Germany

At the end of May we took a week long trip to Germany. While we were there, we were able to stay with good friends that we had met in Cambridge 5 years ago, Eva, Philip and their boys. They were wonderful hosts and we toured the southwestern bit of the country. We saw castles and Roman ruins and a monastery, not to mention amazing scenery. We also met up with Kathy, who lives right across the street from us in Highland Park. She was visiting her brother in Germany at the same time. We had a lovely afternoon with her family. Germany has so much to see, we will have to go back.

An English Country Fair

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, we decided to set out for the Granchester Fair on our bikes. Granchester is a lovely little village - thatched cottages, an ancient church, 2 pubs and tea gardens. It's just south of Cambridge and you can easily walk or bike there across the fields, as long as you make way for the grazing cattle you are bound to meet in transit.

We arrived without mishap (although 20 some large brown cows in the path meant we had to walk our bikes part of the way) and had a great afternoon. Typical fair events included a Suffolk Punch horse show, sheep shearing, a working dog exhibition, a falconry demonstration, Punch and Judy, and a bunch of re-enactors dressed as knights.

The sheep shearing drew a big crowd of Brits. It was discouraging to hear the average shearer makes 1 pound ($1.60) for every sheep he shears. At his best, the guy doing the demo said he could shear 400 sheep a day, but this is after years of practice and the problem is that in the begining you can't shear many sheep a day, so fewer and fewer young people are learning this trade.

Colin and I were amazed at the falconry demonstration. The strength and beauty of these birds was incredible. Olivia and some other children got a close up view of an Eagle Owl as it flew silently over them.

Eliot wasn't sure what to make of fighting knights. He kept asking, "Is he dead? Is he dead now?" It was tricky to explain the complicated dynamics of re-enactment to him. Both of the kids sat down eagerly for the Punch and Judy show, but after 10 minutes of puppet violence they were done. We moved on. However, they now like to say to one another, "Ow, I bumped me nose again," over and over and over and this brings on gales of laughter, so obviously they thought it was a bit funny too.

Of course, the fair had over priced rides and junky, greasy food, but that wasn't unique to Britain, so we had to skip over it (okay, we did let them go down the inflatable slide and eat french fries, but don't tell).

Cricket

Sometimes when I need a laugh I get a newspaper and read an account of a recent cricket match. It’s an amazing experience, for although it’s written in my native tongue, I can read paragraph after paragraph without understanding a blessed thing. Just to give you a sample, from a recent account in the Times of London:

Praising a player named Bopara: “His straight-driving and leg-side play in general was a delight and despite one instance of a loss of concentration when, half-forward to Sulieman Ben over 40, he ought to have been given left-before out, yet he was utterly untroubled until the final session. Then, perhaps aware of the approaching landmark, and running out of partners, after Broad cut airily, he began to infuse his calculating approach with greater risk.”

Got that? Maybe this guy is a banker?

Also, you may wish to know about someone named Edwards: “Finding his best rhythm after lunch from the Nursery end, no batsman looked at ease against his slingy thunderbolts and he pegged back England each time they threatened to get away. He finished with four wickets but deserved better.”

OK, then. I’m sure he did deserve better. Meanwhile, I’d love to know how to peg someone back with a slingy thunderbolt. Kind of reminds of me Jabberwockey: “’Twas brillig, and the slithey toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.” I wonder what would happen if someone just substituted Jabberwockey for the cricket column—would anyone even notice?

In any case, Edwards kept at it, transforming himself, meanwhile, from Jove into a schoolmaster, or possibly a doctor: “In a magical six-over spell from the nursery end, the Boscobel Bullet sent back Cook, Pietersen, for a first-ball blonger, and Collingwood, each batsman undone by a combination of swinging balls and questionable technique that will add weight to the claims that they came into this match ill prepared for the kind of stern examination to which Edwards subjected them.”

Ouch. Clearly you don’t want to be a first-ball blonger. And as for being undone by swinging balls, well, I don’t really want to touch that one.

Finally, since this is England, we need to talk about the weather. The pitch (that is, the field) began “green about the gills and damp to the touch.” (I assume that means it was raining.) But things improved later: “Nash opened the bowling after the break with his filthy left-armers, with two England batsmen set, the sun shining and the pitch now docile.”

Amidst swinging balls, filthy left-armers, first-ball blongers, and Broad cutting airily, we have, at last, a docile pitch. Thank goodness for that.

Paris in the Spring

Happy Easter

Happy Birthday Eliot and Colin

Colin and Eliot celebrated their birthdays at the beginning of April. We were joined by my brother Nathan and sister-in-law, Bethany that week and it was nice to have family around to add to the festivities. For Colin's birthday we all went to the Red Bull Pub, which is about a 10 minute walk away and had pizza.

Eliot had a small party with 4 friends and a Lemon boat cake for his birthday at home. Many of the presents he got make noise (a bike bell, a drum, a playmobil circus set). None of those came from his parents. He also received a 'Like-a-Bike' which is a wooden bike with out wheels. They are common over here and children as small as 2 zoom around on them in the park. The idea is that you learn how to steer and balance on a bike and then graduate up to a regular bike, skipping the training wheel phase. Eliot seemed to get the hang of it quickly and he is now faster than ever.

Castle Acre Priory and Castle Acre Castle

We had a great time when my Mom visited a few weeks ago. We took a day trip into Norfolk and visited 3 different historic sites. The first was a Neolithic flint mine called Grimes Graves. It was in operation around 3000B.C. We donned hard hats (all except Eliot, as he was too small) and climbed down into one of the many shafts they've found and saw the pre-historic tunnels where flint was mined using the antlers of red deer as pick axes. This place was in the middle of nowhere and a bit creepy, I thought. Colin was pretty sure he spotted some Neolithic men loitering about some run down cars just off the road before we entered.

Next was the Norman town of Castle Acre with a Cluniac Priory established in the 11oos. The ruins were impressive and Eliot and Olivia found lots of places to run and hide in. After lunch and a visit to the local church (which had a door big enough for a knight in full armor to ride through on horseback to receive a blessing before battle) we moved on to Castle Acre Castle also constructed in the 1100s. Very little of the castle is left there, but the earth work defenses are quite dramatic. Eliot and Olivia continued their running around while we 3 dashed after them hoping they wouldn't fall into the huge moat or ditch or off a ruined wall.

We stopped off on the way home and picked up groceries (taking advantage of actually having a trunk to carry our groceries home in instead of on our bikes) and made a quick visit to Olivia's school, so she could show it to Grandma. After a quick dinner of frozen pizza we hustled the now very tired kids off to bed. Eliot thanked God for ruins in his bedtime prayer. We continue to be so happy here.