviour. However, the story ended quite horribly as all 28 boys were hung from the castle walls.

But then we went through a tunnel that led to Mortimer's Hole. This part gave me goose bumps actually. The tour guide went over the story with us - as we were all standing in the tunnel - of how, after the murder of Edward II by Mortimer and Isabella, Edward III had snuck through this tunnel leading his men (guided by a townsman who had grown up in the castle and knew a secret way in) and come out in the center keep of the castle where Mortimer and Isabell (his mother) were holding a council. They grabbed Mortimer and dragged him back out through the tunnels before anyone had even been able to raise the alarm. Mortimer was taken to London and drawn and quartered, and Edward III took the throne. It was really unbelievable to hear that story again, but while standing in the place it had happened.

She also told us that early Medieval manuscripts describe one cave under Nottingham Castle that has an enormous Passion of Christ carved into the cave wall, as well as full statues of the 12 apostles. This cave is lost somewhere under the castle - and they're hoping that they'll have enough funds soon to try and excavate more of the tunnels and find it.

After the tour of the caves ended, we went into a pub at the base of Castle Rock called the "Trip to Jerusalem." This really topped off the day. The pub was actually a series of caves in the rock - but it had a 16th century-ish pub sort of retrofitted into it. It was quite cool in it's own right - but the bit about it that was show-stopping was the fact that this was a pub where the Crusaders stopped on their way to the Crusades - thus the name! Richard the Lionhearted had summoned the troops for the third crusade (it was the third wasn't it?) and so they all mustered here. Since this pub had originally been the brewhouse for the castle (complete with 60 foot shaft up through the rock to the castle where they hoisted the beer up) this is where the Crusaders essentially stopped and had "one for the road."

All in all it was a complete blast, and we're going to have to make a separate trip back sometime for Sherwood Forest because it was dark by the time we finished the cave tour. The camera helpfully died before the pub, so we didn't get pictures of that unfortunately.

WOW!

2007-12-20T13:19:00.001Z

Look what just arrived on my doorstep! The Kitchenaid, not the lemons. The fabulous and thoughtful Nate and Heather crew just had this delivered for me with best wishes for a holly jolly Christmas. How fun is this?!

I am SO pleased about this . . . last year, when we moved to England, New St Andrews college gave me a gorgeous red Kitchenaid as a going away gift. I loved that thing, and used it all the time - and kept it on my kitchen windowsill where I used it daily. But then, at the end of the year we had to move home to Moscow, not knowing if we would be returning to England. Because of the issue with the plugs and voltage being different in the States, the Kitchenaid couldn't come with us - and since we didn't know if we'd be returning there was nowhere to store it. So I reluctantly sold my mixer and told myself that I'd buy a new one at home and it would still be my NSA mixer. But then back we came to England and life is crazy and we still don't have a bed frame . . . so a Kitchenaid was a ways down my list. But not far enough down that I didn't pine for my old cheery mixer sitting jauntily on my windowsill. I pined especially when it was time to make a double batch of chocolate chip cookies - and I definitely could have used it during my marshmallow fluff escapade.

And here it is! And it's yellow this year! Thanks Nate and Heather - you're way too fun!

Better Than Last Year!

2007-12-19T23:48:00.001Z

That last picture that I posted was so pathetic that I felt it needed something to balance it out. And so, here is our festive little mantle to try and take all of our minds off of the forlorn bit of shrubbery pictured a bit lower on the page. Much cheerier don't you think?

Lest you think I exaggerate . . .

2007-12-19T23:37:00.000Z

Right then. I can tell that some of you (yes family members, I'm speaking of you) think that I might have been touching up the story of last year's Christmas tree a bit much. But I accidentally happened across this picture and thought that I should post it for everyone's edification. This is how it looked right before it got hauled out the door after I had picked out most of the pipecleaners. But come to think of it, I'm not sure why I bothered with that part.

Christmas time!

2007-12-13T22:28:00.000Z

Well, we got the tree up. This is actually impressive news. And strange to say, it's still alive - which is even more impressive news. AND we have a few ornaments! So life is good all round.

We had to leave all of our ornaments in Moscow when we left, and last year I never got around to aquiring any in time. (I had other things on my mind like trying to figure out where the grocery store was and how to not kill myself trying to drive to it on the left side of the road!) So this meant that when the time to decorate the Christmas tree rolled around I just handed the kids a whole load of pipecleaners and some beads and told them to go to it. This resulted in several things. The first was beads up the nose, and the other was a really, really bizarre little Christmas tree. The poor thing just had wiry bits sticking out all over it and nothing else really. As if that wasn't bad enough, it promptly lost all its needles. And when I say all, I am not exaggerating in the slightest. By Christmas day, the tree had not one single needle left from about 5 feet on down. It seriously looked like a disease had swept through the forest leaving only a wreckage of orange twigs. Of course, all of these needles fell off onto my living room floor you realize. I did my best to clean up the ones that broke free and got out onto the carpet. But the rest that fell in and amongst the presents just had to wait until after the tree came down.

And the tree came down on Christmas day, before lunch. I have never in my life whipped a Christmas tree out the door so fast . . . the kids took their new things upstairs, and when they got back there was no more tree. And I doubt that vaccuum cleaner has recovered yet.

So when I tell you that my Christmas tree is still alive, you will realize the full weight of my joy in this statement. And like I said, this year we have a few ornaments - aren't the mushrooms fun? I'm pleased with those.

