Housestead's Fort and Hadrian's Wall

After our day at Alnwick Castle, we drove down to a town called Hexham and stayed the night at a place called the Boatside Inn (we highly recommend it by the way- real ales, good food, and great rooms). Anyway, the next morning we went to see Hadrian's Wall.

Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans during the reign of emperor Hadrian. The Romans had conquered the land, but needed help controlling the crazy Britons to the North. So, they decided to build a physical wall that would span the entire width of England! Construction began in the year 122 AD.

A significant part of the wall still exists, and there are many walking, hiking, cycling paths that you can take to experience it. We decided to first go and see Housestead's Fort along the wall.

For being built in the second century, it's amazing how much of the fort still exists. The fort had barracks, a hospital, a granary, and latrines. We were all very impressed by the toilet system they had way back in the second century.

After we left the Fort, we drove about 5 or so miles down the road to see a different perspective of the wall at Crag Lough. The scenery was just gorgeous, and the wall was incredibly well-preserved.

Feel free to click on the video below. I took so many pictures that day that I decided to put them together as a slide-show (there are some captions).

The kids had so much fun climbing along the ruins and Ethan and I enjoyed experiencing a little history. We all appreciated being outside on another sunny, spring day.

Alnwick Castle

When we found out that our trip to Italy was canceled, we decided that we should take an over-night trip up North to see Alnwick Castle and Hadrian's Wall.

Alnwick Castle (pronounced "An-nik") played the role of Hogwarts School in the early Harry Potter films, so it has been on my list of places to see for a while now. Historically however, this castle has been inhabited by the Percy Family: the Earls and Dukes of Northumberland, since 1309. In fact, the current Duke of Northumberland and his family live in the castle even today.

The first view of the castle was amazing! We enjoyed the huge field of daffodils that greeted us, as well as the soldiers on top of the turrets.After a quick glance around the grounds and inner courtyard, we were able to go inside to see the castle's State Rooms. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but these are a few shots that I found on-line, which include views of the red drawing room, the library, and the dining room.Back behind the castle, they had a section designed for the children called "Knightquest." The kids could dress up as knights or princesses and do some training exercises to become a knight. Tim and Maddie had a great time having a go at archery and making a dragon charm. Collin loved bowling, of course (balls are his favorite toy nowadays).I thought the "Knightsquest" was such a great idea! What a clever way to get the kids more involved and have a more meaningful experience.

We finished up our time at the castle by strolling the grounds and watching the kids have fun rolling down the little hills. By the way, here's a shot from the first Harry Potter film and my picture of where it was taken.We then headed next-door to the lovely Alnwick Gardens. The gardens were gorgeous! We were greeted by a huge, cascading fountain. And if that weren't enough... at the base of the fountain was a bunch of ride-on John Deere tractors that the kids could play with. The kids LOVED it! They could fill the front scoops of the tractors with water from the fountains, and go and dump it anywhere they pleased. Tim's expression was pure delight, and didn't change the whole time he was riding on the tractor.When we were finally able to drag the kids away from the tractors, we took a nice stroll through the gardens. We started off in the bamboo maze, and then made our way to the walled gardens. The kids were fascinated by all of the fountains, and I was delighted to find some resident white doves.It was such a wonderful day... nice, warm weather, beautiful castle, and lovely gardens.

The Truman Show?

Ethan is often convinced that his life is the Truman Show. He often says how he gets a sense that the circumstances in his life seem so orchestrated or bizarre that they couldn't possibly be coincidental. I usually joke with him about it, and tell him that it can't be true or else they would have to pay me a lot more to play the part of his wife!!

Anyway, I have to admit that this past Thursday felt like we were indeed in the Truman Show.

I don't know if you remember the movie, but Truman's character, played by Jim Carrey of course, wants to get off the island that he lives on, and go to Fiji. When he finally pursues it and goes to the travel agent, he learns that the earliest flight he could get was in a month, and there's also a poster depicting an airplane being struck by lightening with the logo "It could happen to You!"Well, last Thursday we were supposed to take a long-awaited trip to Italy. You have to understand that Italy is on the very top of my list of "Places to see while we are living in Europe". I have spent countless hours researching, reading books, booking flights, rental cars, places to stay, etc. Then last week, it took me a good three days to get the house in order, do all the laundry, pack the suitcases, etc. in preparation. Last Thursday, we woke up at 5:15am, got ready, drove 45 minutes to the closest airport, and were at the long-stay car park when Ethan read a sign:

"All flights canceled."

