A family in motion stays in motion...

Upon return from Italy, our adventures continued at home in the UK with a trip to Woolsthorpe Manor - the birthplace and family home of Sir Isaac Newton. 

The famous apple tree from which Sir Newton derived his scientific discoveries about gravity:

It was "Bees and Blossoms" weekend so the girls each got to contruct a bumble bee in the kids craft zone.  Grandma Tolley was an A+ helper.  Then we visited with some real beekeepers and asked lots of questions.  (We'd like to keep bees of our own someday...)

We toured Woolsthorpe Manor:

and played at the on-site discovery centre:

There were plenty of friendly helpers at the discovery centre who were eager to tell the girls all about Newton's scientific laws and demonstrate them in action.  It was really good fun, very interesting and only about a 40-minute drive from home - making this yet another great day trip.

Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton was born on 25 December (1642)?  What a great day to have a birthday...

There's always room for

C-E-L-L-O.

  Tuesday night I auditioned for the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra.  The audition itself lasted about 40 minutes, then I was asked to join the 3-hour rehearsal that evening.  I wasn't sure if anyone was impressed with my playing because I made more than a few errors.  But even after not playing cello since we left the States (18 months ago), I managed to fumble through Verdi's La Forza del Destino well enough to earn a place in the cello section!

I'm really excited!  It's quite an honour to play with a real symphony orchestra - my first non-university music post as a performer! This is something I've always dreamed of...   I'm particularly looking forward to the big 20th anniversay concert series at the cathedral this summer.  Would be great to see some friends in the audience (hint, hint).  

Helping Hands

Today, throughout the entire United Kingdom, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worked together on various service projects for their local communities. It is known as "Helping Hands" day and is an annual event. Our project for the Peterborough area included cleaning up the Nature Preserve at Railworld. We weeded, laid paths, painted a bridge, dredged ponds and even drove in fence posts. It was a beautiful warm day and we had a lot of fun working together with our fellow church members of all ages.

Below: my little girls and their friend, Olivia, work together to "chop out" the weeds near the picnic area.
My good buddy Julia and I worked on painting the bridge.
The boys got to play with large hammers.
Even the Mayor, herself, came to behold this massive effort. She seemed pleased and posed for a photo with the group of us that were painting the bridge, then took a tour of the grounds with our Bishop.

As we were finishing up with our service activities, the Nene Valley Railway's steam engine pulled in and we got to see it getting filled up with water. The girls were really impressed.

Afterwards, we headed into the city centre for a few hours at the Medieval Fayre, part of the Peterborough Heritage Festival. We saw demonstrations on medieval craftsmanship, toured a replica of a Viking longboat and enjoyed the Roman and Viking soldiers re-enact battles.

Exploring Peterborough

Grandma & Grandpa were still suffering from jet-lag a bit, so we kept to our hometown on Monday by visiting Peterborough's City Centre. We did some shopping at Queensgate, found treats at the local bakery, toured the cathedral, and stopped by the museum which had a limited-time hand-on human body exhibit which we all found to be very entertaining - particularly Grandma and little Emily.

Flag Fen: our day trip into the Bronze Age

With the time delay on the broadcast of General Conference (http://www.lds.org/) for us overseas, we took advantage of the free time on Saturday morning to tour some local Peterborough history: Flag Fen, a Bronze-age archaeological site. The girls were particularly interested in the re-creation of the Bronze age houses and lifestyle. Pictured above is Amy: Chief Bard of the Fens... for today anyway. (Notice her lacing shoes - she can tie them herself!)


A view from outside of the Bronze-age hut. Nearby the Soay sheep were grazing: these sheep are supposedly the closest genre to what would have existed in the Bronze age. They are unique in that they shed their wool instead of needing to be sheared. A tour guide said that children from the Bronze age would be responsible for collecting the wool and would then help with spinning and looming it. We saw a blanket inside the hut made from this process... it looked about as comfortable as a burlap sack.

We also toured the little museum they had on-site and watched some local men forging authentic bronze swords. This particular site has artifacts dating from 4,500 B.C.!!!


Here is a view of the landscape here in East Anglia. It is often referred to as "The Fens" or "Fenland" and represents the area of the country that banks upon "the wash" or where the North Sea filters in. The whole contains an area of nearly 1,500 square miles or about 1 million acres.

Today, the Fens are primarily an agricultural area which is strongly characterised by both its very low elevation and its flatness, as most of the Fenland lies within a few metres of sea-level. As with similar areas in the Netherlands, much of the Fenland originally consisted of fresh or saltwater wetlands which have been artificially drained and continue to be protected from floods by drainage banks (pictured above). Consequently, the locals here are much more concerned with global warming and its effect on rising sea levels.

The Flag Fen Bronze age archaeological site is located in this swampy Fenland and the continual dampness is credited for preserving the artifacts - including an extensive wooden bridge! Overall, our day at Flag Fen was yet another amazing trip back in history and we feel so blessed to be able to live in this part of the world and experience these kind of outings together as a family.

Peterborough Christian Festival

We spent our Saturday outing close to home this week with a trip to Peterborough City Centre for the annual Christian Festival. The girls - Emily, in particular - really enjoyed the folk dancers and we all enjoyed shopping the tent sales and visiting the cathedral. We also stopped by the Peterborough Museum and explored a large exhibit of marine dinosaur fossils, then had lunch at Sunday's - a cute little cafe that serves traditional British fare: roast beef & gammon, potatoes, cabbage and Yorkshire pudding.

Same as in America... almost.

Same: mowing the lawn
Different: using an electric hovercraft mower (moves like a vaccuum and sounds like one too)



Same: our family loves old tractors and community get-togethers
Different: in our village - Glinton - you can climb up on old tractors to the tune of 13th century church bells and watch men dressed up like leprechauns (beat that Morton Pumpkin Festival!)


Same: weekly trips to the library
Different: Emily (age 2) gets her own library card (which she preciously guards in her very own purse)...and the library is conveniently located next to Tesco (grocery store) so Mum can stock up on food and good literature in one stop.


Same: date night!
Different: eating at a pub located next to a beautiful archaic stone church in a renowned village (execution site of Mary, Queen of Scots), exquisite pub food, and the best babysitter ever: Emily, age 15, lives down the street from us - she lead the girls in arts and crafts projects, had them play instruments and march around the house, and then she tidied up the house! The girls asked if we could go on another date the very next night just so they could have "Big" Emily back to babysit!

Sunday afternoon stroll (7 Sept. 2008)

Last Sunday afternoon we went on a walk-about to the neighboring town of Crowland and visited the abbey there. We caught it during a break in the rain and even enjoyed a little sunshine in the gardens for a while. The abbey was built in the 1200s and only 1/3 of it still stands fully in tact. I love the roses everywhere!
Another site we stopped by is the old triangle bridge - you can enter it from 3 directions and supposedly the area underneath used to be a river... now it is a sidewalk!

Peterborough Cathedral

We had to turn in our rental car by noon on Saturday - the day before we flew back to Chicago - so we spent the afternoon visiting downtown sites in Peterborough, including the famous Cathedral there.

There are two significant things about the Peterborough Cathedral: 1. it holds the tomb of Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife and 2. it has a painted wood ceiling that dates back to medieval times - the year 1250 to be exact. Supposedly that is the oldest surviving painted wood in the entire UK.

We weren't allowed to take photographs inside, but I assure you it was extremely impressive! Perhaps you will have to come visit and see for yourself. :-)