Furnishing the Lower Farm

2007-12-04T13:11:00.000Z

So let's have a little house update, shall we? The last time I mentioned it, we were going to pick up a piano, we had one mattress on the floor for Ben and me, and the kids were on cushions on the floor. Things have improved since then, thankfully. We did get the piano, and I got a bee in my bonnet and painted it blue. Actually, it's absolutely adorable, and if I get around to it I'll put up a picture. The kids are getting piano lessons from Brooke, and Knox has taught himself virtually every Christmas carol there is, so we have a constant soundtrack full of holiday cheer. The kids are now in actual beds, which is a huge weight off my mind. The other half of the weight will be off when they get some decent blankets - but the ones they are using currently keep them warm, and so that's enough for now. Ben and I still have a mattress on the floor. None of us yet have dressers or wardrobes (and this is a house with no closets) so everyone's clothes are either still in suitcases or in piles on the floor that we attempt to keep tidy but it never works out very well. Every time a kid pulls out a shirt to put on the whole pile topples over and comes unfolded. So I'm looking for dressers and wardrobes at the moment. We got a couch on ebay - an intensely festive little item that is ruby velvet with a hilarious fringe at the bottom. We're all quite pleased to have something to sit on now in the living room - and even more pleased that we got this zippy number for one pound. Another extremely helpful addition to the living room is a court cabinet, also off ebay for dirt cheap. What is a court cabinet? It's a crazy dark wood unit with cupboards and drawers and pretty intense carving. This is what put some rhyme and reason into the homeschooling - and got all the books and papers and pencils out of a pile in the corner. Aside from a couple of side tables that I picked up for free and two bookcases bought on ebay for Ben's office, that pretty much sums up the entirety of our home furnishings! Little by little we're gradually eliminating piles on the floor - and I can't tell you how much it cheers me up when a pile is eliminated from the floor!

The Last 2 Weeks - Summed Up

2007-11-30T14:41:00.000Z

So the last few weeks have been one long hoot. We had the Nate Wilson clan visiting for Thanksgiving - and thus we had NINE children all sleeping in the same room - four of them jet lagged. This actually turned out to be ridiculously easy, considering. The kids had a blast together and basically picked up playing right where they left off this summer. We trooped them all over Oxford and adjoining counties, made them taste mince pies and clotted cream, took Nate and Heather to dinner at Christ Church, cooked a 28 pound Thanksgiving turkey in a miniature oven, drove them past and made them wave at Stonehenge, visited the major Oxford museums, picnicked on the Thames, saw the remaining earthworks of several iron age hill forts, one ruined castle, one cathedral, and one palace. They also metal detected in our pasture and found, among other things, bits of wire, old bolts, a yogurt lid, and half of one Georgian buckle (like the kind the Pilgims wore on their hats.) All in all, a very productive 12 days. They also contributed greatly to the smooth flow of the household. After the first dinner where Brooke had to eat with the Tablespoon (as in, the cooking apparatus) and I had to use the teaspoon, Heather took me straight out and bought 2 large sets of silverware and now I feel downright opulent!

4 weeks later . . .

2007-11-30T14:27:00.000Z

So as it's turning out, we're terrible at blogging. It's been almost an entire month since anything new as added to this blog - but since only about one and a half people have ever looked at it, this isn't too much of a let down for anyone! But, as an exercise in self discipline, I am now going to commence putting up some new pictures and whatnot.

2007-11-04T16:04:00.000Z

So Brooke Wilson is here! Hip hip hooray! We picked her up at the airport on Thursday, and she's doing remarkably well and showing no visible signs of jet lag! Today she went with us to St. Ebbe's church, and afterwards we took a picnic and went to The Kilns . . . . CS Lewis's house and property. We hiked up the ridge through the woods (the kids call it Narnia) and had a great time and a gorgeous fall lunch which included baguettes and apples and cheese and mince pies. We're all very excited that it's mince pie season again - and we're planning on making the most of it.

Judah turns 3

2007-10-28T12:35:00.001Z

Judah turned the big 3 the other night. He received a gun and a knife and a helmet, and was so pleased with them that he couldn't be bothered to taste his cake. He had a piece the next day when the thrill had worn off a bit and he could devote his mind to other things besides mayhem. Condsidering that we have had no toys of any kind in the house for 3 weeks it's hardly a surprise that he was a little dazzled by the prospect of having something to play with!

2007-10-28T10:24:00.001Z

So here you have it. The Lower Farm House. It is absolutely fantastic, and just what we needed. You can see the huge pasture out past the house where the kids can run around. We are living in what is technically one of the worst neighborhoods of the city (thus the good deal on rent) - but we are just outside the village and can't see anything but fields in all directions. We're close enough to town that Ben can ride his bike into class - although it is a fairly death defying ride with hundreds of students on bikes all stampeding into town as a herd and weaving in and out of buses on ridiculously narrow roads.

The inside of the house is a hoot. It was unfurnished, and basically still is. But our landlord let us look through his barn for old furniture that people have left behind over the years - and that got us a table and some chairs which is very exciting. So far we have one mattress for Ben and me, and cushions on the floor for kids - there are no closets in the house and so far no wardrobes or dressers, so clothes are all in piles on the floor as well. We're hoping to get beds for the kids as soon as possible, and then maybe a couch. We're keeping a close watch on ebay. We did however find a whale of a deal on a piano on ebay - and Ben is going to pick it up today! The trouble with ebay is that when you find the real crazy deals it's almost never on the objects that were first on your priority list! But this piano was a deal we couldn't pass up and we're very excited to have it - now kids can start lessons and I can stop feeling like a delinquent mother for not getting music under their belts!