Ethan immediately asked why, and learned that a volcano from Iceland had erupted and it was deemed unsafe for planes to fly due to the ash in the air.

How bizarre. (cue the Truman Show theme music)

We looked up at the blue sky above us, and wondered why the big man in the sky wasn't letting us go to FIGI!!!... I mean, Italy.

We went into the airport anyway, and got the information we needed to request a refund for our tickets, collected our car, and drove home. By 9am, we were back where we started that morning.

We spent the rest of our time that morning seeking our refunds, rescheduling our trip for next month, and pouting. To keep our spirits up, we had pizza for lunch and went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

Of course now, we have learned what HUGE problems this volcano has caused all over Europe. Although I didn't feel this way at first, I can honestly say that I am glad we didn't go on our trip. We have so many friends from here who are now stranded at their holiday destinations: France, the Canary Islands, Egypt, Italy, the US. I heard that the British School system is missing roughly 10% of their teachers! And I know that if we were away when this all happened, that our trip would have ended up being a lot more stressful and a lot more expensive than we would have wanted it to be.

So, now I can look forward to our next planned trip. We're going at the end of May, and we will get to stay two days longer than our first trip was planned for!

Now, I just hope that the "big man in the sky" will let us go......

American Football

We are so fortunate that the base has an active sports program for the kids. Although it doesn't seem to be the right time of year, the current season is football.... AMERICAN football.

Tim just loves it. He can't wait to get out on that field running drills, thinking through the plays. I just wish the weather had been more cooperative for him this season... too many practices were canceled due to mushy fields.

Anyway, I got to watch part of a scrimmage a couple of weekends ago. Tim did great! For the first play that I saw, the other team had a pass completed (a big feat!), but Tim got the runner's flag at about the 1 yard line. Then, when Tim's team had possession, he scored a touchdown.

And then a few minutes later, he had an interception!

It was an exciting scrimmage, to say the least!

Easter 2010

I know I should have blogged sooner about our Easter, but I've been busy getting ready for our family trip to Italy. But now that our flight has been canceled due to the volcanic ash coming from Iceland, I have a little time on my hands.

Anyway, Easter is always a fun time of year at the children's school. Every year, the school has some kind of contest; two years ago, it was egg decorating, last year was Easter bonnets. This year, the children had to make Easter gardens. I had never heard of this before, so I had to look up examples on-line. Basically, the kids get some kind of tin, fill it with soil, and put in all sorts of rocks, moss, sticks, shells, flowers... anything really, and make it look like a garden. Most children include an Easter theme with it, and include Jesus' tomb and the cross. Anyway, here are Tim and Maddie's Easter gardens (a little windblown, unfortunately).The school always has an Easter service as well, which I just love. The children do some readings and sing songs at the local church. Here are a few clips of them performing some Easter songs:





Every year on base, the youth services organization holds a base-wide Easter egg hunt for the children. There were easily 300 kids there this year, all crammed into the gym. The egg hunt is organized by age: each child is given a card with two stickers on it, and in their designated section, they have to find the plastic egg with those same two stickers. Tim and Maddie found theirs after a few minutes of looking and each received a goody-bag. Collin, on the other hand, had the most fun out of everyone. To him, the gym looked like a wide-open space covered with balls (the eggs) which he was delighted to throw and kick! He had a ball!The kids got to meet the Easter Bunny too. Collin was fascinated, Maddie was still afraid of him, and Tim was glad to indulge in the basket of free candy.Of course, no Easter would be complete without dying some eggs and making our traditional bunny cake! The kids opted for no coconut this year on the bunny cake, so instead, we decided to make him a funky blue color.We had a nice Easter morning. The kids were up before dawn of course, but waited to wake us up at 7am (as instructed!). How surprised I was to find them both already dressed for church at 7am. (I guess they had a lot of time to kill!) The kids all had fun looking for their eggs, and of course, eating them! At first, Collin was more motivated to play with his cars, but he quickly discovered that there were yummy things to eat inside those plastic eggs!After looking for the candy-filled eggs, the kids searched for Resurrection Eggs. I was so pleased with how much of the Easter story they knew this year. If you've never heard of Resurrection Eggs before, I highly recommend that you get some. It's a really great way to teach kids or reinforce the real Easter story.

