Our littles, as English as they can be this Easter. Images both from the garden at home and the dining room at Wimpole Estate. Not that anyone would have thought it was our dining room lol. It is a grand table though, yes?
Category Archives: England
practicing the art of adventure
The call went out from the homeschool group on Friday morning to meet at the adventure forest. I hesitated for a split second thinking, wait. Obstacle courses, ziplines… maybe I should call Allen. Maybe we should go when I have more help. I don't know how to get there and……
…and then I stopped my maybe-ing and considered the possibility that it might just all work out and the sun was shining and what the heck. We shelved the books and began packing lunch and finding wellies and water bottles. Our destination was Thetford forest. It was great nearly free fun. (As is common in Europe, you are welcome to take yourself on in but the car will cost you to park.)
Tess' favorite part was the musical forest trail. At each turn of the path there was another interactive instrument: chimes, ropes on pulls, in ground piano keys to jump on.
Abbie's favorite part? "The desert," she said. Meaning? The enormous sand pit with the big diggers which I thought would frustrate them but instead they nearly broke a sweat determined to coordinate the two arms.
The boys and their friend played ball in the open field then hit some of the bigger kid equipment. There was a little worrisome point for Brendan. It is not a big deal for Kieran to go off a bit ahead with older kids but Brendan is a little too young to be a big boy and a little too big to be ok being designated in the hand holder group. I could see his brow furrowing some and figured that was the problem. Luckily Aidan saw this too and had him tag along promising to keep a close eye. Brendan brightened right up and stuck close to his side so as to prove he was up for the honor.
By the afternoon's end Abbie proudly announced there was sand in her wellies which translates to "all is well with the world." They were fearless and carefree. Things I was not at their ages. But if you make it to the end you'll see that is changing with time. : )
“A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints.” — Wilfred Peterson
Here's to adventuring.
Lambing Time and Other Pleasures
My first thought was, is it really nuts to pay money to visit a farm? When we live on a farm? When we have lived on farms? My second thought was no. The British concept of farm as attraction is brilliant. It creates income for rural communities and allows children to roll up their sleeves and experience so many more aspects of rural life than any one family could normally enjoy. So we timed our visit to a local farm during lambing season when we could see the spring babies and they could try their hand at bottle feeding. The three youngest had a glorious day truly. They wandered from pen to pasture, fed animals, dug in a massive sand pit, and jumped on the trampolines. We lunched at their cafe and took home happily exhausted children who declared it 'best day ever.'
after the rain
This week saw the last hurrah for the daffodils. The plum trees are covered in white blossoms and the horses are beginning to venture out without their blankets. The sun has been out more often than not and the temps are rising steadily. A very good turn of events.
We had a lot of excitement around the farm this week. In the wee hours last weekend our burglar alarm went off. Since we had never heard it we had to really wake up and process what it was that was happening. It was no burglar but a system fail that ended up requiring the engineer to service it several days running. Several days of the alarm firing off erratically. It was funny that first time. It got old I admit.
The alarm guy and I ended up having a lot in common though and by the end of the whole project discovered we had both lived in Germany at different times and love to hike. We swapped notes about walking destinations and gear and he brought out his phone to show pictures of must-see peaks in the UK. Put me in a room with someone for a few minutes and I will know all about them when I walk out. I talk. A lot. : )
The farm's painter has been working on all the trim and gutters. He had us choose paint colors for the piano room which had a bad leak last summer. We have moved the furniture and taken down the pictures and Monday work begins on the inside. It looks like we will have to repair the tile next week as well. When one daughter was showering this morning the water was dripping down through the ceiling. It happened last year too. 1960s era olive green tiles in the bath are coming undone.
Living in a 200 year old house is an incredible experience, but it isn't always as romantic as magazines suggest. The maintenance required is considerable and ongoing. We are blessed to have someone else who owns and maintains it because this isn't something we could take on ourselves. As it is, we are living on a farm complex which is very different from the American concept of farms. There are a LOT of people living and working here which means a great deal gets accomplished. It is also a big change for us getting used to being part of a farm team of people coming and going, sometimes knocking and sometimes not. ; )
Our old Land Rover bit the dust this week as well. We had hoped to ride it out while we were here but in the end could not get it to pass its emissions test. So we went shopping for a British spec minivan. Abbie was beside herself when she heard. "I am SO happy!" she said. She was pretty sure she heard "Minnie" -van and was a little bummed to learn that was not the same thing. "It's not THAT, Dad." she told him, in case he too was under the illusion we were getting a Disney vehicle. "It just means its SIZE."
So it has been busy and things will be hopping around here for a bit yet for these and other reasons. I got a few pictures in the early morning the other day just as the sun broke through the rainclouds in that temporary hush before the bustling began. That has been important in keeping calm and collected during long days of noise and excitement. Mornings and evenings have been quiet, full of books and study and walking which balance the day's activity. Breathing in and breathing out.
So, these were the deep breaths in….
Walking through the raindrops – highly recommended.
something old
I picked up this necklace from a local vintage shopkeeper thinking I would wear it to the wedding last month. It didn't end up matching the dress but I have had it sitting out since anyway. Makes me really happy. The clasp is actually in front there behind the stones. I remember loving chunky vintage rhinestone earrings and brooches like this when I was little.
Things haven't changed much. : )
on seeing
"What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what sort of person you are."
C.S. LEWIS, The Magician's Nephew
a look at London
We have begun an incredible year. I hope to tell you all about it soon but for now I am running with 'a picture is worth a thousand words.' For certain they are better than the words I could manage this week!
wait
I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
– Habbakuk 2
This jumped out at me in my reading this weekend. I was thinking about it during my walk this morning, about how often we give God very small and precise parameters to work within. We so often assess the Almighty's performance in regard to our complaints and find His responses tardy. We assume that since He has not responded in what seems to us a reasonable amount of time that He then is not planning to.
Scripture so often says otherwise. It says the vision is still good. It isn't delayed, it is just that our time is not God's time. So we are to wait, and not wait passively. We are to station ourselves, to take an expectant stand and wait with confidence to see HOW He will answer. For He surely will.
Trouble comes when we start to get hung up on the how. "I can't see how this can end well." "I can't see how this could ever be fixed." "I can't see how I can ever feel differently." "I can't imagine this (person, place, situation) will ever change." Lucky for us, God is not limited by our capacity to predict and direct.
This is my reminder to myself. This is all I have to offer in my letters to friends. We don't have to be able to foresee how God will work it all out. Just know that He can. He surely will. He, in fact, is. Romans 8:28
And His timing is perfect.
tipsy
What to say about the village of Lavenham? Well, it is famous for it's half-timbered houses perched at precariously wonky angles leaning over streets or into neighboring houses. "Everyone" said we should see this. "Everyone" does not speak for my older children, who said, yep. They are tilted.
This one, saying "hmm, what could POSSIBLY be around that corner? yesssss! Another crooked house!"
There were a lot of such corners.
yeah.
And then it was like, Mom. Mom? For real now. Can we go get something to eat? We promise the awesomeness of tippy houses is forever seared into our memories. Muah. Let's eat.
So we did.
Along the Quay
Not many words tonight. Life has been all about finishing up last minute wedding details, working on school lessons, catching up on housework, and getting people back into their regular routine. Those things take up most of my waking hours right now. We have been a lot of places this winter however and I wanted to squeeze in just little uploading while the internet was kinda sort cooperating.
This is more from the shore with my guys….
Starry Sky Journal 