We had a nice Easter breakfast that morning, followed by a lovely church service. Later that afternoon, we had Easter dinner at our friends Kelly and Dan's house. It was a very nice Easter for all of us!

Hot Cross Buns

"One a penny... two a penny..."

The kids had the week before and the week after Easter off from school this year. While making plans for these two weeks, Maddie asked if we could try making Hot Cross Buns.

I didn't know much about Hot Cross Buns before moving to England, except for the song of course. It turns out that Hot Cross Buns have been made for centuries in England to mark Good Friday. They are a type of bun seasoned with cinnamon and currants and always marked with a cross on top.

So, on Good Friday, we made our own Hot Cross Buns. I found the following recipe on allrecipes.com, which starts the dough off in a bread machine.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 tablespoon instant powdered milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup dried currants (we used chopped-up raisins instead)
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons milk

Directions

1. Put warm water, butter, skim milk powder, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg, egg white, flour, and yeast in bread maker and start on dough program.
2. When 5 minutes of kneading are left, add currants and cinnamon. Leave in machine till double.
3. Punch down on floured surface, cover, and let rest 10 minutes.
4. Shape into 12 balls and place in a greased 9 x 12 inch pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place till double, about 35-40 minutes.
5. Mix egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water. Brush on balls.
6. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool on wire rack.
7. To make crosses: mix together confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and milk. Brush an X on each cooled bun.

How magical it was to pull those beautiful buns out of the oven! The kids were mesmerized by the whole process, and were so delighted to see (and eat) the fruits of their labor.Truthfully, they weren't the most delicious things I've ever eaten. They were basically a cinnamon raisin bread in bun form. But, it was so much fun making them with the kids. It might just have to be a new Good Friday tradition.

The Auction

I wanted to tell you all about my new favorite Friday morning hobby: going to the auction!

About 10 minutes from my house is an Auction-house called Thompson's. Every Friday afternoon, they hold an auction. They mostly auction-off furniture, but there are plenty of other knick-knacks, decorative items, jewelry, china, etc. And there are lots of antiques!

On Wednesday afternoons, Thompson's puts pictures and descriptions of all of their "lots" for the week, along with approximate prices on-line: http://www.thompsonsauctioneers.com/
There are typically somewhere around 600-700 items! Customers are welcome to go to the warehouse on Thursday evenings or Friday mornings to see all of the lots. If you see something that you're interested in, you can put in bids three ways: 1) You can email in a bid. 2) You can go to the warehouse and submit a paper bid. Or 3) You can stay for the actual auction, and put in a bid when your item is up! I've never been present for the actual auction since it takes place during Collin's nap time, but I do put in a bid on paper just about every week.

So, my routine is: I typically go through their list sometime before Friday, and I take note of items I may be interested in. Then on Friday mornings, Collin and I head to the auction house. We squeeze our way through the tight rows lined with furniture, which believe me, isn't very easy with his stroller! I look at the items I made note of, check the quality, and typically find a few more items that I hadn't noticed before! :) I then decide what I want to bid for each item and I submit my bid. Then, if I've won something, I get an email that afternoon, and I have to go pick it up the next day.

I always bid low, unless there's something I really want. Because of that, I only win a small fraction of what I bid on. But, then it's always a delight when I actually win something, because I know I got it for a good price. So far, I've won Maddie's dollhouse (see the previous post about her birthday), a mahogany bookshelf, a coffee table, an oval mirror, some enamel pans (that I'll use as planters someday), and a pine desk that I will probably use as a kitchen work station for myself someday.And just yesterday, I won two desks for the kids' rooms! (The pine desk came with a bedside table which I've been looking for too!)So there you have it! I may not have a Target around here and it may take me 20 minutes to get to the closest supermarket, but at least I have the auction house!